Study Material for English Verbal Aptitude Test

This comprehensive guide covers all the topics in your upcoming test.
– Synonyms & Antonyms
– Idioms & Phrases
– Word Families, Roots & Affixes
– Vocabulary Building
– Sentence Types
– Parts of Speech
– Tenses & Verb Forms
– Modifiers

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms are words with the same or nearly the same meaning, helping you vary your language and
avoid repetition. Antonyms are words with opposite meanings, useful for contrasting ideas and
clarifying context.

• Strategies for learning:

o Read widely to encounter words in context.

o Use a thesaurus to explore alternatives.

o Create flashcards pairing words with their synonyms and antonyms.

o Write example sentences for each new word.

• Common pairs to practice:

o Happy – Joyful / Sad – Sorrowful

o Fast – Rapid / Slow – Leisurely

o Large – Enormous / Tiny – Minute

Synonyms (10 pairs)

• Big – Large
• Clever – Intelligent
• Begin – Commence
• Quick – Rapid
• Brave – Courageous
• Silent – Quiet
• End – Conclude
• Friendly – Amiable
• Tiny – Minute
• Empty – Vacant

Antonyms (10 pairs)

• Accept – Reject
• Arrive – Depart
• Full – Empty
• Love – Hate
 • Always – Never
• Success – Failure
• Increase – Decrease
• Ancient – Modern
• Early – Late
• Generous – Stingy

Idioms & Phrases

Idioms are expressions whose meanings aren’t deducible from the individual words. Phrases are
fixed word groups functioning as a single unit. Mastering them boosts conversational fluency and
comprehension.

• Break the ice: to initiate conversation

• Once in a blue moon: very rarely

• Hit the sack: go to sleep

• Spill the beans: reveal a secret

• Costs an arm and a leg: very expensive

• On the same page: in agreement

Tip: Group idioms by theme (e.g., time, money, effort) and illustrate each with a short story or
dialogue.

Idioms (15 examples)

1. Break the ice – to initiate conversation

2. Once in a blue moon – very rarely
3. Hit the sack – go to sleep
4. Spill the beans – reveal a secret
5. Costs an arm and a leg – very expensive
6. Bite the bullet – endure something painful
7. Under the weather – feeling ill
8. Out of the blue – unexpectedly
9. On thin ice – in a risky situation
10. Let the cat out of the bag – disclose a secret
11. Kill two birds with one stone – achieve two aims at once
12. The ball is in your court – it’s your decision now
13. Piece of cake – very easy
14. Barking up the wrong tree – pursuing the wrong course
15. A blessing in disguise – something good after seeming bad

Phrases (10 examples)

1. In the nick of time – just in time

2. By and large – generally speaking
3. To some extent – partially
4. In hot water – in trouble
5. At the drop of a hat – immediately
 6. Off the record – unofficially
7. In the long run – eventually
8. With flying colors – with great success
9. On the whole – overall
10. To make matters worse – to worsen a situation

Word Families, Roots & Affixes

Understanding word families, roots, prefixes, and suffixes helps you decode unfamiliar vocabulary
quickly.

• Root example: bio (life) → biology (study of life)

• Common prefixes:

o un-, in- (not): unhappy, incorrect

o re- (again): rewrite, remake

• Common suffixes:

o -tion (noun): action, creation

o -able (adjective): readable, portable

• Practice: Break words like “audible” into aud (hear) + -ible (able) to get “able to be heard.”

Roots (10 examples)

• “bio” (life): biology, biography

• “cred” (believe): credible, incredulous
• “graph” (write): autograph, photograph
• “spect” (see): inspect, spectator
• “dict” (say): predict, dictionary
• “ject” (throw): eject, inject
• “port” (carry): transport, import
• “rupt” (break): interrupt, rupture
• “therm” (heat): thermometer, thermal
• “tract” (pull): attract, distract

Prefixes (10 examples)

• “un-” (not): unhappy, unfair

• “re-” (again): rewrite, revitalize
• “pre-” (before): predict, prehistoric
• “mis-” (wrongly): mislead, misplace
• “in-” (not): invisible, incompetent
• “sub-” (under): submarine, submerge
• “inter-” (between): international, intervene
• “super-” (above): supernatural, supervise
• “anti-” (against): antibiotic, antidote
• “trans-” (across): transport, translate
Suffixes (10 examples)

