Sentence Correction

Question 1

Compound Subjects

Answer 1

When two nouns or group of nouns are joined by “and”, they’re called a compound subject and are therefore plural

Question 2

Infinitives

Answer 2

Obtained by adding “to” in front of verb or using verb in plain form; verb meaning but functions as a noun

Question 3

Gerunds

Answer 3

Obtained by adding “-ing” to end of verb to make the verb function as a noun

Question 4

Introductory Modifiers

Answer 4

A modifying phrase that begins a sentence refers to the noun or pronoun immediately following the phrase

Question 5

Dangling Modifiers

Answer 5

A modifying phrase that does not sensibly refer to any word in the sentence; get rid of by clarifying the modification relationship or by making the dangler into a subordinate clause

Question 6

Pronoun Reference

Answer 6

A pronoun must refer clearly to one and only one antecedent; watch out for sentences in which pronouns refer to indefinite antecedents, paying particular attention to the pronoun they (avoid references to some vague they)

Question 7

“One and You”

Answer 7

When we give advice or general statements we often use pronouns “you” and “one”. It is never acceptable to mix one and you, one and yours, or you and one’s in a sentence together.

Question 8

Pronoun Agreement

Answer 8

Always use singular pronouns to refer to singular entities and plural pronouns to refer to plural entities. Identify the antecedent of given pronoun and don’t allow yourself to be distracted by a phrase that comes between the two.

Question 9

Pronoun Subjective Cases

Answer 9

1st Person (I, we); 2nd Person (you); 3rd Person (he, she, it, they, one); Relative Pronouns (who, that, which)

Question 10

Pronoun Objective Cases

Answer 10

1st Person (me, us); 2nd Person (you); 3rd Person (him, her, it, them, one); Relative Pronouns (whom, that, which)

Question 11

When to use subjective case pronouns

Answer 11

Use subjective case for the subject of a sentence (e.g. SHE is falling asleep); Use subjective after forms of to be (e.g., It is I); Use subjective case in comparison between the SUBJECTS of understood verbs (e.g., Gary is taller than I (I am tall)).

Question 12

When to use objective case pronouns

Answer 12

Use objective case for object of a verb (e.g., I called HIM); Use objective case for object of a preposition (e.g., I laughed at HER); Use objective case after infinitives and gerunds (e.g., Asking HIM to go was a mistake); Use objective case in comparison between OBJECTS of understood verbs (e.g., She calls you more than (she calls) ME).

Question 13

How to find correct noun or pronoun

Answer 13

When two or more nouns or pronouns are functioning the same way in a sentence, determine the correct case of any pronoun by considering it separately (e.g., Beatrice and (I or Me) are going home early).

Question 14

How to decide between “Who” and “Whom”

Answer 14

Isolate the relative pronoun in its own clause (Whom is likely to have written a Yorkshire tragedy?); Ask yourself “Who or whom wrote a Yorkshire Tragedy?”; Answers yourself with an ordinary personal pronoun (He did, not HIM did).

Question 15

Verbal

Answer 15

A word that is formed from a verb but is not functioning as a verb (participles, gerunds, and infinitives)

Question 16

Participle

Answer 16

Usually ends in -ing or -ed. A verbal used as an adjective in a sentence (e.g., Let sleeping does lie; It is difficult to calm a frightened child)

Question 17

Noun or pronoun before Gerund

Answer 17

A noun or pronoun that comes before a gerund is in possessive form: his, not him

Question 18

Present Tense

Answer 18

Use present tense to describe a state or action occurring in the present time (e.g., Congress IS debating health policy this session); Use Present tense to describe habitual action (e.g., Many Americans jog every day); Use present tense to describe “general truths” - things that are always true (e.g., The earth IS round and ROTATES on its axis)

Question 19

Future Tense

Answer 19

Use future tense for intended actions or action in future (e.g., The 22nd Century WILL BEGIN in the year 2101); We often epxress future actions with the expression “to be going to” (E.g., I am going to move…); The simple present tense is also used to speak of future events. This is called anticipatory future which we use with verbs of motion such as come, go, arrive, depart and leave (e.g., The senator is leaving…); We also use the anticipatory future in two-clause sentences when one verb is in the regular future tense (e.g., The disputants will announce the new truce as soon as they agree to its terms.)

