Five Favorite Tricks

A guide to the multiple choice writing questions dealing with grammar. 

1. “Danglers”

 Phrases or pronouns that are not clearly connected to a noun

§  Bob found his watch walking to the bathroom. (It’s unclear whether Bob or the watch was walking to the bathroom. You have to fix that.)

§  In an emergency I am amazed how calm Juanita can be. (It’s unclear whether Juanita is or the speaker is amazed “in an emergency.”)

§  Roger told Patrick he would be the goalie. (It’s unclear who will be goalie.)

2. Incorrect pronouns

§  Don’t use a plural pronoun with a singular subject

§  Don’t use a subject when the pronoun is the object of a verb or preposition. (“Than” is not a preposition. Use subject pronouns with it)

§  Interrogative pronouns: “What” goes with things, “who” with persons, “when” with time, “where” with place, and “why” with reason

3. Subject-verb agreement

If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular. The same with plural.  To fool you:

§  The test-makers put a lot of words between the subject and the verb

§  The use a singular collective noun with its plural definition (e.g. “The herd of cows”)

Remember any subject connected by “and” or “or” is plural. “Either . . . or” and “Neither . . . nor” constructions are singular.

4. Verb tenses

 If actions in a sentence took place at different times, the verbs must reflect that.

 For example: “We had eaten the entire pie by the time Ellen realized it was missing.”

The pie was all gone before Ellen knew it was gone.

5. Parallelism

Any time there is a list, or a comparison, the items should be in the same grammatical form. If one is a noun, they should all (or both) be nouns. If one is an infinitive they should all (or both) be infinitives. Same for adjectives, gerunds, participles, prepositional phrases, verb phrases.

THESE ARE FAR FROM THEIR ONLY TRICKS! There are many others such as using a word which is almost like the right one, using an adjective in place of an adverb, having sentences without a subject, sentences that should be separated, and things that are just bad style. In any event, follow these steps:

1. Read the sentence slowly . . . “aloud” inside your head . . . several times, if necessary.

2. Listen for the “error.”

3. If you detect it, look for it in the answers.

4. If you don’t, analyze the choices. (Or consider moving on. Get to all the easy ones.)

5. If you can get the choices down to two, guess. Go with your first impulse.