13 GRAMMAR RULES

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RULE 1: SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Subject and verb must agree in number, so

isolate the subject and the verb and make sure they match. If the subject is singular, the verb should be singular; if the subject is plural, the verb should be plural.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Example 1:

The proctor, as well as the students, were overcome by the tedious ticking of the timer and fell asleep.

Isolate: subject: proctor (singular)verb: were overcome (plural)

Combine: “The proctor were overcome.”

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT This should sound wrong to you. Proctor is

singular, so the verb should be singular—was overcome. Don’t be tempted by the plural word students; it is set off by a pair of commas, so it’s not part of the subject.

Correct: The proctor, as well as the students, was overcome by the tedious ticking of the timer and fell asleep.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENTThree expressions that are similar

to the as well as in the above example are: in addition to, along with, and together with. When you see one of these expressions on the test, chances are the test makers

are trying to make you think that the subject is plural.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

The anguish of the students have been a source of pleasure to the ETS.

Isolate: subject: anguish (singular) verb: have been (plural)

Combine: “The anguish have been a source of pleasure.”

This should sound wrong to you. Don’t get confused by the plural word students, because it isn’t the subject. Students, in this sentence, is an object. You can tell because it comes after a preposition, of. Whenever a word comes after a preposition, it is an object, not a subject.

Each of the streets were painted green.

Isolate: subject: each (singular) verb: were (plural)

Combine: “Each were painted green.”This one is a little trickier. You have to realize

that the subject of the sentence is Each and not of the streets. (Streets is an object of the preposition of.) Anytime you see “of the ________,” the word that goes in the blank is an object, not a subject. Although streets is plural, the subject of the sentence, Each, is singular. If you replace the “of the ______” part of the sentence with the word one, it is easier to see why the subject is singular: “Each one was painted green” sounds much better than “Each one were painted green.”

Example 2 Example 3

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

Correct: The anguish of the students has been a source of pleasure to the ETS.

Correct: Each of the streets was painted green.

Note: There are 13 singular subjects like each that you should memorize: each, every, either, neither, one, no one, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, and nobody. Whenever you see one of these words as the subject of a sentence on the test, pay careful attention to whether the verb is singular.

Example 2 Example 3

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Incorrect: Neither of the streets were painted

green. Correct: Neither of the streets was painted

green. Incorrect: Either this street or that street

were painted green. Correct: Either this street or that street was

painted green. Incorrect: One of the streets were painted

green. Correct: One of the streets was painted

green.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT There are also some pronouns that can go

either way. These are some, any, none, all, and most—the SANAM pronouns. They can be either singular or plural, depending on the noun they refer to.I didn’t know that some of the computers was not working.Correct: I didn’t know that some of the computers were not working.All of the pizza have been eaten.Correct: All of the pizza has been eaten.

RULE 2: NOUN-PRONOUN AGREEMENT Singular subjects take singular pronouns;

plural subjects take plural pronouns. You know the list of singular subjects that you just memorized? Well, each of these words takes a singular pronoun. Whenever one of the words on the list is the subject, the pronoun that refers to that word has to be singular. This is a hard rule to “hear” because so many people (including your teacher on occasion) break this rule that we’re used to hearing it the wrong way.

NOUN-PRONOUN AGREEMENT Example 1:

Not one of the girls read their SAT study guide.

Isolate: subject: one (singular)pronoun: their (plural)

This sentence doesn’t sound awful to most people, but it’s wrong. The subject one is singular, but the pronoun their is plural. (Girls is plural, but it’s an object— “of the _______” construction.)

NOUN-PRONOUN AGREEMENT

Correct:Not one of the girls read her SAT study guide.

RULE 3: PRONOUN SUBJECTS & OBJECTS

IHeSheTheyWeWho

MeHimHerThemUsWhom

Subjects Objects

PRONOUNS SUBJECTS & OBJECTSI like hot dogs, but hot dogs don’t like me.

She hit Susie, so Susie kicked her.

She is good enough for Grape-Nuts, but are Grape-Nuts good enough for her?

Who hit Bozo? Bozo hit whom?

PRONOUN SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS Example 1:

Julio and me were down by the schoolyard.

Always simplify these sentences. Does “Me was in the schoolyard” sound right? No. “I was in the schoolyard.”

Correct: Julio and I were down by the schoolyard.