Question 20

Past Tense

Answer 20

Use Simple past tense to describe an event or state that took place at a specific tyime in past and is now over and done with (ex: Hundreds of people died on the Titanic); there are also two other ways to express past actions (e.g., used to; did promise)

Question 21

Present Perfect Tense

Answer 21

Use Present Perfect Tense for actions and states that started in the past and continue up to and in present time (e.g., Hawaii has been a state since 1959); Use Present Perfect for actions and stats that happen a number of times in the past and may happen again in future (e.g., Italy has had many government changes); Use present perfect for something that happened at an unspecified time in past (e.g., Susan has written…)

Question 22

Past Perfect Tense

Answer 22

Used to represent past actions or states that were completed before other past actions or states; the more recent past event is expressed in simple past and earlier past event is expressed in past perfect (e.g., After he came to America, Vlad translated novels that he had written in Russia)

Question 23

Future Perfect Sense

Answer 23

Use for a future state or event that will take place before another future event (e.g., By the time the next election is held, the candidates will have debated at least once)

Question 24

Sequence of Tenses

Answer 24

When a sentence has two or more verbs, always check to see whether tenses of the verbs correctly indicate order; If two things happened at same time, verbs should be in same tense; Use past perfect for earlier of two past events and simple past for later event; Use Future perfect for earlier of two future events

Question 25

Participial Phrase and Tenses

Answer 25

When you use a participial phrase (dependent clauses that look like action verbs but act as adjectives) in a sentence, the action or situation the phrase describes is assumed to take place at same time as action or state described by verb of sentence.
Ex: WRONG: Being a French colony, Senegal is a Francophone nation.
CORRECT: Having been a French colony, Senegal is a Francophone nation (past participle - use “having” and the past participial).

Question 26

Subjunctive Mood

Answer 26

The subjunctive form “were” is used in statements that express a wish or situations that are contrary to the fact (e.g., I wish I were a rich man (but I’m not)) or (If I were you, I wouldn’t do that (but I’m not you)

Question 27

Three types of Conditional Sentences

Answer 27

If-then statements; Statements of Fact, Contrary to the Fact, Speculation

Question 28

Statements of Fact

Answer 28

Conditional sentence type; there is a real possibility that the situation described in the “If” clause really happened, or is happening, or will happen (e.g., If top military officials resign, there will be protests)

Question 29

Contrary to the Fact

Answer 29

Conditional sentence type; The situation in the “if” clause never happened, so what is said in the then clause is pure speculation (e.g., Pascal wrote that if Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter, the face of the world would have changed)

Question 30

Future Speculation

Answer 30

Conditional Sentence type; speculate about the future, but with the idea that the situation in the “if” clause is extremely unlikely to happen (e.g., If Shakespeare’s manuscripts were to be discovered, the texts of some of his plays would be less uncertain)

Question 31

Coordinate Ideas (Parallelism)

Answer 31

Occur in pairs or in series and they are linked by conjunctions such as and, but, or, and, nor, or in certain instances, by linking verbs such as is; Once you begin repeating a word in series, you must follow through (either repeat in front of each element or include only in front of 1st item in series)

Question 32

Correlative Constructions (Parallelism)

Answer 32

Used to relate two ideas in some way: Both… and., either… or, neither… nor, not only…. but (also)…; Be careful to place correlative conjunctions immediately before the terms they are correlating

Question 33

Compared or Contrasted Ideas (Parallelism)

Answer 33

Certain phrases should clue you in that the sentence contains ideas that should be presented in parallel form (e.g., as… as, more (or less); When an infinitive is the subject of “to be” don’t use a gerund (-ing) after the verb and vise versa. Pair gerunds with gerunds and infinitives with infinitives.

Question 34

Comparisons

Answer 34

A sentence that compares must be clear about what is being compared and must compare things that can be compared logically (apples to apples)

Question 35

Illogical Comparisons

Answer 35

Incomplete comparisons normally corrected by inserting a phrase like “those of”, “those in”, “those at”, “that of”, “that in” and “that at.” You can also compare incompletely when one thing is being compared to a group it is a part of (e.g., Astaire danced better than any man in the world. - Than himself?)

Question 36

Prepositions and Series

Answer 36

When a preposition, such as without, is used in front of only the 1st member of a series, it’s taken to refer to all members in the series

Question 37

Amount vs. Number

Answer 37

Use amount when referring to an uncountable quantity like love; Number will be singular and “A Number” will be plural

Question 38

Both vs. Each

Answer 38

Use both when pointing out similarities; use each (singular) when pointing out differences

Question 39

As vs. Like

Answer 39

Like to compare nouns; as to compare actions

Question 40

Compare to vs. Compare with

Answer 40

On GMAT, compare with is preferred

Question 41

Double vs. Twice (three times, etc.)

Answer 41

On GMAT double (triple, etc.) is only used as a verb; when making a comparison, the preferred form is twice

Question 42

Each other vs. One Another

Answer 42

On GMAT, each other is used to refer to two things and one another is used for 3+

Question 43

Fewer vs. Less

Answer 43

Use fewer to describe countable things, like people, and less to describe an uncountable quantity like love

Question 44

If vs. Whether

Answer 44

If given a choice, always choose whether; If is reserved for If…then statements

Question 45

Like vs. Such as

Answer 45

If given choice, use such as

Question 46

Neither…nor / Either…or

Answer 46

Whatever follows nor/or determines whether verb is single or plural

Question 47

Things to look for

Answer 47

Subject - Verb Agreement, Pronoun Usage (plural with plurals) proper verb tenses, dangling modifiers (modifying phrase is misplaced), parallelism, illogical comparison