Notes for SSC Combined Graduate Level examinations
Grammar is not a bag of hundreds of unrelated rules. It is simply the way words work together so that a reader understands exactly what we mean. Once you learn to see the subject, the verb, the time and the word connections, most error-spotting questions become much calmer.
Start with the action or state word that carries tense. Grammarians call it the finite verb. Then ask, “Who or what is doing this?” That answer is usually the subject. Add the remaining pieces only after this backbone is clear.
Find the verb first; the rest of the sentence will begin to organise itself.The subject and the finite verb behave like a matched pair: a singular subject normally needs a singular verb, and a plural subject needs a plural verb. A nearby noun may try to distract you, so first decide which word is truly in charge.
Do not let the nearest noun choose the verb unless a special paired rule tells you to.Tense tells us where the action sits in time. Aspect shows whether it is a fact, is continuing, or was already completed. Modals add the speaker's attitude—perhaps ability, permission, advice, duty or a guess.
Small joining words do important work. Prepositions show relationships such as place or time; conjunctions connect equal ideas or clauses; modifiers describe something. Each one must sit where its meaning is unmistakable.
Let us build this slowly. You do not need to memorise every label before solving a sentence. First understand what each word is doing; then attach the exam name to that job. That way, the rule feels logical instead of forced.
Do not permanently label a word without seeing the sentence. Light names a thing in the light, describes a noun in a light bag, and shows an action in light the lamp. Its job changes with its position and meaning.
Ask “What work is this word doing here?”A count noun can be counted: one file, two files. A mass noun is treated as material, information or a whole idea. That is why we say information, advice, furniture, equipment and luggage—not informations or advices. When you need a unit, say a piece of advice or an item of furniture.
In a compound noun, put the plural ending on the main word: sons-in-law, passers-by; but grown-ups.
Use I, he, she, we, they and who when the pronoun is doing the action. Use me, him, her, us, them and whom when it receives the action or follows a preposition. The noun a pronoun points back to is called its antecedent; the link must be clear.
Quick test: remove the other name. We say between you and me, because between me sounds right; Riya and I attended, because I attended sounds right.
Each, every, either and neither usually make us focus on one member at a time. When one of them heads the subject, use a singular noun and verb: Each student has a card.
But position matters. In The students each have a card, the students is the subject, so have remains plural.
Everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, each, either, neither are grammatically singular for the main verb.
Modern standard: singular they/their is accepted for unknown gender. Older exam convention: some keys prefer generic he/his. Read the exact options and context.
Every is a determiner: every student, never every of the students. Each may be determiner or pronoun: each student; each of them.
Traditional test-prep distinguishes each for two or more and every for more than two; meaning—individual versus total set—is the safer guide.
Use few/a few with things you can count and little/a little with things treated as a mass. Without a, the speaker means “almost none” and sounds negative: Few students understood. With a, some useful quantity exists: A few students understood.
Use fewer for countable items and less for mass, amount, time or distance treated as one total.
Your ear decides, not your eye. A university, a European and a one-time fee begin with a “y” or “w” sound. An hour, an honest officer and an MBA begin with a vowel sound.
Use a/an when you mean one member of a group, when naming a profession or classification, and in rates: an officer; ₹50 a day.
Use the when both speaker and listener can identify the exact thing. It also appears with unique things, superlatives, ordinals, rivers, seas, mountain ranges and groups: the best, the first, the Ganga, the Himalayas, the elderly.
Use no article—called the zero article—when speaking generally about plural or mass nouns, languages, subjects, meals and most names: Books help; honesty matters; study English; have lunch.
In The quality of the files is good, of the files only describes quality. It does not change the subject. Mentally cover that description and the sentence becomes The quality is good. The same idea works with along with, as well as, together with and including.
With either…or, neither…nor and not only…but also, the subject nearest the verb controls it: Neither the teachers nor the principal is ready. Here principal is closest, so we use is. If the sentence sounds clumsy, place the plural subject nearer the verb.
Words such as half, most, all, some, the rest, fractions and percentages tell us a portion. So look through of and ask what is being measured: Two-thirds of the work is done, but two-thirds of the files are ready.
