The Complete Guide to SAT Grammar Rules

Even though the English language is complex,

the SAT tests a specific set of grammar rules.

Furthermore, it tests these rules the same way, over and over again.

In this complete guide, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of SAT grammar rules you need to know to ace the

SAT Writing and Language section

. If you master all these rules and practice them with realistic questions, you’ll have a

huge advantage

on SAT Writing and Language.

Unlike other guides, ours focuses on providing you with lots of examples to help you understand how the grammar rule will show up on the SAT. After all, you need to master the

SAT format

to do well on the SAT!

Concision and Redundancy

There are times when saying something twice is needed: for emphasis, to review a difficult topic, or to explain something more clearly.



The SAT, however, is all about being as succinct and to the point as possible.

Your ability to edit the fat out of sentences is tested in three ways:

fixing overly wordy phrases, finding redundancies

, and combining two simple sentences into a more complex one.

Overly Wordy Phrases

The SAT deeply believes in Shakespeare’s maxim that “brevity is the soul of wit”: if you can say the same thing with fewer words,



do it.

It’s tempting to think that when a sentence uses a multi-word phrase where a single word will do, the sentence sounds formal or more academic. But this is not the case.

Often, one word is better than many words



(examples 1 and 2).

Sometimes, a sentence might use words that don’t serve any purpose and don’t even need to be replaced but rather deleted altogether (examples 3 and 4).

Examples

Redundancy

If a sentence expresses the same bit of information two or more times,





it’s considered redundant.





Pick the best way of stating the necessary fact and delete the repetition.

Examples

Words or phrases that mean the same thing as each other are underlined.

Combining Simple Sentences

Sometimes, in order to write with concision, you have to



combine simple or related sentences into one.

Don’t worry about keeping word order, as this kind of revision often requires you to shift things around.

To combine sentences correctly, ask yourself the following questions:

• 
  Is there a person, place, thing, or concept that both sentences are talking about?
  
  
  
  If so, you can make one sentence into a dependent clause of the other through the repeated noun (example 1).

• 
  Is there a chronological sequence that the two sentences are describing?
  
  
  
  Then you can make one into a dependent clause of the other using prepositions such as
  
  
  
  before, after,
  
  
  
  and
  
  
  
  following
  
  
  
  (example 2).

• 
  Does one sentence define the other?
  
  
  
  Combine them by inserting whatever is being defined into the defining sentence (example 3).

Examples

The nouns, chronology, or definitions used to combined the sentences are underlined.

Redundancy: good for mountain climbing, bad for writing.

Idioms and Conventional Expressions

The SAT tests your knowledge of common English usage, including




two types of idioms


.

First, there are


expressions that mean something different from the actual words being used




(such as

raining cats and dogs

or



kick the bucket

). Secondly, there are


short phrases or groups of words that



always



go together




(such as

stumble on

or



keep at bay

).

You’ll also be asked to distinguish among

frequently confused homonyms

—that is, words that sound like each other but are used in different circumstances as they mean different things. One common example is



bear

vs



bare.

Verbal Phrases

The SAT particularly loves one type of idiom called verbal phrases, which are



verb + preposition pairs,



and


wants to check that you know for sure which preposition is correct.

Examples

Prepositional Idioms

These are just like verbal phrases except they don’t involve verbs; rather, they’re groups of words that




always



end on a specific preposition.

Examples

Commonly Confused Words

English has



a lot of words that sound similar to each other but mean very different things.



Here is a



very



incomplete list of examples of these words (you can find more by searching for “commonly confused words” on Google):

Accept:



to receive



(verb)



Except:



with the exclusion of



(preposition)

Affect:



to influence



(verb);



emotional response



(noun)



Effect:



result



(noun);



to cause



(verb)

Beside:



close to; next to


Besides:



except for; in addition to

Complement:



something that completes



(noun);



to pair well with



(verb)



Compliment:



praise, flattery



(noun)

Eminent:



prominent


Imminent:



about to happen

Precede:



to come before


Proceed:



to continue, to keep going

Sight:



scene, view, picture, being able to see


Site:



place, location; a web page


Cite:



to quote, to point to evidence

Then:



an adverb denoting time


Than:



a conjunction used in comparisons

Examples

Language Formality

When writing for school, work, or publication in a news or scientific journal, you have to use formal English. This means you need to

avoid slang and words and phrases that sound too casual.