• “-tion” (noun): creation, donation

• “-able” (adjective): readable, portable
• “-ous” (adjective): joyous, nervous
• “-less” (without): helpless, fearless
• “-er” (one who): teacher, runner
• “-ist” (one who): pianist, scientist
• “-ly” (adverb): quickly, silently
• “-ment” (noun): movement, development
• “-ize” (verb): realize, harmonize
• “-al” (adjective): regional, logical

Word Families (10 sets)

1. act, action, actor, activate

2. invent, invention, inventor, inventive
3. employ, employee, employer, unemployment
4. create, creature, creation, recreate
5. move, movement, movable, movement
6. prepare, preparation, preparatory, preparatory
7. manage, manager, management, manageable
8. describe, description, descriptive, indescribable
9. select, selection, selective, selectively
10. inform, information, informative, misinform

Vocabulary Building

Accumulate high-utility words and practice them in varied contexts.

• Learn words in semantic groups: emotions, descriptions, actions.

• Use mnemonics or visual imagery to make definitions stick.

• Example advanced words:

o latent (hidden but present)

o ambiguous (open to more than one interpretation)

o acclaimed (praised publicly)

o vibrant (full of energy and color)

• Write mini-paragraphs using at least five new words each time.

15 Advanced Words with Definitions & Sentences

1. Latent (hidden): His latent talent for painting emerged at art camp.
2. Ambiguous (unclear): The poem’s ending was ambiguous and open to debate.
3. Acclaimed (praised): She is an acclaimed author in modern literature.
4. Vibrant (energetic): The city’s vibrant nightlife attracts tourists.
 5. Pragmatic (practical): He offered a pragmatic solution to the budget crisis.
6. Ephemeral (short-lived): Fame can be ephemeral in the social media age.
7. Meticulous (very careful): Her meticulous notes earned top marks.
8. Conundrum (puzzle): Solving that conundrum took all afternoon.
9. Ubiquitous (everywhere): Smartphones are ubiquitous in today’s classrooms.
10. Tenacious (persistent): A tenacious researcher never gives up.
11. Eloquent (expressive): His eloquent speech moved the audience.
12. Obsolete (outdated): Floppy disks are now completely obsolete.
13. Salient (most noticeable): The report highlighted the salient points.
14. Banal (boring): The lecture became banal after the first hour.
15. Resilient (able to recover): The community was resilient after the flood.

Sentence Types

English has four main sentence types, distinguished by purpose and punctuation.

1. Declarative: makes a statement.

2. Interrogative: asks a question.

3. Imperative: gives a command or request.

4. Exclamatory: expresses strong emotion.

Practice by converting one type into another while preserving meaning.

1. Declarative

o The train arrives at 6 PM every day.

o She enjoys reading historical novels.

o Winter in the mountains can be harsh.

2. Interrogative

o Have you completed your assignment?

o Why did the lights go off suddenly?

o Where will the conference be held?

3. Imperative

o Please close the door behind you.

o Turn off your phone during class.

4. Exclamatory

o What a beautiful sunset!

o How amazing that final scene was!

Parts of Speech

Every word falls into one of eight categories. Recognize them to improve your grammatical accuracy.

• Nouns: person, place, thing (dog, city)

• Pronouns: replace nouns (he, they)

• Verbs: actions or states (run, is)

• Adjectives: describe nouns (blue, quick)

• Adverbs: modify verbs/adjectives (quickly, very)

• Prepositions: show relationships (on, before)

• Conjunctions: link words/clauses (and, but)

• Interjections: express emotion (wow!, oh!)

Nouns (10)

• mountain, freedom, idea, teacher, city, democracy, cat, bottle, hope, language

Pronouns (10)

• he, she, it, they, we, you, yours, myself, who, someone

Verbs (10)

• analyze, run, believe, decide, celebrate, convey, transform, jump, suggest, sleep

Adjectives (10)

• brilliant, fragile, genuine, massive, silent, transparent, urgent, vivid, weary, youthful

Adverbs (10)

• silently, quickly, almost, rarely, often, however, extremely, barely, nearly, today

Prepositions (10)

• on, in, at, by, for, with, under, over, between, during

Conjunctions (10)

• and, but, or, because, although, unless, while, since, if, so

Interjections (10)

• wow, oh, alas, bravo, eh, hey, oops, yikes, hooray, ouch
Tenses & Verb Forms

Master the three basic tenses—past, present, future—and their aspects:

• Simple: I walk. / I walked. / I will walk.

