SAT Reading & Writing

11. Rules Questions - Grammar

Written by: Pranav I
Formatted by: Rithanya S

A dependent clause cannot be its own sentence, and needs an independent clause to make a complete sentence

Verbs

The Subject-Verb Agreement

The subject and the verb in a sentence must agree
Subjects (nouns) can either be singular or plural, and so can verbs
If the subject is singular, the verb too has to be singular and vice versa
- The assignment is due on Friday. ✅
- The assignment are due on Friday. ❌

🗒️ The SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Basic Approach

Read the Question and identify the Question Type.
Find the subject- is it Singular or Plural?
Use POE.

The subject almost always comes before the verb, not necessarily right before it though

⚡ Trick Alert

Putting one or more prepositional phrases in between the subject and the verb is one of the most common ways the Digital SAT likes to trick the test takers!

Singular subjects	Plural subjects
Most nouns that don’t end in -s (dog, book, teacher, airplane, approval, bravery, person) Nouns that end in -s but refer to only one thing (boss, dress, bus, gas, glass, happiness, success) -ing verbs (swimming, running, watching, dancing) Collective nouns (team, group, family, army) Singular pronouns (he, she, it, this, each, everybody, anyone, nothing, everywhere)	Nouns that end in -s where the version without -s or -es is singular (dogs, books, teachers, airplanes, teams, groups, families, bosses, dresses, buses, gasses, glasses) Irregular plurals that don’t end in -s (children, mice, teeth, men, women, people, deer) Plural nouns (we, they, these, those, both, many) Two or more things joined with and (my parents and I, Hallie and Amelia)

🔥 Tip

If you’re not sure whether the subject of a sentence is singular or plural, try putting “is” and “are” after the word.

If it matches with “is”, it’s singular. If it matches with “are”, it’s plural.

If you’re not sure whether a verb is singular or plural, try putting “it” and “they” before the verb. If it matches with “it”, it’s singular. If it matches with “they”, it’s plural.

Verb Tenses

Past Tense: For an event that occurred at some time in the past.
Present Perfect Tense:
- Always uses the helping verbs “has” (singular) or “have” (plural)
- An event happened at an indefinite time or multiple times
- Suggests that an event could happen again
Past Perfect Tense:
- Always uses the helping verb “had”
- Something happened before something else that was also in the past

When you see verbs changing in the answer choices…

If there is a “to” form and/or an -ing form, check for a complete sentence.
Otherwise, find the subject and eliminate any answers that aren’t consistent in number (singular/plural) with the subject.
If needed, check the tense. Look for other verbs in the sentence or surrounding sentences, as well as time-change in the clues.

Pronouns

Pronoun: A word that stands in for a noun.

A list of pronouns	Singular	Plural
First person	I	We
Second person	You	You
Third person	He/she/it	They

Just Say No

Most of the time while testing pronouns, the College Board only wants to test it versus they
Apart from the answer choices with these two pronouns, the College Board has to add two other pronouns

🔥 Eliminating Filler Options

Eliminate the pronouns you/we as the College Board rarely includes texts that refer to the reader (only keep the choice with you if a form of this pronoun has been used in the text previously)
The pronoun one can only stand for nonspecific nouns that were not previously introduced by the article the (one cannot stand for specific nouns)
The pronouns this, those, or these are most likely to be incorrect due to their lack of specificity when followed by a noun

Pronouns and Apostrophes

🔥 The Pronouns and Apostrophes Rules

Apostrophes on pronouns represent contractions.
Eg: It’s (it is)
Possessive pronouns don’t get apostrophes.
Eg: Its (belonging to it)

When you see pronouns changing in the answer choices…
- Look for and highlight the noun or pronoun that the blank refers back to.
- Eliminate any answers that are not consistent with the noun or pronoun in terms of singular versus plural.
- If apostrophes are changing, determine whether a contraction or a possessive pronoun is needed and use POE accordingly.

Nouns

Nouns use apostrophes to show possession

🔥 Noun Apostrophe Rules

Singular Nouns: Singular Noun + Apostrophe + s
Plural Nouns: Plural Noun + Apostrophe
Irregular Plurals that don’t end in -s: Plural Form + Apostrophe + s

NOTE: A possessive noun must be followed by something that can be possessed

Modifiers

A describing phrase or modifier needs to come as close as possible to the thing it is describing
A misplaced modifier is a grammar error involving describing phrases
- Made with organic oils and plan butters, Noah sold out of his natural soaps at the craft fair. ❌
- Made with organic oils and plant butters, Noah’s natural soaps sold out at the craft fair. ✅
- Noah sold out of his natural soaps, made with organic oils and plant butters, at the craft fair. ✅

🔥 Acing Modifier Questions

As the College Board usually places the blank after the modifier, it is more than enough to look at the first few words of each answer choice to see whether that’s the person or thing that could be described by the modifier.