GATE CS - GENERAL APTITUDE:Verbal Ability

Verbal Ability for GATE GA

GATE verbal is short and precise: fix the sentence, pick the best word, or choose the conclusion that follows. You will not write essays.

Grammar that recurs

• Subject–verb agreement (especially with "either/or", "neither/nor", collective nouns)
• Tense consistency in short paragraphs
• Articles and prepositions in fixed phrases
• Parallelism in lists ("to run, to jump, and to swim")
• Modifier placement ("Only she said…" vs "She only said…")

Trap: changing a grammatically correct but awkward option when another option is clearly wrong for agreement.

Vocabulary in context

Prefer the meaning that fits the sentence, not the first dictionary sense you remember. Antonym/synonym items are usually one-word stems with four close options — eliminate extremes.

Reading / critical reasoning (short)

For 3–5 sentence passages:

1. Mark the main claim
2. Separate evidence from opinion
3. For "inference" questions, pick only what must be true — not what might be nice

If two options look right, the more narrow one that stays inside the text usually wins.

Practice habit

Ten mixed verbal items daily beats one long weekend session. Review every wrong item by rewriting the corrected sentence once.

Next: Quantitative. Quiz: GA quiz.