CHAPTER 4
Grammar: It’s How You Say It

Ah, grammar. It’s the glue that holds our sentences together, enabling us to understand each other through a shared knowledge of how ideas are communicated through language. But so many rules about proper grammatical structure and usage make it difficult and frustrating for many people to get a clear understanding of how grammar works.

What’s more, most primary school curricula spend years teaching you all about grammar, but taper off in this area of education in high school. Many who are preparing for a nursing school entrance exam haven’t studied grammar since the eighth grade! Yet five out of the six main exams have some kind of grammar component included in their verbal assessments, which means it’s time to bone up on your skills.

That’s where this chapter comes in. It takes you through the basic grammatical concepts that you’ll likely encounter on the test and gives you an idea of what these questions are going to look like. You’ll also get some review in spelling, punctuation, and commonly misused words that will help you get through those verbal sections that aren’t quite about grammar, but are close enough.

What to Expect

If you are taking the HESI A², ATI TEAS, or PSB, you can expect to see some kind of grammar, punctuation, or spelling component on your exam. This may sound like a scary prospect, but the fact that you’re taking a multiple-choice test works to your advantage here.

In Chapter 3, we talked about how this format makes taking a test much easier because all the answers are there, you just have to figure out which one is the right one. When we’re talking about grammar, this also means that you don’t need to recite rules and define terms, you just have to be able to identify when these rules and terms are applied correctly—and when they’re not.

In many cases, this is as easy as spotting the sentence or answer choice that doesn’t “look” or “sound” right. When this happens, look for telltale signs of one of the common errors we discuss in this chapter. Chances are, you’ll find one and know how to answer the question.

Another great thing about the format these exams have is that they’re standardized, which means that the types of questions you’ll get are pretty predictable. Here is what you can expect to see:

B Grammar: Choose the answer that shows the version of a sentence is grammatically correct or incorrect; answer choice or type of word will make the sentence grammatically correct; answer choice is an example of a certain part of speech or structure in a sentence; word in the sentence is not used correctly; and word should be used to replace a specific word in a sentence.

B Common errors: Choose the answer that defines or identifies various structures, such as subject, predicate, independent clause, subordinate clause, etc.; identifies and/or corrects the type of structural error shown in a sentence, such as a misplaced modifier, preposition at the end of a sentence, incorrect subject/verb agreement, etc.; identifies/corrects run-on sentences and fragments; uses the correct tense, spelling, or case of a word; and defines sentence structures.

B Punctuation: Choose the answer that shows which punctuation mark is missing from the sentence; which sentence is correctly punctuated; and where the punctuation should go to make the sentence correct.

B Spelling: Choose the answer choice that is spelled correctly or presents the correct spelling of a word within the context of a sentence.

Not too bad, right? To make it even easier to get to the right answers on these questions, you’ll want to follow the general approach described in Chapter 3, with a little twist:

1. Read the question carefully and identify what kind of issue you’re being asked to address (use the preceding information as a guide).
2. Identify what kind of answer you’re looking for or the rule that’s being tested. Write down what you think the answer should be or should look like.
3. Use process of elimination to get rid of the answer choices that do not match your answer.

Now it’s time to jump into a review of the basic parts of speech, sentence structures, and punctuation. Then we’ll move on to common errors to look out for and misspelled/misused words you’ll want to memorize.

Parts of Speech

It’s probably been a long time since you were introduced to parts of speech, the building blocks of our language. You were probably in first or second grade when you moved from being able to read to learning the mechanics of how those sentences worked. It’s here that you first heard about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs—and then addressed them in every language arts or English class until you got to high school.

Well, not much has changed since then—except for the fact that knowing what these types of words do and how they relate to each other is essential to passing your nursing school entrance exam. To help you out, here is a quick overview of the main parts of speech you’ll need to be familiar with for the test.

Nouns

These are words that name people, places, things, or ideas. Cat, boy, shoe, communism, and park are all nouns and generally fall into one of two cases: singular (meaning one) or plural (meaning more than one).

