English Grammar Notes: Tenses, Articles and Prepositions for Job Tests

English grammar questions appear in almost every recruitment test, from Constable to PPSC and FPSC papers. Most of them test a small set of rules. This note covers the rules that are asked again and again.

1. The 12 Tenses at a Glance

Tense	Structure	Example
Present Simple	V1 (s/es)	She writes a letter.
Present Continuous	is/am/are + V-ing	She is writing a letter.
Present Perfect	has/have + V3	She has written a letter.
Present Perfect Continuous	has/have been + V-ing	She has been writing since morning.
Past Simple	V2	She wrote a letter.
Past Continuous	was/were + V-ing	She was writing a letter.
Past Perfect	had + V3	She had written a letter.
Past Perfect Continuous	had been + V-ing	She had been writing for an hour.
Future Simple	will + V1	She will write a letter.
Future Continuous	will be + V-ing	She will be writing a letter.
Future Perfect	will have + V3	She will have written a letter.
Future Perfect Continuous	will have been + V-ing	She will have been writing for an hour.

Quick tips

• Use since with a point in time (since 2010, since Monday) and for with a period (for five years).
• Use the present perfect for actions with a result in the present: "I have lost my pen."
• Do not use the present perfect with a finished time such as "yesterday". Say "I lost my pen yesterday."

2. Subject-Verb Agreement

• A singular subject takes a singular verb: "The boy plays cricket."
• Each, every, either, neither and one of take a singular verb: "Each of the students has a book."
• Subjects joined by and are plural: "Ali and Sara are friends."
• With either...or and neither...nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject: "Neither the teacher nor the students were present."
• Words such as news, mathematics, physics and economics are singular: "The news is good."

3. Articles

• A is used before a consonant sound: a book, a university, a European.
• An is used before a vowel sound: an apple, an hour, an honest man.
• The is used for something specific or unique: the sun, the Quran, the Indus.
• No article is used with plural or uncountable nouns in a general sense: "Water is essential for life."

4. Common Prepositions

Correct usage	Wrong usage
good at English	good in English
senior / junior to me	senior than me
prefer tea to coffee	prefer tea than coffee
married to her	married with her
congratulate on success	congratulate for success
afraid of snakes	afraid from snakes
different from	different than
interested in sports	interested at sports
died of a disease	died from cancer (use "of" in tests)
angry with a person, angry at a thing	angry on

5. Active and Passive Voice

To change active to passive, move the object to the front, use the correct form of "be" and the third form (V3) of the verb.

• Active: "She writes a letter." Passive: "A letter is written by her."
• Active: "They have completed the work." Passive: "The work has been completed by them."
• Active: "He will help us." Passive: "We will be helped by him."

6. Direct and Indirect Speech

When the reporting verb is in the past, the tense in the reported speech usually moves one step back.

• "I am happy," he said. becomes He said that he was happy.
• "I have finished," she said. becomes She said that she had finished.
• Words change as well: now becomes then, today becomes that day, tomorrow becomes the next day, here becomes there.

7. Common Errors Asked in Tests

• Wrong: "He is taller than me" is accepted in everyday speech, but test papers prefer "taller than I am".
• Use fewer with countable nouns (fewer books) and less with uncountable nouns (less water).
• Use between for two persons or things and among for more than two.
• "Hardly... when" and "No sooner... than" are correct pairs. Do not mix them.
• The plural of criterion is criteria and of phenomenon is phenomena.

Preparation Tips

1. Learn the structure of each tense and practise converting sentences between tenses.
2. Revise the preposition table above at least twice a week.
3. Solve a few questions daily and check why each wrong option is wrong.

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