It’s important to keep each sentence at the same language elevation.

Examples

Inappropriate informality won’t get you into the duke’s exclusive club either.

Conjunctions and Conjunctive Adverbs

Conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs



are words that explain how two clauses in a sentence, or how to two or more successive sentences, relate to one another.

The SAT checks your ability to use conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs to



clarify cause and effect or logic within sentences.

Explanation

Some conjunctions link events in a cause-and-effect relationship to point out



what happened as a result of something else.

Here are some examples of these words, along with their meanings:

Because:



what has just been said is true as a consequence of what is about to be said

Therefore



and



hence:



it follows from what has just been said that

For example



and



for instance

: here is evidence that backs up the previous argument

Whereby:



by which; using the idea/principle/concept just mentioned; by means of

Consequently:



directly following the thing that has just been described

Examples

The incorrect conjunctions are in bold, while the correct ones are underlined.

Contradiction or Digression

Other conjunctions can be useful for describing a



negative or opposing relationship between events.

These words can explain that something happened despite something else, or even though common sense would have not predicted it. They can also indicate that the argument is shifting to a different point.

However:



introduces a statement/idea that contradicts what has just been said

On the one hand, on the other hand:



presents two ideas that oppose each other (these



always



go together)

But:



despite what has just been said, here is information to the contrary

Nevertheless:



in spite of what has just been said

Aside from:



the example that follows is an exception to what is being discussed

While



and



whereas:



in contrast or comparison with the fact that

Examples

The incorrect conjunctions are in bold, while the correct ones are underlined.

Similarity and Emphasis

The final category of conjunctive adverbs connects things that are



equal or similar,



or adds examples that emphasize the direction of the argument.

Moreover:



as an additional—potentially more convincing or important—matter

Just as:



in comparison to; similar to

Likewise:



in the same way; also

Not only, but also:



presents two ideas that support and emphasize each other (these



always



go together)

Examples

The incorrect conjunctions are in bold, while the right ones are underlined.

Honestly, this is in no way connected to conjunctive adverbs. However, look—cute!

Punctuation

There are many



punctuation



rules in English, but, fortunately, the SAT doesn’t test all of them. Instead, the test focuses on several specific types.

Punctuating Modifiers

Phrases that modify or describe a part of a sentence are



punctuated differently depending on whether they are an essential or nonessential part of the sentence.

If the sentence needs the modifier in order to make sense, the modifier is



restrictive



and



doesn’t



get surrounded by commas.

If you can easily take out the modifier without losing the sentence’s meaning, the modifier is




nonrestrictive




and should be surrounded by commas like this:

• Put one comma right
  
  
  
  after
  
  
  
  a modifier that starts a sentence.
• Put one comma right
  
  
  
  before
  
  
  
  a modifier that ends a sentence.
• If the modifier appears in the middle of the sentence,
  
  
  
  surround it
  
  
  
  with commas on both sides.

Examples

Incorrect and correct punctuation are underlined.

Using Dashes

Think of dashes as being kind of like parentheses.

Dashes separate out a sentence piece that is explanatory but not crucial,

like an aside or something muttered under your breath. Sometimes this piece is a digressive thought; sometimes it’s a list of examples.

Typically, the phrase inside the dashes has commas in it, so dashes are the best way to set it off from the rest of the sentence. If the phrase is in the middle of the sentence, it must be surrounded by dashes on



both



sides.

Examples

Incorrect and correct punctuation are underlined.

Punctuating “Such As”

The phrase



such as




introduces a series of examples



to back up a point that’s just been made. The correct way to punctuate it is to put a comma before



such as,



and then no comma before the first list item or example.

Examples

Incorrect and correct punctuation are underlined.

Formatting Lists

A list is a series of people, ideas, objects, actions, or conditions that follow one another, play the same role in the sentence, and are



typically separated by commas.

In fact, that last sentence has two lists: “people, ideas, objects, actions, or conditions” and “follow one another, play the same role in the sentence, and are separated by commas.” See what I did there?

