English is an important section of IBPS and other competitive examinations. Candidates don't give much time to this section which leads failure because of sectional cutoffs in IBPS exams. English section in competitive exams is very easy, all you need is strong hold on basic fundamentals and high reading speed.
English-A language taught to us as we enter a playway school, but still we are not so proficient in it. The reason being it’s not our native language. We lack confidence while writing in English. Here are some common grammatical mistakess we make while writing.Use of “an”
“AN” is used before nouns which begin with a vowel sound (a,e,i,o,u).The initial sound, not the spelling is important.For example the following words begin with vowel letters but not with vowel sound:
a university, a European, a unit
The following words have vowel sounds so we use “an” before them:
an MP, an hour. an umbrella
Little and Much
Little is used to emphasize there is a small amount of something. Eg. We have made little progress. I have spent a little time in Delhi.Much emphasizes a larger amount. Eg. Do you watch much television?
Each and every
When we think about members as individuals we use “each”. Eg. Each seat was covered with a white sheet.They rushed out to meet each visitor.
When we make a general statement for all the individuals we use “every”. Eg. Every child would have milk daily.
Tenses
| Simple present tense |
Present perfect tense
|
Present perfect continuous tense | Simple past tense | Past continuous tense |
| I/we/ you/they play | I/we/ you/they have played | I/we/ you/they have been playing | I/we/ you/they played | I was playing. We/you/they were playing. |
| Ravi plays | Ravi has played | Ravi has been playing |
R
|
Ravi was playing |
He/ she/it
plays
|
He/she/it has
played
|
He/she/it has been playing | He/she/it played | He/she/it was playing |
Universal truths are always in simple present tense
For example :- The sun rises in the east.
Man is immortal
The present perfect tense is used to express a recently completed action. For example :-
I have just finished my work.
He has gone to school.
Tenses in time clause
Future tense is not used in time clause. For example -
You will be back soon.I will stay till then. This can be written as
I will stay till you get back.
For and Since
“For” shows a period of time up to now eg. for 4 days, for a long time,They have been playing for two hours
“Since” shows some point of time in the past. Eg. Since morning, since Monday,
It has been raining since 6 A.M
Verbs- Singular or plural
Nouns like news, physics, mathematics, measles are plural in form but they are treated as singular.eg.Measles is a disease.
Mathematics is the queen of sciences.
Nouns like government, audience, company, staff, media, crew are used with both plural and singular verbs
Subject verb agreement
Verb must agree with their subject in number and person. The third person singular in the simple present tense is formed by adding “s/es” to the root form| A cat drinks milk | Cats drink milk |
| Does he drink whisky? | Do they drink whisky? |
| My friend does not smoke | My friends do not smoke. |
