Sentence Improvement Questions for NDA

What Sentence Improvement Tests

Each question gives you a sentence where one part is underlined. Four options are given: three replacements and one 'No improvement' choice. Your job is to decide if the underlined part has a grammatical or usage error, and if so, which option fixes it correctly. If the original sentence is already correct, you pick 'No improvement'. The trap is that the sentence often sounds fine to the ear but breaks a grammar rule.

• Always read the full sentence before judging the underlined part
• Check if the underlined part fits the tense, number, and logic of the whole sentence
• No improvement is a valid and frequently correct answer — do not avoid it
• The error is always in the underlined part only, never elsewhere
• Options may differ by just one word — read carefully

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb must match the subject in number (singular or plural). This is one of the most tested areas. Tricky cases include collective nouns, indefinite pronouns, and subjects separated from their verbs by long phrases. The words between subject and verb often mislead you into picking the wrong verb form.

• Either/Neither with two subjects: use verb matching the nearer subject (Either Ram or his friends are going)
• Collective nouns like committee, jury, team take singular verb in most cases
• Everyone, someone, nobody, each — always singular verb
• A number of = plural verb; The number of = singular verb
• Titles of books, countries, subjects ending in s — singular (Mathematics is easy)

Tense Consistency

NDA frequently tests whether the tense in the underlined part matches the time frame established in the rest of the sentence. A sentence describing a past event should not suddenly shift to present tense without reason. Conditional sentences (If clauses) are a favourite — the tense combination rules here are very specific and often appear as the error.

• Past perfect (had + V3) is used for the earlier of two past actions
• If + simple past, would + V1 — for hypothetical present/future
• If + past perfect, would have + V3 — for hypothetical past
• Never use would in the If clause
• Simple past is used for a completed action at a definite past time

Articles, Prepositions and Determiners

Wrong use of a, an, the or missing/extra prepositions is a very common trick in Sentence Improvement. Articles seem small but NDA uses them to test whether you know countable vs uncountable nouns, first mention vs known reference, and superlatives. Prepositions are idiomatic — certain verbs and adjectives always pair with specific prepositions.

• Use an before vowel sound, not just vowel letter (an hour, a university)
• The is used when the noun is unique or already mentioned
• Accused of, differ from, conform to, depend on — fixed preposition pairs
• Compare to = show similarity; Compare with = examine differences
• Interested in, good at, afraid of — do not swap prepositions

Pronoun Agreement and Reference

Pronouns must agree with their antecedent in number and gender. If the antecedent is singular, use singular pronoun. NDA tests cases where the pronoun reference is unclear or where the wrong pronoun case is used (he vs him, who vs whom).

• Each, every, everyone — use he/his, not they/their (in formal exam context)
• Who = subject position; Whom = object position (Whom did you meet?)
• Its = possessive; It's = it is — often tested
• Reflexive pronouns (myself, himself) cannot replace subject or object pronouns
• Ambiguous pronoun reference — pronoun must clearly point to one noun

Common Idiomatic and Word Choice Errors

Some sentences are grammatically legal but use the wrong word for the context. NDA tests confused word pairs and fixed idioms. These require exposure to standard usage rather than rules. The most tested pairs and idioms repeat across years.

• Lie vs Lay: Lie = to recline (no object), Lay = to place (needs object)
• Affect vs Effect: Affect = verb (to influence), Effect = noun (result)
• Barely, hardly, scarcely take positive verb — not negative (He could barely see, NOT He could not barely see)
• Scarcely had he sat down when... NOT than
• No sooner had he left than it rained — use than, not when

• Avoiding No Improvement option out of doubt — it appears as correct answer in roughly 20-25 percent of questions, so trust it when the sentence is clean
• Fixing a part that was not underlined — you only judge the underlined portion, even if something else looks odd
• Choosing an option that sounds natural in speech but is grammatically wrong — NDA tests written formal grammar, not conversational English
• Confusing No sooner...than with No sooner...when — always use than with No sooner
• Mixing up tense in conditionals — writing would in the If clause is a classic blunder that NDA regularly traps aspirants with

• STAN rule for Subject-Verb Agreement traps: Separated subject, Title of work, A number of, Neither/Either — check these first when unsure
• For conditionals remember 2-2 and 3-3: Type 2 = past + would V1, Type 3 = past perfect + would have V3
• No sooner THAN, Scarcely/Hardly WHEN — remember NsTan, ScaHW like a cricket stat: Ns-Tan, Sc-Hw
• LIE needs no object (you just LIE down), LAY needs an object (you LAY something down) — think LAY = pLAce

• NDA typically puts 5 to 8 Sentence Improvement questions in the English section. They are among the easier marks if you know the rule categories — treat them as a scoring zone
• About one in four questions will have No Improvement as the answer. If all four options feel odd, go back and re-read — the original may be fine
• Tense-based errors (especially conditional sentences and past perfect usage) appear almost every year — prioritise these
• Questions on idiomatic pairs like No sooner...than and Hardly...when repeat frequently across NDA papers — memorise these cold
• Time strategy: Do not spend more than 40-45 seconds per question. If unsure, eliminate clearly wrong options, guess from remaining, and move on