IMAT Reading Skills and General Knowledge · Free notes
English Language and Grammar: Verbs, Sentences and Language Families
English Language and Grammar has 3 past questions since 2011, and the ministry papers from 2023 on have asked 1 of them. The older Cambridge papers asked which language does not belong to a family; the ministry paper asked which sentence has a passive verb. The work is recognition: naming a verb form, a sentence role or a language branch quickly and without doubt. The difficulty sits in the near-misses, such as a continuous or perfect verb that looks passive, or a language spoken in one region but belonging to another family.
The handout has every subtopic, worked example, formula and trap with answers shown. The formula sheet is the chapter’s formulas and traps alone, on one page.
Subtopic notes
Tenses, Voice, Reported Speech and Conditionals
0 PYQsThe verb carries time, aspect and voice; recognising its form lets you spot a passive, report speech correctly and match the two halves of a conditional.
Sentence Roles, Common Errors, Vocabulary and Language Families
0 PYQsName the job each word does in a sentence, avoid the errors examiners plant, read new words from their context, and know how Europe's languages group into families.
Formula & revision sheet
1 formulas · 5 reference tables · 9 gotchas across all subtopics — the exam-eve cheat-sheet
Formula & revision sheet
1 formulas · 5 reference tables · 9 gotchas across all subtopics — the exam-eve cheat-sheet
Tenses, Voice, Reported Speech and Conditionals
Formulas (1)
Reference tables (2)
The English tenses: time and aspect10 rows
| Tense | Form | Example | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present simple | base form (+ s after he, she, it) | She studies every evening. | Habits and general truths |
| Present continuous | am, is, are + -ing | She is studying now. | An action in progress now |
| Present perfect | have, has + past participle | She has studied anatomy. | A past action linked to now |
| Present perfect continuous | have, has been + -ing | She has been studying for two hours. | An action continuing up to now |
| Past simple | past form | She studied in Rome. | A finished action at a past time |
| Past continuous | was, were + -ing | She was studying when I called. | An action in progress at a past moment |
| Past perfect | had + past participle | She had studied before the exam began. | An action before another past action |
| Future simple | will + base form | She will study tomorrow. | Predictions and decisions |
| Future continuous | will be + -ing | She will be studying at nine. | In progress at a future moment |
| Future perfect | will have + past participle | She will have finished by June. | Completed before a future time |
The helping verb carries the time; the form of the main verb (-ing or past participle) carries the aspect.
Conditionals: zero, first, second, third and mixed5 rows
| Type | If-clause | Main clause | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero | present simple | present simple | If you heat ice, it melts. | Always true: a general fact |
| First | present simple | will + base form | If it rains, the match will be cancelled. | A real, likely future |
| Second | past simple | would + base form | If I had more time, I would learn Greek. | Unreal or unlikely, now or in the future |
| Third | past perfect | would have + past participle | If she had studied, she would have passed. | Unreal past: it did not happen |
| Mixed | past perfect | would + base form | If he had taken the job, he would live in Milan now. | Past condition, present result |
Watch out for (5)
- A past participle alone is not a verb→ The English tenses: time and aspect
- Be + -ing is not passive→ Active and passive voice: recognising and forming the passive in every tense
- A passive need not contain 'by'→ Active and passive voice: recognising and forming the passive in every tense
- A reported question loses the question word order→ Reported speech: shifting tenses, pronouns and time words
- No will or would after if→ Conditionals: zero, first, second, third and mixed
Sentence Roles, Common Errors, Vocabulary and Language Families
Reference tables (3)
Parts of speech and sentence roles: subject, object and clauses8 rows
| Part of speech | Job | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | Names a person, thing, place or idea | doctor, cell, Rome, freedom |
| Pronoun | Stands in place of a noun | she, it, them, who, which |
| Verb | Expresses an action or a state | analyse, is, seems |
| Adjective | Describes a noun | rapid, chronic, red |
| Adverb | Describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb | rapidly, very, often |
| Preposition | Links a noun to the rest of the sentence (place, time, relation) | in, on, by, during |
| Conjunction | Joins words or clauses | and, but, because, although |
| Article or determiner | Comes before a noun and limits it | a, the, this, some |
Common errors: agreement, pronouns, its and it's, who and whom, fewer and less7 rows
| Rule | Correct use | Quick test | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| its or it's | its = belonging to it; it's = it is or it has | Say 'it is': if it fits, write it's | The cell lost its nucleus. It's late. |
| who or whom | who = subject; whom = object, often after a preposition | he → who, him → whom | Who called? To whom did you write? |
| fewer or less | fewer with plural nouns you can count; less with things you measure | Can you count them one by one? | fewer patients, less blood |
| Subject and verb | The verb agrees with the head noun | Cover the 'of ...' phrase | The box of samples is ready. |
| Each, neither, everyone | Singular verb | Read as 'each one' | Each of the students has a locker. |
| their, there, they're | belonging to them; a place; they are | Expand they're to 'they are' | They're in their room over there. |
| affect or effect | affect is usually a verb; effect is usually a noun | Can 'the' go in front? Then effect | Stress affects sleep; it has an effect on sleep. |
Language families of Europe: Romance, Germanic, Slavic and the rest7 rows
| Branch or family | Members | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| Romance (from Latin) | Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, Romanian | Romanian is Romance although most of its neighbours speak Slavic languages or Hungarian |
| Germanic | English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic | English is Germanic, though much of its vocabulary comes from Latin and French |
| Slavic | Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian | Some use Cyrillic and some the Latin alphabet; the alphabet does not decide the branch |
| Baltic | Lithuanian, Latvian | Neighbours of the Slavic languages, but a separate branch |
| Celtic | Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton | Breton is spoken in France but is Celtic, not Romance |
| Greek and Albanian | Greek; Albanian | Each is a branch of Indo-European on its own |
| Not Indo-European | Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian (Uralic); Basque (isolate); Maltese (Semitic); Turkish (Turkic) | Maltese uses the Latin alphabet but is related to Arabic |
Watch out for (4)
- The subject is not always the first noun→ Parts of speech and sentence roles: subject, object and clauses
- Less with things you can count→ Common errors: agreement, pronouns, its and it's, who and whom, fewer and less
- False friends→ Vocabulary in context: working out an unknown word
- Geography is not family→ Language families of Europe: Romance, Germanic, Slavic and the rest
PYQ weightage by concept
8 concepts · 0 PYQs — where the marks actually sit, so you know what to drill first
PYQ weightage by concept
8 concepts · 0 PYQs — where the marks actually sit, so you know what to drill first
Tenses, Voice, Reported Speech and Conditionals0 PYQs · 0%
| Concept | PYQs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The English tenses: time and aspectfoundation | — | — |
| Active and passive voice: recognising and forming the passive in every tensefoundation | — | — |
| Reported speech: shifting tenses, pronouns and time wordsfoundation | — | — |
| Conditionals: zero, first, second, third and mixedfoundation | — | — |
Sentence Roles, Common Errors, Vocabulary and Language Families0 PYQs · 0%
| Concept | PYQs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Parts of speech and sentence roles: subject, object and clausesfoundation | — | — |
| Common errors: agreement, pronouns, its and it's, who and whom, fewer and lessfoundation | — | — |
| Vocabulary in context: working out an unknown wordfoundation | — | — |
| Language families of Europe: Romance, Germanic, Slavic and the restfoundation | — | — |