SBI PO / Clerk English Language Syllabus

English Language syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for English Language in SBI PO / Clerk, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Reading Comprehension

   3 topics

   • Passage Based Questions
     • Central theme and inference
     • Tone and author's view
   • Vocabulary in Context
     • Synonyms and antonyms from passage
   • Economy and Banking Based Passages
2. 2

   Grammar and Error Detection

   4 topics

   • Spotting Errors
     • Subject-verb agreement
     • Tense and article errors
   • Sentence Correction and Improvement
   • Phrase Replacement
   • Parts of Speech and Modifiers
     • Prepositions and conjunctions
3. 3

   Verbal Ability

   4 topics

   • Para Jumbles and Sentence Rearrangement
   • Sentence Connectors / Starters
   • Word Usage and Word Swap
     • Correct usage of words
     • Pair of words swapping
   • Idioms and Phrases
4. 4

   Vocabulary and Cloze

   4 topics

   • Cloze Test
     • Single and double blank fillers
   • Fill in the Blanks
   • Synonyms, Antonyms and One-word Substitution
   • Spelling and Misspelt Words
5. 5

   Descriptive English (PO Mains)

   3 topics

   • Essay Writing
     • Banking, economy and social topics
   • Letter Writing
     • Formal and informal letters
   • Precis and Paragraph Writing

English Language flashcards for SBI PO / Clerk

18 of 50 cards from the English Language deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. In Reading Comprehension, what is the difference between the 'tone' and the 'theme' of a passage?

   Tone is the author's attitude or emotional stance toward the subject (e.g., critical, optimistic, satirical), while theme is the central idea or main message the passage conveys.

2. What strategy works best for 'inference-based' Passage Based Questions where the answer is not stated directly?

   Draw a logical conclusion from clues in the text without adding outside information; pick the option that must be true based on the passage, not one that is merely possible.

3. In Vocabulary in Context questions, how should you determine the meaning of a highlighted word?

   Use surrounding sentence clues (context) rather than the word's most common dictionary meaning, because the passage may use a secondary or figurative sense.

4. In SBI PO Economy/Banking passages, what does the term 'CASA ratio' refer to?

   Current Account Savings Account ratio - the proportion of a bank's total deposits held in low-cost current and savings accounts; a higher CASA means cheaper funds.

5. What does 'NPA' stand for in banking-based passages, and what does it indicate?

   Non-Performing Asset - a loan or advance on which the principal or interest is overdue for 90 days or more, signalling stress in a bank's loan book.

6. In banking passages, what is the difference between 'Repo Rate' and 'Reverse Repo Rate'?

   Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks; reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows from banks (absorbs liquidity).

7. In Spotting Errors, what subject-verb agreement rule applies to 'Each', 'Every', 'Either', 'Neither' as subjects?

   They are always singular and take a singular verb, e.g., 'Each of the students has a book.'

8. In Spotting Errors, which verb form follows 'Either...or' / 'Neither...nor' when subjects differ in number?

   The verb agrees with the nearer (closer) subject, e.g., 'Neither the teacher nor the students were present.'

9. What is the rule for using the article 'an' versus 'a' before a word?

   Use 'an' before a vowel sound (an hour, an MBA) and 'a' before a consonant sound (a university, a one-rupee coin); it depends on sound, not the letter.

10. In Sentence Correction, what error is present in 'One should do his duty'?

    Pronoun agreement error - 'one' must be followed by 'one's', so the correct form is 'One should do one's duty.'

11. In Sentence Improvement, what is wrong with the double comparative 'more better'?

    It is a redundancy; 'better' is already comparative, so you use either 'better' or 'more good' is wrong - only 'better' is correct.

12. In Phrase Replacement questions, what should the replacement phrase preserve?

    The original intended meaning of the sentence while fixing grammar, idiom, or structure errors; never change the core meaning.

13. What is a 'dangling modifier' and how is it corrected?

    A modifier with no clear subject to describe, e.g., 'Walking home, the rain started.' Fix by giving it a logical subject: 'Walking home, I was caught in the rain.'

14. What is a 'misplaced modifier'?

    A word or phrase positioned so it appears to modify the wrong word, e.g., 'She almost drove the kids to school every day' should be 'She drove the kids to school almost every day.'

15. Name the eight parts of speech in English grammar.

    Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection.

16. In Para Jumbles, what is usually the most reliable way to identify the opening sentence?

    The opening sentence introduces the topic independently, contains no pronoun referring backward and no connectors like 'however', 'therefore', or 'this'.

17. In Para Jumbles, how do pronouns and reference words help sequence sentences?

    A pronoun (it, they, this, these) must come after the noun it refers to, so the sentence naming that noun precedes the sentence containing the pronoun.

18. What category of connector is 'however', and what relationship does it show?

    It is a contrast/concession connector showing opposition between two ideas, similar to 'nevertheless' and 'on the other hand'.

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