Grammar: Agreement & Punctuation

Why This Matters (কেন গুরুত্বপূর্ণ)

Subject-verb agreement errors are especially costly in Summarize Written Text, where your entire answer is one sentence and a single agreement slip stands out clearly against an otherwise short, dense structure. Punctuation, meanwhile, is not merely cosmetic in PTE — the Summarize Written Text task is explicitly checked for exactly one terminal punctuation mark, since a multi-sentence answer scores zero on form regardless of content quality.

Summarize Written Text-এ পুরো উত্তর এক বাক্য, তাই একটি agreement ভুলও স্পষ্ট চোখে পড়ে। এখানে বিরামচিহ্নও গুরুত্বপূর্ণ — ঠিক একটি সমাপ্তি চিহ্ন থাকতে হবে, নাহলে ফর্মে শূন্য নম্বর।

For a fuller treatment of agreement rules and punctuation conventions, see the IELTS Agreement & Punctuation guide.

Subject-Verb Agreement (Subject-Verb মিল)

Long subjects with modifying phrases between the subject and verb are the most common trap — the verb must agree with the true subject, not the nearest noun.

ERROR"The number of applications received by the university have risen sharply."
FIX"The number of applications received by the university has risen sharply." ("the number of" একবচন, নিকটবর্তী "applications" নয়।)
ERROR"Data collected from the survey shows a clear trend."
FIX"Data collected from the survey show a clear trend." (আনুষ্ঠানিক লেখায় "data" বহুবচন গণ্য হয়।)
ERROR"Either the teachers or the principal are responsible for the decision."
FIX"Either the teachers or the principal is responsible for the decision." ("either...or"-এ ক্রিয়া নিকটবর্তী subject অনুসারে হয়।)

Punctuation That's Actually Scored (স্কোর হওয়া বিরামচিহ্ন)

Two PTE-specific punctuation rules are worth memorising, since they are checked mechanically rather than by human judgement.

FORM ERROR"Vertical farming saves water. It also reduces transport costs." (Summarize Written Text-এ, দুই বাক্য)
FIX"Vertical farming saves water, and it also reduces transport costs." — one sentence, joined with a coordinating conjunction and comma, or a semicolon.
ERROR"Governments therefore must invest more, in renewable energy."
FIX"Governments must therefore invest more in renewable energy." — no comma is needed before a prepositional phrase that directly completes the verb.

Your Turn (অনুশীলন করুন)

Fix the agreement or punctuation error in each sentence, then reveal the correction.

1 "The results of the experiment, conducted over several months, remains inconclusive."
Show the correction

"The results of the experiment, conducted over several months, remain inconclusive." — plural subject "results."

2 "Neither the manager nor the employees was informed of the change."
Show the correction

"Neither the manager nor the employees were informed of the change." — verb agrees with "employees," the nearer subject.

3 "The team of researchers publish their findings in a leading journal. The paper attracted wide attention."
Show the correction

"The team of researchers published their findings in a leading journal, and the paper attracted wide attention." — one sentence for Summarize Written Text form; "team" also takes a singular verb here.

4 "Everyone in the two departments were required to attend."
Show the correction

"Everyone in the two departments was required to attend." — "everyone" is always singular.