Here are a couple types of nouns you should be aware of:

Common nouns: These are your general nouns, like the ones mentioned here. These can be either singular or plural: one cat, two cats; one boy, two boys.

Proper nouns: These identify specific people, places, things, or ideas. For example, Fluffy is the proper noun for a specific cat who is named Fluffy. George is the proper noun for a boy with that name. Proper nouns are always capitalized and are often singular, but can also be plural.

Possessive nouns: These are nouns that show ownership of something. For example, the phrase “the cat’s toy” is broken down into a definite article (“the”), a possessive noun (“cat’s”), and a common noun (“toy”). Possessive nouns are differentiated from plural nouns with an apostrophe. With a singular possessive noun, the apostrophe is placed between the end of the word and the “s”; the plural possessive noun has the apostrophe after the “s”:

B Singular possessive noun: “cat’s toy” means one toy belonging to one cat

B Plural possessive noun: “cats’ toy” refers to one toy belonging to more than one cat

Collective nouns: These nouns are used to name a group and are generally treated as singular, even though they refer to many people or things. For example, a nursing class is made up of many students. Class is a collective noun because it names the group of students. When you refer to the class as a whole, you treat it as a singular noun and give it a singular verb:

The class is taking a field trip tomorrow.

However, should you use the plural form of a collective noun, your verb will still be plural:

The classes are taking a field trip tomorrow.

Some common collective nouns are: band, troupe, troop, clan, gaggle, battery, deck, class, den, belt, armada, army, herd, convoy, fleet, athletics, physics, and economics. The rule of thumb is that it’s a collective noun if the term is used to identify one entire category, group, association, or school of thought.

Proper names of countries are also considered collective nouns and should take the singular case:

Indonesia is recovering from a recent earthquake.

However, if you’re talking about the specific people of a country, you are then looking at a plural case, because you are no longer focusing on the country itself, but its people:

The people of Indonesia are recovering from a recent earthquake.

These last few examples will come into play when we discuss subject/verb agreement later in the chapter, because this is a common grammatical bugaboo on these types of tests.

Pronouns

These are words that stand in the place of nouns. He, she, it, they, and we are all pronouns. It’s important to note that pronouns fall into several categories, and many are subject to singular and plural cases.

The following table explains the different types of pronouns, what they do in a sentence, as well as their singular and plural forms. This is a good table to memorize if you’re not comfortable with how pronouns are used.

Verbs

These are words that show action or some state of being. A sentence needs to have a verb to be considered a sentence. Although verbs are a necessary part of our language, they can also be very tricky.

Verbs in their base form are called infinitives and are preceded by the word to. Changing a verb from its base form into some other form is called conjugation. These are good terms to know for your exam.

There are several types of verbs and tenses in which they are used. Most verb issues you’ll see on your entrance exam will have to do with subject/verb agreement, which is discussed later in this chapter. (You can find a more detailed explanation of verb tenses on the Word Power website: www.wordpower.ws/grammar/gramtoc.html.)

Verbs that you’re likely to see on your entrance exams include the following:

Regular verbs: These are the types of verbs you’re most familiar with: to walk, to play, to sing, and to dance are all verbs because each shows action. Regular verbs don’t change all that much when you change their tense. It’s usually just a matter of adding an –ed or an –s to the end of the word, or including will before the verb. For example:

B Present tense: I fast

B Past tense: I fasted

B Future tense: I will fast

Irregular verbs: These are verbs that change completely when you go from tense to tense. The verb to be is a classic example. Depending on the subject of the sentence, its present tense can be am, are, or is, which are very different from the base form. When you conjugate the verb “to be,” things get really interesting:

B Present tense: I am

B Past tense: I was

B Future tense: I will be

There are hundreds of irregular verbs in the English language—and they’re usually the ones that you have to think twice about how to use correctly in a sentence. Do, go,know, swim, break, dig, cast, get, have, hear, bear, mistake, prove, sell, sing, wake, and sling are just a few. Georgia State University has a great list of irregular verbs and their conjugations at success.students.gsu.edu/download/irregular-verbs/?wpdmdl=931&ind=0.