Punctuation rules for lists are as follows:

• They should be
  
  
  
  separated by commas,
  
  
  
  with a comma coming before the “and” or “or” that precedes the last list item:
  
  
  
  dogs, cats, gerbils, and fish
  
  .

• If one of the list items has a comma within it, then all the list items should be
  
  
  
  separated by semicolons instead:
  
  
  
  
  shaggy, purebred dogs; white cats; soft, cuddly gerbils; and fish
  
  .

Examples

Incorrect and correct punctuation are underlined.

Using Colons

Colons are used in two different ways.

First, they can indicate that



a list is coming up,



and that after the list the sentence will end:

Here is my list of acceptable pets: dogs, cats, gerbils, and fish.

Second, they are used to indicate that an



explanation, a definition, or an example of what has just been said




is coming:

My search for the perfect pet came down to man’s best friend: a dog.

Examples

Incorrect and correct punctuation are underlined.

Using Semicolons

Semicolons have two basic functions.

First, in lists they



separate items that have commas:

We ate mushrooms, which had been picked in a nearby forest; herbs, nuts, and berries foraged from a public park; and homegrown apples.

Second, they



fix run-on sentences



by separating two independent clauses without a conjunction:

Jim rode his bike; Mary walked.

Examples

Incorrect and correct punctuation are underlined.

Semicolon, meet semi-cake.

Sentences

Sentences are made up of groups of words that are called clauses.



There are two types of clauses: independent and dependent.

An independent clause can function as a complete sentence because it has a subject-verb pair and does not start with a word or phrase that makes the clause dependent, such as



when



or



because.

Meanwhile,



a dependent clause

must



be attached to an independent clause to be part of a complete sentence.

The SAT tests three different types of clause-related situations:



fixing sentence fragments, splitting up run-on sentences

, and using a dependent clause as the subject of a sentence.

Sentence Fragments

A sentence fragment is



a sentence made of anything less than an independent clause.

To fix it, we either connect the fragment to an independent clause (examples 1 and 2), or add the missing subject or verb (example 3).

Examples

In these sentences,


subjects are underlined and verbs are in





bold.

Run-on Sentences

A run-on sentence is made of



multiple independent clauses joined by only a comma or no punctuation



at all. To find the correct answer on the SAT, look for an answer choice that uses one of these three fixes:

• If one independent clause is an explanation or definition of the other, add a word such as
  
  
  
  because
  
  
  
  or
  
  
  
  which
  
  
  
  to the beginning of the explanation (examples 1 and 2).

• If neither independent clause defines or explains the other, combine them with either a comma + conjunction (such as
  
  and
  
  
  
  or
  
  
  
  but
  
  ),
  
  
  
  
  or
  
  
  
  
  with a semicolon (examples 3 and 4).

• Alternately, split them up into two separate sentences (example 5).

Examples

The separation between the two independent clauses is marked with



|

, while the correction is underlined.

Dependent Clauses as Sentence Subjects

Sometimes, instead of having a simple noun for a subject, a sentence can use a whole dependent clause as a subject. When this happens,



treat the dependent clause as a singular noun.

For instance, in the first example, the clause



whoever came up with the idea to put solar panels on rooftops

is the subject of the sentence. You can tell by using this trick:



replace the clause with a singular noun, such as



Albert Einstein,



to see whether the sentence still works.

When we do this here, we can see that



Albert Einstein are geniuses



doesn’t work; therefore, the verb needs to be singular to match the subject.

Examples

The subordinate clause that is the subject is underlined, while the verb it’s doing is bold.

Does his over-reliance on your milk and cookies make him a dependent Claus?

Faulty Modifiers

A modifier is a word or phrase that describes (i.e., modifies) something. There are two kinds of modifier problems tested on the SAT:

dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers


.

Dangling Modifiers

A dangling modifier is

a descriptive phrase that begins a sentence, has a comma after it, and has the noun it describes

not

placed right after the comma.

In the first example below, the modifier

coating the sidewalk

is supposed to describe the snow. However, since

we

is the first word after the comma, the sentence makes it sound like

we

are the ones

coating the sidewalk.

