grammar

Question 1

singular verb

Answer 1

singular verbs have an -s on the end.

e.g. Ellie drives to the dentist. My friend drives downtown.

Question 2

plural verb

Answer 2

plural nouns have no -s on the end.

e.g. They all sang along. Daisy and Monica sang.

Question 3

what does the verb always have to agree with?

Answer 3

the number of nouns it modifies. If multiple people are performing this verb, then the verb will be in the plural form. If one person is performing this verb, then the verb will be in the singular form.

e.g. Alice and Daisy enjoy music ✓
Alice and Daisy enjoys music ✕

Question 4

When asked to pick tenses of verbs…

Answer 4

the sentence you make should have a logical sequence of events.

For example, this is unacceptable on the SAT: My Grandma died. I will love my Grandma.

This is acceptable: My grandma died. I loved my grandma.

Question 5

what two forms of a verb typically function as nouns?

Answer 5

the infinitive, “to verb”
the gerund “-ing” form
*you don’t need to know technical names

Question 6

adverb

Answer 6

adverbs modify words that aren’t nouns. They always end in -ly (e.g. slowly, quickly)

Question 7

what are some pronouns that people don’t typically think of as pronouns?

Answer 7

we, us, me, one, who, which, that

Question 7

subject

Answer 7

the thing that performs the action

Question 7

what do pronouns have to agree with?

Answer 7

the noun they are replacing (in terms of singular or plural)

Question 8

object

Answer 8

the thing that receives the action

Question 9

subject pronouns

Answer 9

replace the subject of the verb (e.g. I, you, he, they, what, who)

Question 10

object pronouns

Answer 10

replace words that are the object of verbs (e.g. me, you, him, her, what, whom)

Question 11

when do you use who and when do you use whom? :-)

Answer 11

who is a subject pronoun
whom is an object pronoun

“This is the man who taught me how to ride a bike.” Who is used because the man did the action, he is the subject of the sentence.

“He is also the man whom I accidentally hit with my car.”
Whom is used because the man is receiving the action (the hitting), he is the object

Question 12

personal pronouns

Answer 12

personal pronouns are pronouns that refer to people. The ones you need to know are who, whom, and one. When other types of pronouns are used to refer to people, it is unacceptable.

E.g.
This is my teacher that got me interested in chemistry ✕ “That” is not a personal pronoun.
This is my teacher who got me interested in chemistry. ✓

Question 13

what is the general rule regarding pronoun ambiguity?

Answer 13

if one answer choice uses a pronoun when it is not clear which noun it refers to, then that option is incorrect. no pronoun ambiguity

Question 14

possessive pronouns

Answer 14

my, his, her, your, its, etc.
Possessive pronouns NEVER have apostrophes. Don’t get them confused with words like “it’s”, “you’re”, “who’s” etc.

Question 15

how do you make a noun possessive?

Answer 15

add an apostrophe and an s.

e.g. The cat’s toy. The monkey’s stash.

Question 16

how do you make a plural noun (Ending in s) possessive?

Answer 16

add an apostrophe after the word, nothing else

e.g. Those are the girls’ bikes.

This rule is very specific to plural nouns, so even if you have a singular noun ending in s you still add both the apostrophe and the s. Abacus’s, for example

Question 17

what do two ideas linked by a conjunction always need to have?

Answer 17

parallel structure

for example, this is unacceptable: Sarah likes to sing, dancing, and acting.
But this is good: “Sarah likes singing, dancing, and acting.” because all of the joined phrases are in the same form, the infinitive form

Question 18

*finish the correlative conjunction
both…

Answer 18

…and

Question 19

either…

Answer 19

…or

Question 20

just as…

Answer 20

…so

Question 21

neither…

Answer 21

…nor

Question 22

no sooner…

Answer 22

…than

Question 23

not only…

Answer 23

…but (also), the also doesn’t HAVE to appear and when it does it doesn’t have to be immediately after the but

Question 24

whether…

Answer 24

…or

Question 25

clause

Answer 25

includes a subject noun phrase, a verb phrase, and sometimes (but not necessarily) an object noun phrase

Question 26

Independent clause

Answer 26

a clause that is a complete sentence. it can stand on its own.

e.g. I collect wombats

Question 27

dependent clause

Answer 27

can not stand on its own as a sentence

e.g. and now I only eat mushrooms from Japan

Question 28

what type of words do dependent clauses generally begin with?

Answer 28

conjunctions or relative pronouns

e.g. after, although, and, as, provided that, whether, FANBOYS, etc

Question 29

what do all correct sentences on the SAT need at least one of?

Answer 29

they need at least one independent clause. Otherwise, it becomes a sentence fragment and that is never correct on the SAT

Question 30

when a dependent clause precedes an independent clause, what do you need?

