Grammar in language learning — the critical perspective, and the items that are tested

What this lesson covers

Two halves, because the heading has two audiences.

For the pedagogy papers, the question is never "what is the rule" but what kind of thing grammar is and how it is learned — and the expected answers are not the ones a traditional grammar book implies. This is where candidates who revise from a grammar guide lose marks.

For the upper primary English paper, grammar is also a content heading, so the second half is the grammar itself: the rule, worked examples, and a sample question in the form the boards actually use.

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Part one — the critical perspective

What "critical" is asking for

The syllabus word is critical perspective. It is not asking you to defend grammar teaching, and it is not asking you to dismiss it. It is asking you to say what grammar contributes, and what it does not.

Nobody claims grammar does not matter. The claim is about what kind of knowledge it is.

A five-year-old produces a complex grammar correctly and can state none of it. They put the adjective before the noun, make the question by inverting, mark the past, and would be baffled by the words for any of it. So knowing the rule and being able to use the language are two different achievements, and only one of them is the point of school language teaching.

The corollary, which is the most examinable sentence in this area: grammar is not a precondition of language, it is a product of it. A child does not learn the rule and then speak; the child speaks, and the rule settles.

Rule knowledge and ability are not the same

	Explicit knowledge	Implicit ability
What it is	Being able to state the rule	Being able to use the form
How it is got	Taught, consciously	Acquired, through use
Shows up as	Naming the past perfect	Using the past perfect correctly
Transfers to the other?	Not automatically	Does not need the rule at all

A learner can have either without the other. The one that matters for communication is the right-hand column, and the examination of grammar in schools mostly measures the left.

Prescriptive and descriptive

• Prescriptive grammar says how people ought to speak and write.
• Descriptive grammar says how they actually do.

School grammar is largely prescriptive; linguistics is descriptive. A question about which view the syllabus takes wants the descriptive one, and that is what underwrites two other positions you will meet: that a dialect is a variety rather than an error, and that a learner's own developing system is worth understanding rather than only correcting.

Deductive and inductive

	Deductive	Inductive (favoured)
Starts with	The rule, then examples	Examples, then the rule
The learner	Applies a given rule	Works the rule out
Result	The rule is recited	The rule is understood

The syllabus favours inductive, for the same constructivist reason that runs through the whole paper: a rule a learner has constructed is theirs, and one they were handed is a sentence to remember.

A worked example. Deductive: "The present perfect is have plus the past participle, and is used for an action in the past with a present result" — then exercises.

Inductive: the board shows I have finished my homework, She has broken her slate, They have gone home, He has lost his pen. What do you notice? What have have and has got in common? Which part changes? Is the homework finished now, or was it finished yesterday? The class states the pattern; the teacher supplies the name at the end, as a label for something already understood.

The second takes longer and is the answer when a question asks for the most appropriate approach.

Grammar in context

The settled classroom position, and each line of it is a possible option:

• Teach grammar inside texts and tasks, not as isolated sentences to transform.
• Grammar serves communication. At school level it is not an object of study in its own right.
• Terminology is a tool for talking about language, not the goal. A child who cannot name the past perfect but uses it correctly has the thing that matters.
• Errors are stages of development, not offences. A child who says goed has found the rule and over-applied it, which is progress.
• Grammar is noticed where it does work — the tense that makes the story past, the connective that makes the argument hold.

What this does not mean

Worth stating, because the paper sets this trap in reverse. The critical perspective does not say:

• that accuracy is unimportant;
• that grammar should never be taught explicitly;
• that errors should never be addressed.

It says grammar is learned mainly through use, is best presented inductively and in context, and is a means rather than an end. A question whose "correct" option is that grammar does not matter is not testing this syllabus.

Testing grammar: direct, indirect and integrated

A named distinction that the official papers use, and it is easy marks once the three are separate.

	What the item does	Example of an item
Direct	Tests one grammar point explicitly, as grammar	"Change into passive voice." "Fill in the correct article."
Indirect	Tests grammar without announcing it, through a task	An editing task, a cloze, a gap-fill in continuous prose
Integrated	One task requires several grammar areas at once, in use	Write a paragraph in which tense, connectors, prepositions and adjectives all have to be right

The one candidates miss is the third. If a single task expects tense forms, connectors, prepositions and adjectives to be used accurately together, that is integrated grammar testing — not "mixed", which is a distractor, and not direct, because nothing is being asked about as grammar.

The ranking follows the rest of the syllabus: integrated is closest to real use, direct is furthest.

The situational question, and how to answer it

The commonest pedagogy item on this heading is not about terminology at all. It gives you a child and a recurring error and asks what you do:

A learner in your class often makes errors in tense forms. To help overcome this, you can —

The distractors are always some combination of: explain the rules of grammar to him; ask him to write the rules ten times; make him memorise the tense tables; scold him so he learns the rules.

Every one of those is the rule route, and the rule route is what the critical perspective rules out. The expected answer is examples and real situations in which the form has to be used — and, when the option offers it, examples taken up with the whole class while that learner gets particular attention, rather than singling the learner out.

Three features identify the right option in any question of this family:

1. Use, not rules — the learner produces language rather than reciting or copying a rule.
2. Meaningful context — real situations, the learner's own life, a text, a task.
3. Not punitive, not isolating — no writing out ten times, no public correction.

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Part two — the grammar the papers actually test

How grammar is asked

Before the rules, the format — because it decides how to prepare.

Grammar is mostly not a separate section. In the CTET English papers it arrives attached to the unseen passage, in two recurring forms:

• Identify the tense of the given expression: followed by a phrase quoted from the passage.
• Which part of speech is the underlined word in the following sentence? followed by a sentence from the passage.

In the WBBPE papers it arrives as a direct gap-fill, phrased Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb / preposition that fits in the blank, along with plurals, spellings, synonyms and dictionary-order items.

Two consequences:

• You must be able to name a form you meet in running prose, not only produce one on demand. Knowing how to make the past perfect is not the same as spotting had redeemed his pledge and naming it.
• The hard part is usually the part of speech of a small word. Up, for, from, direct — the same word is a preposition in one sentence and an adverb in another, and that is exactly what gets asked.

Each area below gives the rule, examples, and asked as — a sample in the form above.

Tenses

The largest single area, and the one the situational pedagogy items are also about.

The rule. A tense carries two pieces of information at once:

• Time — present, past or future.
• Aspect — how the action is viewed: simple (whole), continuous (in progress), perfect (completed and relevant to a later point), perfect continuous (going on up to that point).

Three times by four aspects gives the twelve tenses. Nothing in English has to be memorised as a list once that grid is clear.