Adjectives

Nouns, pronouns, and verbs tell you who is doing what in a sentence; adjectives tell you when and/or how it’s done. These words are used to describe or modify a noun or pronoun. They provide context for you, the reader, and add color to language.

For example, which of the following sentences is more descriptive?

I walked down the driveway.

I walked down the slick, wet driveway.

The second sentence tells you much more about what’s going on because of the two adjectives (slick and wet); they modify our understanding of the state of the driveway, which is why adjectives are often called modifiers.

Pay attention to whom or what the adjective in a sentence is referring when you’re tackling a grammar question on your exam. The adjective usually comes before the noun or pronoun it modifies, but not always, and that’s where errors happen. When you see an adjective, ask yourself what it’s describing and look to see if its placement in the sentence is conveying that relationship.

Adverbs

Adverbs work just like adjectives. But where adjectives only apply to nouns and pronouns, adverbs modify just about everything else: verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

To figure out if a word is an adjective or an adverb, identify what word within the sentence it’s modifying. If it’s a noun or a pronoun, then you definitely have an adjective. If it’s anything else, it’s an adverb.

Prepositions

The last part of speech we’re going to talk about is the preposition. Like the verb, this can be a rather tricky part of a sentence to deal with in terms of proper grammar. Prepositions link nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other words in a sentence by describing some kind of relationship (location, time, logic, etc.).

Look at the following sentence:

I left my groceries in the trunk of the car.

What are the prepositions? If you said in and of, you’re right, because these words begin a phrase that defines a specific relationship—a prepositional phrase to be precise.

You would have enough for a complete sentence with just “I left my groceries” (subject, predicate, and direct object). It’s the prepositional phrase (defined in the next section) that describes where the groceries were left. There are two prepositional phrases here, and they build on each other to give the reader a more precise description of where the groceries were left than one would alone: “in the trunk” and “of the car.”

There are about 150 prepositions in the English language, which unfortunately you just have to memorize in order to recognize. Some include about, above, across, after, before, beneath, down, for, in, instead of, on, off, since, through, and with.

Common Errors

Now that you’re refreshed on the building blocks of our language and up to speed with definitions and concepts you’ll need to identify examples of each, it’s time to move on to the types of grammatical errors that are often seen on nursing school entrance exams. We’re also going to further build up your understanding of parts of speech within this section. But first, let’s look at some basic terms and examples of sentence structures. You can find a more detailed look at these structures at http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar.

Parts of a Sentence

Type	Function	Example
Subject	Shows what’s performing the action in the sentence. Can be simple (just the subject with no modifiers) or compound (more than one subject for one verb).	Simple: High school seniors wrote letters to pen pals.
		Compound: Bill and Amy wrote letters to pen pals.
Predicate	Shows the action the subject is performing. Can be simple (just the verb or verb string) or compound (more than one verb for one subject).	Simple: High school seniors wrote letters to pen pals.
		Compound: Bill and Amy wrote letters to pen pals and sent them out.
Direct object	Shows who or what receives the action in the sentence.	High school seniors wrote letters to pen pals.
Indirect object	Shows to whom or for what the action is performed.	High school seniors wrote letters to pen pals.
Clause	A group of words that has a subject and a verb. Can be independent (can stand alone as a sentence) or dependent (can’t stand alone; depends on the rest of the sentence for meaning).	Independent: High school seniors wrote letters to pen pals.
		Dependent: High school seniors were writing letters when the bell rang.
Phrase	A group of words that doesn’t have a subject and a verb but acts as a unit.	While in English class, high school seniors wrote letters to pen pals.
Prepositional phrase	Phrase that has a preposition, a noun/pronoun as the direct object, and sometimes a modifier.	Bill and Amy mailed their letters before going to lunch.
Comma	Punctuation that separates sentence structures to make them more manageable to read. Some rules for commas: to introduce a sentence, to indicate a pause in reading, to separate two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, or to separate items in a list (like this one).	Introduce a sentence: Come, take a look.
		Separate independent clauses: Bill and Amy mailed their letters, and they went to lunch.
Semicolon	Use a semicolon when you need to connect two related independent clauses or separate items in a list that contains commas.	Two related independent clauses: Bill and Amy mailed their letters; they went together.
		List with commas: They took with them a package, which was handmade; a card; and stamps.
Colon	A colon is used when joining two independent clauses and you want to emphasize the second of the two. Also use after an independent clause to indicate to your reader that you are starting a list, a quotation, an example, or another related idea.	Emphasize second clause: Bill and Amy mailed the letters: they went together in his car.
		Starting a list: They took with them: a card, a package, stamps, and scissors.

