Znajomość środków językowych - gramatyka i leksyka
What the domain tests
Znajomość środków językowych is the grammar-and-lexis part of the Matura English paper. It checks whether you can select and control English forms in context: tense and aspect, conditionals, passive voice, reported speech, articles, quantifiers, dependent prepositions, collocations, phrasal verbs and word families. Items often appear as gap-fill sentences, paraphrase or transformation tasks, and short contextualised texts. Marks depend on both form and meaning, so a grammatically correct answer that changes the sense earns nothing.
Core rules
- Read the whole sentence before filling a gap. The time expression, subject and surrounding verbs decide the form.
- In transformations, keep the original meaning and use the given word exactly as printed. Do not add or remove content points.
- Check agreement, auxiliary verbs, negation and word order after you choose a form.
- Treat lexis as patterns, not isolated words: depend on, be responsible for, make a decision, take part in.
- Watch word families: succeed - success - successful - successfully; decide - decision - decisive.
Worked example
Original: It is a pity I did not take the job. Prompt: I wish I ______ the job. Reasoning: the sentence expresses regret about a past action, so wish needs past perfect. The original is negative, so the wish clause becomes affirmative: had taken. Would take is wrong because it refers to a present or future wish, not regret about the past. Answer: had taken.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing a correct tense but ignoring the negative meaning.
- Forgetting inflection: had take, more easier, childs.
- Using Polish collocations translated literally, such as do a photo instead of take a photo.
- Adding an extra word in a transformation when the rubric limits the number of words.
- Confusing false friends such as actual, eventual and sensible.
- Missing a dependent preposition: interested in, good at, afraid of.