The twelve, with their forms

V1 is the base form, V2 the past, V3 the past participle.

Present

Aspect	Form and example
Simple	V1 / V1-s — he writes
Continuous	is/am/are + V-ing — he is writing
Perfect	has/have + V3 — he has written
Perfect continuous	has/have been + V-ing — he has been writing

Past

Aspect	Form and example
Simple	V2 — he wrote
Continuous	was/were + V-ing — he was writing
Perfect	had + V3 — he had written
Perfect continuous	had been + V-ing — he had been writing

Future

Aspect	Form and example
Simple	will + V1 — he will write
Continuous	will be + V-ing — he will be writing
Perfect	will have + V3 — he will have written
Perfect continuous	will have been + V-ing — he will have been writing

Read down a column and you have one time in its four aspects; read across the three tables at the same row and you have one aspect in its three times. The pattern is the same every time: the aspect decides the shape, and the time decides only the auxiliary. Continuous is always be + V-ing, perfect is always have + V3, and perfect continuous is always have been + V-ing — what changes between present, past and future is whether that have appears as has/have, had, or will have.

Naming a tense from a form

This is the skill the CTET item tests, because it quotes a fragment from the passage and asks what tense it is. Work from the auxiliary, not from the meaning.

What you see	The tense
writes, write	Simple present
wrote	Simple past
will write	Simple future
is / am / are + V-ing	Present continuous
was / were + V-ing	Past continuous
has / have + V3	Present perfect
had + V3	Past perfect
will have + V3	Future perfect
has / have been + V-ing	Present perfect continuous
had been + V-ing	Past perfect continuous

The single most useful line in that table is the pair in bold. Both have a past participle, so they look alike; the difference is only the auxiliary. has / have makes it present perfect; had makes it past perfect. That one distinction settles a large share of these items.

Seeing through the passive

An item may quote a passive expression and still ask for the tense — and the voice is not the tense.

Strip the be + participle that makes it passive, and read the tense off the first auxiliary:

Expression	Voice	Tense
was divided	passive	Simple past
is written	passive	Simple present
has been given	passive	Present perfect
had been taken	passive	Past perfect
will be done	passive	Simple future

So in "Whatever a man earned was divided up ..." the answer is the past tense, not "past perfect" and not "present perfect", however many participles are on show.

What each one is for

Present

• Simple present — habits and routines (She walks to school), permanent truths (Water boils at 100°C), timetables and programmes (The train leaves at six), and commentary or narration.
• Present continuous — happening now (He is reading), a temporary situation (I am staying with my uncle), a fixed future arrangement (We are leaving tomorrow), and a repeated annoyance with always (He is always losing his pen).
• Present perfect — a past action whose result stands now (I have lost my keys — they are still lost), life experience with no stated time (I have seen that film), and an action continuing to now with since or for.
• Present perfect continuous — an action running up to now, with the duration in view: He has been waiting since morning.

Past

• Simple past — a finished action at a finished time: I saw him yesterday.
• Past continuous — in progress at a past moment, often interrupted: I was reading when he came.
• Past perfect — the earlier of two past events: The train had left before we reached.
• Past perfect continuous — running up to a past point: He had been working there for ten years when the factory closed.

Future

• Simple future — will for a decision made now, a prediction or a promise; going to for an intention already formed or a prediction with present evidence (Look at those clouds — it is going to rain).
• Future perfect — finished before a stated future point: By next June I will have completed the course.

The rules that decide items

Present perfect never takes a finished past time. I have seen him yesterday is wrong; I saw him yesterday is right. The moment a sentence says yesterday, last week, in 2019, two days ago or when I was young, the tense is simple past.

Since and for take a perfect. since with a point (since 2019, since Monday), for with a length (for six years). I am living here since 2019 is a standard error for I have been living here since 2019.

Past perfect marks order, and is not always needed. It is required when the order would otherwise be unclear (He found the book he had lost). When before or after already fixes the order, the simple past is acceptable: He left before I arrived.

No will in a clause of time or condition. After when, if, until, before, after, as soon as and unless, the present simple carries future meaning: I will call you when he arrives, not when he will arrive. This is one of the most reliable single-mark items in the whole paper.

Stative verbs are not normally continuous. Verbs of thinking, feeling, possessing, perceiving and being: know, believe, understand, remember, want, like, hate, own, belong, contain, consist, seem, appear, resemble, need, prefer. I am knowing the answer is wrong.

Some of them become continuous when the meaning changes to an action, and this contrast is asked:

Stative	Dynamic
I think it is right. (opinion)	I am thinking about it. (considering)
She has a car. (owns)	She is having lunch. (eating)
I see your point. (understand)	I am seeing the doctor. (meeting)
The soup tastes good. (quality)	He is tasting the soup. (trying)

Past habit: used to and would. Both describe a discontinued past habit (He used to / would walk to school), but only used to works for a past state: There used to be a well here — would is wrong there.

Sequence of tenses. If the main clause is past, the subordinate clause normally follows it: He said that he was ill. The exceptions are the ones listed under narration — universal truth, habitual fact and dated historical fact.

Time markers that fix the tense

A fast route through most gap-fill items: certain words commit the sentence to one tense.

Marker	Tense
yesterday, ago, last week, in 1947	Simple past
already, just, yet, ever, never, so far, recently, lately	Present perfect
since, for	A perfect tense
by the time, before, after (two past events)	Past perfect
now, at the moment, look!, listen!	Present continuous
every day, usually, always, generally	Simple present
by next year, by then	Future perfect

Asked as

Identify the tense of the given expression: "... had handed over the keys ..." (a) Simple Past (b) Present Perfect (c) Past Perfect (d) Past Continuous

had + past participle. The trap is (b): both have a participle, but the perfect uses have/has and the past perfect had.

Identify the tense of the given expression: "... whatever he earned was shared out ..." (a) Present Perfect (b) Past Tense (c) Past Perfect (d) Present Tense

A passive, which is not a tense. was + participle on a simple verb is the simple past.

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: He returned the pen he _______. (a) has lost (b) had lost (c) was lost (d) would have lost

Two past events; the losing came first, so past perfect.

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: I will telephone you as soon as he _______. (a) will arrive (b) arrives (c) will have arrived (d) arrived

A clause of time, so no will — the present simple carries the future meaning.

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: She _______ in this school since 2019. (a) teaches (b) is teaching (c) has been teaching (d) taught

since + an action continuing to now, so the present perfect continuous.

Conditionals and the subjunctive

The rule. Three regular patterns, plus one irregular form that is heavily tested.

