2.1 Parts of Speech — Noun

Study:

• Definition and identification of nouns
• Common noun
• Proper noun
• Collective noun
• Abstract noun
• Material noun
• Countable nouns
• Uncountable nouns
• Singular and plural nouns
• Number of nouns
• Gender
• Possessive nouns
• Formation of nouns
• Compound nouns
• Correct use of nouns
• Noun + preposition combinations
• Common errors involving nouns

Important SSC Areas

• Singular/plural confusion
• Uncountable nouns
• Collective nouns
• Possessive case
• Nouns that appear plural but take singular verbs
• Nouns that are normally used in plural form

2.2 Pronoun

Study:

• Personal pronouns
• Possessive pronouns
• Reflexive pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Relative pronouns
• Interrogative pronouns
• Indefinite pronouns
• Distributive pronouns
• Reciprocal pronouns

Important Rules

• Pronoun–antecedent agreement
• Case of pronouns
• Correct use of who/whom
• Correct use of which/that
• Use of each/every/either/neither
• Reflexive pronouns
• Relative pronouns
• Pronoun reference
• Ambiguous pronoun usage

2.3 Adjective

Study:

• Definition and identification
• Adjective of quality
• Adjective of quantity
• Adjective of number
• Demonstrative adjective
• Possessive adjective
• Interrogative adjective
• Distributive adjective
• Proper adjective
• Comparison of adjectives

Degrees of Comparison

1. Positive
2. Comparative
3. Superlative

Important SSC Areas

• Double comparatives
• Incorrect use of more
• Comparative + than
• Superlative constructions
• Positive degree transformation
• Irregular comparison

2.4 Adverb

Study:

• Adverb of manner
• Adverb of place
• Adverb of time
• Adverb of frequency
• Adverb of degree
• Adverb of reason
• Interrogative adverbs
• Relative adverbs

Important Areas

• Position of adverbs
• Adjective vs adverb
• Hard / hardly
• Late / lately
• Near / nearly
• High / highly
• Direct / directly
• Free / freely

2.5 Verb

This is one of the highest-priority grammar areas for SSC.

Types of Verbs

• Main verb
• Auxiliary verb
• Primary auxiliary
• Modal auxiliary
• Transitive verb
• Intransitive verb
• Linking verb
• Regular verb
• Irregular verb
• Finite verb
• Non-finite verb

Verb Forms

• V1 — base form
• V2 — past form
• V3 — past participle
• V4 — present participle / -ing form
• V5 — third-person singular form

2.6 Subject–Verb Agreement

A very important SSC topic.

Study:

• Singular subject + singular verb
• Plural subject + plural verb
• Compound subjects
• Either…or
• Neither…nor
• Not only…but also
• Collective nouns
• Indefinite pronouns
• Each/every
• Many a
• More than one
• A number of
• The number of
• Along with
• Together with
• As well as
• With
• One of
• None of
• Either/neither
• Distance/time/money as singular units

2.7 Tenses

Study all three time categories:

SSC Focus

• Correct tense selection
• Sequence of tenses
• Since/for
• Already/yet
• Just
• Ago
• Before/after
• When/while
• No sooner…than
• Hardly/scarcely…when
• Until/unless
• Conditional sentences

2.8 Modals

Study:

• Can
• Could
• May
• Might
• Shall
• Should
• Will
• Would
• Must
• Ought to
• Need
• Dare
• Used to

Important Meanings

• Ability
• Permission
• Possibility
• Probability
• Obligation
• Necessity
• Advice
• Request
• Habit
• Prediction

2.9 Non-Finite Verbs

Infinitive

Gerund

Participle

• Present participle
• Past participle
• Perfect participle

Important SSC Areas

• Gerund vs infinitive
• Bare infinitive
• Participial phrases
• Verbs followed by gerund
• Verbs followed by infinitive
• Used to / be used to / get used to

2.10 Active and Passive Voice

The official syllabus specifically includes Active/Passive Voice of Verbs.

Study:

• Active voice
• Passive voice
• Conversion rules
• Tense-wise conversion
• Modal verbs
• Imperative sentences
• Interrogative sentences
• Negative sentences
• Double-object sentences
• Passive with infinitive
• Passive with reporting verbs

2.11 Direct and Indirect Speech

The official syllabus specifically includes conversion into Direct/Indirect Narration.

Types of Sentences

• Assertive
• Interrogative
• Imperative
• Exclamatory
• Optative

Rules

• Change of pronouns
• Change of tense
• Change of time expressions
• Change of place expressions
• Reporting verbs
• Questions
• Commands
• Requests
• Advice
• Exclamations

Important Changes

2.12 Articles

Study:

• A
• An
• The
• Zero article

Important Rules

• Use before singular countable nouns
• Vowel sound vs vowel letter
• Unique objects
• Rivers
• Seas
• Oceans
• Mountain ranges
• Newspapers
• Historical buildings
• Superlatives
• Ordinal numbers
• Musical instruments
• Institutions
• Abstract nouns
• Geographical names

2.13 Prepositions

One of the most important areas for Error Detection and Fill in the Blanks.