Subject/Verb Agreement

Let’s start this discussion with two basic concepts:

1. Sentences can be written from three perspectives:
   • ✽ First person: The speaker of the sentence is the subject: I walked the dog. I see the light.
   • ✽ Second person: The speaker is addressing someone specific (you): You walked the dog. You see the light.
   • ✽ Third person: The speaker is detached from the subject (he/she/it): He walked the dog. He sees the light.
2. Subjects and verbs can also be singular or plural, as discussed earlier in this chapter.

The most important thing to remember is that subjects and verbs must always agree in number and person. This is an extremely common error you’ll see on grammar sections of nursing school entrance exams and is also very easy to spot. More often than not, these sentences will not “sound” right to you. Although some of the examples you’ll see are rather obvious, others are not. Look out for these three following errors:

1. Distance between your subject and verb: When there are a lot of words between your subject and verb, it’s very easy to get confused as to whether or not they agree.

   Example: The king, after a long and drawn-out speech, finally named his successor.

   TEST TIP

   Sometimes you’ll find that your subject and verb are reversed in a sentence. It doesn’t matter where they’re placed, they still have to agree.

   Quick fix: Cross out all the words in between so that your verb directly follows your subject. Then check if they agree. If you get rid of everything between the subject and verb in the previous example, you’ll find that they do, in fact, agree: The king named his successor.

2. Compound subjects: With more than one component in a subject, it’s hard to figure out if it’s singular or plural sometimes. The rules are pretty simple, though:
   • ✽ If the nouns in the subject are connected with and, treat them like they’re plural in most cases: The bathroom door and the garage are closed.
   • ✽ If they’re connected with an or or a nor, the verb agrees with the last noun’s case: Either the bathroom door or the garages are next on the list.

   Quick fix: Ask yourself if you could replace the compound subject with the pronoun they. If you can, then your subject is plural. If you can’t, your subject is singular.

3. Collective nouns: We discussed these earlier in the chapter, but it’s worth revisiting when discussing subject/verb agreement. Collective nouns are generally singular and take singular verbs.

   Quick fix: When you’re facing a collective noun that looks like it’s plural, stop to think about what it’s really referring to. For example: Mechanics is a specialization within physical science. This sentence might sound strange, but it’s correct because mechanics is referring to a field of science and not the plural form of mechanic.

Ambiguous Pronoun

Just as with subjects and verbs, pronouns need to agree with their antecedent. You can’t have a singular noun in the subject and its plural pronoun later in the sentence. But very often there will be a lot of distance between antecedent and pronoun, making it seem like the pronoun agrees, when it really doesn’t.

Example: The fire crackled throughout the evening, and it was very pleasant.

Quick fix: If there is a pronoun in the latter part of the sentence, match it up with its antecedent. More often than not, you’ll find that something doesn’t match up or that it’s not clear which noun the pronoun is replacing. Look at the previous example; what does “it” refer to? It’s hard to tell, isn’t it? When you see things like this on the test, look for answer choices that fix this error.

Misplaced Modifier

These can be kind of funny little mistakes in grammar that we often overlook in our own writing. When this happens, a modifier within a sentence is not placed where it needs to be to modify its intended word or phrase.

Example: The tree was struck by lightning from the grove.