Type	Condition	Result
First — real, likely	If + present	will + verb
Second — unreal, imagined	If + past	would + verb
Third — unreal, in the past	If + past perfect	would have + participle

If I study, I will pass. / If I studied, I would pass. / If I had studied, I would have passed.

There is also a zero conditional for things always true, with the present in both halves: If you heat ice, it melts.

The rule that catches most candidates

Never put will or would in the if clause. The if half carries the condition, the other half carries the modal.

If he will come, I will meet him is wrong; If he comes, I will meet him is right.

The same holds for the second type: If I would have money is wrong for If I had money.

(The one exception, rarely tested: will in an if clause when it means willingness in a request — If you will wait here, I shall fetch him.)

The subjunctive were

In an unreal condition, be becomes were for every person — including I and he.

If I were a bird, I would fly. / If he were here, he would help.

The same were appears after as if, as though, wish, if only, suppose and it is time:

He talks as if he were the owner. / I wish I were taller. / It is time we were going.

This is the single most asked conditional item.

Mixed and inverted conditionals

A mixed conditional puts a past condition with a present result, and is marked by now or today: If I had taken the medicine, I would be well now — not would have been.

An inverted conditional drops if and inverts instead, which an item may offer as the correct option:

Had I known, I would have come. (= If I had known) Were he here, he would help. (= If he were here) Should you need help, call me. (= If you should need help)

Unless, in case, and other links

• unless means if not, so it is never followed by another negative: Unless you hurry, you will miss it — not Unless you do not hurry.
• in case is a precaution, not a condition: Take an umbrella in case it rains.
• provided that, as long as, on condition that all take the same pattern as if.

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: If I _______ a bird, I would fly. (a) am (b) was (c) were (d) have been

was is the trap, because it is what people say. The item wants the subjunctive.

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: If it _______ tomorrow, we shall cancel the match. (a) rains (b) will rain (c) would rain (d) rained

No will in the if clause; the present carries the future meaning. This is a first conditional.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: He behaves as if he _______ the master here. (a) is (b) were (c) has been (d) will be

as if with an unreal comparison takes the subjunctive were.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: _______ I known of your arrival, I would have met you at the station. (a) If (b) Had (c) Have (d) Should

An inverted third conditional: Had I known replaces If I had known.

Inversion after negative and restrictive openers

The rule. When a sentence begins with a negative or restrictive word, the subject and auxiliary invert, exactly as in a question. If there is no auxiliary, do / does / did is supplied.

The openers that trigger it: Hardly, Scarcely, Barely, No sooner, Never, Seldom, Rarely, Little, Nowhere, Not only, Not until, Under no circumstances, On no account, In vain.

Never have I seen such a sight. Seldom does he come here. (no auxiliary in comes, so does appears) Little did she know what was waiting. Not only did he refuse, but he also complained. In vain did they try to save the crop.

Note that only the auxiliary moves, not the main verb: Never have I seen, never Never saw I.

The matched pairs

Three combinations have a fixed second half, and an item usually tests the pairing:

Opener	Takes
**Hardly / Scarcely / Barely ... **	when
No sooner ...	than
Not only ...	but also

Hardly had he reached the station when the train left. No sooner had she spoken than the room fell silent.

Pairing Hardly ... than or No sooner ... when is the standard error.

The tense pattern

With Hardly, Scarcely and No sooner, the earlier event takes the past perfect and the later one the simple past:

Hardly had + subject + V3 ... when + subject + V2

So the second verb is a bare past, and the verb after the inverted had is a participle, not another had. That is the whole of the commonest item here.

Inversion that is not about negatives

Two more kinds appear occasionally:

• After a fronted adverbial of place, with a full verb: Here comes the bus. Under the tree sat an old man.
• In conditionals with if dropped: Had I known ... Were he here ... (see the conditionals section).

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: Hardly had the girl _______ writing, when the teacher collected her answer script. (a) had finished (b) have finished (c) finished (d) finishes

had is already in front, so the participle finished completes it. (a) repeats the auxiliary — the commonest wrong choice.

Mark correctly the appropriate word: No sooner had he entered the hall _______ everyone stood up. (a) when (b) than (c) then (d) that

No sooner is paired with than.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: Seldom _______ such dedication in a young teacher. (a) we see (b) do we see (c) we do see (d) saw we

A restrictive opener, and see has no auxiliary of its own, so do is supplied and inverted.

Parts of speech in context

The commonest grammar item of all in the CTET English papers, and the one that cannot be prepared by learning definitions, because the same word belongs to different classes in different sentences.

The rule. The class follows the job the word does in that sentence.

Word	As one class	As another
up	preposition: ran up the hill	adverb: stand up
for	preposition: waited for an hour	conjunction: he left, for it was late
direct	adjective: a direct route	adverb: selling direct to customers
well	adverb: sings well	adjective: he is not well
that	conjunction: said that he would	pronoun: that is mine

The tests that settle most items:

• A preposition has an object following it and links it to the rest: looped in the strings.
• An adverb modifies and has no object: stand up.
• A word ending in -ing is a verb when it has an auxiliary or carries the action (are thriving), and a gerund when it works as a noun (supplying contracts is profitable). Gerund is offered as a distractor against verb, so check whether it is doing a noun's job.

Asked as:

Which part of speech is the underlined word in the following sentence? "From economy to sustainability, all were looped in the strings of digital innovation." (underlined: in) (a) Adjective (b) Preposition (c) Conjunction (d) Verb

in takes the object the strings, so it is a preposition.

Which part of speech is the underlined word in the following sentence? "... many such firms are thriving, whether supplying contracts or selling direct to customers." (underlined: thriving) (a) Adverb (b) Verb (c) Gerund (d) Noun

It follows the auxiliary are and states what the firms do, so it is a verb. It would be a gerund only if it were doing a noun's work.

Subject-verb agreement

The rule. The verb agrees with the subject, which is not always the nearest noun. Find the subject first, strip everything that merely describes it, and then choose the verb.

The intervening phrase

The single commonest item in this area. Anything between the subject and the verb is a distraction:

The quality of the mangoes is poor. (not are — the subject is quality) The list of selected candidates has been displayed. A bouquet of red roses was placed on the table.

Phrases that do not change the number of the subject: with, along with, together with, as well as, in addition to, besides, including, accompanied by, no less than.

The teacher, as well as the students, was present.