Time

• At
• On
• In
• Since
• For
• By
• From
• Until

Place

• At
• In
• On
• Into
• Upon
• Over
• Above
• Under
• Below
• Between
• Among
• Beside
• Besides

Direction

• To
• Towards
• Into
• Onto
• Across
• Through

Important Prepositional Combinations

2.14 Conjunctions

Study:

• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Correlative conjunctions

Important Pairs

• Either…or
• Neither…nor
• Both…and
• Not only…but also
• No sooner…than
• Hardly…when
• Scarcely…when
• Whether…or
• Though…yet
• Although…yet
• So…that
• Such…that

2.15 Subject–Verb Agreement + Conditional Sentences

Conditional sentences are important for advanced error detection.

Study:

• Zero Conditional — General truth.
• First Conditional — Real/possible future condition.
• Second Conditional — Unreal/hypothetical present/future.
• Third Conditional — Unreal past condition.
• Mixed Conditionals — For advanced questions.

2.16 Sentence Structure

Study:

• Subject
• Predicate
• Object
• Complement
• Phrase
• Clause
• Main clause
• Subordinate clause
• Coordinate clause
• Adjective clause
• Adverb clause
• Noun clause

Sentence Types

• Simple
• Compound
• Complex
• Compound-complex

This topic is especially useful for:

• Sentence improvement
• Rearrangement
• Error detection
• Transformation

3.4 One-Word Substitution

Persons

• One who hates mankind
• One who loves mankind
• One who speaks many languages
• One who knows everything
• One who cannot read or write

Places

• Place where books are kept
• Place where animals are kept
• Place where aircraft are kept

Concepts

• Government by the people
• Government by a king
• Government by the wealthy

Common SSC Categories

• Study-related terms
• Profession-related terms
• Killing-related terms
• Fear-related terms
• Personality-related terms
• Places
• Government
• Science
• Literature

3.5 Idioms and Phrases

The official syllabus explicitly includes Idioms & Phrases.

Prepare:

• Meaning
• Contextual usage
• Sentence-based questions
• Common idioms
• Idioms derived from mythology
• Idioms related to animals
• Idioms related to body parts
• Idioms related to colours
• Idioms related to food
• Idioms related to nature

3.6 Spelling

The SSC syllabus includes spellings/detecting misspelt words.

Prepare:

• Commonly misspelled words
• Double consonants
• Silent letters
• Homophone-based spelling
• British/standard English spellings used in SSC
• Prefix/suffix spelling patterns
• Plural spelling
• -able/-ible
• -ance/-ence
• -tion/-sion
• -ie/-ei patterns

3.7 Phrasal Verbs

Important for vocabulary and contextual usage.

3.8 Prefixes and Suffixes

Prefixes

un-, dis-, im-, in-, ir-, il-, anti-, pre-, post-, re-, mis-

Suffixes

-ness, -ment, -tion, -ity, -ous, -ive, -ful, -less, -able

This helps with vocabulary, spelling and word formation.

This is one of the most important practical areas of SSC English.

Questions can test errors in:

Common Error Patterns

Fill in the Blanks is officially included in the syllabus.

Questions may test:

• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Prepositions
• Articles
• Conjunctions
• Tenses
• Modals
• Phrasal verbs
• Idioms
• Contextual meaning
• Collocations

Important Preparation Areas

• Single blank
• Double blank
• Multiple blank
• Contextual blank
• Vocabulary-based blank

The official syllabus includes Improvement of Sentences.

Study:

• Grammar correction
• Word replacement
• Tense correction
• Preposition correction
• Article correction
• Subject–verb agreement
• Idiomatic usage
• Vocabulary
• Redundancy
• Parallelism
• Comparison
• Conditional sentences

Cloze passage is explicitly included in the SSC syllabus.

A passage contains blanks and the candidate selects the most appropriate words.

Questions may test:

Skills Required

1. Read the entire passage.
2. Understand its theme.
3. Identify grammatical requirements.
4. Examine words before and after the blank.
5. Check contextual meaning.
6. Eliminate unsuitable options.

The official CGL syllabus includes Comprehension Passage. The CGL notification specifies that three or more paragraphs may be given, including a simple passage based on a book/story and other passages based on current affairs, reports or editorials.

The CHSL notification similarly includes comprehension passage questions and specifies two or more paragraphs, including a simple book/story-based paragraph and another based on a current-affairs editorial or report.

Passage Types

Question Types

• Direct factual questions
• Main idea
• Central theme
• Title
• Inference
• Vocabulary in context
• Synonym
• Antonym
• Author’s argument
• Statement-based questions
• True/false type questions
• Conclusion
• Reference of pronouns
• Tone of passage

The official syllabus includes shuffling of sentence parts and shuffling of sentences in a passage.

Part Rearrangement

A sentence is divided into parts and the correct sequence has to be identified.

Para Jumble

Sentences are given in random order.

Find:

• Opening sentence
• Connecting sentence
• Cause-effect relationship
• Chronological order
• Pronoun reference
• Concluding sentence

Important Connectors

Although not always separately named in the short official syllabus, transformation skills are useful for several SSC question types.

Important combinations of words.

Collocations are particularly useful for Fill in the Blanks, Sentence Improvement and Cloze Tests.

For comprehensive SSC preparation, understand:

• Proper nouns
• Countries
• States
• Cities
• Institutions
• Days
• Months
• Historical events
• Titles
• Beginning of sentences
• Direct quotations

The core English syllabus is substantially overlapping between CHSL and CGL. The official CGL notification provides the detailed list of English question areas, while the CHSL notification lists the same major question formats.

For preparation, however, it is useful to think of the difference as level and application rather than completely different topics.