English Grammar – Quick Revision Bullets

Parts of Speech & Core Ideas

• Noun/Pronoun decide verb form → always match number & person.
• Possessive Adjectives (my, your, his, her, our, their, its, one’s) precede gerunds; never use objective case there.
• Reflexive pronouns only after verbs that necessarily need an object (enjoy, avenge, pride, etc.).

Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA)

• $S + V$ must agree in number; for collective nouns use:
  • Singular verb → group acts as one ("The jury is unanimous").
  • Plural verb → members act individually ("The jury are divided").
• ‘Each / Every / Either / Neither / One of the’ → singular verb.
• ‘Not only … but also / Either … or / Neither … nor’ → verb matches the nearest subject.
• Words always plural → police, cattle, people, vermin, gentry, poultry, clergy, folk, infantry, cavalry.
• Quantities (time, money, distance) as one block → singular verb ("Ten miles is far"); split ways → plural.

Articles

• ‘A / An’ judged by sound (a year, an M.A.).
• ‘The’ before: unique things, superlatives, groups (the Himalayas, the Ganga), newspapers, abbreviations of nations (the USA), musical instruments.
• Omit articles before: languages, meals, sports, streets, lakes, mountains peaks, abstract/general nouns.

Pronouns & Relatives

• Who = subject; whom = object. Test with he/him.
• That follows: all, any, no, nothing, none, much, little, only, same, superlatives.
• ‘Each other’ (two); ‘one another’ (> 2).
• Antecedent rule: relative pronoun refers to nearest noun.

Adjectives & Degrees of Comparison

• Never use ‘more/most’ with absolutes (perfect, unique, ideal, entire, chief, complete etc.).
• With ‘times’ use positive degree: "Three times as heavy as…" not "three times heavier".
• Parallel structures after ‘not only… but also’, ‘both … and’ etc.

Adverbs, Inversion & Intensifiers

• Position: Adv of Manner → Place → Time (She spoke kindly in class yesterday).
• Start with negative/limiting adverb (Hardly, Scarcely, Seldom, Little, No sooner) → AUX precedes subject ("No sooner had I reached…").
• ‘No sooner … than’; ‘Hardly/Scarcely/Barely … when’ — never mix.
• ‘Too much + noun’ vs. ‘much too + adj’.

Prepositions

• ‘Angry/Annoyed with person; at thing.’
• ‘Die of’ disease; ‘die from’ external cause.
• ‘Among’ >2; ‘between’ exactly 2 and before ‘and’ not ‘to’.
• ‘Accustomed / addicted / prone / devoted / given / look forward / confess / object + to V ing’.
• ‘In’ = inside area, ‘into’ = movement to inside, ‘inside’ = movement within.

Gerund & Infinitive

• After certain adjectives/verbs use infinitive $to+V<em>1$; in special list use $to+V</em>{ing}$ (used to, look forward to, prone to, etc.).
• Bare infinitive after let, bid, make, see, hear, feel (active voice).

Conditional Sentences

• Type I: if + $V<em>{1}$ → will/shall/can/may + $V</em>{1}$.
• Type II: if + $V<em>{2}$ → would/could + $V</em>{1}$.
• Type III: if + had + $V<em>{3}$ → would/could + have + $V</em>{3}$.
• Universal truths keep present tense even after past reporting verb.

Tense & Sequence

• Two past actions: earlier → Past Perfect; later → Simple Past.
• Since / for denote duration → need Perfect/Perfect Cont.; ‘since’ followed by simple past point & main clause perfect.
• ‘Ago’ → Simple Past; ‘before’ in time clauses → Past Perfect.

Possession & Apostrophe

• ’s not used with non-living except time, measure, personification (a day’s work).
• For compound nouns add ’s at the end (mother-in-law’s).
• Double possessive: the book of mine / a friend of hers.

Plurals & Special Nouns

• Irregular: man/men, woman/women, foot/feet, mouse/mice, louse/lice.
• Singular‐looking plurals: scissors, spectacles, earnings, surroundings — always plural verb.
• Plural‐looking singulars: mathematics, statistics (as subject) → singular; as data/calculations → plural.

Miscellaneous Traps

• ‘Because / As / Since / When / Once / If’ – don’t add ‘then/therefore’ in same clause.
• ‘Lest’ followed by ‘should’ or bare verb, never ‘lest … not’.
• ‘Such … as’, not ‘such … that’.
• ‘Quite’ and ‘all’ never together.
• Avoid superfluous pairs: return back, repeat again, free gift, revert back, past history.