Two subjects joined

Joined by	Verb
and, two different things	Plural — Ram and Shyam are here.
and, but one person or one idea	Singular — The poet and critic is dead. (one man)
and, with each or every before them	Singular — Every boy and every girl was given a prize.
or, nor, either ... or, neither ... nor	Follows the nearer subject
not only ... but also	Follows the nearer subject

Neither the boys nor the teacher was present. / Neither the teacher nor the boys were present.

Note the two-article test in the second row: the poet and the critic are means two people; the poet and critic is means one.

Words that look plural and are not

Always singular	Always plural
news, mathematics, physics, economics, politics, ethics	scissors, trousers, spectacles, tongs
measles, mumps, rickets	cattle, police, people, poultry, vermin
Distances, amounts, periods as one quantity — Ten kilometres is a long walk. Five hundred rupees is not enough.	alms, riches, thanks, proceeds, belongings

Phrases that fix the number

• The number of is singular; a number of is plural. The number of applicants is large. / A number of applicants have withdrawn.
• Each of, either of, neither of, one of, every one of + plural noun take a singular verb: Each of the boys was given a book.
• None of takes either, but singular is the safer answer in an examination.
• In one of the ... who the relative verb is plural: He is one of the boys who have passed. The who refers to the boys, not to one.

Collective nouns

Singular when the group acts as one body, plural when its members act separately.

The team is winning. (as one) / The team were arguing among themselves. (as individuals)

Other cases that recur

• Relative pronoun — the verb follows the antecedent: It is I who am responsible. This is one of the books that are prescribed.
• There is not the subject — the real subject follows: There is a book on the table. There are books on the table.
• Inverted order — find the subject anyway: On the wall hang two pictures.
• Titles and names of one thing are singular, however plural they look: "Great Expectations" is a novel by Dickens.

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate form of verb that fits in the blank: The list of the selected candidates _______ been displayed. (a) have (b) has (c) were (d) are

The subject is list.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: Neither the principal nor the teachers _______ informed. (a) was (b) were (c) has been (d) is

With neither ... nor the verb follows the nearer subject, which is teachers.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: He is one of the students who _______ been selected. (a) has (b) have (c) was (d) is

who refers to the students, so the verb is plural.

Articles and determiners

The rule. A and an are indefinite — one of a class, not yet identified. The is definite — this particular one, known to both speaker and hearer.

A or an: go by the sound

The test is the sound the next word starts with, not the letter.

Takes an	Takes a
an hour, an honest man, an heir (silent h)	a hotel, a historian (sounded h)
an MLA, an MP, an SDO, an FIR (letter names begin with a vowel sound)	a university, a uniform, a useful book (yoo)
an umbrella, an elephant	a one-rupee coin, a one-eyed man (wun)
an X-ray, an hourly wage	a European, a ewe

When the is used

• Something already mentioned or known: I saw a boy. The boy was crying.
• Unique things: the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky.
• With a superlative and with only, same, first, last: the best, the only way.
• Rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, groups of islands, deserts: the Ganga, the Bay of Bengal, the Himalayas, the Andamans, the Thar.
• Holy books, newspapers, trains, ships, monuments: the Gita, the Statesman, the Taj Mahal.
• Nationalities and adjectives used as nouns: the Indians, the rich, the poor, the blind.
• With an ordinal: the second chapter — but Chapter Two takes none.
• Before a singular noun standing for a whole class: The cow is a useful animal.

When no article is used

• Proper nouns, and most countries, cities, single mountains and lakes: India, Kolkata, Everest. (But the United States, the Netherlands.)
• Uncountables and abstract nouns used generally: Honesty is the best policy. Water boils at 100°C.
• Plural nouns used generally: Books are my friends.
• Meals, games, languages, subjects: after lunch, plays cricket, speaks Bengali, studies physics.
• Before school, college, church, hospital, prison, bed when the purpose is meant rather than the building: He goes to school (to study) against His father went to the school (to the building).

Determiners that are tested with them

	Meaning	Used with
few	hardly any (negative)	countable
a few	some (positive)	countable
the few	all that there were	countable
little	hardly any (negative)	uncountable
a little	some (positive)	uncountable
the little	all that there was	uncountable

He has few friends means he is lonely; he has a few friends means he has some.

Also: many and few with countables, much and little with uncountables; some in statements and offers, any in negatives and questions.

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate article: He is _______ honest man. (a) a (b) an (c) the (d) no article

honest begins with a vowel sound; the silent h is the whole point of the item.

Mark correctly the appropriate article: He has been admitted to _______ university in Delhi. (a) an (b) a (c) the (d) no article

university begins with a yoo sound, which is a consonant sound.

Mark correctly the appropriate word: There is _______ hope of his recovery, so the family is relieved. (a) little (b) a little (c) the little (d) few

The family is relieved, so some hope exists — a little is the positive form. little would mean hardly any.

Prepositions

The rule. A preposition links a noun or pronoun to the rest of the sentence, and the noun after it is its object, in the objective case — between you and me, never between you and I.

Some prepositions follow a principle; most are collocation, fixed by usage rather than by logic. That mixture is exactly why they are tested, and why the two halves below have to be learned differently: the first can be reasoned about, the second has to be read.

Time

	Use	Examples
at	clock time, festivals, points	at 5 o'clock, at noon, at Durga Puja
on	days and dates	on Monday, on 15 August, on my birthday
in	months, years, seasons, parts of the day	in July, in 2026, in winter, in the morning
since	a point from which	since 2019, since Monday — with a perfect tense
for	a length of time	for six years, for two hours
from	a starting point, with an end stated	from Monday to Friday
by	not later than	Finish it by five.
till / until	up to a time	Wait till evening.
during	within a period	during the holidays
in / within	in = at the end of; within = before the end of	in an hour / within an hour

Two pairs decide most items: since takes a point and for takes a duration; by means a deadline and till means continuation up to it.

Place and direction

	Use	Examples
at	a point, a small place	at the gate, at Sainthia
in	an enclosed space, a large place	in the room, in Kolkata
on	a surface	on the table, on the wall
into	movement to the inside	He jumped into the river.
in	position, not movement	He is in the river.
to	a destination reached	went to school
towards	a direction, not necessarily reached	walked towards the gate
between	two	between the two brothers
among	more than two	among the students
above / below	higher or lower, not touching	above the clouds
over / under	directly above or beneath, or covering	over the bridge, under the tree
beside	next to	sat beside me
besides	in addition to	Besides English, she knows French.

beside and besides are a standard single-mark item, as are between and among.

