Finding nouns as subjects and objects

A noun is a person, place, or thing. It’s important to clarify that “things” don’t necessarily have to be physical objects — for our purposes here, concepts and ideas are also “things.” Thus, words like “justice,” “honor,” “hunger,” and “love” (when they’re not acting as verbs, of course) are also nouns. Three types of objects that you may see on the Praxis that function as nouns are direct objects, which receive the action of action verbs; indirect objects, which receive the action of the verb when the sentence also contains a direct object; and objects of the preposition, which follow the preposition in a prepositional phrase. (We explain objects in more detail later in this chapter.)

A noun (along with a verb) is one of the two parts of speech that every sentence has to have in order to be a complete sentence. (Commands that consist solely of verbs, such as “Help!” or “Stop!”, are still complete sentences because the subject is implied to be whomever the speaker is addressing.)

Although nouns are the bedrock of any language, we don’t need to talk too much about them, because the Praxis doesn’t try to trip you up where nouns are concerned. There’s really only one noun-related trick or difficulty that you need to watch out for: Although the subject of a sentence is always a noun, and you may be used to thinking of “the subject” as meaning “whoever or whatever the sentence is about,” that’s actually not the most efficient way to locate the subject of a sentence in grammatical terms. For example, in the sentence “One of my best friends is a lawyer,” the subject isn’t “friends” or “lawyer” — it’s “one.” (For more tips on this issue, consult the section “The sentence skeleton: Identifying the main subject and verb” later in this chapter.)

Putting verbs to work

Verbs are “action words.” Along with nouns, they’re one of the two parts of speech that you absolutely need in order to have a complete sentence (and in a command, a verb can be a complete sentence all by itself).

Using adjectives to describe people, places, and things

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. You probably don’t have too much difficulty spotting an adjective when you see one, and in any case, the Praxis doesn’t ask you to simply pick out all the adjectives in a given sentence, so we can get right to discussing the adjective-related tricks that the test does use.

When it comes to the Praxis writing test, the most common adjective-related trick is to substitute an adjective for an adverb, or vice versa, in an effort to see whether you catch the mistake. Look out for this trick, especially on those “no error” questions wherein four portions of a given sentence are underlined, and you have to indicate which portion contains an error or select “no error” if the sentence is correct. Anytime you see an adjective or an adverb underlined by itself on such a question, you should always double-check to insure that the word in question is being used correctly.

The reason this trick is possible to play, of course, is because most (but not all) adjectives can be turned into adverbs with the addition of “-ly.” Examine, for example, the roles of the adjective quick and the adverb quickly in the similar sentences: “The quick dog ran up the hill” and “The dog ran quickly up the hill.” True to their respective functions, the adjective modifies a noun (dog), and the adverb modifies a verb (ran). The Praxis tries to trick you by giving you a sentence in which the words that are supposed to agree are not right next to each other. If, for example, you encountered the sentence “The dog ran up the hill quick,” it may be less immediately noticeable that quick should be quickly. (Even though quick is next to the noun hill, the intent of the word is still to modify the verb; therefore, it must be an adverb, because adjectives cannot modify verbs.)

And if the Praxis really wants to get tricky, it will throw a participial verb form into the mix, so that you have to figure out whether the “-ing” word is a noun (in which case it should be modified by an adjective) or a verb (in which case it should be modified by an adverb). Consider the differences between these two correct sentences:

• Constant dancing has worn out my shoes.
• My shoes are worn out because I am constantly dancing.

In the first sentence, dancing is a gerund (and the subject of the sentence), so it is modified with the adjective constant. In the second sentence, dancing is a verb in the present-progressive tense, so it’s modified with the adverb constantly. Pretty sneaky, huh?

Not all adverbs end in “-ly,” not all adjectives can be turned into adverbs by adding “-ly,” and some words that end in “-ly” are adjectives (adverbs are discussed in more detail in the next section). Take adjectives of number, for example. Five is an adjective in the sentence “There are five cupcakes on the table” (it modifies a noun, after all), but there’s no such word as fively. Old is an adjective in “The old forest is beautiful,” but the forest can’t do something oldly, because no such word exists. Elderly is a word, but guess what? It’s an adjective — as is elder, making elder/elderly one of the few cases where a word and the same word with “-ly” attached are both adjectives, albeit ones with different meanings: The first is a comparative adjective meaning “older (than someone else),” and the second just means “old.” If that isn’t enough to blow your mind, note that “beautiful” in the sentence about the forest is, of course, also an adjective, despite the fact that it comes next to the verb is.

