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Paper 2 · Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes in PSLE English

The errors Singapore primary school students make most often in PSLE English Paper 2 — explained clearly with correct and incorrect examples so your child knows exactly what to fix.

📋 Aligned to 2025 SEAB syllabus 🎯 Grammar · Editing · Grammar Cloze

Grammar accounts for a significant portion of Paper 2 marks — directly in the Grammar section (10 marks), Editing for Spelling and Grammar (10 marks), and indirectly in Grammar Cloze (10 marks) and Synthesis & Transformation (10 marks). Getting grammar right is one of the most reliable ways to protect marks in Paper 2.

Here are the grammar errors that come up most frequently, with clear examples to help your child recognise and avoid them.

1. Tense Errors

Tense mistakes are the most common category in PSLE grammar. Students often mix tenses within the same passage, or use the wrong tense for the context.

1
Present Simple vs. Past Simple
❌ Wrong
Yesterday, she goes to the market and buy vegetables.
✓ Correct
Yesterday, she went to the market and bought vegetables.
Tip: Time signal words like yesterday, last week, ago, when I was young tell you to use past tense. Always scan the passage for these clues before filling in a blank.
2
Present Perfect vs. Simple Past
❌ Wrong
She already ate lunch, so she is not hungry.
✓ Correct
She has already eaten lunch, so she is not hungry.
Tip: Use has/have + past participle when the action has a connection to the present (e.g., the result is still felt now). Keywords: already, just, yet, since, for.
3
Subject-Verb Agreement
❌ Wrong
The group of students were excited about the trip.
✓ Correct
The group of students was excited about the trip.
Tip: With collective nouns like group, team, class, committee, use a singular verb. The verb agrees with the head noun (group), not the noun that follows (students).

2. Article Errors (a / an / the)

Articles are small words with big marks. Many students omit them entirely or use the wrong one.

4
Indefinite Articles: a vs. an
❌ Wrong
She is a honest girl. He had an useful idea.
✓ Correct
She is an honest girl. He had a useful idea.
Tip: Use an before a vowel sound, not just a vowel letter. Honest begins with an "oh" sound → an honest. Useful begins with a "yoo" sound → a useful.
5
The vs. No Article
❌ Wrong
I love the music. We go to the school every day.
✓ Correct
I love music. We go to school every day.
Tip: Do not use the with general nouns or institutions used in their primary purpose (school, hospital, church, prison). "I go to school" means I study there. "I go to the school" means I visit a specific building.

3. Pronoun Errors

6
Subject vs. Object Pronouns
❌ Wrong
Him and I went to the library. She gave the book to I.
✓ Correct
He and I went to the library. She gave the book to me.
Tip: Subject pronouns (I, he, she, they) are used as the doer of the action. Object pronouns (me, him, her, them) follow verbs or prepositions. Test by removing the other person — "Him went" is clearly wrong; "He went" is right.
7
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
❌ Wrong
Every student must submit their assignment by Friday.
✓ Correct
Every student must submit his or her assignment by Friday.
Tip: In PSLE English, singular indefinite pronouns like every, each, either, neither require singular pronouns (his or her). This differs from everyday informal speech.

4. Preposition Errors

8
Common Preposition Confusions
❌ Wrong
She is angry on him. He is interested about science.
✓ Correct
She is angry with him. He is interested in science.
Common preposition pairings to memorise: angry with · interested in · good at · afraid of · different from · responsible for · depend on · arrive at (specific places) / in (cities/countries)

5. Errors in the Editing Component

The Editing section in Booklet B (10 marks) asks students to spot and correct errors in spelling and grammar within a passage. Common error types include the same tense and agreement mistakes above, plus spelling errors of commonly confused words.

Commonly confused words in Editing

  • their / there / they're — possessive / location / contraction of "they are"
  • its / it's — possessive / contraction of "it is"
  • your / you're — possessive / contraction of "you are"
  • passed / past — verb (went by) / noun/adjective (previous time)
  • affect / effect — verb (to influence) / noun (a result)
  • then / than — time sequence / comparison

A Quick Checklist Before Submitting

  • Have I checked for time signal words to confirm the correct tense?
  • Does every verb agree with its subject?
  • Are my articles correct — a, an, the, or none?
  • Are prepositions used correctly (especially with adjectives)?
  • Have I checked commonly confused words like their/there, its/it's?

Help Your Child Build Solid Grammar Habits

At Clever Corner, we identify each student's specific grammar gaps and build them up systematically — not through rote drilling, but through understanding the rules.

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