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Conjunctions on the ACT

By posted October 6, 2010

Yes, I’m sure all of you know what a conjunction is. We’ve all heard the famous song on “School House Rock.” (If you haven’t, please youtube it; you’re missing out on some pretty essential pop culture.)  My goal is not to tell you the difference between “and,” “but,” and “or.” My goal is to explain how conjunctions are used to link phrases and clauses.

The ACT will likely test you on two kinds of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Each type has its own set of rules that you must follow.

Coordinating Conjunctions– For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

Coordinating conjunctions are those conjunctions that connect words, phrases, and, most importantly, independent clauses. To remember the coordinating conjunctions, use the mnemonic device FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. We already know that coordinating conjunctions can be used to link words (I need to buy milk and cookies) and phrases (John needs to run home and do his homework).

The most important function of the coordinating conjunction, however, is its ability to connect two independent clauses with a comma. An independent clause is a complete idea (containing a subject and verb) that can stand alone as a complete sentence. Let’s see some examples of the coordinating conjunction in action:

  1. I want to watch the game, but I have to work that day.
  2. I can watch the game, or I can go to work.
  3. I decided to skip work, so I’ll be able to watch the game.

Wrong: I decided to skip work, therefore I’ll be able to watch the game.  ”Therefore” is not a coordinating conjunction!

Notice that the comma and the conjunction separate independent clauses. “I want to watch the game” and “I have to work that day” can stand as complete sentences, so they are independent clauses. The important rule to know is that, if one side of the conjunction is not an independent clause, I don’t need a comma:

2. I can either watch the game or go to work.   No comma!

Notice that I changed sentence 2 so that “I can go to work,” an independent clause, is now “go to work,” a simple phrase. As a result, I removed the comma since the conjunction no longer divides two independent clauses.

Subordinating Conjunctions– Because, Before, After, When, Since, Until, Although, While

 

Like coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions help to connect two independent clauses, but they can only do so by making one of the clauses dependent (i.e. subordinate). When I place a subordinating conjunction in front of an independent clause, I render that clause dependent, thereby facilitating its linkage with an independent clause.

Comma use with subordinating conjunctions depends on the placement of the clauses:

  1. When the independent clause comes first, you don’t need a comma.
  2. When the dependent clause comes first, you need a comma to separate the clauses.

Here are some examples of this difference:

  1. Because I forgot to study, I received a failing grade on the exam.
  2. I received a failing grade on the exam because I forgot to study.

Notice that each sentence has two clauses, one of them independent and the other dependent. The clause “because I forgot to study” is dependent; it cannot stand alone as a sentence. If we were to remove “because,” though, “I forgot to study” would function as an independent clause. The subordinating conjunction renders the clause dependent.

A common error is placing a comma before the subordinating conjunction in the second form:

  1. I received a failing grade on the exam, because I forgot to study. ßwrong

In this example, you simply do not need a comma when you place the dependent clause after the independent clause. As you can see, conjunctions are accompanied by specific comma rules. As you all know, the ACT loves to test for comma usage, so beware of comma placement when you see conjunctions like these.

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SAT Pronouns: It’s All “Relative”

By posted August 3, 2010

There are a variety of ways that the SAT can test pronouns: antecedent agreement, subjective case, objective case, etc. A few special pronouns to keep in mind are what we call “relative” pronouns. These are pronouns like that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why. This special group of noun substitutes are often used to link a subordinate clause back to the main clause in a sentence. There are a couple good rules to remember when it comes to relative pronouns.

Use who and whom when referring to people. “Who” is the subjective case pronoun used to refer to people, while “whom” is the objective case pronoun.

Examples:

She spoke to whom?

The man who is giving the speech is my husband.

The girl with whom I work is named Cynthia.

“Who” is used to replace the subject, such as “the man” in our example sentence.

To figure out whether to use who or whom in a sentence, rephrase it as a question.

Lisa, (who or whom?) loves ice cream, ate the entire gallon!

Ask yourself: Who or whom likes ice cream? The answer: Lisa. Since “Lisa” is the subject of the sentence, it must be replaced with the subjective case, who.

Lisa, who loves ice cream, ate the entire gallon!

If we’d answered the question with an objective pronoun, then whom would have been correct.

With (who or whom?) do you like to go shopping?

Since this sentence is already a question, all we have to do is provide a logical answer: With you.

Although you can be used as both a subject and an object, because of the preposition “with” in front of it, we know the objective case is needed.

So the correct sentence should say: With whom do you like to go shopping?

Use the relative pronouns which and that to refer to inanimate objects.

Which is often used to introduce a subordinate clause and is set off by commas from the rest of the sentence. That is used within the body of the sentence.

The SAT , which I am taking in the fall, is going to be so easy!

The SAT that I took last year was harder than I thought.

