Grammar II

Grammar II is the largest English chapter (our estimate: about 6 of 16 questions) and also the widest: sentence patterns and conditionals, parts of speech and the passive, infinitive / gerund / participle, punctuation and prepositions, vocabulary and idioms. The official model samples include a preposition item ("He is one person, I count ___ in times of difficulty": on) and a tense item, which tells you the level: single-fact recall with one tricky distractor.

2.1 Basic grammatical patterns and conditional sentences

Sentence patterns: SV (Birds fly), SVC (She is a doctor), SVO (He reads books), SVOO (She gave me a pen), SVOC (They elected him captain), SVA (He lives in Pokhara). Questions invert the auxiliary and subject; indirect questions do not.

Inverted conditionals drop if: Had he known, he would have come (= If he had known); Were I you, I would refuse; Should you need help, call me. Wishes: I wish I were a bird (present); I wish I had studied (past); If only I knew. Unless = if … not. Provided / as long as / in case introduce conditions. Never put will or would in the if-clause of a real condition.

2.2 Parts of speech, active and passive voice

Eight parts of speech are decided by function: light is a noun (the light), an adjective (light bag) or a verb (to light). She sings beautifully — adverb; He is a fast runner — adjective; He runs **fast — adverb. Articles a, an, the; the for something specific or unique (the sun), no article for plural general ideas, an before a vowel sound (an hour, a university). Pronoun cases: I / me / my / mine; relative pronouns who (subject), whom (object), whose (possession), which (things), that. Conjunctions: coordinating (and, but, or, so) and subordinating (although, because, unless); correlatives (neither … nor, not only … but also, hardly … when, no sooner … than).

Passive voice: object becomes subject; verb is be + past participle; the agent goes after by.

Questions: Who wrote this book? → By whom was this book written? Imperatives: Open the door → Let the door be opened. Verbs with two objects have two passives (I was given a pen). Intransitive verbs have no passive. Someone stole my wallet → My wallet was stolen.

2.3 Verbals: infinitives, gerunds and participles

• Infinitive (to + verb; bare after modals, let, make, see, hear): He wants to become a doctor. They made him work. After too, enough, in order to.
• Gerund (verb + -ing used as a noun): after prepositions (I look forward to seeing you; She is fond of singing) and after enjoy, avoid, finish, mind, practise, suggest, consider, keep, give up, can't help: *She enjoys reading* novels.
• Both with a change in meaning: stop to talk (stop in order to talk) / stop talking (cease); remember to lock (not forget a task) / remember locking (a past memory); try to (attempt) / try doing (experiment).
• Participles: present (a running horse), past (a broken window), perfect (Having finished, he left). Dangling participle is an error: Walking down the street, a dog bit me → Walking down the street, I was bitten by a dog.
• to can be a preposition (followed by a gerund): used to doing, look forward to, object to, devoted to; but used to do means a past habit.

2.4 Punctuation and use of prepositions

Punctuation: full stop, question mark, exclamation; comma separates items in a list, non-defining clauses, and joins two main clauses only with a conjunction (I like tea, but he likes coffee; a comma alone is a comma splice); semicolon joins closely related main clauses; colon introduces a list or explanation; apostrophe for possession (the boy's book, the boys' books, children's) and contractions (it's = it is, its = of it); quotation marks for speech; hyphen for compounds (well-known).

Prepositions of time and place: at a point (at 5 pm, at the station), on days and surfaces (on Monday, on the table), in longer periods and enclosed spaces (in 2020, in Kathmandu); for a period (for ten years), since a point (since 2015); by a deadline, until a continuing time; between two, among many; during a period.

He is one person I count on in times of difficulty. The meeting was postponed owing to rain. Different from; prefer X to Y; comply **with.

