Foundation and Rules Flashcards
Jury, navy, company, administration, tour group, agency, family, couple, duo, army, audience, class, committee, crowd, orchestra, team, baggage, furniture, citrus, equipment, flat, fruit, species are called _________ noun. Singular or plural?
Collective nouns. Only one thing, use singular.
ex: The Chinese army is the largest military force in the world, IT has approximately 3 million members. (Chinese is adjective describe army - a collective noun(
ex: The college administrators have argued that THEY need a larger budget to continue operating into the new year. ( College is adjective describes administrators - a subject, plural noun).
Pronouns ends with -one, -thing, or -body, singular or plural?
Singular.
One as pronoun -
ex: 1. Flawed in two ways, the earthquake detection system would often find a geological precursor event when IT wasn’t actually occurring and fail to find ONE when IT was.
2. ONE cannot help but wonder if YOU could float to the sky by holding on a very large number of helium balloons.
- One is referred back to the same thing “Geological precursor event”. One cannot be used interchangeably with other pronouns when refer to the same thing. To fix it, replace ONE with IT.
- Wrong - ONE cannot interchange with YOU.
Note - One is usually problematic on GMAT.
What to use to intensify absolute adjectives? such as dead, fatal, circular, perfect?
More likely, or more nearly - meaning almost to 100%
More perfect - wrong
More nearly perfect - right (almost 100%)
Identify the mistakes:
- The doctor told me I had a heart attack.
- I just began working at the circus when a clown stabbed me in the back.
- should be HAD HAD - heart attack happened before doctor.
- should be HAD BEGUN - working before getting stabbed.
Take away - when use HAD ____, must ensure there is a past tense action, and ensure events happen in sequence.
Adverb modifies ________ ?
Verb and adjective. (not nouns)
Adverb usually is verb+ly. but it is not always the case. Ex: dance lively (wrong. Lively is adjective that modifies a noun)
Correlative conjunctions:
either/or, neither/nor, both/and, whether/or, not only/but also - clause after each conjunction must parallel.
ex: you can either wash these dishes or I will leave you. (right or wrong?)
Wrong - WASH and I WILL not parallel.
Find subject in the following sentence:
Aside the highway was the wreckage from the crash.
“The Wreckage”
Take away-
- Subject cannot be in subordinate clause
- Subject cannot be in prepositional phrase.
- sentence starts with “there are” - not subject, Subject is nouns after “there are”.
Complete or incomplete:
- the decorated war general, who stormed the beach in Norway in 1944.
- My brother who broke his foot.
- My brother broke his foot.
- incomplete
- incomplete
- complete
Phrase after who modifies the noun before. There should be comma after the clause and complete the remainder of the sentence.
Use of semi-colon: (true or false)
The two parts on either side of a semicolon must be able to stand alone and must be closely related in meaning.
True
Do not compare a phrase that starts with THAT to one that starts with WHEN, WHERE, WHICH or WHO.
Fix the following sentences:
1. I liked the birthday cake you made me better than WHEN you called me names.
- Lichtenstein is the only Europe nation THAT still has monarchy with real power, and where the power given to Sovereign has increased.
- Drop WHEN or add WHEN at first comparison.
2. WHERE should be THAT.
Identify mistakes:
- The ostensible reason for Ann Boleyn’s execution was because of adultery.
- Because she has deep relationship with the unions like other leaders have, there is an expectation of her being appointed as chairperson.
- drop BECAUSE OF - redundant because it has “reason for”
- LIKE should be AS.
APPOINTED AS - wrong. Should be APPOINTED
Identify mistakes:
- The study, indicates more men are working in education, traditionally considered as a “female” profession.
- the Company is likely that it will gain market share.
Idiom:
1. INDICATE THAT (must have that)
CONSIDER (no as)
- IS LIKELY THAT IT WILL - wrong idiom
IS LIKELY TO - correct.
Subjunctive:
Demand, command, suggest, recommend, propose are bossy verbs. Do not use should, ought to in the sentence. and should use subjunctive form or verb, not infinitive (to_)
ex: I suggested that he STUDY earlier in the PM. (not to study)
The board suggests that our budget (should) be revised. (delete should)
- The number of _______ singular or plural?
2. A numbers of ________ singular or plural?
- singular
2. plural
, ing structure - it is flexible. Can modify noun, verb and it’s objects. It introduces a clause that provides additional information (cause & effect) about the main clause to which it attached.
ex: I slipped on the ice, breaking my leg. (indicate an effect)
I slipped on the ice and I broke my leg (two separate event)
A mutual fund having billions of dollars in assets will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies, rarely holding more than one percent of the shares of any particular corporations.
Correct - it’s cause and effect. 2nd action is a result of 1st event.
Parallelism:
- Nouns both ANGER and RELIEF
- Adjective neither ACCESSIBLE nor AFFORDABLE
- verbs CLEANED and WASHED
- infinitives not only TO HEAR but also TO DO
- Prepositional leave money IN the drawer rather than ON the table
- Participles The rain fell, PROVIDING water but FLOODING the streets.
- Phrases I jump INTO THE WALL rather than OVER THE WALL.
- Subordinates clause I want to retire a place WHERE I can relax and WHERE I pay low taxes.
Subordinates do not need to be identical.
ex: there are many people WHO speak English but WHOSE parents do not.
Ralph likes both THOSE WHO are popular and THOSE WHO are not. (do not shorten the sentence by not having THOSE).
What do the following relative pronouns modify?
Which That Who Whose Whom Where When
Which - things Who - a person as a subject That - cannot modify people Whom - a person as an object Where - a place, but cannot modify conditions, situations, case, circumstances, or arrangements. Use in which instead.
Right or wrong:
We had an arrangement where he cooked and I cleaned.
Wrong - where should be “in which”
If antecedent is singular, use SINGULAR pronoun; if antecedent is plural, use PLURAL pronoun.
If pronoun is ambiguous, check the answers:
- if answer uses pronoun, then correct answer must use a pronoun. look for something else.
- if answer substitute a noun, then check for other errors. If you have to guess, chose the answer uses a noun.
True or false - A noun and it’s modifier should touch each other. A verb modifier does not have to touch the subject.
True
What do following relative pronouns modify?
Which That Who Whose Where When
Who and whom modify people, who modify people when people is subject; whom modify people when people is object
Which modify things
Where modify places, but not condition, situation, case, circumstances or arrangement. Use IN WHICH instead.
Correct or incorrect
We had an arrangement where he cooked and I cleaned.
Incorrect - should use in which instead of where.
LIKE must be followed by _________? Can it followed by a clause (which contains a working verb).
nouns (including gerunds), pronouns, or noun phrase. No, it cannot be followed by a clause. Use AS instead.
Comparison must be parallel.
Ex: Frank’s build, like his brother, is broad and muscular. (right or wrong)
Wrong
Frank’s build, like his brother’s, is broad and muscular.
or
Frank’s build, like THAT OF his brother, is broad and muscular
