EN2 Grammar, Usage & Agreement

Lesson

Half of the ACT's Conventions of Standard English questions are not about punctuation at all. They are about whether the pieces of a sentence match: whether the verb matches its subject, whether the tense matches the time, whether the pronoun matches the noun it stands for, and whether the word you have chosen is the word the sentence actually needs. These items look easy and are not, because the test writes sentences in which the word that sounds like the subject is not the subject.

Subject–verb agreement

The subject is the noun doing the verb, and it is never inside a prepositional phrase. In the row of tulips along the front fence provides, the subject is row; tulips and fence are objects of prepositions and cannot control the verb. Cross the phrases out and the agreement becomes obvious.

But do not turn that into an absolute rule. After some, none, all, half, most and more, the noun after of is exactly what sets the number — those words have no number of their own:

• Most of the water is gone. · Most of the students are gone.
• None of the sediment comes from the eruption. · None of the samples come from the eruption.
• Half of the crop was lost. · Half of the tiles were lost.

Other patterns worth knowing cold:

• Each, every, everyone, either, neither, one as subjects are singular, however many nouns trail behind them: each of the four galleries has.
• Neither … nor and either … or take the verb that matches the nearer subject: neither the conductor nor the soloists were, but either the interns or the manager is.
• The number of is singular (it names one figure); a number of means “several” and is plural.
• Along with, as well as, in addition to, together with do not build a compound subject. Only and does. The archivist, along with two assistants, was working …
• After there or an inverted opening, the subject comes after the verb: there were several reasons; beneath the floorboards were dozens of newspapers.
• A measurement treated as one amount is singular: ten miles is a long way. So are mathematics, news, physics and politics, despite the -s.

Verb tense, sequence and form

Tense is decided by the sentence around the blank, not by preference. Look for the time marker — last winter, ever since, by the time … tomorrow, before — and match it.

• Consistency. A list of actions stays in one tense: selects, taps, and then planes it to thickness.
• Past perfect marks the earlier of two past events: the creek had risen before the tow truck arrived.
• Present perfect connects the past to now, so it fights with a finished-time phrase: ever since the mill closed, the town has depended on tourism, but never has delivered last winter.
• Future perfect for work completed by a future moment: by the time the ferry docks, the crew will have worked nineteen hours.
• Past-unreal conditionals put the past perfect in the if half and would have in the other: if the district had raised the levee, the station would not have flooded. Never if … would have.
• After recommend, require, insist, ask that, use the bare base form: recommended that each department submit its budget.

The participle errors the ACT actually tests are a short list, and every one of them is a simple past form parked where a past participle belongs: had risen (not rose), had begun (not began), had rung (not rang), had run (not ran), had taken (not took), had drunk, had written, had led. Add the two transitive/intransitive pairs: you raise something but things rise; you lay something down but people and silt lie.

Pronouns: agreement, case and reference

Case is decided by the job the pronoun does. Subject of a verb: I, we, he, she, they, who. Object of a verb or a preposition: me, us, him, her, them, whom. When a compound confuses you, delete the other person: divided between Dr. Okafor and me (you would not say between … I); my cousin and I rebuilt it (you would not say me rebuilt it). For who/whom, answer the clause with he or him: if him fits, use whom. Reflexives — myself, herself — do two jobs and no others. They stand in for an object when it is the same person as the subject (she taught herself), and they add emphasis right next to the noun they emphasise (I built it myself, the mayor herself signed it). What they may never do is stand in for a plain me or I: forward it to Dr. Reyes or myself is not a polite me, it is an error.

Agreement means number, and only number. Two cautions the test itself respects:

• Singular they is standard English and is accepted by the major dictionaries; most style guides now accept it too, though a few — Chicago among them — still prefer a rewrite in formal prose. Every hiker should check their permit is correct, and so is his or her. Because both are defensible, a well-written agreement question will not make you choose between them — if you think an item turns on that choice, look again for the real error.
• A collective noun — committee, team, jury, faculty — can take a plural pronoun when you mean the members acting individually: the committee could not agree, and they went home is standard.

Reference is the half students skip. A pronoun must point back to one specific noun. If it could mean either of two nouns, or if this and they gesture vaguely at a whole previous clause, the fix is to name the thing: the mailbox had to be replaced, these changes added twenty minutes. And do not shift person mid-sentence: if the sentence starts with hikers, it cannot switch to you.

Adjectives, adverbs and comparison

Adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. The complication is linking verbs — be, seem, become, look, feel, taste, smell, sound, grow, remain — which point back at the subject and so take an adjective: the cider tasted sweeter, the coach felt bad, the runner seemed calm. Say the loaf smelled well and you have claimed the loaf has a good nose. Contrast the conservator lifted it carefully, where lifted is a real action and needs an adverb.

• Comparative for two, superlative for three or more. The safer of the two approaches; the strongest of the four candidates.
• One marker only. More strong and most strongest are both out; short adjectives take -er/-est, longer ones take more/most.
• Good/well, bad/badly. Good and bad are adjectives; well and badly are adverbs. The comparative of well is better, never more well.
• A comparative needs something to compare with. Most perfect in a sentence with no second item is a signal you picked the wrong degree.

Idiom and the words that get swapped

Idiomatic prepositions have no rule behind them — they are memorized, and the ACT tests a small, stable set: consistent with, comply with, attribute to, superior to, capable of, in danger of, insist on, based on, independent of, preferable to. Most wrong answers are borrowed from a neighbouring phrase: blame for leaks into attribute, better than leaks into superior, able to leaks into capable.

• affect / effect. Affect is almost always the verb (to influence); effect is almost always the noun (the result). The drought did not affect the vines; measuring the effect of the ban.
• fewer / less. Fewer for things you count — fewer jams per shift; less for amounts you measure — less salt.
• than / then. Than compares; then is time. Hotter than the kiln; proofed overnight and then shaped at dawn.
• lay / lie. Lay takes an object and runs lay–laid–laid: lay the capstones. Lie takes none and runs lie–lay–lain: the silt lay six inches deep, the dog had lain there all afternoon. The past of lie being lay is the whole reason this pair is hard.

When two choices both sound acceptable, stop trusting your ear and find the grammatical reason: the subject, the time marker, the antecedent, the job the pronoun is doing. There is always one, and it is always in the sentence.