Examples

Modifiers are underlined, while the nouns being correctly and incorrectly modified are in bold.

Misplaced Modifiers

A misplaced modifier is

a descriptive phrase that’s

not

close enough to the thing it’s supposed to be describing, making it sound like it’s referring to the wrong thing.

In the first example below, the modifier

on the sale rack

is supposed to show where the jacket is hanging. However, since it’s been placed next to

too small,

the sentence seems to say that it’s the way the jacket was hanging that is too small (instead of the jacket itself). To correct it, we move the modifier

closer

to the noun it describes.

Examples

Modifiers are underlined, while the things being correctly and incorrectly modified are in bold.

There I was, just dangling in the breeze like a modifier …

Parallel Construction

To use

parallel construction

is to write

a list in which all the items have the

same

grammatical format.

For example, if two things in a list are verbs ending in

-ing

, the third item should also be a verb ending in

–


ing

. If one item in a list is a prepositional phrase, then the second item should also be a prepositional phrase.

Examples

Words or phrases that are already parallel are in bold, whereas those that need to be corrected to parallel are underlined.

Set up parallel tracks so your sentence train can roll safely on its way.

Plurals and Possessives

The SAT will test your understanding of how to make nouns

plural

(when there is two or more of something) and how to make them

possessive

(when you have to explain that something belongs to something or someone else).

To make a

plural noun

that doesn’t own anything, add

s

to the end of a singular noun:

one student, but three studen

ts

To make a

possessive singular noun

, add

apostrophe + s

to the end of a singular noun:

the pencil that belongs to one student = the studen

t’s

pencil

To make a

possessive plural noun

, add an apostrophe to the end of a plural noun:

the classroom that belongs to three students = the studen

ts’

classroom

Examples

That man and that jacket belong to that dog—they are that dog’s belongings.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a part of speech stands in for a noun. For example, the pronoun

she

can stand in for

the woman

or

Queen Elizabeth.

But unlike nouns,

pronouns change their form if they’re used in different ways.

These are the ways that pronouns are tested on the SAT.

Subject vs Object Pronouns

Nouns and pronouns can be either the

subjects or the objects of verbs.

Subjects

do

verbs and objects have verbs

done

to them. For instance, in the sentence, “A dog chases its tail,”

dog

is the subject noun,

chases

is the verb that it’s doing, and

tail

is the object noun.

Unlike nouns such as

dog

or

tail

,

pronouns change form depending on whether they’re subjects or objects

. For example, in the phrase

she likes him,

the woman is the subject, so the pronoun is

she.

On the other hand, in the phrase

he likes her,

the woman is the object, so the pronoun changes to

her

.

Subject Pronouns	Object Pronouns
I	me
you	you
he	him
she	her
it	it
we	us
they	them

If you’re trying to figure out

whether to use a subject or object pronoun when dealing with a compound noun, one trick is to take out the other noun and try the sentence with just the pronoun

—you’ll quickly know which is right. In the first example below,

me ate dinner

is clearly wrong. In the third example as well,

sold cookies to I

is obviously incorrect.

Examples

Who vs Whom

Who

is a relative pronoun which can start either a dependent or independent clause within a sentence.


Who

is used when the pronoun is the subject doing the action, whereas

whom

is used when the pronoun is the object of the action.

What’s tricky about

who

is that figuring out whether to use its subject or object form doesn’t depend on its antecedent. Instead, you have to see what role

who

is playing inside its own clause.

For instance, in example 1, even though

people

is an object of the verb

benefits,

inside the clause

who understand the tax code,


who

is the subject of the verb

understand.


On the other hand, in example 2, even though

skydivers

is the subject of the sentence, in the clause

whom many people greatly admire, whom

is the object of the verb

admire.

One trick is to

replace the

who

or

whom

with

I

or

me

to see whether you need the subject or object form.

In this case,

me understand the tax code

doesn’t work, and neither does

many people greatly admire I.

Examples

Subjects are bold, verbs are in italics, and objects are underlined.

Pronouns and Antecedents

If there is a pronoun, it should be obvious what noun the pronoun is referring back to.

