Compulsory English practice questions for UPSC Mains 2026.

Rule: a verb agrees in number with its subject — singular subject, singular verb; plural subject, plural verb. Three common traps: (1) intervening prepositional phrases — the verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun ('The bouquet of roses is on the table'); (2) collective nouns can take singular or plural depending on whether the group acts as a unit or as individuals ('The committee has decided' / 'The committee have disagreed among themselves'); (3) 'either … or' and 'neither … nor' take a verb that agrees with the nearer subject.

Approach: find the head noun of the subject before deciding the verb form. Strike out prepositional phrases mentally. For collective nouns, ask whether the group is acting as one or as many. For correlative conjunctions, the verb is decided by proximity.

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly in one sentence; corrected sentences with the change underlined; a one-line justification per sentence.

Common pitfalls: (1) matching the verb to the nearest noun rather than the head noun; (2) over-correcting collective nouns to always-singular; (3) ignoring the proximity rule for correlatives.

Rule: within a sentence or a closely linked passage, keep the tense consistent unless the meaning genuinely requires a shift. The most common error is mixing past and present in the same narration without reason. The sequence-of-tenses rule says that a subordinate clause normally moves into the past when the main clause is in the past ('He said that he was tired'), with three exceptions: universal truths, habitual actions, and historical present.

Approach: read your sentence aloud; if the time frame shifts mid-sentence and you cannot justify the shift, fix the verb. In reported speech, the reporting verb in the past pulls the reported verb back one tense ('I am' becomes 'he was').

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly; corrected sentences with the verb change underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) using historical present then drifting back to past; (2) failing to back-shift in reported speech; (3) over-correcting universal truths into past tense ('He said the earth moved around the sun').

Rule: when two or more items are joined by a coordinating conjunction ('and', 'or', 'but'), correlative conjunction ('either … or', 'not only … but also'), or by comparison ('rather than', 'as much as'), they must share the same grammatical form — all noun phrases, all verb phrases, all gerunds, all infinitives.

Approach: identify the conjunction; check the items on either side; force them into the same grammatical form. The repair is usually quick — change a gerund to an infinitive, or rephrase a noun phrase to match.

What an examiner expects: rule stated cleanly; corrected sentences with the parallel items underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) mixing gerunds and infinitives ('She likes hiking and to swim'); (2) breaking parallelism in lists of three or more; (3) breaking parallelism across correlative pairs ('not only … but also').

Rule: a modifier — a word, phrase or clause that describes another word — must sit next to the word it modifies. A misplaced modifier sits next to the wrong word ('She almost drove her kids to school every day'); a dangling modifier modifies a word that is not in the sentence at all ('Walking down the street, the trees were beautiful').

Approach: after an introductory participial phrase, ask 'who or what is doing this action?' — that word must be the subject of the main clause. If it is not, either change the subject or rewrite the phrase as a full subordinate clause.

What an examiner expects: rule stated cleanly; corrected sentence with modifier moved or rewritten; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) leaving 'only', 'almost', 'just' in the wrong place; (2) starting sentences with -ing phrases without checking the subject; (3) using 'while' or 'after' phrases without a clear subject.

Rule: indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' introduce a singular countable noun mentioned for the first time or generic in reference; 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds. The definite article 'the' is used when the noun refers to something specific or previously mentioned, or unique ('the sun', 'the Prime Minister'). Plural and uncountable nouns take no article when used in a general sense.

Approach: for each noun ask: countable or uncountable? Singular or plural? Specific or generic? First mention or repeat mention? Unique? Use this checklist to choose.

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly; corrected sentences with the article change underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) using 'a' before vowel sounds — sound, not spelling, decides ('an honest man', 'a university'); (2) using 'the' before plural generic nouns ('the dogs are loyal' should be 'dogs are loyal' for a general claim); (3) dropping the definite article from unique singulars.

Rule: a preposition links a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence and shows a relationship of place, time, direction or manner. English prepositions are largely idiomatic — there is no rule that explains every choice, so the safest method is to learn fixed verb-and-preposition combinations and common contrasts.

Approach: learn the four high-frequency contrasts — in / at / on (place and time), between / among (two vs more than two), since / for (point vs duration), different from / different than (BrE prefers from). Maintain a small notebook of verb-preposition pairs ('comply with', 'consist of', 'depend on', 'refer to').

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly; corrected sentences with the preposition change underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) using 'discuss about' — discuss does not take a preposition; (2) using 'between' for more than two items; (3) using 'since' with a duration ('since two hours' instead of 'for two hours'); (4) using 'married with' instead of 'married to'.

Rule: within a complex sentence, the verb in the subordinate clause is selected by the time relation to the main clause, not by the clock time of the writer. When the main verb is in the past, the subordinate verb typically moves one step back ('He said that he was busy'); when the main verb is in the present or future, the subordinate verb takes whatever tense the meaning requires. Three exceptions to the back-shift survive: universal truths, habitual actions, and historical present.

Approach: identify the main verb's tense first; then ask whether the subordinate event is earlier, simultaneous or later; pick the tense that signals that relation. Time adverbs ('yesterday', 'usually', 'tomorrow') anchor tense and should not be ignored.