Fixed collocations

These simply have to be known. Grouped by what they attach to:

Adjective + preposition — good at, bad at, afraid of, aware of, fond of, proud of, jealous of, capable of, devoid of, full of, tired of, angry with a person, angry at a thing, married to, similar to, superior to, inferior to, senior to, junior to, prior to, different from, absent from, popular with, familiar with, satisfied with, interested in, rich in, deficient in, confident of, sure of, eligible for, famous for, responsible for, grateful for, anxious about, careless about.

Verb + preposition — depend on, rely on, insist on, congratulate on, consist of, accuse of, suspect of, deprive of, think of, approve of, dispose of, comply with, deal with, quarrel with, interfere with, part with, agree with a person, agree to a proposal, listen to, object to, refer to, prefer one to another, yield to, succumb to, apologise to a person for a fault, apply for, long for, wait for, care for, laugh at, aim at, arrive at a place, believe in, succeed in, result in, persist in, abstain from, refrain from, recover from, suffer from, prevent somebody from, borrow from.

Noun + preposition — need of, want of, cause of, hope of, reason for, remedy for, desire for, respect for, taste for, key to, access to, solution to, answer to, attitude to or towards, faith in, interest in, increase in, control over, influence over.

Phrase prepositions, which the WBBPE papers like — in pursuance of, in accordance with, in spite of, on behalf of, with a view to, in lieu of, in consequence of, for the sake of, by dint of, by virtue of, in favour of, in charge of, in the event of.

Verbs that take no preposition

A set of errors so common in Indian English that the papers test them directly. These verbs are transitive and take the object straight:

discuss (not discuss about), order, request, resemble, marry, reach, attack, accompany, resist, await, obey, inform a person, tell a person, lack, comprise, emphasise, investigate, describe, enter a room.

Two refinements: enter into is correct for an agreement or a discussion (entered into a contract), and comprise takes no of (the book comprises ten chapters).

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate preposition that fits in the blank: An application was written in pursuance _______ the instructions given. (a) by (b) upon (c) for (d) of

Pure collocation: in pursuance of. These items reward a read-through of the fixed lists, not reasoning.

Mark correctly the appropriate preposition that fits in the blank: He has been living here _______ 2019. (a) for (b) from (c) since (d) by

A point in time with a perfect tense, so since. for would need a duration — for six years.

Mark correctly the appropriate preposition that fits in the blank: The prize was divided _______ the four winners. (a) between (b) among (c) in (d) over

More than two, so among.

Voice

The rule. In the active voice the subject performs the action; in the passive the subject receives it. Only a transitive verb — one with an object — has a passive, because the passive needs an object to promote.

The conversion, in four steps

The teacher praised the student. → The student was praised by the teacher.

1. The object of the active becomes the subject of the passive — the student.
2. The verb becomes the matching form of be + the past participle — was praised.
3. The subject of the active moves after by, in the objective case — by the teacher (by him, not by he).
4. The tense does not change. Only the form does.

The tense table

Tense	Active	Passive
Simple present	writes a letter	is written
Present continuous	is writing a letter	is being written
Present perfect	has written a letter	has been written
Simple past	wrote a letter	was written
Past continuous	was writing a letter	was being written
Past perfect	had written a letter	had been written
Simple future	will write a letter	will be written
Future perfect	will have written a letter	will have been written
Modal	can / must write a letter	can / must be written
Infinitive	wants to write a letter	wants the letter to be written

Three tenses have no ordinary passive and are a favourite trap, because an option will offer one: the future continuous, the present perfect continuous and the past perfect continuous. There is no will be being written or has been being written.

The cases that get asked

Two objects, two passives. A verb like give, offer, teach, send, pay, tell has a direct and an indirect object, so either can be promoted.

He gave me a book. → I was given a book. / A book was given to me.

Note the to when the direct object is promoted.

Prepositional verbs keep the preposition.

They laughed at him. → He was laughed at. Somebody has looked into the matter. → The matter has been looked into.

Dropping the preposition is the commonest error here.

Verbs of perception and causation recover the to. Make, see, hear, help take a bare infinitive in the active and a full infinitive in the passive.

They made him work. → He was made to work. I saw her leave. → She was seen to leave.

Imperatives take let or an impersonal form.

Shut the door. → Let the door be shut. Do not touch the wires. → Let the wires not be touched. / You are requested not to touch the wires.

Questions keep their question form.

Who broke the glass? → By whom was the glass broken? (not By who) Did he write it? → Was it written by him?

Impersonal passive, common in formal and news English. People say that he is honest. → It is said that he is honest. / He is said to be honest.

Quasi-passive, where the form is passive but no action is being done: The house is built of stone. The book is written in simple English. Converting these back to an active gives nonsense, and that is sometimes the point of an item.

When the agent is dropped

by + the doer is omitted far more often than it is kept — when the doer is unknown (My purse was stolen), obvious (He was arrested), people in general (English is spoken here), or deliberately not named (Mistakes were made).

This connects to the pedagogy half of this lesson: the passive is not a transformation exercise but a choice of focus. It puts the receiver of the action first, which is why scientific and official writing uses it — The solution was heated, not I heated the solution. A question asking why a writer chose the passive wants that, not a rule.

Asked as

Choose the correct passive form: "The teacher praised the student." (a) The student praised the teacher. (b) The student is praising the teacher. (c) The teacher was praised by the student. (d) The student was praised by the teacher.

Both (a) and (c) simply swap who did what, which is the distractor pattern here — check who performed the action before checking the form.

Mark correctly the passive form: "They have not finished the work." (a) The work has not finished. (b) The work has not been finished by them. (c) The work was not finished by them. (d) The work is not being finished by them.

Present perfect stays present perfect: has been + participle. (c) shifts the tense to past and (d) to continuous, which are the two standard distractors.

Mark correctly the passive form: "His parents made him study medicine." (a) He was made study medicine. (b) He was made to study medicine. (c) He was make to study medicine. (d) He had made to study medicine.

Make recovers the to in the passive.

Narration

The rule. Turning direct speech into indirect changes four things, and an item usually tests whether you remembered all four rather than only the tense.

1. The reporting verb and the link word.
2. The tense of the reported verb.
3. The pronouns.
4. The words of time and place.

The quotation marks and the comma go; the question mark and exclamation mark go.

Pronouns

The working rule is often taught as SON:

• Subject pronouns follow the subject of the reporting verb.
• Object pronouns follow its object.
• Third-person pronouns do not change.

He said to me, "I need your help." → He told me that he needed my help. (I follows he, the subject; your follows me, the object.)

Tense backshift

If the reporting verb is in the past, the reported verb moves back one step.

