60-second revision
- Only the marked part may change; the rest of the sentence is fixed and supplies the clues.
- Unreal past: if + had + past participle, then would have + past participle.
- Look forward to, object to, be used to and with a view to take an -ing form.
- Discuss, describe, emphasise, comprise and enter (a place) take no preposition.
- Use 'the reason ... is that', not 'is because'.
- An opening participle phrase must describe the subject that follows it.
- Compare like with like: 'my bag is heavier than my brother's', not 'than my brother'.
- Senior, junior, superior, inferior, prior and prefer take 'to', not 'than'.
What the question asks
A sentence has one part marked (in bold, underlined or, here, in capitals). You choose the option that makes the sentence grammatically correct and natural. Many papers add 'No improvement' or 'No substitution required' as the last option; choose it only after checking the marked part against the rules below, and do not avoid it out of habit. Bank exams call a similar task phrase replacement.
Method
- Read the whole sentence; the unmarked part tells you the tense, number and structure you must match.
- Name the rule the marked part might break (tense, agreement, preposition, comparison, modifier, redundancy).
- Eliminate options that break the same rule or create a new error.
- Of the remaining options, choose the shortest one that is fully correct; extra words are often a sign of a trap.
- Read the complete sentence with your option in place.
Conditionals
| Type | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Real / likely | if + present, will + verb | If you leave now, you will catch the bus. |
| Unreal present | if + past, would + verb | If I were taller, I would play basketball. |
| Unreal past | if + had + V3, would have + V3 | If they had trained, they would have won. |
| Inverted form | had + subject + V3 | Had they trained, they would have won. |
Gerund or infinitive
| Takes -ing | Takes to + verb |
|---|---|
| look forward to, object to, be used to, with a view to, confess to | want, decide, hope, plan, refuse, agree |
| avoid, enjoy, finish, mind, practise, consider, deny | expect, promise, manage, afford, pretend |
| it is no use, it is worth, cannot help | too ... to, enough to |
Prepositions and redundancy
- No preposition after: discuss, describe, emphasise, comprise, enter (a room), resemble, order (someone), reach (a place).
- Wrong pairs: 'married with' (use married to), 'different than' (exams prefer different from), 'accompanied with a person' (use accompanied by).
- Redundant words: return back, revert back, repeat again, reply back, the reason is because, each and every one of them, free gift.
- 'So as to' and 'in order to' already express purpose; do not add 'for': not 'in order for to win'.
Comparisons, modifiers and parallelism
| Problem | Wrong | Right |
|---|---|---|
| Unlike things compared | The climate of Shimla is cooler than Delhi. | The climate of Shimla is cooler than that of Delhi. |
| Double comparative | This route is more shorter. | This route is shorter. |
| Dangling modifier | Opening the cupboard, the files fell out. | When I opened the cupboard, the files fell out. |
| Misplaced 'only' | He only ate two idlis (if you mean no more than two). | He ate only two idlis. |
| Broken parallelism | She likes reading, to swim and cycling. | She likes reading, swimming and cycling. |
| Mixed pair | He is not only a singer but a dancer also. | He is not only a singer but also a dancer. |
Worked examples (fresh)
'Had I KNEW the address, I would have visited.' The sentence already uses the inverted unreal-past form (Had I ...), which needs a past participle: 'Had I known the address'. An option like 'If I knew' is grammatical alone but cannot follow 'Had I'.
'She prefers walking THAN DRIVING to work.' Prefer takes 'to': 'prefers walking to driving'. An option such as 'rather than drive' changes the structure and is a weaker choice when a clean 'to driving' is offered.
'The committee has decided TO POSTPONE BACK the meeting.' Postpone already means put back, so 'back' is redundant: 'to postpone the meeting'.
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