Mass or singular idea → singular verb; plural items → plural verb.| Controller pattern | Agreement | Exam-safe example | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Each/every/either/neither + singular noun | Singular | Every applicant has an ID. | Post-positioned each: The applicants each have IDs. |
| A number of + plural noun | Plural | A number of files are missing. | The number of takes singular: The number is rising. |
| Amount/time/distance as one unit | Singular | Ten kilometres is a long walk. | Separate units may be plural by context. |
| Title, news, subject ending in -s | Usually singular | The news is encouraging. | Police, cattle, people are plural; mathematics is singular. |
| Collective noun | Meaning decides | The committee has issued its report. | British/Indian use may be plural when members act separately: The committee are divided. |
| There + be | Real subject after verb | There are two reasons. | There is not the grammatical subject. |
| None of | Meaning decides | None of the water is left; none of the students are/is ready. | Do not accept the shortcut “none is always singular” as universal. |
An adjective modifies a noun/pronoun; an adverb modifies a verb, adjective, adverb or clause. Linking verbs take subject complements: The soup tastes good, not tastes well unless referring to the act of tasting.
Avoid double marking: wiser, not more wiser. Irregular: good–better–best; bad–worse–worst; little–less–least.
Latin comparatives take to: senior, junior, superior, inferior, preferable to.
Compare like with like: The salary of A is higher than that of B. For two qualities in one person, use more + positive + than: more brave than wise.
For scale multipliers, prefer twice as large as. Numerical differences allow five years older than.
The simple form states a fact, habit or complete event. The progressive camera catches an action in progress. The perfect form looks back from a reference point and shows an earlier result. The perfect progressive highlights how long the action has continued.
Since gives the starting point; for gives the duration. But do not choose a tense from one signal word alone—first understand the meaning.
Can/could: ability/possibility/request; may/might: possibility/permission; should/ought to: advice/expectation; must/have to: necessity; must/can't: strong inference.
Modal + base verb: should go; modal + have + V3 looks back: should have gone.
Verbs such as know, own and belong usually describe a stable state, so we normally say I know; she owns; it belongs rather than putting them in the progressive form.
But meaning can change the rule: I am thinking means considering; She is having lunch means experiencing an activity; He is being rude describes temporary behaviour.
After if, when, until, unless, as soon as, before and after, the time/condition clause normally uses a present form even when the meaning is future: If it rains, we will stay in.
But if can also mean whether: I wonder if he will come. It may also express willingness: If you will wait, I will check.
Reported past commonly backshifts: He said that he was tired. Do not backshift a still-valid universal truth: The teacher explained that water boils at 100°C.
Earlier of two past actions may take past perfect when sequence needs clarity.
| Conditional | If-clause | Main clause | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero | Present | Present | General result | If water freezes, it expands. |
| First | Present | will/can/may + V1 | Real future possibility | If she studies, she will improve. |
| Second | Past form | would/could/might + V1 | Unreal/remote present or future | If I were you, I would revise. |
| Third | had + V3 | would/could/might have + V3 | Unreal past | If he had checked, he would have noticed. |
| Mixed | Past perfect | would + V1 | Past cause, present result | If I had slept, I would feel better now. |
At a point; in an enclosed area/city/country; on a surface/line. Movement: to destination, into entry, onto movement to a surface.
At clock time; on day/date; in month/year/period. By means no later than; until continues up to a point. From needs an endpoint when a span is stated.
Because/although introduce clauses; because of/despite/in spite of take noun phrases or gerunds. Do not pair although...but or because...therefore in the same standard sentence.
A non-finite form does not carry the main tense of the clause. To read is an infinitive and can behave like a noun or modifier. Reading is a gerund when it names an activity: Reading helps. A participle describes a noun or shortens a clause: the reading child; the broken glass.
After modals and usually after let, make and perception verbs, use the base form without to: She made him revise; I saw him leave. In the passive, to returns: He was made to revise. Both help do and help to do are correct.
Ask who was actually walking. In Walking in the park, the boy saw a snake, the description points correctly to the boy. In Walking in the park, a snake bit him, the grammar accidentally says the snake was walking.
Even a small word like only should sit beside what it limits. She only reviewed Chapter 1 and Only she reviewed Chapter 1 do not mean the same thing.