2.5 Vocabulary

Learn words in clusters. Synonyms: abundant = plentiful; candid = frank; diligent = hardworking; obsolete = outdated; reluctant = unwilling; scarce = rare; vague = unclear; frugal = thrifty. Antonyms: generous ≠ stingy; ancient ≠ modern; expand ≠ contract; victory ≠ defeat; transparent ≠ opaque. One-word substitutes: bibliophile (lover of books), philanthropist (lover of mankind who gives), misanthrope (hater of mankind), autobiography, orphan, omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), contemporary, amateur, nocturnal, herbivorous, edible, illegible (cannot be read), incorrigible (cannot be corrected), inevitable (cannot be avoided), anonymous (nameless), plagiarism (stealing others' writing), pedestrian. Confusing pairs: affect (verb) / effect (noun), principal / principle, stationary / stationery, accept / except, advice / advise, complement / compliment, lose / loose, than / then, its / it's, emigrate / immigrate. Prefixes and suffixes: un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, dis-, mis- (negatives); -able, -ful, -less, -ness, -tion, -ment.

2.6 Idiomatic expressions

Phrasal verbs: call off (cancel), put off (postpone), look after (take care of), look into (investigate), give up (stop), carry out (execute), come across (find by chance), run out of (exhaust), take after (resemble), set off (start a journey), turn down (reject), bring up (raise), make up (invent), get over (recover).

Formula and fact sheet

Practice questions

Set A — Recall (16 questions)

1. If I ___ rich, I would help the poor.aambwascweredhad been
2. If it rains tomorrow, we ___ at home.astayedbwould staychad stayeddwill stay
3. He is married ___ a doctor.atobwithcbydfor
4. She is afraid ___ dogs.afrombofcatdwith
5. The letter ___ by him yesterday.ais writtenbhas been writtencis being writtendwas written
6. The passive of "Someone stole my wallet" is "My wallet ___ stolen."awasbischasdwere
7. I look forward to ___ you.aseebseeingcsawdhave seen
8. He wants ___ a doctor.abecomingbbecomecto becomedbecame
9. She enjoys ___ novels.areadingbto readcreaddto reading
10. The word closest in meaning to "abundant" isascarcebrarectinydplentiful
11. The opposite of "generous" isakindbstingycliberaldnoble
12. A person who loves books is aaphilanthropistbmisanthropecbibliophiledcynic
13. The idiom "to bite the bullet" meansato endure a painful situation bravelybto eat quicklycto shootdto refuse
14. The idiom "a piece of cake" meansaa dessertbdangerousccostlydvery easy
15. Which sentence is correctly punctuated?aI like tea; but he likes coffee.bI like tea, but he likes coffee.cI like tea but, he likes coffee.dI like, tea but he likes coffee.
16. In "She sings beautifully", the word beautifully isaan adjectiveba nouncan adverbda preposition

Set B — Understanding (10 questions)

1. If she had studied harder, she ___ the exam.awould passbwill passcwould have passeddpassed
2. I wish I ___ a bird.awerebamcwasdwill be
3. Had he known, he ___ come.awill havebwould havecwoulddhad
4. The passive form of "Who wrote this book?" isaBy whom this book written?bWho was written this book?cBy whom is this book written?dBy whom was this book written?
5. He stopped ___ when the teacher entered the room.ato talkbtalkingctalkdto talking
6. She is the girl ___ won the first prize.awhombwhosecwhodwhich
7. He has been living here ___ ten years.aforbsincecfromdin
8. He was punished ___ stealing.aofbbycfordwith
9. "To cry over spilt milk" means toawaste foodbbe carelessccomplain loudlydregret something that cannot be changed
10. The word closest in meaning to "candid" isasecretivebfrankcrudedshy

Set C — Application (6 questions)

1. Hardly had he reached the station ___ the train left.awhenbthancthendas
2. Not only did he fail, ___ he also lost his scholarship.aandbbutcsodor
3. By the time we arrived, the film ___.ahas startedbstartedchad starteddwas starting
4. He suggested that she ___ a doctor.aseesbsawcseedseen
5. The man ___ car was stolen reported it to the police.awhobwhomcwhichdwhose
6. She would rather ___ at home than go out.astaysbstaycto staydstayed