Don’t try to determine whether a word is (or should be) an adjective or an adverb based on how it’s spelled or what it looks like. Instead, look at the job it is doing in the sentence — that is, whether it’s modifying a noun/pronoun or a verb (unless the verb is a form of “to be”).

The last bit of adjective-related funny business concerns punctuation. In the sentence “The three young French girls are charming,” you may notice something odd: There are no commas in the sentence, even though the noun girls has three adjectives in front of it. You’ve presumably been taught that you need commas when multiple adjectives modify the same noun (as in “The hairy, hungry, faithful dog ran up the hill”), so what’s going on here?

Certain types of adjectives don’t need to be separated by commas when they appear in a series before a noun — in this case, our exceptions are “adjectives of number,” “adjectives of age,” and “adjectives of nationality.” Adjectives of size are another exception: You wouldn’t put a comma between big and American in “the big American ship,” would you? (Nor, for example, would you ever say “the American big ship,” because another convention dictates that adjectives of nationality must immediately precede the noun.)

Trust your ear. Although memorizing rules certainly has its place when it comes to grammar, it’s not always the most efficient strategy. You may not have known that there were any rules about adjective order, but if you had heard someone say, “the Japanese old five cars,” it would have sounded wrong to you, right? You would have simply sensed that it should be “the five old Japanese cars,” for some reason you couldn’t explain. When you have an instinct like that, following it is usually more reliable than racking your brain for a rule. Speakers of a language — especially native speakers — often sense rules that may never have been explained to them. Cool, huh?

Calling on adverbs to describe actions and conditions

Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs — and they don’t need to be anywhere near the words they modify to get the job done. All things considered, adverbs are probably the most versatile part of speech. They can look many different ways, they can perform many different jobs, and they can appear just about anywhere in the sentence. In short, whenever you find yourself looking at a word and wondering “What the heck part of speech is this word?” the safe bet is that it’s an adverb.

Just consider the following three correct sentences:

• I studied tirelessly all night. (Tirelessly is an adverb modifying the verb studied.)
• The movie was very sad. (Very is an adverb modifying the adjective sad.)
• I handled the dynamite extremely gently. (Extremely is an adverb modifying the other adverb gently, which is modifying the verb handled.)

In those examples, two of the adverbs end in “-ly,” and the one that doesn’t is still fairly easy to spot as an adverb, because very means the same thing as extremely.

But adverbs can disguise themselves much more confusingly than that. They can even look like nouns. For example, in the sentence “I’m going to a concert tonight,” the word tonight is an adverb. Why? Because it is doing the job of an adverb. If I asked you to describe what the word tonight is doing in that sentence, you’d probably say that it’s modifying (or adding more information to) the word going (namely, it answers the question of when the speaker is going). And because going is a verb, the word that modifies it must therefore be an adverb.

When it comes to adverbs, be aware that they are masters of disguise. Never try to pick out adverbs based on what they look like. Instead, look at what the word in question is modifying. If it’s modifying a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, it’s an adverb, no matter what it looks like.

In cases where the word looks so little like an adverb that you simply can’t believe it is one, a good way to double-check is to substitute a word that does look like an adverb and see whether it can do the same job. For example, if you alter the sentence “I’m going to a concert tonight” to read “I’m going to a concert excitedly” or “I’m going to a concert cheerfully,” you can see that all three sentences are grammatically correct and that excitedly and cheerfully are clearly adverbs. Therefore, tonight must be an adverb too, because it occupies the space in the sentence that needs to be occupied by an adverb.

Getting the lowdown on pronouns

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Pronouns were created to avoid repetition of nouns. Think about the repetitive nature of the following sentence:

Richard went to the store and bought Richard some bread, and then Richard drove to another store where Richard often shops.

