Verbal Aptitude
The English section of General Aptitude — subject–verb agreement, articles, prepositions and tenses, commonly confused words, vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms, idioms), sentence completion, reading comprehension with inference questions, and narrative sequencing (ordering jumbled sentences).
Grammar essentials
Subject–verb agreement
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| Each, every, either, neither, everyone, nobody take a singular verb | Each of the answers is correct. |
| Neither … nor / either … or: the verb agrees with the nearer subject | Neither the manager nor the clerks were present. |
| Phrases like along with, as well as, together with do not change the subject | The teacher, along with her students, is here. |
| The number of → singular; a number of → plural | The number of applicants has risen; a number of applicants have withdrawn. |
| Collective nouns are singular when acting as one unit (Indian/British usage also allows plural) | The committee has decided. |
Articles
- a/an depends on the first sound: an hour, an MBA, an honest man, but a university, a European, a one-way street.
- the for something specific or unique: the sun, the Ganga, the best answer. No article with most proper nouns, meals and languages in general use.
Tenses that GATE likes
- Past perfect for the earlier of two past actions: The train had left before we arrived.
- Present perfect with since (point in time) and for (duration): I have lived here since 2019 / for five years.
- No future tense after if / when / as soon as in time clauses: Call me when you reach (not will reach).
Prepositions and confusables
| Pair | Use |
|---|---|
| since / for | starting point / duration |
| between / among | two items / more than two |
| affect / effect | verb (influence) / noun (result) |
| principal / principle | main, head of school / rule, belief |
| complement / compliment | completes something / praise |
| stationary / stationery | not moving / writing materials |
| fewer / less | countable / uncountable |
| imply / infer | speaker suggests / listener deduces |
Vocabulary
GATE vocabulary questions ask for synonyms, antonyms, the odd word out, or the word that fits a sentence. Learn words in families and through roots:
| Root | Meaning | Words |
|---|---|---|
| bene | good | benevolent, beneficial |
| mal | bad | malevolent, malign |
| chron | time | chronic, anachronism |
| loqu/locu | speak | loquacious, eloquent |
| ephemer | a day | ephemeral |
| amb/ambi | both | ambiguous, ambivalent |
Frequently tested: laconic (terse), verbose (wordy), ubiquitous (everywhere), pragmatic (practical), mitigate (lessen), exacerbate (worsen), candid (frank), obstinate (stubborn), meticulous (very careful), ambivalent (having mixed feelings).
Reading comprehension
GATE passages are short (a paragraph). Typical questions ask for the inference, the assumption, the main idea or the statement that is supported.
Narrative sequencing
Order jumbled sentences by looking for:
- the opening sentence: introduces the topic, contains no pronoun or connective pointing backwards;
- links: pronouns (this, these, such, it), connectives (however, therefore, thus, moreover), and repeated nouns tie a sentence to the one before;
- the conclusion: often begins with thus, hence, therefore.
Check whether a pair of sentences is a mandatory pair (e.g. one introduces a term and the next uses "this"), then eliminate options that break it.
Quick revision
Practice questions
GATE-style questions: 7 one-mark and 4 two-mark. Wrong MCQs cost ⅓ of their marks in the real exam; MSQ and NAT have no negative marking. Attempt each before opening the solution.
Choose the option that correctly completes the sentence: "Neither of the two proposals ______ been approved by the committee."
Select the word closest in meaning to ephemeral.
Select the word most nearly opposite in meaning to verbose.
Choose the correct sentence.
Which of the following sentences use the indefinite article correctly?
One or more options are correct.
The idiom "to bite the bullet" means
Arrange the sentences P, Q, R, S into a coherent paragraph. P: Within a decade, however, cheap sensors made such data abundant. Q: Early weather forecasts relied on a handful of manual observations. R: Forecasting thus became a problem of computation rather than of data collection. S: Collecting these observations was slow and expensive.
Passage: "Many cities have introduced bicycle-sharing schemes. In cities where the schemes succeeded, the councils had first built separate cycle lanes; where they did not, ridership fell sharply within a year." Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
Choose the option that correctly completes the sentence: "By the time we reached the station, the train ______."
Choose the correct preposition: "She has been working on this project ______ March."
Select the pair that expresses a relationship most similar to Doctor : Hospital.