If it’s unclear which noun a pronoun is referring to, or if a pronoun has no antecedent, the sentence needs to be rewritten in one of two ways: either the pronoun can be replaced with a noun,


or


the phrase can be simplified.

For instance, in example 1,

this

could refer either to

Industrial Revolution, resistance group, mechanization,

or

labor force,

so a noun is added. Meanwhile, in example 3, there is no antecedent for

them,

so the sentence has to be rewritten.

Examples

The unclear pronouns are in bold, while corrected pronouns and antecedents are underlined.

Pronoun and Antecedent Agreement

Pronouns have to match their antecedents

in various ways.

This means that when we use pronouns more than once in a sentence,

we


have to use the same

person

throughout.

(To clarify: 1

^st

person means

I

or

we

, 2

^nd

person means

you

, and 3

^rd

person means

he

,

she

,

it

, or

they

.)

This also means that

plural nouns are matched with plural pronouns, and singular pronouns refer back to singular nouns.

Examples

Mismatched pronouns and antecedents are in bold, while matching pronouns and antecedents are underlined.

That vs Who

The basic concept behind

these relative pronouns

is simple:


who

is the pronoun for a person or people, and

that

is the pronoun for everything else.

Examples

Mismatched relative pronouns are in bold, while matching pronouns and antecedents are underlined.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to a person, place, or thing that is unknown or unspecified.

Many indefinite pronouns that seem like they’re referring to multiple things or people are actually singular.

This means that they use singular forms of verbs:

everyone is

instead of

everyone are

(examples 1 and 2). This also means that any nouns that refer to them also have to be singular and not plural:

no one wants to be a dropout

instead of

no one wants to be dropouts

(examples 3 and 4).

Person	Place	Thing
everyone everybody	everywhere	everything
someone somebody	somewhere	something
anyone anybody	anywhere	anything
no one nobody	nowhere	nothing
each (of these) either (of these) neither (of these)

Examples

Pronouns and matching verbs or nouns are underlined, while mismatched verbs or nouns are in bold.

Its/It’s, Their/They’re/There, Your/You’re, Whose/Who’s

The different forms and abbreviations of these pronouns are frequently mixed up, but they’re something

you simply have to memorize.

Here are some tricks to use if you’re stuck:

• Take the abbreviation apart: does
  
  it is, you are, they are,
  
  or
  
  who is
  
  work in the sentence? Then use
  
  it’s
  
  ,
  
  you’re
  
  ,
  
  they’re
  
  , or
  
  who’s
  
  .

• If the sentence is trying to say that
  
  something belongs to something else,
  
  use
  
  its
  
  ,
  
  your
  
  ,
  
  their
  
  , or
  
  whose
  
  .

• If the sentence is trying to point to
  
  a specific or vague place,
  
  use
  
  there
  
  .

Pronoun	Definition	Examples
its	belonging to it	the puppy’s toy = its toy the leg of the table = its leg
it’s	it is	the sky is cloudy = it is cloudy = it’s cloudy the book is long = it is long = it’s long
their	belonging to them	the sisters’ bedroom = their bedroom the color of walls = their color
they’re	they are	flowers are blooming = they are blooming = they’re blooming friends are great = they are great = they’re great
there	in/on that place existing somewhere	in the world exist many trees = there are many trees the pants are on the shelf = the pants are there
your	belonging to you	this is my dinner, and this is your dinner
you’re	you are	you are delighted = you’re delighted you are a student = you’re a student
whose	belonging to whom?	I don’t know who owns this house = whose is this house?
who’s	who is	who from the team is coming? = who’s coming?

Examples

Incorrect forms of these words are underlined, while the correct ones are bold.

Feeling overwhelmed by grammar is apparently part of the human condition. Here’s a grammar book from 1526. Just imagine all those monks having to study pronouns in Latin …

Verbs

There are two main issues with verbs tested on the SAT: verb tenses and subject-verb agreement.

Verb Tense

There are nine

basic verb tenses

, three for each time period (present, past, future). Below are the basic tenses formed from the verb

to sing

. As you can see, some of the verb tenses are created by adding forms of the verbs

have, be,

and

do

.

