English Grammar
About 6 min · Hindi and English Language · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 449 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
English Grammar forms a core component of the Language section in HSSC CET. Questions typically test your ability to identify correct grammatical structures, spot errors, and transform sentences. This topic matters because grammar rules underpin all other English questions—whether comprehension, vocabulary, or sentence improvement.
Key ideas
- Parts of Speech (8 types): Every English word belongs to one of eight categories—Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection. The same word can function as different parts depending on context (e.g., "run" can be noun or verb).
- Tense = Time + Aspect: Tense indicates when an action occurs (Past/Present/Future) combined with its aspect (Simple/Continuous/Perfect/Perfect Continuous), creating 12 tense forms.
- Voice shows subject-action relationship: Active voice = subject performs action; Passive voice = subject receives action. Only transitive verbs (having objects) can be changed to passive.
- Narration preserves meaning, changes structure: Direct speech quotes exact words; Indirect speech reports the meaning. Changes occur in pronouns, tenses, and time expressions.
- Articles signal noun specificity: "A/An" are indefinite (general reference); "The" is definite (specific reference). Article usage depends on countability, first/subsequent mention, and uniqueness.
Watch out for
- Using continuous tense with stative verbs → Stative verbs (know, love, hate, believe, understand, possess, seem) take simple tenses only. Say "I understand" not "I am understanding."
- Confusing "since" and "for" → "Since" is for point of time (since 2010, since morning); "For" is for duration (for two years, for three hours). Both typically need perfect/perfect continuous tenses.
- Wrong article before abbreviations → Go by sound, not spelling. "An MLA" (sounds like "em"), "A UNESCO project" (sounds like "yu"), "An X-ray" (sounds like "ex").
Quick reference
- 8 Parts of Speech: Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection
- 12 Tenses = 3 Times (Past, Present, Future) × 4 Aspects (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous)
- Passive Formula: Object + appropriate "be" form + V3 + by + Subject
- Narration shift: Present → Past → Past Perfect; Will → Would; Can → Could; May → Might
- Articles by sound: "An" before vowel sounds; "A" before consonant sounds (an honest man, a university)
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Choose the correct form of the verb to complete the sentence: By next month, she __________ in this company for five years.
2. Identify the part of speech of the underlined word in the sentence: The children played happily in the garden.
3. Convert the following sentence from Active Voice to Passive Voice: The teacher will announce the results tomorrow. Which of the following is correct?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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