Spoken English (Grammar Tips I to II)

Grammar Tips I

GRAMMAR TIP 1

Possessive case of a noun (nouns with 's) is used with living things. 

Example : Mohan' s cap, Ram's school, sister's right

Incorrect : This room's carpet must be changed.

Correct : The carpet of this room must be changed. (Room is a lifeless thing)

GRAMMAR TIP 2

Sometimes 's is wrongly put in the place of preposition.

Incorrect : This author's book is not good. (Book possessed by this author) 

Correct : The book of this author is not good. (Book written by this author)

GRAMMAR TIP 3

Double possessives should not be used.

Incorrect : My mother's brother's daughter came. 

Correct : The daughter of the brother of my mother came.

GRAMMAR TIP 4

In the case of 'somebody else', 'everyone else ',' anybody else' etc., 's is put after else.

Incorrect : This is somebody's else job. 

Correct : This is somebody else's job.

GRAMMAR TIP 5 

When two nouns are joined by 'and' then 'apostrophe s' ('s) is added to both if we want to denote the possession of both & to last if we denote joint possession. 

Incorrect : Suzy's and Juicy's father was present. 

Correct : Suzy and Juicy's father was present. 

GRAMMAR TIP 6 

When we speak of two things of the same class, the word 'other' should not be left out.

Incorrect : Neither his brother nor any member of the family helped him. 

Correct : Neither his brother nor any other member of the family helped him.

GRAMMAR TIP 7 

Present Indefinite 

Verb form I [ s, es] 

He works hard.

Present Continuous 

is/am/are + verb form I + ing 

He is working hard.

Present Perfect 

has/have + verb form III 

He has worked hard.

Present Perfect Continuous 

has/have + been + verb form I + ing 

He has been working hard.

GRAMMAR TIP 8

Past Indefinite 

verb form II [ did + verb form I] 

He worked hard.

Past Continuous 

was/were + verb form I + ing 

He was working hard.

Past Perfect 

had + verb form III 

He had worked hard.

Past Perfect Continuous 

had + been + verb form I + ing 

He had been working hard.

GRAMMAR TIP 9

Future Indefinite 

will/shall + verb form I 

He will work hard.

Future Continuous 

will/shall + be + verb form I + ing 

He will be working hard.

Future Perfect 

will/shall + have + verb form III 

He will have worked hard for 20 years before he retires.

Future Perfect Continuous 

will/shall + have + been + verb form I + ing 

He will have been working hard for more than 8 hours.

Grammar Tips II

Spend not more than 15 mins on this section, if possible do within 12 mins

• Reading Comprehension ( 1 passage) -10 marks
• Cloze Test - 5 marks
• Error Detection - 5 marks
• Para Jumbles - 5 marks
• Fill In The Blanks/Sentence Improvement - 5 marks

The above format has been seen in the SBI PO Prelims exam and the IBPS PO Prelims will be no different than the above one.

Tips to Appear in the Paper:

A. First things first, attempt only those questions about which you are 100% certain, stay away from guess work no matter what.

B. Firstly for the students who are weak in English, we recommend that you do not ignore the RC and score maximum from it.
But Do it at the end, so as to avoid wastage of time. This strategy increases the efficiency.

Steps For Doing RC:

Most of you are confused whether to attempt the RC or not.Well RC can actually be your saving glory in the exams, as it does not require any grammar rules or guess work, all you need to do is to look for the answers. Now 1 rc is expected in the exams, well you obviously cannot immediately read long passages due to lack of time.
So what do you do?
 

• Do the vocabulary questions first.
• For other questions, read one question and then search for the answer quickly, looking for similar words in the paragraphs. But make sure you do it really quickly. Once you get the needed lines of the answer in the RC, then compare it with the options given in the question.
• If you are unable to locate an answer then move to the next question,but do not get stuck on any question!! Using this method you will be able to attempt the RC in a short span of time and it will help you score well too
• This method seems odd, but works beautifully in the exams. You still have time before the exams, try it at home as an experiment to see if it works for you.
• Also stay away from questions like what is the authors view in this passage, or what is the author trying to say, as these questions are usually quite controversial.
• So basically these exams require you to be really smart . And smartness comes from practice. 

C. You can even attempt cloze tests. If at all you do get confused by the options, start by eliminating the the options that don't seem to fit in the question. This strategy also helps sometimes in reaching the correct answer. But remember no rule applies to all. So again you need to be smart.

D. Next comes fillers where you can easily attempt 2-3 questions but sometimes the words given are too difficult and the options are too close. So it is better to avoid those and rest you can decide on your own.

E. Next try attempting the para-jumbles as they do not require you to know the grammar well. Even if the para jumble question is tough, even then you can attempt 1-2 questions. So for example the 1st statement, the last statement, the 2nd statement.

F. Rest of the sections go through, but only attempt those in which you are 100 % sure.
Don't forget that there is negative marking, so no point losing marks by guess work especially in a subject which is not your strength.

Again the exam is not a test of your knowledge, but a test of how efficiently you score and manage your time. So do not get attached  to any question. Attempt only those questions about which you are 100 percent sure.

Lastly for all students - give on-line mock exams if possible as this helps in making strategies, increases speed, and gives you experience for the real battle.