Time Period	Verb Forms
Present	Simple Present: They sing. Present Continuous: They are singing. Present Perfect: They have sung.
Past	Simple Past: They sang. Past Continuous: They were singing. Past Perfect: They had sung.
Future	Future: They will sing. Future Continuous: They will be singing. Future Perfect: They will have sung.

Generally, the idea is to

keep verbs in a single sentence in the same time period,

especially if a sentence is describing things that happen during the same time period (example 1).

If a sentence contains

a shift in chronological time, verb tenses should shift to account for the change

in time (example 3).

Examples

Verbs in the same tense are underlined, while verbs in the wrong tense are in bold.

Subject/Verb Agreement

Nouns and verbs are both parts of speech with numbers and are written differently if they refer to just one thing or multiple things. One

dog runs

fast, for example, but two

dogs run

fast.

Subject/verb agreement just means that

the noun and verb have the same number (singular or plural).

One point to remember is that collective nouns are singular (a “crowd of people laughs” instead of “crowd of people laugh”). A

collective noun

is a noun that stands for a group of things but is grammatically treated as a single unit (i.e., a singular noun).

Examples

Matching subjects and verbs are underlined, while verbs that

don’t

match subjects are in bold.

After a poorly verbed pitch, the batter verbed the ball to midfield. The shortstop verbed to the left, verbing the ball just in time to verb the runner out.

Illogical Comparisons

There are two different kinds of

comparisons that break the rules of logic

.

The first relies on the idea that

you can only compare things that are alike in some way.

One trick to spotting illogical comparisons is that they tend to happen when a sentence is comparing something that belongs to someone or something else by using the comparison word

than

. You have to make sure that the two things on either side of the

than

are in the same category (examples 1 and 2).

For instance, you can compare apples and oranges because both are fruits. But if both Stanley and Cora have apples, you can’t say the following:

I like

Stanley’s apples

better than

Cora

.

You’d have to say this:

I like

Stanley’s apples

better than

Cora’s apples

.

Or, more simply, this:

I like

Stanley’s apples

better than

Cora’s

.

The second kind of illogical comparison that the SAT likes to test is the notion that

you can’t compare something to

all

things of that type.

Instead, you can only compare that thing to

all other

things of that type (example 3).

Examples

The two things that each sentence is comparing are underlined.

You can compare the polar bear to the girls, but you can’t compare the polar bear’s favorite toy to the girls. Unless that is one extremely dangerous zoo.

The Bottom Line: All SAT Grammar Rules You Should Know

Here is a quick summary of all the SAT grammar rules we talked about in this article:

• 
  
  Concision and Redundancy
  
  
  — the SAT is all about being as succinct as possible
  1. 
     Overly Wordy Phrases —
     
     often, one word is better than many; sometimes, extra words should just be deleted
  2. 
     Redundancy
     
     — if a sentence
     
     
     expresses the same bit of information two or more times, delete the repetition
     
     
  3. 
     Combining Simple Sentences
     
     — make one sentence into a dependent clause of the other through a repeated noun, using prepositions such as
     
     
     
     before, after,
     
     
     
     or
     
     
     
     following,
     
     
     
     or by inserting whatever is being defined into the defining sentence

• 
  
  Idioms and Conventional Expressions
  
  
  1. 
     Verbal Phrases
     
     — verb + preposition pairs that
     
     
     
     always
     
     
     
     go together
  2. 
     Prepositional Idioms
     
     —
     
     
     groups of words that
     
     
     
     always
     
     
     
     end on specific prepositions
     
     
  3. 
     Commonly Confused Words
     
     — English has a lot of homonyms (words that sound similar to each other but mean very different things)
  4. 
     Language Formality
     
     — avoiding slang and words/phrases that sound too casual

• 
  Conjunctions and Conjunctive Adverbs
  
  — words that explain how two clauses in a sentence or successive sentences relate to one another
  1. 
     Explanation
     
     — conjunctions such as
     
     
     
     because, consequently,
     
     
     
     and
     
     
     
     for example
     
     
     
     link events in a cause-and-effect relationship
  2. 
     Contradiction or Digression
     
     
     
