Grammar: Common PTE Errors

Why This Matters (কেন গুরুত্বপূর্ণ)

PTE's automated scoring engine is unforgiving in a specific way: it does not infer meaning the way a human examiner does. A dropdown blank with the "wrong" tense, or a spoken sentence with a subject-verb mismatch, is marked exactly as wrong as a completely unrelated word — there is no partial credit for "close enough."

PTE-এর স্বয়ংক্রিয় স্কোরিং ইঞ্জিন একটি নির্দিষ্টভাবে কঠোর — মানুষ পরীক্ষকের মতো অর্থ অনুমান করে না। ভুল কাল বা subject-verb অমিল সম্পূর্ণ ভুল শব্দের মতোই ভুল গণ্য হয় — "কাছাকাছি ঠিক"-এর জন্য আংশিক নম্বর নেই।

Fill in the Blanks (Dropdown) Traps (রিডিং)

Every dropdown option is grammatically well-formed on its own — the trap is that only one fits the specific slot's tense, part of speech, or fixed collocation.

TRAPRenewable energy jobs have [grown / growing / grow / grows] steadily since 2015.
FIX"have grown" — present perfect needs the past participle, not the base form or -ing form.
TRAPThe report is [responsible for / responsible of / responsible on / responsible to] a sharp rise in applications.
FIX"responsible for" is a fixed preposition collocation — the others simply don't exist in English.

Method: read the full sentence first, identify what part of speech and tense the gap needs, then eliminate options — don't just pick the option that "sounds right" in isolation.

পদ্ধতি: প্রথমে পুরো বাক্য পড়ুন, শূন্যস্থানে কোন pos/কাল দরকার বুঝুন, তারপর বাদ দিন।

Subject-Verb Agreement in Spoken Answers (কথ্য উত্তরে মিল)

Under time pressure in Describe Image or Retell Lecture, agreement errors creep in — especially with collective nouns and long subjects where the verb ends up far from its subject.

SPOKEN ERROR"The data shows that ownership decline with age."
FIX"The data show that ownership declines with age." ("data" আনুষ্ঠানিক ইংরেজিতে বহুবচন গণ্য)
SPOKEN ERROR"The number of internship placements are limited."
FIX"The number of internship placements is limited." ("the number of" একবচন ক্রিয়া নেয়, "a number of" বহুবচন)

Articles & Prepositions (আর্টিকেল ও প্রিপোজিশন)

ERROR"Government should invest in a renewable energy." (অগণনীয় বিমূর্ত বিষয়ে article লাগে না)
FIX"Government should invest in renewable energy."
ERROR"This is depend on the situation." ("depend" ক্রিয়ার আগে "is" বসে না)
FIX"This depends on the situation."
ERROR"He is good in mathematics."
FIX"He is good at mathematics." (দক্ষতা বোঝাতে "good at")

Your Turn (অনুশীলন করুন)

Spot and correct the error in each sentence, then reveal the fix.

1 "The number of students who study abroad have increased."
Show the correction

"The number of students who study abroad has increased." — "the number of" is singular.

2 "Renewable energy jobs is growing quickly."
Show the correction

"Renewable energy jobs are growing quickly." — plural subject "jobs" needs a plural verb.

3 "This chart depend on data collected in 2023."
Show the correction

"This chart depends on data collected in 2023."

4 "She is responsible of the marketing team."
Show the correction

"She is responsible for the marketing team."