- No data uploaded
- Instant results
PTE Academic English Grammar Questions
Practise english grammar (english) for the Pearson Test of English Academic: 10 multiple-choice questions, each with the correct answer and a worked explanation. Click an option to check it, or “New questions” for another set.
English Grammar practice
-
Q1.Choose the correct option: Scarcely ___ the room when the lights went out.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D — had I entered
Negative adverbs at the start (scarcely, hardly) cause inversion: “had I entered”.
-
Q2.Choose the correct option: The number of applicants ___ increased.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C — has
“The number of” takes a singular verb; “a number of” takes a plural verb.
-
Q3.Choose the correct indirect speech: He said, “I am tired.”
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C — He said that he was tired.
With a past reporting verb, the present tense shifts back: “am” → “was”.
-
Q4.Choose the correct option: There is no ___ in crying over spilt milk.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: B — use
Fixed expression: “There is no use (in) doing something”.
-
Q5.Choose the correct option: She is senior ___ me by two years.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D — to
Latin comparatives (senior, junior, superior, inferior) take “to”, not “than”.
-
Q6.Choose the correct option: Hardly had he left ___ it started raining.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C — when
The correlative pair is “hardly … when” (also “no sooner … than”).
-
Q7.Choose the correct comparative: This road is ___ than that one.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A — narrower
Two-syllable adjectives ending in -ow usually take -er: “narrower”.
-
Q8.Choose the correct form: By the time we arrived, the film ___.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: D — had already started
An action completed before another past action takes the past perfect: “had already started”.
-
Q9.Choose the correct tag question: She can swim, ___?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: A — can’t she
A positive statement takes a negative tag with the same auxiliary: “can’t she?”.
-
Q10.Choose the correct preposition: She is good ___ mathematics.
Show answer & explanation
Answer: C — at
The idiom is “good at” a subject or skill.
How to approach english grammar questions
Find the subject first and make the verb agree with it, ignoring phrases in between. Watch fixed prepositions (good at, insist on, prefer to) and tense sequence in reported speech.
About PTE Academic
Pearson Test of English Academic — conducted by Pearson. Computer-based English test for study and migration, scored by automated scoring.
Original practice questions written for this site in the style and difficulty of each exam’s syllabus. They are not past papers and the site is not affiliated with any exam body. Exam patterns, marking schemes and syllabi change — always check the latest official notification.
PTE Academic practice topics
| Topic | Section | Question source |
|---|---|---|
| English Grammar | English | Question bank |
| Vocabulary & Idioms | English | Question bank |