Direct	Indirect
Simple present (works)	Simple past (worked)
Present continuous (is working)	Past continuous (was working)
Present perfect (has worked)	Past perfect (had worked)
Simple past (worked)	Past perfect (had worked)
Past continuous (was working)	Past perfect continuous (had been working)
Past perfect (had worked)	no further change
will / shall	would / should
can / may / must	could / might / had to
would, could, should, might, ought to	no change

When the tense does not shift

Five cases, and together they are worth as much as the table:

• The reporting verb is in the present or future: He says that he is tired.
• A universal truth or scientific fact: He said that the sun rises in the east.
• A habitual fact: She said that she takes a walk every morning.
• A historical fact with its date: He said that India became independent in 1947.
• An improbable or unreal condition, which is already backshifted: He said that if he were rich he would travel.

Time and place

Direct	Indirect
this / these	that / those
here	there
now	then
today	that day
tonight	that night
tomorrow	the next day / the following day
yesterday	the previous day / the day before
last night	the previous night
next week	the following week
ago	before
thus	so
hence	thence

These shift only when the report is made at a different time or place. A report made on the same day keeps today, and an item set in the same room keeps here.

The four sentence types

Assertive — say / tell + that. He said, "I am busy." → He said that he was busy. Note the pair: say takes no object (he said that), tell requires one (he told me that).

Interrogative — ask / enquire of, and three things happen: the link is if / whether for a yes-no question or the wh-word itself, the statement order is restored, and do / does / did disappears.

He said, "Are you ready?" → He asked if I was ready. She said, "Where do you live?" → She asked where I lived. (not where did I live) He said to me, "Have you finished?" → He asked me whether I had finished.

Imperative — the reporting verb is chosen to match the force, and the verb becomes an infinitive: told for an order, requested for a request, advised for advice, ordered, warned, begged, forbade or told not to for a prohibition.

He said, "Shut the door." → He told me to shut the door. He said, "Please help me." → He requested me to help him. She said, "Don't touch it." → She told me not to touch it. / She forbade me to touch it.

Exclamatory and optative — the exclamation becomes a statement with the feeling named: exclaimed with joy / with sorrow / with surprise, and wished or prayed for an optative.

He said, "What a beautiful sight!" → He exclaimed that it was a very beautiful sight. She said, "Alas! I have failed." → She exclaimed with sorrow that she had failed. He said, "May you live long!" → He wished that I might live long.

Asked as

Choose the correct reported speech: He said, "I am tired." (a) He said that I am tired. (b) He said that he was tired. (c) He says he tired. (d) He said that he is tiring.

Both shifts are needed — the pronoun I to he, and am to was. (a) changes neither.

Mark correctly the indirect form: She said to me, "Where are you going?" (a) She asked me where was I going. (b) She said where I was going. (c) She asked me where I was going. (d) She asked me where am I going.

The wh-word stays, the order becomes a statement, and the tense backshifts. (a) keeps the question order, which is the usual trap.

Mark correctly the indirect form: The teacher said, "Do not waste your time." (a) The teacher said do not waste time. (b) The teacher told us that we do not waste time. (c) The teacher told us not to waste our time. (d) The teacher ordered that we did not waste time.

An imperative, so the verb becomes an infinitive with not to and the pronoun shifts.

Modals

The rule. A modal is an auxiliary that adds a meaning — ability, permission, obligation, likelihood — rather than a tense. Items turn on which meaning fits, not on the form.

Four features of the form, and each produces an error that gets tested:

• A modal takes a bare infinitive: He can go, never can to go or can going.
• A modal takes no -s in the third person: She can swim, never cans.
• A modal has no infinitive and no participle, so two modals cannot stand together: not will can, but will be able to.
• The exceptions that keep to are ought to, used to and have to.

What each one means

Modal	Meaning	Example
can	ability; informal permission; possibility	She can swim. Can I go?
could	past ability; polite request; remote possibility	He could read at four. Could you help me?
may	formal permission; possibility; a wish	May I come in? It may rain. May you prosper!
might	a weaker possibility; very polite request	It might rain. Might I suggest something?
will	future; willingness; a promise	I will help you.
would	past habit; polite request; the hypothetical	He would sit there for hours. Would you mind?
shall	first-person future; an offer; a rule or law	Shall I open the window? No person shall enter.
should	advice; expectation; mild obligation	You should rest. They should be here by now.
ought to	moral duty, stronger than should	We ought to respect our elders.
must	strong obligation; prohibition; firm deduction	You must obey. He must be ill.
need	necessity, mainly in the negative and in questions	You need not come. Need I say more?
dare	courage, mainly negative and interrogative	He dare not speak.

Degrees of certainty

A real item type: the options are all modals and the sentence fixes how sure the speaker is.

must (almost certain) → should / ought to (expected) → may (possible) → might / could (just possible)

He must be at home — his car is outside. / He might be at home, I am not sure.

Obligation, and the distinctions that are tested

• must — obligation the speaker imposes or feels. I must finish this today.
• have to — obligation from outside, from rules or circumstances. I have to wear uniform.
• should / ought to — advice or duty, not compulsion.

And the pair that catches most candidates:

	Meaning
must not	Prohibition. You are not allowed to. You must not smoke here.
need not / don't have to	No obligation. You may if you like. You need not come tomorrow.

They are not opposites of the same kind. must not removes the choice; need not gives it.

Ability: could and was able to

could is general past ability; was / were able to is used for a single achievement actually managed, especially against difficulty.

He could swim as a boy. (general) The house was on fire but he was able to escape. (one occasion, managed) — could escape is wrong here.

Modals with the perfect: talking about the past

This is where the harder items live. Modal + have + past participle.

Form	Meaning
must have	a firm deduction about the past — He must have missed the train.
should have / ought to have	a duty not performed; regret or reproach — You should have told me.
could have	an unrealised possibility or ability — He could have won, but he did not try.
might have	a weaker unrealised possibility — She might have forgotten.
would have	the result in an unreal past condition — I would have come if you had called.
need not have	it was done, and was unnecessary — You need not have waited.

Set against the last one: did not need to means it was unnecessary and not done. I did not need to wait — so I did not. That contrast is a reliable question.

Semi-modals

• used to — a discontinued past habit. He used to smoke. The negative is did not use to.
• had better — strong advice with a warning, and it takes a bare infinitive: You had better leave now.
• would rather — preference, also with a bare infinitive: I would rather walk.

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate modal: You _______ not touch the live wire. (a) need (b) must (c) would (d) could

A prohibition, so must not. need not would mean it is optional.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: The road is wet. It _______ rained last night. (a) should have (b) must have (c) could have (d) need have

Evidence supports a firm deduction, so must have. should have would make it a duty unperformed.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: The bridge had collapsed, but the driver _______ to stop in time. (a) could (b) was able (c) can (d) might

One occasion, actually managed, so was able to.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: You _______ have carried the luggage; the porter was there. (a) must not (b) should not (c) need not (d) could not

It was carried and was unnecessary, which is exactly need not have.

