Parts of speech — and why a word has no fixed one

There are eight: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. (Many modern grammars add the determiner — a, the, this, some, every — as a ninth, separating it from the adjective.)

A word's part of speech is decided by its job in the sentence, not by the word itself. This is the single most common question type, and it cannot be answered from a vocabulary list:

• ›He gave me a round cake. — adjective
• ›The wheel went round. — adverb
• ›He lost in the third round. — noun
• ›Please round off the figure. — verb
• ›She walked round the corner. — preposition

Nouns

• ›Common (boy), proper (Rohan), collective (crowd, jury, herd), material (gold), abstract (honesty)
• ›Countable and uncountable. Furniture, information, advice, luggage, scenery, poetry, machinery are uncountable in English — never furnitures, never an information. Say a piece of advice
• ›Some nouns are plural in form but singular in sense: news, mathematics, physics, politics, economics. The news is good.
• ›Some are singular in form but plural in sense: cattle, police, people, poultry. The police are coming.

Pronouns. Personal, possessive, reflexive (myself), demonstrative (this), interrogative (who), relative (who, which, that), indefinite (someone).

• ›Case matters after a preposition and after than in careful usage: between you and me, not between you and I
• ›A reflexive pronoun cannot be a plain subject: Ram and I went, not Ram and myself went

Adjectives and their order. When several pile up before a noun the order is fixed: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose. A beautiful small old round brown Indian wooden writing desk. Native speakers follow it without knowing it; learners are tested on it.

Degrees of comparison. good–better–best, bad–worse–worst, little–less–least, far–farther/further. Latin comparatives take to, not than: superior to, inferior to, senior to, junior to, prior to, preferable to.

Tenses — twelve forms, and the four that decide most questions

Simple present is not only for "now". It carries habit (He goes to school daily), universal truth (The sun rises in the east), and a future planned action after a time conjunction (I shall wait till he comes, never till he will come).

Past perfect exists to order two past events. Of two completed actions, the earlier one takes had + V3: The train had left before I reached the station. A question that gives you two past actions and asks for a tense is almost always testing this.

Present perfect versus simple past. Present perfect connects the past to now and cannot take a finished past time: I have seen him is fine, I have seen him yesterday is wrong — it must be I saw him yesterday.

Since and for. Since takes a point in time (since 2010, since Monday), for takes a period (for two years). Both normally go with a perfect or perfect continuous tense: He has been ill since Monday.

Verbs that are not used in the continuous — they describe states, not actions: know, believe, understand, seem, belong, own, contain, love, hate, prefer, resemble, consist. I know the answer, never I am knowing.

Modals, in one line each. Can = ability/permission · may = permission/possibility · must = obligation or strong certainty · should/ought to = advice · used to = discontinued past habit · need and dare are semi-modals and behave as modals only in the negative and interrogative (He need not go, but He needs to go).

Subject–verb agreement, the six rules that get set

1. 1.One of / each of / every one of + plural noun takes a SINGULAR verb: One of the boys is absent.
2. 2.Either… or and neither… nor take the verb from the nearer subject: Neither he nor his friends were there.
3. 3.Two nouns joined by and but naming one thing take a singular verb: Bread and butter is my breakfast.
4. 4.The + adjective meaning a class is plural: The rich are not always happy.
5. 5.A collective noun is singular when it acts as one body, plural when its members act separately: The jury was unanimous / The jury were divided.
6. 6.A number of is plural; the number of is singular: A number of students are absent / The number of students is fifty.

Articles, prepositions and the errors that are actually set

Articles

• ›A before a consonant SOUND, an before a vowel SOUND — and sound is what counts, not spelling: a university, a European, a one-rupee note, a useful book (all begin with a consonant sound), but an hour, an honest man, an MLA, an X-ray
• ›The is used with: rivers (the Ganga), seas, mountain ranges (the Himalayas), holy books (the Ramayana), newspapers, superlatives (the best), unique things (the sun), and nationalities (the Indians)
• ›The is NOT used before: languages (He knows English), meals (after lunch), most diseases, names of single mountains (Mount Everest), or before school, college, hospital, church when the purpose rather than the building is meant (He goes to school)

Prepositions that are regularly wrong in Indian usage

• ›Discuss, marry, resemble, enter, order, attack, accompany, reach take no preposition: Discuss the matter, not discuss about; He married her, not married with; They entered the hall, not entered into the hall
• ›Comprise takes none: The house comprises six rooms (not comprises of)
• ›In, on, at for time: at a point (at 5 o'clock, at night), on a day or date (on Monday, on 5 May), in a longer period (in May, in 1947, in the morning)
• ›Since, for, from: since a point with a perfect tense, for a period, from a starting point with any tense (He will work from Monday)
• ›Different from in careful usage · Angry with a person, at a thing · Ashamed of · Confident of · Prefer A to B

Common error patterns worth memorising as pairs

• ›Cope with, not cope up with · Return, not return back · Repeat, not repeat again
• ›Each other for two, one another for more than two
• ›Less for quantity, fewer for number: less sugar, fewer chairs
• ›Between two, among more than two
• ›Hardly / scarcely … when, and no sooner … than — never hardly … than
• ›Lest is already negative and takes should: Walk carefully lest you should fall — never lest you should not fall
• ›After had better, would rather, rather than the bare infinitive follows: You had better go

Points to Remember

• ›A word's part of speech comes from its function — round can be five different parts of speech
• ›Uncountable in English: furniture, information, advice, luggage, scenery, poetry, machinery
• ›Plural form, singular sense: news, mathematics, physics, politics · Singular form, plural sense: cattle, police, people
• ›Adjective order: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose
• ›Superior / inferior / senior / junior / prior / preferable take TO, never than
• ›Simple present after a time conjunction for future: till he comes, not till he will come
• ›Past perfect marks the EARLIER of two past actions
• ›Present perfect cannot take a finished past time — not have seen him yesterday
• ›Since = point · for = period
• ›State verbs take no continuous: know, believe, seem, belong, contain, prefer
• ›One of the boys IS · Neither he nor his friends WERE · The rich ARE · A number of students ARE / The number of students IS
• ›A or an follows SOUND: a university, a one-rupee note, an hour, an MLA
• ›No preposition after: discuss, marry, resemble, enter, order, attack, reach, comprise
• ›Hardly/scarcely … WHEN · No sooner … THAN · Lest … SHOULD
• ›Exam tip: Subject–verb agreement questions are built from the six rules above, and the two that catch the most candidates are one of the (singular verb, even though boys is plural and sits right next to it) and neither… nor (verb agrees with the nearer subject, so the answer changes if the two nouns are swapped). Locate the real subject before you look at the options.
• ›Exam tip: In error-spotting, check the preposition first. Indian English inserts prepositions English does not use — discuss about, marry with, enter into, cope up with, return back — and a large share of error questions are built from exactly that list.