In the previous sentence, the prepositional phrase “from the grove” is meant to modify “the tree.” But its place in the sentence makes it seem like it is modifying “lightning” instead, which doesn’t make sense.

Another example of a misplaced modifier is known as the dangling modifier. This happens when a sentence begins with a phrase that ends in a comma, and the noun that follows is not what the phrase is modifying.

Example: In the gorgeous velvet gown, he felt like a king watching his queen enter the room.

Unless the man in this sentence was wearing that gorgeous velvet gown while he felt like a king, that opening phrase is not modifying the correct noun. Chances are it was the woman entering the room in that gown that made him feel like a king.

Quick fix: Look for answer choices that reword the opening phrase, change what’s being modified, or move the modifier to a position in the sentence where it is clear what it is modifying.

Commas in Compound Sentences

You already know all about simple sentences: subject + verb = complete thought. You’ve been dealing with them all of your life. But there are other kinds of sentences out there, and you’re going to have to deal with them on your exam. One in particular is the compound sentence, which is a sentence made up of two independent clauses that are joined with a coordinating conjunction.

Example: Tori went to her interview, and Casey dropped off the baby.

Quick fix: If your sentence has two complete ideas that can stand by themselves, look to see how they are separated. There should be a comma at the end of the first independent clause and before the coordinating conjunction.

Run-On Sentences

Run-on sentences are usually suffering from a lack of proper punctuation. When you have a sentence that has two or more independent clauses that are not joined with an appropriate conjunction or punctuation, it’s a run-on.

Example: The rain washed away all of the chalk on the ground and that made the kids really upset they broke all the chalk.

Quick fix: If your sentence is long and complicated, look to see if it could be a run-on. In this sentence, you have three independent clauses that need separating: a comma between “ground” and “and” and a semicolon between “upset” and “they.”

Fragments

Sentence fragments are just the opposite of run-ons. Instead of having too much information or too many words, these beauties don’t have enough. A fragment is basically a dependent clause that stands alone.

Example: Broke into the hotel room.

Quick fix: Look to see if your sentence has a subject and a verb. If one is missing (like the subject is here), it’s a fragment. To fix it, add the missing structure.

Preposition Placement

According to the rules of grammar, you should not end a sentence with a preposition. When writing informally, however, you do this all the time because it’s commonly accepted and understood. If you notice, we write this way throughout this book. The reason? Our tone and purpose is to communicate with you as if we were having a conversation. Nursing school entrance exams don’t care about this, though. They want to know that you know what the rules are and that you can correct these formal errors.

Example: That’s the person I want to rehearse with.

Quick fix: Here is where knowing what a preposition is will help you get through a question pretty quickly. If you see a grammar question that has a sentence with a preposition as the last word, you will probably have to reword the sentence to change this. In this example, “with” is a preposition and should not be at the end of the sentence. Correct by rewording: That’s the person with whom I want to rehearse.

Spelling

When it comes to spelling, there’s not much more you can do to prepare for your exam except memorize some basic rules, recognize correct spellings, and practice using them. The following chart gives you an overview of some important rules to learn and remember during your exam.

Basic Spelling Rules

Rule	Example/Exceptions
I comes before e in a word, except after c, or if together they make the ay sound.	receive, weigh, believe, relief, deign, freight Exceptions: neither, either, height, seize, weird
When a word ends in y, change y to i and then add the suffix. Exception: When the suffix is -ing, or when a vowel comes before the y.	marry>married supply>supplied Exceptions: marry>marrying convey>conveyed
Drop the silent e at the end of a word when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. Exception: If the word ends in -ce or -ge and the suffix begins with an a, o, or u, or when a vowel comes before the silent e.	advise>advising care>caring Exceptions: advantage> advantageous see>seeing
You don’t change anything in the base word when you add a suffix that begins with a consonant.	advise>advisement father>fatherhood
Double the consonant when you add a vowel suffix to a word that ends in an accented short vowel sound or a modified vowel sound.	Accented short vowel: forbid>forbidding Modified vowel sound: Flip>flipped

Commonly Confused Words

Here is a sampling of words that are commonly confused, which leads to misuse and misspelling in writing. But don’t worry—we also give you some tricks to help you keep them straight. Weber State University has a more comprehensive list at https://bit.ly/2PspPYA.