Plurals

The rule. Regular -s and -es, plus the groups that get asked:

Pattern	Examples
-y after a consonant → -ies	city → cities; but boy → boys
-f / -fe → -ves	leaf → leaves, wife → wives; but roof → roofs, chief → chiefs
Vowel change	man → men, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, mouse → mice
-en	child → children, ox → oxen
Unchanged	sheep, deer, fish, series
Latin and Greek	cactus → cacti, corpus → corpora, radius → radii, datum → data, criterion → criteria, analysis → analyses, index → indices
Compounds	mother-in-law → mothers-in-law, passer-by → passers-by

The Latin and Greek group in full

This is the one the WBBPE papers favour, and the trap is always the regular form — cactuses, corpuses, criterions.

Ending	Becomes	Examples
-us	-i	cactus → cacti, radius → radii, stimulus → stimuli, alumnus → alumni, fungus → fungi
-us	-ora	corpus → corpora, genus → genera
-um	-a	datum → data, medium → media, memorandum → memoranda, curriculum → curricula, bacterium → bacteria
-on	-a	criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena
-is	-es	analysis → analyses, basis → bases, crisis → crises, thesis → theses, hypothesis → hypotheses, axis → axes
-ex / -ix	-ices	index → indices, appendix → appendices, matrix → matrices
-a	-ae	formula → formulae, larva → larvae, antenna → antennae

The rest of the patterns, with their exceptions

• -y after a consonant becomes -ies (city → cities); after a vowel it just takes -s (boy → boys, key → keys).
• -o after a consonant usually takes -es (mango → mangoes, hero → heroes, potato → potatoes), but musical and shortened words take -s (photo → photos, piano → pianos, radio → radios).
• -f / -fe usually becomes -ves (leaf → leaves, wife → wives, thief → thieves), but roof, chief, proof, belief, gulf, safe, dwarf, grief take -s. Two have both: hoof → hoofs / hooves.
• Vowel change: man → men, woman → women, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, goose → geese, mouse → mice, louse → lice.
• Unchanged: sheep, deer, fish (but fishes for different kinds), swine, series, species, aircraft, innings.
• Compounds pluralise the main word: mother-in-law → mothers-in-law, passer-by → passers-by, commander-in-chief → commanders-in-chief, step-son → step-sons.
• Letters and figures take -s, sometimes with an apostrophe for clarity: the 1990s, mind your p's and q's.

Nouns whose plural changes the meaning

A favourite item, because both forms exist:

Singular	Plural A	Plural B
brother	brothers (of a family)	brethren (of a community)
cloth	cloths (pieces)	clothes (garments)
index	indexes (of a book)	indices (in mathematics)
genius	geniuses (gifted people)	genii (spirits)
penny	pennies (coins)	pence (value)

Asked as

Mark correctly the plural form of the following word: corpus (a) corpuses (b) corpi (c) corpora (d) corpus

Mark correctly the plural form of the following word: criterion (a) criterions (b) criteria (c) criterias (d) criterium

-on becomes -a. criterias is a double plural and a common distractor.

Mark correctly the plural form of the following word: commander-in-chief (a) commander-in-chiefs (b) commanders-in-chief (c) commanders-in-chiefs (d) commander-in-chieves

A compound pluralises its main word.

Degrees of comparison

The rule. Three degrees — positive, comparative, superlative. The comparative compares two and takes than; the superlative compares three or more and takes the.

Words of one syllable (and many of two) add -er / -est: tall, taller, tallest. Longer words take more / most: beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful. The marking is never doubled — more better and most tallest are wrong.

The irregulars

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
good / well	better	best
bad / ill	worse	worst
little	less	least
much / many	more	most
far	farther (distance) / further (additional)	farthest / furthest
late	later (time) / latter (order)	latest (time) / last (order)
old	older (anything) / elder (family only)	oldest / eldest

elder and eldest are used only of people in a family and never with than: my elder brother, but he is older than I.

The rules that decide items

• Two take the comparative. He is the better of the two, not best.
• Latin comparatives take to: superior, inferior, senior, junior, prior, anterior, posterior, preferable. Senior to me, never senior than me.
• With than any, add other when comparing within the same group: He is taller than any other boy in the class. Without other the sentence says he is taller than himself.
• A superlative with of all needs no other: He is the tallest of all the boys.
• Prefer takes to, not than: I prefer tea to coffee. With a verb it takes rather than: I prefer to walk rather than to run.
• Absolute adjectives have no degrees: unique, perfect, round, square, eternal, supreme, complete. More unique is wrong.
• Parallel comparison uses the ... the: The higher you climb, the colder it gets.
• As ... as in the positive, and not so ... as in the negative: He is as tall as his brother. / He is not so tall as his brother.

Interchange of degrees

An item may ask you to rewrite a sentence in another degree without changing the meaning:

• Superlative: Kolkata is the largest city in the state.
• Comparative: Kolkata is larger than any other city in the state.
• Positive: No other city in the state is as large as Kolkata.

Note where other appears and where no other does — that is what the item tests.

Asked as

Mark correctly the appropriate word: He is senior _______ me by two years. (a) than (b) to (c) from (d) of

Mark correctly the appropriate form: Sachin is greater than _______ batsman of his time. (a) any (b) any other (c) all (d) the other

Comparing within the same group, so any other — without other he would be greater than himself.

Mark correctly the appropriate form: Of the two routes, this one is _______. (a) the shortest (b) the shorter (c) more shorter (d) shortest

Two things take the comparative.

Clauses, conjunctions and question tags

The rule. A clause has its own subject and verb. A sentence with one is simple; with two or more joined as equals it is compound; with one depending on another it is complex.

The conjunctions

Coordinating — and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet — join two equals, so the result is a compound sentence.

Subordinating — although, though, because, since, as, unless, until, while, if, whether, before, after, that, so that, lest — make one clause depend on another, so the result is complex.

Correlative pairs must be matched, and matching them is the item:

not only	but also
neither	nor
either	or
both	and
no sooner	than
hardly / scarcely	when
such	that
so	that
whether	or

Two errors the papers test directly:

• Although / though is never followed by but: Although it was raining, we played — not although it was raining, but we played.
• Lest already contains the negative* and takes should: Walk carefully lest you should fall — never lest you should not fall.

