Grammar, Correct Usage and Rearranging Sentences
Grammar in CUET is never tested as theory — you will not be asked to define a gerund. It is tested as error-spotting, fill-in-the-blank, and sentence improvement, and the errors are drawn from a short, stable list of about a dozen patterns that recur every year. That is the good news: unlike vocabulary, which is unbounded, grammar is a closed syllabus. Learn the dozen patterns and you stop reading sentences for meaning and start scanning them for the specific things that go wrong, which is both faster and far more accurate. The chapter closes with sentence rearrangement, which is not grammar at all but a logic puzzle with grammatical clues.
The Other Patterns Worth Memorising
| Area | The rule | Wrong → right |
|---|---|---|
| Articles | "a/an" follows the sound, not the letter | an university → a university; a hour → an hour |
| Prepositions after verbs | Fixed combinations must be learnt as units | discuss about → discuss; married with → married to |
| Comparatives | Never double the comparison | more better → better; most fastest → fastest |
| Uncountables | No plural and no "a" | informations, furnitures, advices → information, furniture, advice |
| Tense sequence | A past main clause pulls the reported clause into the past | He said that he is ill → he was ill |
| since / for | since + point in time; for + duration | since two years → for two years |
| Modals | A modal is followed by the bare infinitive | must to go → must go; can able to → can |
| Parallel structure | Items in a list must share their form | She likes swimming, cycling and to read → and reading |
⚠️ The verbs that take no preposition
A whole question family rests on verbs that Indian English habitually gives an extra preposition. Each of these is complete on its own: discuss, order, request, resemble, accompany, comprise, emphasise, reach, attack, enter (though "enter into" is right for an agreement). So we discussed the matter, not "discussed about"; he resembles his father, not "resembles to"; the team comprises eleven players, not "comprises of". These read perfectly natural in speech, which is exactly why they are examined — your ear will not save you, only the list will.Sentence Rearrangement — a Logic Puzzle, Not a Grammar Question
You are given four or six jumbled parts and asked for the correct order. Candidates lose time here by trying to understand the paragraph first. The efficient route is the opposite: ignore the meaning at first and hunt for structural signals, because word order in English leaves fingerprints.
- Find the opener. Only one part can start a paragraph. It introduces a noun with a name or an article ("A farmer in Bihar…", "The monsoon of 2023…") rather than referring back with it, this, they, such, these.
- Follow the pronouns backwards. A part beginning "He then decided…" must come after the part that named him. Pronouns are the single most reliable ordering clue in the question.
- Use the connectors. However, therefore, on the other hand, moreover, consequently each need something specific before them — a contrast, a cause, a preceding point. A part opening with "However" can never be first.
- Watch article progression. A noun is introduced with a/an and referred to afterwards with the. "a strange bird" therefore precedes "the bird".
- Then check chronology and match the options. Time words (first, later, finally, meanwhile) fix the sequence. Finally, test your order against the four given options — sometimes only one option even begins with your chosen opener, which settles it in seconds.
🧠 Work from the options, not from scratch
This is a multiple-choice question, and that changes the arithmetic completely. Six parts have 720 possible orders, but you are shown only four — so never construct an order from nothing. Identify the opener, discard every option that does not begin with it, and you are usually down to two. Then find one adjacent pair you are confident about (a pronoun following its noun works best) and check which surviving option contains it. Two decisions, not six.🎯 Why grammar is the best return on study time in this paper
Compare the three blocks of Section IA. Comprehension cannot be revised — you meet a new passage on the day. Vocabulary is effectively unbounded, so extra study yields diminishing returns. Grammar is finite and repeating: the same dozen patterns, year after year, roughly 10 to 12 questions. A week spent closing those patterns is worth more than a month of word lists, and the gain is permanent because a rule, unlike a word, cannot be half-remembered. Track your practice errors by pattern rather than by question — if four of your last ten mistakes were agreement, you have found your week's work.Key takeaways
- Grammar is a closed syllabus — about a dozen recurring patterns give 10–12 questions every year.
- For agreement, strike out everything between subject and verb and read what remains.
- as well as / along with / including never make a subject plural; either–or and neither–nor agree with the nearer subject.
- "One of" takes a plural noun but a singular verb — and both halves get tested.
- a/an follows sound not spelling: a university, an hour.
- discuss, resemble, comprise, order, request and reach take no preposition after them.
- since takes a point in time, for takes a duration; uncountables take no plural and no "a".
- In rearrangement, find the opener, follow pronouns back, use connectors — then match against the four options.
Practice questions (8)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
Choose the grammatically correct sentence.
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Answer: B — The quality of the mangoes was poor.
The subject is "quality" (singular); "of the mangoes" is only a modifying phrase. Strike it out and "The quality was poor" is obvious. This burying of the subject behind a plural noun is the commonest error pattern in the whole section.Choose the correct sentence.
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Answer: B — Neither the captain nor the players were ready.
With neither…nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject, and "players" is plural, so "were" is right. Note also that neither must pair with nor, never with or — option 3 breaks that pairing.Which sentence contains no error?
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Answer: C — The team comprises eleven players.
Discuss, resemble, comprise and request are all complete without a preposition, so options 1, 2 and 4 each add one wrongly. "Comprises of" is equally wrong, though it is not offered here. These sound natural in Indian English, which is why the list must be learnt rather than trusted to the ear.Fill in the blank: "I have been waiting here ___ two hours."
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Answer: B — for
"Two hours" is a duration, so "for" is required. "Since" needs a point in time — since Monday, since 4 o'clock, since 2019. This pair is set almost every year because "since two hours" is very common in speech.Which is correct?
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Answer: B — He gave me much useful information.
Information, advice, furniture, luggage, scenery and equipment are uncountable: they take no plural -s and no "a". They pair with much, and countable nouns pair with many — which is the second half of what this question tests.Choose the correct sentence.
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Answer: B — This is one of the best books that have been written.
"One of the" requires the plural "books", and inside the relative clause "that" points at books rather than at one, so the verb there is plural — "have been written". Option 3 gets the noun right and the clause wrong, which is precisely the distinction being tested.In a sentence-rearrangement question, a part beginning with "However, the plan failed" can:
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Answer: B — Never be the opening part, since "however" needs a preceding contrast
Connectors such as however, therefore, moreover and consequently each demand something specific before them, so a part opening with one cannot be first. The opener instead introduces a noun with a name or an article and refers back to nothing.Six jumbled parts have 720 possible orders, but the question shows four options. The efficient method is to:
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Answer: B — Identify the opener, discard options not starting with it, then confirm with one adjacent pair
Because it is multiple choice, you never need to generate an order — only to eliminate. The opener usually removes two options at once, and one confident adjacent pair (a pronoun following the noun it refers to) settles the rest. Two decisions instead of six.