Accept/Except: To accept means to receive something. To except means to exclude something. To remember the difference, think of the ex as the differentiator: Your ex is excluded from your life.

Affect/Effect: The difference between these two words is their parts of speech. Affect is a verb that means to have an effect on something or to stir up emotion. Effect is a noun that refers to a result, force, impact, or appearance. Good association: The movie’s special effects did not affect the audience. In the sentence, affect is the verb.

Allude/Elude: Allude means to reference something. Elude means to try to avoid or get away. To tell the difference, think “to elude is to evade.”

Alright/All Right: Alright is the more modern, informal version of all right— most likely used to shorten the intent of the phrase in writing. Language tests like the ones you’ll be taking soon, however, are looking for formal use of language and grammar. For the purposes of the exam, go long, not short, and stick with all right.

Complement/Compliment: Complement means to go with something, like colors that complement each other or a specific wine that complements the flavors in your meal. Compliment is when you say something nice to someone.

Elicit/Illicit: Elicit is a verb that means to cause or generate. Illicit is an adjective that describes something illegal. Use that “ill” as your association: illicit = illegal.

Farther/Further: Farther is used when discussing distance. Remember this by looking at the smaller word far, which implies distance. Further means to progress.

Imply/Infer: When you imply, you communicate information without stating it outright. When you infer, you are taking in information and drawing a conclusion based on it. The difference is with imply you communicate outward, and with infer you communicate inward.

Insure/Ensure: Insure means to place insurance on something. Ensure means to make sure or make certain. Remember: insure = insurance.

Its/It’s: Its is an exception to the possessive pronoun rule. The reason for this is because it’s is a contraction that combines it and is. Therefore, its is the possessive form of it. Think of it like his and hers, which are also possessive pronouns that don’t get apostrophes.

Less/Fewer: Use less when you’re referring to something that can’t be measured in quantity: less friction. Use fewer when you’re referring to something that can be measured in quantity: fewer doughnuts.

Than/Then: Than indicates some kind of comparison (greater than). Then indicates time.

There/Their/They’re: There refers to a place (here is a smaller word within it to remind you). Their is a possessive pronoun. They’re is a contraction of they and are.

Wary/Weary: Wary means to be alert to what’s going on around you. Weary means tired.

Who/That: Who indicates a person or animal. That refers to a thing or group.

Your/You’re: Your is a possessive pronoun. You’re is a contraction that combines you and are.

Practice Questions

For each of the following questions, choose the best answer from the choices provided.