Also: correlatives must stand before matching parts of speech. He not only lost his money but also his bag is wrong for He lost not only his money but also his bag.

The three kinds of subordinate clause

Kind	Does the job of	Example
Noun clause	a noun	I know that he is honest.
Adjective (relative) clause	an adjective	The boy who won is my cousin.
Adverb clause	an adverb	He came when the bell rang.

Relative pronouns

• who (subject) and whom (object) for people, whose for possession, which for things, that for either.
• Defining clauses identify and take no commas: The man who lives next door is a doctor.
• Non-defining clauses merely add information and take commas, and cannot use that: My father, who lives in Delhi, is retiring.
• that is preferred after a superlative, after all, only, any, none, and after two antecedents of different kinds: This is the best book that I have read.

Question tags

Reverse the polarity of the main clause, and reuse its auxiliary. If there is no auxiliary, use do / does / did. The pronoun in the tag is always a pronoun, never a noun.

She is coming, isn't she? / He doesn't know, does he? / They went home, didn't they?

The special cases, which are what gets asked:

Statement	Tag
I am right,	aren't I?
Let us go,	shall we?
Let him go,	will you?
Open the door,	will you? / won't you?
Don't be late,	will you?
Everyone has gone,	haven't they?
Nothing happened,	did it?
There is no hope,	is there?
He hardly ever comes,	does he? (the statement is already negative)

The last three are the trap: nobody, nothing, never, hardly, scarcely, seldom and few make a sentence negative, so the tag is positive.

Asked as

"Although it was raining, we played." The word "although" is a — (a) Noun (b) Pronoun (c) Conjunction (d) Adverb of place

A subordinating conjunction, joining the concession to the main clause.

Mark correctly the appropriate tag: He hardly ever comes on time, _______? (a) doesn't he (b) does he (c) is he (d) has he

hardly makes the statement negative, so the tag is positive.

Mark correctly the appropriate word: Walk carefully _______ you should fall. (a) so that (b) lest (c) unless (d) in case

lest carries the negative and takes should.

Mistakes that cost marks here

On the pedagogy half:

• Reading "critical perspective on grammar" as "grammar does not matter". It means grammar is learned through use rather than through rules recited in isolation.
• Reading it the other way, as a defence of formal grammar teaching.
• Treating grammar as a precondition of language rather than a product of it.
• Confusing prescriptive with descriptive, or taking the prescriptive view as the syllabus's.
• Choosing the deductive option where inductive is asked for.
• Confusing explicit rule knowledge with the ability to use the form.
• Choosing "explain the rules" or "write the rules ten times" in a situational item. The answer is examples in real situations.
• Calling an item mixed or direct when one task needs several areas used together. That is integrated grammar testing.
• Treating a child's over-generalised form (goed, mans) as a fault rather than as evidence of a rule.

On the items:

• Putting a finished past time with the present perfect (I have seen him yesterday).
• Reading has/have + participle and had + participle as the same tense. The auxiliary is the whole difference between present perfect and past perfect.
• Naming a passive expression a perfect tense because it contains a participle. Voice is not tense: was divided is simple past.
• Putting will in a clause of time or condition (as soon as he will arrive).
• Using a present tense with since (I am living here since 2019) instead of a perfect.
• Making a stative verb continuous (I am knowing), or missing that think, have, see and taste go continuous when the meaning turns active.
• Using would for a past state, where only used to works.
• Using was where the subjunctive were is needed.
• Repeating the auxiliary after an inverted opener (Hardly had he had finished).
• Making the verb agree with the nearest noun rather than the subject.
• Choosing a or an by the letter rather than the sound.
• Naming an -ing word a gerund when it follows an auxiliary and is simply the verb.
• Swapping who did what in a passive item instead of checking the form.
• Changing the tense when converting to the passive, or offering a passive for the future continuous or a perfect continuous, which have none.
• Dropping the preposition in a passive — He was laughed, for He was laughed at.
• Forgetting that make, see and hear recover the to in the passive (was made to work).
• Writing By who for By whom.
• Forgetting the pronoun shift as well as the tense shift in narration.
• Keeping question order in indirect speech (asked where was I going), or leaving do / does / did in.
• Using said with an object or told without one. Say takes none; tell needs one.
• Backshifting a universal truth, a habitual fact or a dated historical fact.
• Treating must not and need not as opposites. One forbids, the other releases.
• Using could where a single managed achievement needs was able to.
• Confusing need not have (done, and needless) with did not need to (needless, so not done).
• Putting two modals together (will can) instead of will be able to.
• Adding to after had better or would rather.
• Confusing beside (next to) with besides (in addition to), or between with among.
• Using for where since is needed, or by where till is.
• Adding a preposition to a verb that takes none — discuss about, reach at, marry with, order for.
• Giving Latin-origin nouns regular plurals (cactuses, criterions).
• Using than after senior, junior, superior, inferior, prior, or after prefer.
• Putting will or would in the if clause.
• Following unless with another negative, or lest with not.
• Following although or though with but.
• Pairing Hardly ... than or No sooner ... when. It is Hardly ... when, No sooner ... than.
• Inverting the main verb after a negative opener (Never saw I) instead of the auxiliary.
• Letting an intervening phrase change the verb — as well as, along with and including do not make a singular subject plural.
• Making the verb singular in one of the ... who. It follows the plural antecedent.
• Swapping the number of (singular) with a number of (plural).
• Choosing a or an for university, one-rupee or hour by the letter rather than the sound.
• Reading few as a few. few is negative; a few means some.
• Writing criterias, datas or commanders-in-chiefs — double plurals.
• Dropping other in taller than any other boy, which makes him taller than himself.
• Giving a positive tag to a statement already made negative by hardly, never, nothing or nobody — it is the other way round.

In one line

Grammar is the residue of language used, not the entry fee for using it — so it is taught inside something a learner is trying to say, worked out rather than announced, and tested best when several areas have to work at once; and in the paper it arrives attached to a passage, which means you must be able to name a form you meet in prose, not only produce one on demand.

In the classroom

Put four or five examples on the board and ask what the class notices. Whatever they say is the rule; the teacher only supplies the name. It takes longer than writing the rule, and it is the difference between a rule the class owns and a sentence they will have forgotten by the next lesson.

For correction, mark the errors that obscure the meaning first, and let the rest go until the same error has appeared in several books — at which point it is not a correction but the next lesson.

And for your own preparation: take any paragraph of a newspaper and name the tense of every verb and the class of every small word in it. That is the exercise the CTET English paper actually sets, and it is not the same exercise as doing a page of transformations.