Answer 30

a comma after the dependent clause

e.g. Until I get my score back, i’m not going to breathe.

Question 31

when an independent clause precedes a dependent clause, what do you need?

Answer 31

nothing. e.g. I’m not going to breathe until I get my score back.

One exception is when the dependent clause begins with which or who, in which case you need a comma before the dependent clause. e.g. The explosion was caused by my great aunt, who was making gravy.

Question 32

What punctuation can separate two independent clauses?

Answer 32

a semicolon or a period, but NEVER a comma

Question 33

When is a colon used?

Answer 33

everything before the colon must be able to stand on its own (i.e. an independent clause). The colon should provide examples of something mentioned in the independent clause or it should elaborate on an idea presented in the independent clause.

Question 34

commas in lists

Answer 34

use commas to divide items in a list of three or more things. always use the oxford comma

a list of two things is joined only by the word “And”, do not use a comma in this scenario

Question 35

commas and quotations

Answer 35

use commas to introduce a quotation, as long as it’s being introduced with a word like said, remarked, commented, etc. If the quote is integrated naturally, do not use a comma. (e.g. The man said that “a gentleman knows neither sorrow nor fear.” – no comma necessary here)

if a quote appears in the middle of a sentence and it has no ending punctuation of its own, then a comma is used before the closing quotation. (e.g. My coach used to say, “defense wins championships,” but he also said, “the best defense is good offense,” so I never understood what he meant.)

Question 36

comma sandwiches

Answer 36

phrases that are sandwiches between 2 commas, or a comma and a period. It gives extra info about something in the sentence.

when comma sandwiches are correct, they can be removed and the remaining sentence should still stand.

Question 37

profession before name

Answer 37

no comma

e.g. We read about famous astronaut Buzz Aldrin in class.

Question 38

profession after name

Answer 38

comma sandwich needed

e.g. Buzz Aldrin, a famous astronaut, was the subject of an article we read.

Question 39

when do you use dashes?

Answer 39

there are only two scenarios where you can use a dash:
- to create a punctuation sandwich (functions exactly like a comma sandwich)
- or to replace a colon (I.e. to elaborate on an idea or provide an example)

Question 40

participle phrases

Answer 40

for the SAT, think of participles as the verb form ending in “-ing”. Participle phrases are phrases that begin with one of these “-ing” verbs

Question 41

what do participle phrases always refer to ?

Answer 41

participle phrases always refer to the first noun in the independent clause that follows them. If the participle phrase is trying to refer to any other noun, it is used incorrectly.

e.g. this is good use of a participle phrase: “screaming for help, the mailman ran away from the rabid dog.” the participle phrase “screaming for help” refers to the first noun, the mailman.
this is wrong: “screaming for help, the rabid dog chased the mailman.”

Question 42

descriptive phrases that do not begin with -ing

Answer 42

with any other types of descriptive phrases, you still want the phrase as close as possible to the thing it is describing. DESCRIPTIVE PHRASES THAT DO NOT BEGIN WITH -ING MODIFY THE CLOSEST NOUN PHRASE

this is good “as the event coordinator, John mainly worries about flower arrangements.”
this is not good “as the event coordinator, flower arrangements are the main thing John worries about.” since technically, the descriptive phrase “as the event coordinator” is incorrectly trying to modify “flower arrangements”

Question 43

then vs than

Answer 43

then is an adverb for when something happens (E.g. “then it happened”). Then is also used in the if/then conditional statement.

Than is used for comparisons (e.g. “this dog is nice than that one.”)

Question 44

there vs their vs they’re

Answer 44

there indicates location

their is a possessive pronoun (e.g. their makeup/their trampoline)

they’re is always short for “they are”

Question 45

its vs it’s

Answer 45

its is a possessive pronouns (e.g. its smell/its length)

it’s is always short for “it is”

Question 46

your vs you’re

Answer 46

your is a possessive pronouns

you’re is always short for “you are”

Question 47

redundancy

Answer 47

avoid answer choices that restate something that is clearly stated nearby.

consider this sentence: “John always chose the aisle seat every time he flew.”
The word “always” can be removed since the phrase “Every time he flew” tells us he is picking this seat constantly. (you could also remove “every time he flew” and keep “Always” if u wanted to)

Question 48

joining two sentences

Answer 48

follow 2 rules:
- maintain original meaning of both original sentences
- follow all the grammatical rules covered here :-)

Question 49

rule about sentence length

Answer 49

shorter is better, all else being equal - if there are two options that are both truly grammatically correct, pick the shorter option.

Question 50

rule about functionally identical answer choices

Answer 50

you will find questions with two or even three answer choices that do essentially the same thing in the sentence.
A good example would be:
a. per year
b. every year
c. each year
these answer choices are essentially the same, but they can’t all be correct, therefore none of them are correct.