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INPT Grammar Key Rules

Short reminders of the grammar and usage rules that come up most often in English proficiency practice. Study aid for practice, not the official test.

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Past perfect: form and use
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1
Past perfect: form and use
had + past participle; shows an action completed before another past action or time.
2
Present perfect: form and use
have/has + past participle; links the past to now (experience, result, or period up to now).
3
Future perfect continuous
will have been + -ing; an activity continuing up to a future point, often with 'for' + duration.
4
Second conditional
If + simple past, would + base verb; an unlikely or unreal present or future situation.
5
Third conditional
If + past perfect, would have + past participle; an unreal past situation and its result.
6
Mixed conditional (past condition, present result)
If + past perfect, would + base verb: 'If I had studied medicine, I would be a doctor now.'
7
Inverted third conditional
Had + subject + past participle, would have + past participle: 'Had she known, she would have called.'
8
Passive voice: form
be + past participle, in the tense of the active verb: 'is made', 'was made', 'has been made', 'must be made'.
9
Reported speech: tense shift
With a past reporting verb, tenses move back one step: present simple to past simple, present perfect to past perfect.
10
Reported questions: word order
Use statement order with no auxiliary inversion: 'She asked where I had studied.'
11
Inversion after negative adverbials
Rarely, hardly, not until, no sooner: auxiliary before the subject: 'Rarely have I seen...'.
12
'No sooner ... than'; 'hardly ... when'
No sooner had she left than it rained. Hardly had she left when it rained.
13
Subjunctive after insist, suggest, demand
Use the base verb in a that-clause: 'She insisted that he attend.'
14
Neither ... nor agreement
The verb agrees with the noun nearest to it: 'Neither the director nor the assistants were...'.
15
'The number of' versus 'a number of'
'The number of' takes a singular verb; 'a number of' means several and takes a plural verb.
16
Uncountable nouns to remember
information, advice, research, equipment, knowledge, furniture: no plural form and a singular verb.
17
'Fewer' versus 'less'
'Fewer' for countable nouns (fewer applicants); 'less' for uncountable nouns (less time).
18
Gerund after suggest, avoid, enjoy, consider
These verbs are followed by -ing: 'suggested extending', 'avoid making'.
19
Despite versus although
Despite / in spite of + noun or -ing; although + full clause.
20
Whose
The possessive relative pronoun: 'the scientist whose research won the award'.
21
Dangling modifier
A participle phrase must describe the subject of the main clause; otherwise rewrite the sentence.
22
Parallel structure in lists
Keep the same form in each item: to analyse, write and present (not analyse, writing, presenting).
23
Affect versus effect
'Affect' is usually a verb (to influence); 'effect' is usually a noun (a result).
24
Comma rules for relative clauses
Non-defining clauses go between commas; defining clauses take no commas.
25
Semicolon use
Joins two closely related independent clauses; it is not used before a dependent clause.

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