PRONOUN SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS Example 2:

The dog and him are eating pizza.

Does “Him is eating pizza” sound right? No. “He is eating pizza.”

Correct: The dog and he are eating pizza.

PRONOUN SUBJECTS AND OBJECTSExample 3:

The SAT Writing section was easy for Huey and he because they had read Up Your Score.

“The SAT Writing section was easy for he” should sound wrong to you.

Correct: The SAT writing section was easy for Huey and him because they had read Up Your Score.

RULE 4: PRONOUN CONSISTENCYPronouns should be consistent throughout a sentence. When one starts with a particular pronoun, one should continue with it, throughout one’s whole sentence…or paragraph.

Example:The more you study for the SAT, the more one thinks about moving to Mongolia.

Correct:The more one studies for the SAT, the more

one thinks about moving to Mongolia.

RULE 5: CORRECT TENSE Make sure the time of an action is consistent. Look

for key “time words” such as when, while, as, after, and so forth, and make sure the tenses are logical in relation to them.

Example 1:After he ate the newt and brushed his teeth, he will read the newspaper.

Correct:After he eats the newt and brushes his teeth, he will read the newspaper.orAfter he ate the newt and brushed his teeth, he read the newspaper.

CORRECT TENSEExample 2:

While I was painting the fence, she had tickled me.

Correct:While I was painting the

fence, she tickled me.

RULE 6: ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS Remember the difference between an adjective

and an adverb? If not, your sixth-grade teacher will hunt you down and pinch you.

Adjectives describe nouns. An adjective will always make grammatical sense in the phrase

the __________ wombat (ex. sullen)

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS Adverbs describe verbs or

adjectives or other adverbs. They usually, but not always, end in “-ly.” An adverb will always make sense in the following sentence:

The wombat looked ________at his dinner. (ex. sullenly)

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBSExample 1:

I ran slow.

The word slow is an adjective. You can tell because it makes sense in the phrase “the slow wombat.” However, in Example 1, it is being used to describe the verb ran. This is impossible. Adjectives describe nouns. Adverbs describe verbs. Use slowly instead.

Correct: I ran slowly.

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBSExample 2:

Poindexter juggles good.

Poindexter has problems. The word good is an adjective, but it’s being used to describe the word juggler, which is a verb. Again, you have to use the adverb.

Correct: Poindexter juggles well.

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBSExample 3:

I hate lumpy fish on soporific afternoons.

The sentence is grammatically correct. If you immediately jumped on this sentence and tried to correct it, it means you’re too tense. Eat some frozen yogurt.

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBSAnother tricky aspect of adjectives and adverbs is comparison of more than one person or object. Take the adjective juicy. “This fruit is juicy.” If you’re comparing two objects, you would use juicier: “This apple is juicier than that pear.” If you’re comparing more than two objects, you would use juiciest: “Of the three fruits, the orange is the juiciest.”

Example 4:Dan is the older of the four athletes.

Correct : Dan is the oldest of the four athletes.

RULE 7: PARALLEL CONSTRUCTIONIdeas that are parallel (related) should be expressed in the same way.

Example 1:I like spitting, drooling, and to slurp.

Spit, drool, and slurp are parallel activities. They should be expressed in the same way:

Correct: I like spitting, drooling, and slurping.Correct: I like to spit, to drool, and to slurp.

PARALLEL CONSTRUCTIONExample 2:

You like spitting and drooling, but not to slurp.

Just because you don’t like slurping does not mean that it shouldn’t be parallel with spitting and drooling, which you do like:

Correct: You like spitting and drooling, but not slurping.

PARALLEL CONSTRUCTIONExample 3:

The juicer chops vegetables, squeezes oranges, and proctors can be liquefied with it.

Chopping vegetables, squeezing oranges, and liquefying proctors are all parallel actions. They should be expressed in the same way.

Correct: The juicer chops vegetables, squeezes oranges, and liquefies proctors.

RULE 8: RUN-ON SENTENCES AND SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

A run-on sentence is usually two complete sentences that are incorrectly joined by a comma instead of separated by a period or a semicolon. Example 1:J.P. ate the mysterious object, it was a noodle.This is a run-on sentence. It could be broken into two sentences:1. J.P. ate the mysterious object.2. It was a noodle.It could also be combined into one sentence using a semicolon: J.P. ate the mysterious object; it was a noodle.