What an examiner expects: the rule stated in one sentence; corrected sentences with the verb change underlined; a one-line justification per sentence.

Common pitfalls: (1) failing to back-shift after a past main verb; (2) over-back-shifting universal truths; (3) ignoring perfect tenses, which signal sequence ('had + past participle' for the earlier of two past events).

Rule: direct speech reports the speaker's exact words inside quotation marks; reported (indirect) speech restates them in a subordinate clause introduced by 'that' (or by 'whether' for yes/no questions). The conversion typically requires three changes — back-shift of tense, shift of pronouns, and shift of time/place adverbs.

Approach: work through the three shifts in order. First, the reporting verb's tense (usually past) pulls the reported verb back. Second, first-person pronouns become third person from the reporter's standpoint. Third, time adverbs ('today' → 'that day', 'tomorrow' → 'the next day') and place adverbs ('here' → 'there') shift to the reporter's standpoint.

What an examiner expects: the rule stated in one sentence; the three shifts applied correctly in worked examples; corrected sentences with changes underlined.

Common pitfalls: (1) forgetting the pronoun shift while remembering the tense shift; (2) using 'that' before questions instead of 'whether/if'; (3) reporting questions with the question word order ('He asked where was she' instead of 'He asked where she was').

Rule: English conditionals come in four main patterns. Zero conditional ('If you heat water, it boils') states a general truth — present in both clauses. First conditional ('If it rains, we will stay') is open — present in the if-clause, future in the main clause. Second conditional ('If I had time, I would help') is hypothetical — past in the if-clause, would + infinitive in the main clause. Third conditional ('If I had known, I would have helped') is counterfactual about the past — past perfect in the if-clause, would have + past participle in the main clause.

Approach: identify the kind of condition being expressed — habitual truth, real future possibility, present unreality, or past unreality — and match the pattern. Never use 'will' or 'would' in the if-clause itself.

What an examiner expects: the four patterns named cleanly; corrected sentences with the verb forms underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) using 'will' in the if-clause of a first conditional ('If he will come, I will help'); (2) mixing second and third conditional forms; (3) using 'was' instead of 'were' after 'if I' in the formal hypothetical ('If I were you').

Rule: modal verbs (can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, ought to, need, dare) take the bare infinitive and do not change form for person or number. They express ability, permission, obligation, advice, possibility, certainty, habit and prediction — shades that English's main verbs cannot mark on their own. Past-tense modals (could, might, should have) signal not only past time but also weaker possibility or tentativeness.

Approach: identify the shade of meaning the writer needs — ability vs permission, advice vs obligation, possibility vs certainty — and choose the modal that marks that shade. Watch the perfect modals ('must have arrived' for past deduction, 'should have arrived' for past expectation unmet).

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly; corrected sentences with the modal change underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) using 'can' for permission in formal writing ('Can I leave?' instead of 'May I leave?'); (2) using 'must' for personal advice instead of 'should'; (3) collapsing 'must have', 'might have' and 'should have' into one form.

Rule: new English words are typically formed by attaching a prefix (added at the front, usually changing meaning) or a suffix (added at the end, usually changing the part of speech). Knowing the productive families — negative prefixes ('un-', 'in-', 'im-', 'il-', 'ir-', 'dis-', 'non-'), and noun-forming suffixes ('-tion', '-ment', '-ity', '-ness'), verb-forming suffixes ('-ise/-ize', '-ify', '-en') and adjective-forming suffixes ('-able', '-ful', '-less', '-ous') — helps both reading speed and writing precision.

Approach: identify the base word's part of speech; decide what part of speech is needed; choose a suffix that performs that transformation. For negation, the choice between 'un-', 'in-', 'im-', 'il-', 'ir-' is partly determined by the first letter of the base ('il-' before 'l', 'ir-' before 'r', 'im-' before 'b/m/p').

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly; correct forms supplied for prompts (verb to noun, adjective to noun, noun to adjective); a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) using the wrong negative prefix ('unpossible' instead of 'impossible'); (2) doubling consonants incorrectly when adding suffixes; (3) confusing '-ic' and '-ical' adjectives (economic vs economical).

Rule: punctuation marks the structure of a sentence and the relations between its parts. In formal writing, the central marks are the comma (lists, parenthetical remarks, separating subordinate from main clauses), the semicolon (joining two independent clauses without a conjunction, or separating list items that themselves contain commas), the colon (introducing a list, explanation or quotation), and the apostrophe (possession and contraction). The dash and the parenthesis offer parenthetical asides; the question mark is reserved for direct questions, never indirect ones.

Approach: for each clause, ask whether it is independent or subordinate; that decides whether a comma, semicolon or full stop is appropriate. For lists, use the serial (Oxford) comma when needed to remove ambiguity. For possessives, place the apostrophe before the 's' for singular owners, after the 's' for regular plural owners.

What an examiner expects: the rule stated cleanly; corrected sentences with the punctuation change underlined; a one-line justification.

Common pitfalls: (1) the comma splice — joining two independent clauses with a comma alone; (2) confusing 'its' (possessive) with 'it's' (it is); (3) putting a question mark after an indirect question ('She asked whether he was coming?'); (4) misusing the semicolon as a colon.