Composition: Idioms, Correction and Grammar

What the official syllabus says

Main Written Examination, Paper II: Hindi and Hindi Essay (in Devnagri script):

• (iv) Composition (idioms, correction etc.).

Topics in detail

Idioms and proverbs

• Meaning of common Hindi idioms and their use in sentences
• Meaning of proverbs and the situations they fit
• The difference between an idiom (a phrase) and a proverb (a complete saying)

Correction of sentences

• Errors of gender: agreement of verbs and adjectives with nouns
• Errors of number: singular and plural forms
• Errors in the use of postpositions
• Errors of tense and verb form
• Errors in pronouns and in honorific forms
• Wrong word order
• Redundancy: words repeated in meaning
• Correcting spelling (in Devanagari) of commonly misspelt words
• Punctuation

Words

• Synonyms and antonyms
• One-word substitutes
• Words that sound alike but differ in meaning
• Words with many meanings
• Words formed with prefixes and suffixes
• Classes of words by origin: from Sanskrit, adapted, native and foreign words

Grammar

• Joining of sounds at word boundaries and splitting such words
• Compound words and their kinds
• Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and indeclinables
• Cases and their markers
• Voice: active, passive and impersonal
• Kinds of sentences: simple, compound and complex; changing one into another

Composition in a wider sense

• Writing a paragraph on a given subject
• Expanding an idea or a saying into a paragraph
• Using given words or idioms in meaningful sentences

Overlaps

The English paper has a matching part, usage, vocabulary and grammar: see English and English Essay.