English Grammar

• None beyond reading fluency. Word meanings are covered in the vocabulary note, which builds on this one.

Parts of speech

Subject and verb agreement (verb-noun agreement)

1. Words between subject and verb do not change the subject: "The list of items is on the desk" (subject: list).
2. Compound subjects with and normally take a plural verb when they name distinct referents: "Ravi and Anu are here". A single person, thing or unit takes singular agreement: "The owner and manager, Mr Rao, is here" (one person), versus "The owner and the manager are here" (different people). A phrase such as "as well as", "along with" or "together with" does not itself make a compound subject: "The teacher, along with the students, is coming."
3. Subjects joined by or, nor, either ... or, neither ... nor: the verb agrees with the nearer subject: "Neither the manager nor the employees were present"; "Neither the employees nor the manager was present."
4. Indefinite pronouns each, everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, either and neither take singular agreement: "Each of the students has a laptop." The determiner every needs a singular noun ("Every student has a laptop") or one ("Every one has a laptop"); it is not a standalone pronoun. Some, all, most and none take their number from the referent: "Most of the water is clean"; "Most of the bottles are clean."
5. Collective nouns (team, committee, family, jury) are singular when the group acts as one unit: "The committee has reached its decision." British English also allows a plural verb when the members are thought of individually ("The team are arguing among themselves"). Keep the verb consistent with the pronoun: its goes with a singular verb, their with a plural one.
6. Verb before subject. In sentences starting with there or here, find the subject after the verb: "There are many reasons"; "There is a reason."
7. Amounts as one unit take a singular verb: "Ten kilometres is a long walk"; "Five hundred rupees is the fee."
8. Titles and names of works are singular: "Great Expectations is a novel."
9. One of + plural noun takes a singular verb (the subject is one): "One of the bridges is closed."

Tenses

• Finished time means past simple. With yesterday, last week, in 2019, ago, use the past simple, not the present perfect: "I met her last week", not "I have met her last week".
• Since and for with an action continuing to now take the present perfect: "since 2020" (a point), "for six years" (a length).
• Earlier of two past events takes the past perfect when the order matters: "By the time we arrived, the film had started."
• Time and condition clauses with when, if, as soon as, until about the future use the present tense: "I will call you when I arrive", not "when I will arrive".
• Conditionals. First: "If it rains, we will stay in." Second (unreal present): "If I were rich, I would travel." Third (unreal past): "If she had studied, she would have passed."
• Tense consistency. Do not switch tense within a passage without a reason in time.

Articles

• A or an by sound, not spelling. An before a vowel sound: an apple, an hour, an MP3 player. A before a consonant sound: a university, a one-year-old child, a European.
• The for something already known to the reader, unique things (the sun), superlatives (the tallest building), ordinals (the first chapter), and names of rivers, oceans and mountain ranges (the Ganga, the Himalayas).
• No article with plural or uncountable nouns used in general: "Water is essential", "Engineers solve problems".
• Singular countable nouns need a determiner: "She is an engineer", not "She is engineer".

Adjectives

• Order before a noun (when no adjective is stressed): opinion, size, physical quality, shape, age, colour, origin, material, type, purpose. Example: "a lovely small old red Japanese wooden box".
• Comparatives and superlatives. Short adjectives add -er and -est (taller, tallest); longer ones use more and most (more efficient). Never both: "more better" is wrong. Irregular: good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; far, further or farther, furthest or farthest.
• Comparatives take than; superior, inferior, senior, junior take to, and so does the verb prefer in "prefer A to B": "This design is superior to that one."
• The ... the with two comparatives: "The more you practise, the better you get."
• Adjective or adverb. Adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs: "She sings beautifully" (not beautiful). After linking verbs (be, seem, feel, and look in the sense of appear) use an adjective: "I feel bad", "The food tastes good".

Prepositions

Conjunctions

• Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) join equal parts.
• Subordinating conjunctions (because, although, though, while, if, unless, since, when) introduce a dependent clause.
• Do not double up. "Although it rained, but we played" is wrong: use although or but, not both. Likewise "because ... so".
• Correlative pairs must be matched and must join parallel forms: either ... or; neither ... nor; not only ... but also; both ... and; whether ... or. "She is not only clever but also hard-working."
• Fixed patterns. "No sooner had we sat down than it rained"; "Hardly had we sat down when it rained"; "Scarcely ... when".
• Unless already means "if not": "Unless you hurry, you will miss the bus", not "Unless you do not hurry".

Pronouns

• Case. Use subject forms (I, he, she, we, they, who) as subjects of finite clauses, and object forms (me, him, her, us, them, whom) as objects of verbs or prepositions: "between you and me", "Give it to him and me". Grammatical role, not position before or after a verb, determines case: in "Are they ready?", the subject follows the auxiliary; in "I saw him leave", the object precedes leave.
• Comparisons. "He is taller than I (am)" in formal writing.
• Agreement with the antecedent. "Each student must bring his or her book" in strict formal style; singular they ("their book") is widely accepted. In a question, the option that matches the rest of the sentence wins.
• Clear reference. Make the referent of each referential pronoun clear and unambiguous.

1. Find the verb and its true subject; cross out phrases between them; apply the agreement rules.
2. Find the time expression (yesterday, since, by the time, if) and check the tense.
3. Check each article against the sound of the next word and whether the noun is specific.
4. Check comparisons: one comparative form, the right partner word (than or to), and parallel items.
5. Check prepositions after verbs, adjectives and time words.
6. Check conjunctions: no doubled pairs, matched correlatives, parallel forms.
7. Check pronouns: case, number and clear reference.

• Common misconceptions. "The verb agrees with the nearest noun" (only with or and nor; otherwise with the subject: Example 1). "An goes before any vowel letter" (it goes before a vowel sound: Example 9). "The present perfect is just a polite past" (it cannot take a finished time: Example 5).
• Along with and as well as do not add to the subject.
• Parallelism. Items joined by and, or and correlatives must have the same form: "She likes reading, writing and swimming", not "and to swim".
• Negative concord expressing a single negation ("I don't know nothing") is nonstandard in formal written English. Deliberate double negation, such as "not unexpected", is grammatical.
• EDGE CASE. Collective nouns and different to vary between British and American use; if both forms appear among the options, choose the one consistent with the rest of the sentence (its or their).

• Agreement traps. A long phrase or along with between subject and verb (Examples 1 and 3).
• Tense traps. A finished time expression with the present perfect, or will in a time clause (Examples 5 and 7).
• Article traps. Words like hour, honest, university and one (Example 9).
• Comparison traps. Double comparatives and superior than (Example 11).
• Conjunction traps. Although ... but, mismatched correlatives, no sooner ... when (Examples 13 and 14).
• Pronoun traps. between you and I (Example 15).
• Parallelism traps. Correlatives and lists must join the same form (Example 16).
• Linking verbs. Adjectives follow feel, seem, look (appear); adverbs follow action verbs (Example 17).
• Tense in passages. In error spotting, check every verb against the time frame of the passage (Example 18).

• Vocabulary, Idioms and Phrases: dependent. Word choice in context.
• Reading Comprehension: related. Grammar decides how a sentence in a passage should be read.