Remember to never use which or that to refer to people, only to things.

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SAT Writing: Identifying Sentence Errors

By posted July 27, 2010

On the SAT Writing section, there will be 18 total Identifying Sentence Error questions, or ISE’s. They count for the largest percentage of your Writing score. You’ll soon see how a firm understanding of grammar and a confident process of elimination are all you need to get most of these questions correct!

1. Check each underlined portion individually. What part of speech is underlined? Is it a verb, preposition, adjective, adverb, pronoun, etc? You’ll want to make sure you know your parts of speech. The SAT loves to test the same errors over and over, so knowing each part of speech will be a big clue. Here are some of the most common errors:

-          Verb – check the Subject-Verb agreement, Verb tense, number, etc.

-          Pronoun – check for a clear Antecedent, does the Pronoun agree with the noun in number?

Test your skills with this SAT Identifying Sentence Errors practice question!

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Identifying SAT Verb Errors

By posted June 14, 2010

The most common way verbs are tested on the SAT are in subject-verb agreement, however sometimes Identifying Sentence Errors will contain other verb errors. While it’s important to make sure that verbs always agree with their subject in number, it is also important to check to make sure that the verb tense makes logical sense in the context of the sentence.

Verb tense errors have to do with when the sentence takes place. If the action of the sentence is happening in the present, a verb in present tense is required. If the sentence describes something that has not yet taken place, it requires the future tense. There are six verb tenses you should be familiar with for the SAT. These three you probably already know:

Present Tense: I clean.

Past Tense: I cleaned.

Future Tense: I will clean.

The other three are part of what is called the perfect tense. To express this tense, we write the word “have” or “had” before the conjugated verb. The conjugated verb is called the “past participle” in this tense.

Need some customized tutoring? Find out how Grockit’s expert tutors can create customized one-one-one sessions focusing on your specific SAT needs.

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SAT Writing: Verb Tense

By posted May 12, 2010

Verb tense is often a simple error to spot on Writing multiple choice problems, but when it comes to harder problems, you really should know the ins and outs of verb tense.

It’s easy to spot errors like “I will play basketball yesterday.” We know that such a sentence is logically impossible, and to fix it, we simply change the future tense to the past tense: I played basketball yesterday.

Many problems, however, aren’t so simple. To master these, it’s best to learn the different tenses in English–the ones most often tested on the SAT–and their function.

First, let’s take a look at the simple tenses:
Simple Present: The man runs. (He’s running right now)
Simple Past: The man ran yesterday. (He ran in the past)
Simple Future: The man will run tomorrow. (He will run in the future)

You may be thinking “duh,” but it helps to organize your knowledge of tenses–even the easy ones.

Here are the perfect tenses. The perfect tenses are a bit more complicated.

Test yourself with this SAT Writing question!

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Idioms on the SAT

By posted March 30, 2010

On the SAT Writing, an “idiom” is a recognized grammatical construction that is a rule simply because of tradition. The idiom constitutes the ultimate tautology: we say something a certain way because, well, that’s how we say it. It’s a bit like when you ask your parents why they enforce a certain rule, and they answer “because I said so:” even though the answer does not satisfy your question, you must still obey the rule. Idioms, the “because I said so’s” of the grammar world, are no different, and the SAT Writing is no more forgiving.

On the SAT Writing, most of the idioms you will face will involve preposition usage. Why do I listen “to” the radio instead of listen “at” the radio? Simple–because I said so. Or, more precisely, we say “listen to” because that is how English speakers have said it for hundreds of years. We like it that way, and we are not willing to change. Got it? We’re a stubborn little bunch, aren’t we?

For some students, idiom errors can be the easiest to spot on the exam. To these students, an idiom error sticks out like a sore thumb. When they read something like “listen at the radio,” they hear dissonance. The only way to restore grammatical harmony is to replace the grating “at” with the soothing “to.” Balance is restored.

Not everybody thinks this way. For many who learned English as a second language, and even for those who have a purely logical–as opposed to intuitive–understanding of language, idiom errors are extremely difficult to detect. After all, there is no logical explanation for why we say “listen to” instead of “listen at.”

Put your skills to the test with this SAT Writing question from Grockit!

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Gerunds on SAT Writing

By posted March 8, 2010

A common writing mistake is thinking that gerunds are verbs. GERUNDS ARE NOT VERBS. Gerunds typically involve using a verb (in the -ing form) as a noun. Just because it looks like a verb + “ing”, does not mean it is a verb. Often times, SAT questions try to take advantage of this misconception by giving you sentences with gerunds but no verb. For example, Listening to his ipod, John skiing down the slope.