When words such as never, hardly, scarcely, seldom or no sooner are moved to the front for emphasis, the helper verb comes before the subject—just as it does in a question: Never have I seen...; Hardly had he arrived when...; No sooner had he arrived than...
If one side is a noun, the other should be a noun; if one is an -ing form, match it with another -ing form. That is parallelism: She likes reading and writing; He lost not only his ticket but also his bag.
Copy the sentence's helper verb, change positive to negative (or negative to positive), and turn the subject into a pronoun: She is ready, isn't she? If there is no helper, use do, does or did. Words such as nobody already make the statement negative: Nobody came, did they?
| Special tag | Correct form | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| I am late | aren't I? | Conventional exception |
| Let's begin | shall we? | Suggestion including speaker |
| Open the door | will you? | Imperative request |
| Don't be late | will you? | Negative imperative |
| There is a problem | isn't there? | There retained in tag |
| Something happened | didn't it? | Thing → it |
| Everybody arrived | didn't they? | Person-indefinite → they |
A shortcut is useful only after the idea is understood. Use these as quick exam checks—not as blind replacements for meaning.
First circle the main Verb. Then find the Subject controlling it. Check how the Clauses are connected, and finally ask what each Modifier describes. This calm four-pass scan is faster than reading the same sentence again and again.
Put brackets around phrases beginning with of, with, along with or as well as. Read the subject and verb without that extra information. But if the opening word gives a portion—half, most, some, a percentage—look inside the bracket to see what is being measured.
Use proximity only for either…or, neither…nor, not only…but also. Do not turn “nearest noun” into a universal agreement rule.
Ask two friendly questions: “When does this happen?” and “What does the action look like at that time?” It may be a fact, be in progress, be already complete, or continue for a duration. One signal word cannot answer both questions.
Underline both sides of and, or, not only…but also, either…or. If one side is a noun and the other a clause, repair the parallelism.
Copy auxiliary → flip polarity → replace subject. If the statement lacks an auxiliary, supply do/does/did.
Say the next word aloud. If the first sound opens with a vowel, use an; otherwise use a. Acronyms depend on pronunciation: an FIR, an MBA, a UPSC exam, a URL (when pronounced “you-are-el”).
Most distractors are not random. They exploit a rule that students remember only halfway. Read the tempting option, then ask which part of the rule it has quietly ignored.
Everyday is an adjective meaning ordinary; every day is a time phrase; everyone is an indefinite pronoun. Do not inherit a source's transcription error.
The examiner places a plural noun just before the verb so your ear wants a plural form. Pause and ask whether that noun is only part of a description. Use the nearest-subject rule only with the special pairs either…or, neither…nor and not only…but also.
Every day often introduces a habit, but context can describe a continuing daily pattern. Since and for tell you the starting point or duration; they do not decide the entire tense without a suitable time reference and meaning.
Older prescriptive keys may prefer generic he/his; modern standard English accepts singular they/their. Let the question's target and choices guide you.
None may take singular or plural agreement depending on meaning and the complement. Mass noun → singular; plural count noun may take either, with plural often natural.
Ban will in ordinary future condition clauses, not in noun clauses meaning whether, polite willingness or insistence: If you will wait, I will check.
Not only and but also may be separated from the elements they join, creating false parallelism. Place each marker immediately before its matching element.
The nearest grammatical subject must be the logical doer of an opening participle. If not, rewrite with an explicit clause.
Do not combine more/most with an already comparative/superlative form. But use more + positive when comparing two qualities in one entity.
These pictures are your last-minute recall tools. First understand the full rule above; then let the picture bring it back in a few seconds.
Cover the intruding prepositional phrase; connect the true subject to the finite verb. Open a “window” for partitives.
The clock finds the reference time; the camera chooses simple, progressive, perfect or perfect-progressive aspect.
Conjunctions join grammatical twins: noun with noun, infinitive with infinitive, clause with clause.
Indefinite person in a question tag takes they; an indefinite thing takes it.
Name the subject, identify the Action/state, verify the finite Verb, attach every Modifier.
First conditional = realistic; second = remote/unreal now; third = regret or unreal past.
An -ing form may be verb, gerund or participle. Ask what form it has and what job it performs.