     — conjunctions such as
     
     
     
     however, but,
     
     
     
     and
     
     
     
     nevertheless
     
     
     
     describe a negative or opposing relationship between events
  3. 
     Similarity and Emphasis
     
     — conjunctions such as
     
     
     
     moreover
     
     
     
     and
     
     
     
     likewise
     
     
     
     connect things that are equal or similar, or add examples to an argument

• 
  
  Punctuation
  
  
  1. 
     Punctuating Modifiers
     
     — if the sentence needs a modifier in order to make sense, the modifier doesn’t need commas, but if you can take out the modifier without losing any meaning, the modifier should be surrounded by commas
  2. 
     Using Dashes
     
     — separate out a word/phrase/clause that is explanatory but not crucial
  3. 
     Punctuating “Such As”
     
     — put a comma before
     
     
     
     such as
     
     (and no comma after it)
  4. 
     Formatting Lists
     
     — list items are typically separated by commas,
     
     
     with a comma before the
     
     
     
     and
     
     
     
     or
     
     
     
     or
     
     
     
     that precedes the last list item
  5. 
     Using Colons
     
     — indicates a list is coming up and that after the list the sentence will end; also used to introduce an explanation, definition, or example
  6. 
     Using Semicolons
     
     — separates list items that have commas; fixes run-on sentences by separating two independent clauses without a conjunction

• 
  
  Sentences
  
  
  — made up of
  
  
  independent and dependent clauses
  1. 
     Sentence Fragments
     
     — sentences made of anything less than an independent clause
  2. 
     Run-on Sentences
     
     — multiple independent clauses joined by only a comma or no punctuation at all
  3. 
     Dependent Clauses as Subjects
     
     — if a sentence uses a whole dependent clause as a subject, treat the dependent clause as a singular noun

• 
  
  Faulty Modifiers
  
  
  
  
  —
  
  words or phrases that describe something
  
  1. 
     Dangling Modifier
     
     — a descriptive phrase that begins a sentence, has a comma after it, and has the noun it describes
     
     
     
     not
     
     
     
     placed right after the comma
  2. 
     Misplaced Modifier
     
     — a descriptive phrase that’s not close enough to the thing it’s describing, making it sound like it’s referring to the wrong thing

• 
  
  Parallel Construction
  
  
  — a list in which all the items have the same grammatical format

• 
  
  Plurals and Possessives
  
  
  — plural is when there are two or more of something; possessive is when something belongs to something else
  1. 
     Plural Noun
     
     — add
     
     s
     
     to the end of a singular noun
  2. 
     Possessive Singular Noun
     
     — add
     
     apostrophe + s
     
     to the end of a singular noun
  3. 
     Possessive Plural Noun
     
     — add an apostrophe to the end of a plural noun

• 
  Pronouns
  
  — parts of speech that stand in for a noun (its antecedent)
  1. 
     Subject vs Object Pronouns
     
     — pronouns change form depending on whether they’re subjects or objects in a sentence
  2. 
     
     Who vs Whom
     
     
     —
     
     who
     
     is the subject form;
     
     whom
     
     is the object form
  3. 
     Pronouns and Antecedents
     
     — it should be obvious which noun each pronoun is referring to
  4. 
     
     Pronoun and Antecedent Agreement
     
     
     — pronouns have to match their antecedents’ person and number
  5. 
     That vs Who
     
     —
     
     who
     
     is for a person or people;
     
     that
     
     is for everything else
  6. 
     Indefinite Pronouns
     
     — pronouns such as
     
     everyone
     
     that seem plural but are actually singular
  7. 
     Its/It’s, Their/They’re/There, Your/You’re, Whose/Who’s
     
     — you have to memorize these homonyms

• 
  Verbs
  
  — the SAT tests tense agreement and subject-verb agreement
  1. 
     
     Verb Tense
     
     
     — keep verbs in a single sentence within the same time period: present, past, or future
     
     
  2. 
     
     Subject/Verb Agreement
     
     
     — a
     
     
     noun and its verb must have the same number (singular or plural)

• 
  
  Illogical Comparisons
  
  
  — you can only compare things that are alike in some way, and you can’t compare something to
  
  all
  
  things of that type

What’s Next?

Knowing the grammar rules is just the beginning. Check out

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