RUN-ON SENTENCES AND SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

Sentence fragments are parts of sentences that are made up to look like real sentences. They are usually next to real sentences into which they should be incorporated.Example 2:All the kids had rashes. Especially those with uranium lunch boxes.In this example, the first sentence is complete, but the second is a fragment. The two could be combined like this:All the kids had rashes, especially those with uranium lunch boxes.

RULE 9: TOTALLY BOGUS SIGHT QUESTIONS

These questions don’t test anything that has to do with your ability to write. They just test whether you can see a single wrong word or missing letter:

Late in the war, the Germans, retreating in haste, left many of their prisoners go free.

The moral of the story: Read carefully!

RULE 10: DANGLING MODIFIERS“Dangling modifier” is a fancy grammatical term for a simple concept. Here are some sentences with dangling modifiers:

Example 1:Taking the test, his copy of Up Your Score was in his pocket.This sentence implies that the copy of Up Your Score was taking the test. Whenever a sentence begins with a phrase like “Taking the test,” which is supposed to modify (that is, describe) a word in the sentence, the word that it modifies must be in the sentence, and it must come right after the modifying phrase.

DANGLING MODIFIERSCorrect: Taking the test, he had his copy of Up Your Score in his pocket.

The sentence can be corrected another way:

Correct: While he was taking the test, his copy of Up Your Score was in his pocket.

DANGLING MODIFIERSExample 2:

Conscientious about proper grammar, dangling modifiers were always on Bertha’s mind.

Were the dangling modifiers conscientious about proper grammar? No, Bertha was. So she should come right after the comma.

Correct: Conscientious about proper grammar, Bertha always had dangling modifiers on her mind.

DANGLING MODIFIERSExample 3:

Parachuting over the Emerald City, the ant gasped in awe.

Was the ant parachuting?

You betcha—so the sentence is correct!

RULE 11: SENTENCE LOGICOn the sentence correction section of the test, there are often sentences that are grammatically correct but don’t say what the writer wants them to say.Example:There are often sentences that are grammatically correct, and do not say what the writer wants them to say.(A) correct and do not say what(B) correct and do not say that which(C) correction but do not say what(D) correct, with the exception that(E) correct saying not what

SENTENCE LOGICThe correct answer is (C). One would expect that if the sentence is grammatically correct, it would say what the author wanted it to say—but it doesn’t. The word but indicates that the part of the sentence after the comma contradicts what you would expect after reading the first part of the sentence.

RULE 12: COMMONLY MIXED-UP EXPRESSIONS

Sometimes the ETS will deliberately mess up an expression to try to foil you. The only way to prepare for this type of question is by becoming familiar with standard idiomatic expressions.Example:

Since it’s a beautiful day, I’d just assume walk.The expression is “just as soon,” but it sounds a lot like “just assume.”Correct: Since it’s a beautiful day, I’d just as soon walk.

RULE 12: LOGICAL COMPARISONSRemember when your math teacher said, “You can’t compare apples and oranges”? That’s basically what this rule is about. Make sure that when you make a comparison, you compare two like things.Example 1:

My mother’s salary is higher than Jane’s mother.Your mother’s salary is higher than Jane’s mother’s salary, not higher than Jane’s mother. Correct: My mother’s salary is higher than Jane’s mother’s.

LOGICAL COMPARISONSExample 2:

Harry raised more cows than Jim’s ranch.

Again, Jim raised more cows; his ranch did not raise anything.

Correct: Harry raised more cows than Jim did.

A FEW MORE THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR: Don’t split an infinitive. Instead of saying

“to slowly walk,” you should say “to walk slowly.”

Don’t use slang or cliches. Either goes with or; neither goes with nor. When referring to a country, don’t use they.

Example:The United States is the richest country

in the world. They have the highest GNP.Correct: It has the highest GNP.

A FEW MORE THINGS… You can prefer something to something, but

you can’t prefer it over or more than. Example:

Correct: I prefer science to math. Incorrect: I prefer science more than math. Incorrect: I prefer science over math.

Use the word fewer if you can count what you’re describing; if not use the word less.Example:

Now that there are fewer elephants milling around, there is less dust being kicked into the air.

A FEW MORE THINGS… Choices that begin with being are usually

wrong.

Example:

Being that Larry is so old, he’s never heard of Nelly.

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