Now look at what pronouns can do:

Richard went to the store and bought himself some bread, and then he drove to another store where he often shops.

The words “himself” and “he” are pronouns, and they take the place of the noun “Richard” three times in the preceding sentence. The most common pronouns — and the ones that are probably the most familiar to you — are the personal pronouns. Basically, personal pronouns represent specific people and things and work as substitutes for their specific names.

When it comes to pronouns on the Praxis, there are two tricks you have to watch out for: singular versus plural, and subjective case versus objective case. Table 12-1 summarizes these properties, and we go into these properties in more detail in the following sections.

Considering conjunctions

Conjunctions link parts of a sentence together (think conjoin), be they individual words (as in “I bought bread and eggs”) or entire clauses (as in “I went cycling on Saturday, and I went swimming on Sunday”). In addition to the “big three” conjunctions — and, but, and or — some other common ones are so, yet, and nor. (For can also be a conjunction, but most of the time, for is a preposition, as in “The telephone call was for you.”)

The seven words discussed in the preceding paragraph are the only seven coordinating conjunctions, which you can remember with the mnemonic FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). But there are many more subordinating conjunctions (because, since, although, when, unless, while, and until are just a few).

So, what’s the difference? When two clauses are linked with a coordinating conjunction, the conjunction can only go in the middle, whereas a subordinating conjunction may appear at the beginning of a sentence or between two clauses in a sentence.

In terms of taking the Praxis writing test, why do you need to know this? The answer is “commas.” Questions on the Praxis writing exam expect you to know where commas do or don’t go. In fact, in the questions that underline four portions of a sentence and instruct you to pick the portion that contains an error (or select “no error” if there are no errors), occasionally a single comma by itself is underlined as one of the four choices, so you need to know whether a comma belongs in that spot. And knowledge of conjunction rules plays a big part in knowing where commas should or shouldn’t go.

So, say you have two independent clauses: “I studied hard” and “I aced the test.” Now say you want to link them with a conjunction. If you want to link them with a coordinating conjunction, there’s only one way to do that: Put the coordinating conjunction in the middle and place a comma before the conjunction (“I studied hard, so I aced the test”). Keep in mind that if you don’t have the comma, or if you have the comma but not the conjunction, the sentence is incorrect.

It is incorrect to place a comma before a coordinating conjunction unless the coordinating conjunction links two independent clauses (compare “I like watching TV and playing video games” and “I like watching TV, and I like playing video games”) or precedes the last item in a series (compare “I invited James, Tom, Scott, and Brian”).

If, on the other hand, you feel like linking the two clauses with a subordinating conjunction, you have two options: Either put the subordinate clause second and don’t use a comma, or put the subordinate clause first and use a comma (either “I aced the test because I studied hard” or “Because I studied hard, I aced the test). Keep in mind that if you include the comma when the subordinate clause comes second or omit the comma when the subordinate clause comes first, the sentence is incorrect.

Perusing prepositions

You hear a lot about prepositions in the section on pronouns, because it talks about how pronouns should be in the objective case when they’re the object of either a verb or a preposition. Of course, that knowledge isn’t much help if you don’t know a preposition when you see one.

So, what is a preposition? It’s a word that provides information about the relationship of words to each other in time and space: before and after are prepositions, for example, as are over and under. (The “time and space” rule is not absolute, however. About is one example of a preposition that does not relate to relationships in time and space, as in “The movie was about skateboarders.” Oh, and be aware that about can also be an adverb meaning approximately, as in “The movie was about two hours long.”)

There are too many prepositions for you to simply memorize all of them, but a handy, short list includes the following: aboard, about, above, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but (when used like except, as in “I want everything but anchovies on the pizza”; the rest of the time, it’s a conjunction), by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like (when used to mean similarly to or such as, as in “He looks like my cousin” or “Some countries, like Switzerland, are landlocked”), near, of, off, on, over, past, since (when used to signify the last time something occurred, as in “I haven’t seen him since Monday”), through, throughout, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, and without.

