Lesson 11 of 15 · Grammar
Grammar course 2: Verbs
When the four options are forms of the same verb, the TOEIC is testing tense, voice, agreement or verb pattern. This lecture covers every verb point that appears regularly in Parts 5 and 6 — from tenses and their time markers to the passive, gerunds and infinitives, participles, causatives, conditionals and the subjunctive — with a fixed routine for solving verb items quickly.
Free extract from the Noto Tracks TOEIC course
In the full lesson you will learn to
- choose the right tense from time markers, and use the present for the future after when, if, as soon as and similar words;
- decide between active and passive in every tense and after modals, and recognize verbs that cannot be passive;
- separate confusing pairs such as rise/raise and lie/lay, and use modals correctly;
- choose between gerunds and infinitives, including after prepositions and the preposition to;
- use -ing and -ed participles as adjectives and in reduced clauses, and form causatives;
- build conditionals 0–3, their inverted forms (Should you…, Had we known…) and the mandative subjunctive (recommend that he submit).
1. A routine for verb-form items
A typical verb item looks like this: (A) has approved (B) was approved (C) approving (D) will approve. Rather than reading the options one by one and asking which "sounds right," ask four questions in order. Each question usually eliminates one or two options.
- Does the clause need a finite verb? If the sentence already has its main verb, the blank must be a non-finite form (-ing, past participle, to + verb). If not, the blank must be a finite verb.
- Agreement: is the subject singular or plural? (has/have, is/are, was/were, -s.)
- Voice: does the subject do the action (active) or receive it (passive)? Is there an object after the blank?
- Tense: what time markers are in the sentence (yesterday, since, by next week, currently)?
The revised safety guidelines ------- to all factory supervisors last Tuesday.
(A) distributed (B) were distributed (C) have been distributed (D) are distributing
Answer: (B) — the sentence has no other verb, so the blank is finite. Guidelines do not distribute anything; they are distributed, so the verb is passive. Last Tuesday is a finished past time, so the past simple passive. (C) is passive but present perfect, which cannot be used with last Tuesday. (A) and (D) are active.
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Keep going with the full lesson
The rest of this lesson is in the Noto Tracks TOEIC course, with the practice questions and the answer key.
- 3. The future in time and condition clauses
- 5. Transitive and intransitive pairs
- 9. Causatives and verbs + object + base verb
- 11. The mandative subjunctive
- 12. Verb forms in Part 6
Also in the full lesson
- Practice questions
- Answer key with explanations
- One-page summary
50 questions, free, with an estimated score.
TOEIC is a registered trademark of ETS. This guide is not endorsed or approved by ETS. Noto Studio is not affiliated with ETS. All examples are original.