As a noun, gerunds can either be the subject or the direct object of a sentence. Let’s use the verb “to read” as an example. The gerund of “to read” is “reading” and it can be used as a subject in a sentence like
Reading Shakespeare is compulsory for every high school in America.
Or it can be used as a direct object in a sentence like
I enjoy reading Shakespeare in my English class. (Here, the verb is “enjoy” and the object is “reading”)

Now that you know how to use gerunds, you need to bear in mind three main types of mistakes involving gerunds.

Mistake 1
The first is the one mentioned in the first paragraph – the presence of a gerund but a lack of a verb. Using the previous sentence as an example, Listening to his ipod, John studying for the SAT should be Listening to his ipod, John skiis down the slope.

This mistake is a little harder to spot when there is a modifying clause that has a verb in it. For example, Sarah walking down the street, her head bent in thought. Just because there is a verb “bent” in the sentence does not make the sentence grammatical. The main clause in the sentence is “Sarah walking down the street” and this lacks a verb. The second part, “her head bent in thought” describes Sarah and is a modifier. For the sentence to be grammatical, it would have to be Sarah walked down the street, her head bent in thought.

Test yourself with this Grockit SAT Writing question!

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ID Sentence Errors on SAT Writing – Adjective/adverb Confusion

By posted February 26, 2010

In this segment, we will take a look at adjective/adverb confusion in the SAT writing section for the “ID sentence errors” section.

In general, an adjective is any word that is used to modify a noun or pronoun. An adverb modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb.

For example:

Adjective – The woman’s amazing voice resounded in the room.
Adverb – The woman’s voice resounded amazingly.

In the first case, the adjective “amazing” is modifying the noun “voice.” And in the second case, the adverb “amazingly” is modifying the verb “resounded.” It’s a subtle difference, but one that is tested on the SAT.

Now in everyday speech, you’re hard pressed to find someone who speaks grammatically 100% of the time. Because of this, we hear a lot of adjectives where adverbs should go. But unfortunately, the SAT doesn’t care about what happens in real life, so it’s something you’re going to have to try and spot.

Check out this SAT ID sentence errors Grockit question!

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SAT Writing: Excessive Wordiness

By posted February 22, 2010

Notice anything wrong with the title of this article? No, there are no spelling or grammar errors. Technically, nothing is “wrong” with the title, but it could be improved: remove the word “excessive,” and the title will no longer be wordy. I know what you’re thinking. How can a single adjective–and a seemingly appropriate one at that–add wordiness? Simple. The word “excessive” is unnecessary and redundant. Since “wordiness,” by its very definition, denotes an excess of words, the phrase “excessive wordiness” means “an excess of an excess of words,” which is pretty ridiculous. This is the way you should be thinking to catch wordiness on the SAT.

Nearly every Improving Sentences question will contain an answer choice guilty of wordiness. It is your job to pick the most concise and clear answer choice that retains all necessary information. This point cannot be emphasized enough. Somehow, many students believe that, when it comes to writing, more is better. This fallacy may have been inadvertently encouraged by minimum word counts for school essays. If you happen to believe in this fallacy, I’m here to disabuse and enlighten you.

Wordiness comes in the form of unnecessary words (words that can be deleted to aid the clarity of the sentence), redundancies (words that simply repeat what has already been stated), and clunky phrases that could be easily reduced to single words.

See if you can improve this sentence from SAT Writing!

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SAT Writing: Subject/Complement Agreement

By posted December 17, 2009

So, you’ve conquered subject/verb agreement, pronoun case, and idiom usage. Bravo. Are you ready to move on to something a bit more challenging? This next topic in SAT Writing, if pondered long enough, can make even the pickiest English teachers scratch their heads. Lucky for us, though, the SAT isn’t malicious (I think). Once you nail the fundamentals of subject/complement agreement, leave the tough stuff for the grammarians.

First of all, what’s a complement? Look at the sentence “He is my friend.” In this simple example, “He” is the subject and “my friend” is the complement. Obviously, there is no agreement problem there. But how about this sentence: “Lions and tigers are the most ferocious beast of the animal kingdom.” Certainly, there is an issue with the complement “ferocious beast;” it should be plural since the subject is plural. Here’s a not-so-easy example:

1. The host asked his guests to bring a dish to the party.

This probably sounds fine to most of you. In fact, there may be some grammar authorities out there who insist that it is fine, but it is certainly ambiguous. The ambiguity in this sentence comes from the complement “a dish.” According to the SAT school of grammar, this sentence implies that the guests will collectively bring one giant dish. Imagine, if you will, a cluster of formally-dressed dinner guests huddling under a giant Tupperware container of potato salad, each guest doing his part to hold up the mass of mayonnaisey deliciousness. This is what the subject/complement problem does to us: it makes us imagine crazy things. To fix the problem, make the complement plural:

1. The host asked his guests to bring dishes to the party.

See if you can figure out this SAT writing question!

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