English Language & Comprehension — DSSSB TGT Section A (20 marks)
Exam tactics + high-yield grammar. Practise daily error spotting and 1 short RC.
1. Vocabulary tips
- Learn words in families (happy → happiness, unhappy).
- Note collocations (make a decision, not do a decision).
- Roots help: bene- good, mal- bad, spect- look, dict- say, port- carry.
- Eliminate options that are near-synonyms but wrong register (formal/informal).
- In exam: if two options close, prefer the one that fits context tone.
2. Grammar essentials
Tenses (quick map)
| Use | Form |
|---|---|
| Habit / fact | Simple Present (V1 / V1+s) |
| Past completed | Simple Past (V2) |
| Link past–present | Present Perfect (have/has + V3) |
| Action at a past time | Past Continuous (was/were + V-ing) |
| Future plan/prediction | will / going to / Present Continuous |
| Unreal present | If + Past, would + V1 |
Trap: since + point → perfect; for + period → perfect; ago → simple past.
Articles
- a/an: singular countable, first mention; an before vowel sound (an hour, a university).
- the: unique, second mention, superlatives, rivers/oceans/newspapers, mountain ranges.
- Zero article: plurals/uncountables in general sense; most proper names; languages; meals (usually).
Prepositions (high-frequency)
| Phrase | Prep |
|---|---|
| interested / good / weak | in |
| depend / rely | on |
| afraid / fond / proud | of |
| angry (person) | with |
| angry (thing) | at |
| arrive | at (place small) / in (city) |
| discuss | no about needed after discuss |
| prefer A | to B |
| different | from |
| despite | + noun (not despite of) |
Subject–Verb Agreement
- Singular subject → singular verb (The list of items is).
- Each / Every / Either / Neither → singular.
- None → singular or plural (exam often singular).
- Collective nouns (team, jury) → singular if one unit.
- Either A or B → verb agrees with B (nearest).
- One of the + plural → singular verb (One of the boys is).
Active ↔ Passive (brief)
- Object → subject; verb → be + V3; agent by… (optional).
- Tense of be matches original tense.
- Modals: can → can be + V3.
- No passive for intransitive verbs (sleep, go) without object.
Direct ↔ Indirect (brief)
- Remove quotes; change pronouns; backshift tense if reporting verb past (said).
- say/said to → tell/told + object.
- Questions: if/whether or wh-word; statement word order.
- Imperatives: to + V1 / not to.
- Time/place: today→that day, tomorrow→the next day, here→there, this→that.
3. Sentence Structure
- Basic: Subject + Verb + Object / Complement.
- Avoid fragments (no main verb) and run-ons (two sentences joined by comma alone → use ; or conjunction).
- Parallelism: She likes reading, writing, and to swim ✗ → swimming ✓.
- Modifier placement: put descriptive phrase next to the word it modifies (Walking home, the rain… ✗ dangling).
4. Synonyms / Antonyms — approach
- Read full sentence if given — context beats dictionary recall.
- Eliminate opposite polarity first.
- Watch prefixes: in-/un-/dis-/non- may flip meaning (but inflammable trap).
- Prefer precise match over vaguely related word.
- For antonyms, ensure same part of speech.
5. Correct Usage / Error Spotting tips
Scan in this order: S-V agreement → tense consistency → article/preposition → pronoun reference → parallelism → redundancy (return back, discuss about).
Common error zones:
- One of / each of + plural noun + singular verb
- Fewer (countable) vs less (uncountable)
- Who (subject) vs whom (object) — many papers still test
- Its (possessive) vs it’s (it is)
- Than I vs than me after as/than (formal: than I am)
- Double negatives; wrong comparative (more better)
6. Para Jumble strategy
- Find opening sentence: introduces topic; no pronoun without antecedent; no however/therefore first.
- Find mandatory pairs: noun → pronoun; name → he/she; problem → solution; A then the.
- Spot closing line: conclusion, summary, future suggestion.
- Chronology / cause–effect connectors: then, later, therefore, meanwhile.
- Build chain; verify with leftover sentences.
7. Comprehension strategy
- Skim question stems first (know what to hunt).
- Read passage once for structure (main idea, tone, paragraph roles).
- Answer only from passage — no outside knowledge.
- Main idea ≠ one detail; title should cover whole passage.
- Inference: must be logically forced, not merely possible.
- Vocabulary-in-context: substitute each option into the sentence.
- Tone words: critical, optimistic, sarcastic, neutral, didactic.
- If two options close, choose the more specific supported one.
Time tip: ~20 Q in 15–18 min; do vocab/grammar first if RC is long.