• Continuous: I am walking. / I was walking. / I will be walking.

• Perfect: I have walked. / I had walked. / I will have walked.

• Perfect Continuous: I have been walking, etc.

Tip: Use time markers (yesterday, now, by next year) to choose the correct tense.

Tense – Example Sentence

1. Simple Present: She writes every morning.

2. Simple Past: They visited the museum yesterday.

3. Simple Future: I will call you tomorrow.

4. Present Continuous: He is studying for exams now.

5. Past Continuous: We were watching TV when you rang.

6. Future Continuous: This time next week, I will be traveling.

7. Present Perfect: She has finished her project.

8. Past Perfect: They had left before the storm hit.

9. Future Perfect: By noon, I will have completed the task.

10. Present Perfect Continuous: He has been working here since June.

11. Past Perfect Continuous: We had been waiting for an hour.

12. Future Perfect Continuous: By next year, she will have been teaching for a decade.

13. Simple Present (habit): They play tennis every Saturday.

14. Simple Past (habitual): He smoked a pack a day in college.

15. Future with “going to”: I am going to start yoga next month.

Modifiers

Modifiers add detail but must be placed correctly.

• Adjectives before nouns: a bright room.

• Adverbs near the verb they modify: she ran quickly.

• Avoid misplaced modifiers:

o Wrong: Running quickly, the finish line was reached by John.

o Right: Running quickly, John reached the finish line.

 • Watch for dangling modifiers:

o Wrong: After reading the book, the movie was disappointing.

o Right: After reading the book, I found the movie disappointing.

Parallel structure keeps lists and comparisons balanced:

• She likes dancing, singing, and cooking.

Correct Usage (10)

1. She wore a bright dress.

2. He spoke softly to the child.

3. The green leaves fluttered.

4. They worked diligently on the project.

5. A massive boulder blocked the road.

6. She arrived early for the meeting.

7. The book is easily understood.

8. We sat close to the stage.

9. He drove a new car.

10. The children played happily outside.

Misplaced & Dangling Modifiers (5 pairs)

• Wrong: Running to catch the bus, my book fell in the mud.

Right: Running to catch the bus, I dropped my book in the mud.

• Wrong: After reading the article, the conclusion was obvious.

Right: After reading the article, I found the conclusion obvious.

• Wrong: Driving down the highway, the storm hit suddenly.

Right: Driving down the highway, we were caught in the storm.

• Wrong: To improve his grade, the exam was retaken by him.

Right: To improve his grade, he retook the exam.

• Wrong: Covered in dust, the mechanic cleaned the car.

Right: Covered in dust, the car was cleaned by the mechanic.

Parallel Structure (5 examples)

• She likes dancing, singing, and painting.

• The coach said we should run faster, jump higher, and think smarter.

• His responsibilities include managing staff, organizing files, and answering calls.

• They want to eat healthily, exercise regularly, and sleep well.

• The job requires attention to detail, creative problem solving, and strong communication.
Additional Resources & Links

• English Language Study Material | Verbal Ability (Edudose)

https://www.edudose.com/english-language/

• Verbal Ability Questions and Answers (IndiaBIX)

https://www.indiabix.com/verbal-ability/questions-and-answers/

• Synonyms and Antonyms Guide (Quizzy Owl)

https://www.quizzyowl.com/synonyms-and-antonyms-in-english-grammar-a-
comprehensive-guide/

• Idioms and Phrases Notes (Teachmint)

https://www.teachmint.com/tfile/studymaterial/rdenglishclasses/englishgrammar/idiomsan
dphrase/b6501d16-5509-4203-9a8a-3061917621ec

• English Grammar and Usage (University of Calicut PDF)

https://sde.uoc.ac.in/sites/default/files/sde_videos/III%20Sem-
English%20Grammar%20and%20Usage%20BA%20English%20%20%28ENG3%20B04%29%20
19009.pdf

TOPICS FOR CIA 1 – 24PTP301 – Verbal and Employability Skills

Synonyms & Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Word Families, Roots & Affixes

Vocabulary Building

Sentence Types

Parts of Speech

Tenses & Verb Forms

Modifiers