1. What is the adverb in the following sentence?
   1. I was barely three years old when I broke my wrist.
   1. (A) I
   2. (B) broke
   3. (C) barely
   4. (D) wrist
2. Choose the word that is spelled incorrectly:
   1. (A) calendar
   2. (B) begger
   3. (C) boundaries
   4. (D) despair
3. What is the subject of the following sentence?
   1. Eliza’s death was tragic.
   1. (A) Eliza
   2. (B) Eliza’s death
   3. (C) death
   4. (D) tragic
4. What punctuation is needed to correct this sentence?
   1. Where can I put my bag
   1. (A) question mark
   2. (B) comma
   3. (C) semicolon
   4. (D) colon
5. Which word will make the following sentence grammatically correct?
   1. Mark and Jim played cards and talked about going to the gym; then ___________ got into the car and left.
   1. (A) him
   2. (B) them
   3. (C) his
   4. (D) they
6. Which verb tense is shown in the following sentence?
   1. George brought a sandwich to work today for lunch.
   1. (A) past
   2. (B) present
   3. (C) future
   4. (D) present perfect
7. Which word in the following sentence is used incorrectly?
   1. There was no one in the warehouse accept Louis and me.
   1. (A) one
   2. (B) in
   3. (C) was
   4. (D) accept
8. Which is the correct pronoun to stand in for South Korea in the latter part of the following sentence?
   1. South Korea hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1988, and ___________ has bid for the chance to host again several times since then.
   1. (A) they
   2. (B) it
   3. (C) we
   4. (D) our
9. Which of the answer choices is grammatically correct?
   1. (A) Offending the queen, the general removed the foul-mouthed protester from the meeting room.
   2. (B) Because he offended the queen, the general removed the foul-mouthed protester from the room.
   3. (C) Because he offended the queen, the foul-mouthed protester was removed from the room.
   4. (D) Because the general offended the queen, the foul-mouthed protester was removed from the room.
10. Which word pair would make the following sentence grammatically correct?
    1. After deciding to get some air, the pair of friends ran into a group of teenagers swimming _____________ pool.
    1. (A) in the
    2. (B) in their
    3. (C) on the
    4. (D) under the
11. What kind of error is present in the following sentence?
    1. Like the sands of time.
    1. (A) run-on sentence
    2. (B) sentence fragment
    3. (C) subject/verb agreement
    4. (D) ambiguous pronoun
12. What punctuation is needed to correct this sentence?
    1. Adrienne melted the chocolate first then she added the cream to the pot.
    1. (A) a comma between “Adrienne” and “melted”
    2. (B) a semicolon between “first” and “then”
    3. (C) a comma between “first” and “then”v
    4. (D) a comma after “then”
13. Choose the word that is spelled correctly:
    1. (A) tempermental
    2. (B) synonomous
    3. (C) yield
    4. (D) resevoir
14. Which form of the verb to be would make this sentence grammatically correct?
    1. Either Jack or Wilson ___________ coming to the picnic.
    1. (A) are
    2. (B) am
    3. (C) be
    4. (D) is
15. Choose the word that is spelled incorrectly:
    1. (A) tyrany
    2. (B) separation
    3. (C) irresistible
    4. (D) acclaim

Answers and Explanations

1. C. When looking for adverbs, look for words that end in ly first. Barely modifies the verb was, which makes it the adverb. Answers A and D are nouns. Answer B is a verb.
2. B. This choice should be spelled beggar.
3. B. It might be tempting to choose A or D as your answer, but the subject isn’t talking about Eliza or death alone; it’s talking about Eliza’s death, which makes it the subject.
4. A. Where is an interrogative pronoun. If you associate the word interrogate with TV crime shows where the cops question witnesses, you already know what this means. Interrogative pronouns indicate a question. Therefore, a question mark is the appropriate punctuation.
5. D. “Mark and Jim” is your subject. In fact, it’s a compound subject connected by and, which makes it plural. Thus, it takes a plural pronoun.
6. A. Brought is the past form of bring.
7. D. You want except here. Accept is a verb, so it doesn’t make sense where it’s placed in the sentence. Plus, except means to exclude, which is what the sentence is trying to convey: Louis and me are the only ones left in the warehouse and are thus excluded from whoever already left.
8. B. This is a collective noun issue. Your subject is South Korea, which as a country has bid to host the Olympics. Your pronoun needs to be singular, and it is the only one that is.
9. C. This is a misplaced modifier issue. Who offended the queen? The protester. This needs to come directly after the introductory phrase, which eliminates Answers A and B. Answer D is wrong because it doesn’t make sense and this construction changes the meaning of the sentence.
10. A. If you chose Answer B, you’re putting an ambiguous pronoun in the sentence. Does the pool belong to the pair of friends or to the teenagers? You don’t know if you add in their as a pronoun here, which makes it not a good choice. The other two choices don’t make sense.
11. B. There is no verb in this sentence, which makes it a fragment.
12. B. You have two independent clauses here and no coordinating conjunction. This calls for a semicolon.
13. C. Temperamental, synonymous, and reservoir are the correct spellings for the other options.
14. D. You have either as an indefinite pronoun. Because of this, you know that a verb is needed that agrees with the part of the subject closest to the verb.
15. A. It is spelled tyranny.