Many people find it helpful to refer to prepositions as “squirrel words,” meaning that they represent things a squirrel can do: The squirrel ran around the room; the squirrel ran under the table; the squirrel jumped over the chair; the squirrel crawled inside my desk; the squirrel ran down the hallway, past the water fountain, and through the door; and so on.

Most preposition-related questions on the Praxis writing exam involve determining whether the pronoun should be in the subjective or objective case. The only other common type of preposition question on the Praxis concerns preposition selection itself. Occasionally, a “no error” question will have a preposition underlined by itself, and you’re expected to know whether the preposition is being used correctly in that context or whether another preposition would be better. Consider these examples:

• Correct: “I’m obsessed with grammar.”
• Incorrect: “I’m obsessed on grammar.”
  
  
• Correct: “The movie was based on the book.”
• Incorrect: “The movie was based about the book.”

So, whenever you see a preposition underlined by itself on a “no error” question, make sure it’s the best one to use in that context. Unfortunately, preposition usage in English is largely idiomatic, which is the fancy word for “you say it that way because you just do.” Think about it: Why do you say “in the morning” but “at night?”, or “get in the car” but “get on the plane?” You just do.

Many prepositions can also function as other parts of speech, so the mere presence of a word that, in some instances, can be a preposition doesn’t necessarily mean that the pronoun following it should be in the objective case. (Compare “I get to use the bike after him,” in which after is a preposition, to “After he is done using it, I get the bike,” in which after is a subordinating conjunction.) As mentioned earlier, but and since are two more words that can be either prepositions or conjunctions, and the incredibly versatile word like can actually function as any part of speech except a pronoun!

If you want to memorize many of the most common prepositions, do an Internet search for “prepositions Jingle Bells.” There’s a song setting a list of prepositions to the tune of “Jingle Bells” that’s incredibly helpful and quite easy to memorize.

Independent clauses versus everything else

Independent clause is the fancy name for “a group of words that can stand as a complete sentence by itself.” Some sentences consist of a single independent clause, while others consist of an independent clause joined to one or more other types of clauses or phrases. Still others consist of two or more independent clauses joined to one another, or of two or more independent clauses joined to one or more other types of clauses or phrases, and so on. From a strictly grammatical standpoint, you can combine as many clauses and phrases as you like into a single sentence, as long as you combine them according to the rules.

Take the sentence “I eat popcorn.” It is both an independent clause and a complete sentence. But say you want to make this sentence a little more interesting, so you change it to “I eat popcorn at the movies.” At the movies is a prepositional phrase (which you can tell by the fact that at is a preposition). It’s not divided from your initial independent clause with commas, and you can say that it’s now part of your independent clause, even though it’s not an essential part — you can get rid of it and still have a complete sentence. Now suppose you expand the sentence yet again, to read “Every Tuesday, I eat popcorn at the movies.” Now you have an adverbial phrase at the beginning, followed by a comma, because it precedes the independent clause. Now say you expand the sentence even further, to read “Every Tuesday, if I’m hungry, I eat popcorn at the movies.” This time, you’ve added a dependent clause: “I’m hungry” could be a complete sentence by itself, but here, it’s bonded to the subordinating conjunction if, so the clause is dependent. You now have multiple subjects and verbs in the sentence, but the main subject and verb of the whole sentence are still “I eat,” from your initial independent clause. Anything that isn’t an independent clause is considered a fragment, which doesn’t generate a complete thought.

The sentence skeleton: Identifying the main subject and verb

Don’t worry: You don’t actually need to know the difference between one type of phrase and another to answer any questions on the Praxis writing test. You do, however, need to be pretty good at quickly identifying the main subject and verb of a sentence. The ability to do this is useful when it comes to answering all sorts of grammar questions, and being familiar with the terms independent clauses, dependent clauses, and phrases makes the task easier (the preceding section gives you the lowdown on these terms).

In other words, you don’t technically need to know the fancy names for all the different types of “extra stuff” that can be in a sentence, but you do need to be able to tell the difference between the things that need to be there in order to have a complete sentence and the things that don’t.

So, okay, say you’re asked to identify the main subject and verb of this sentence:

According to biologists, one of the most endangered animals is the Javan rhinoceros.

If you correctly discerned that the subject is one and the verb is is, good job! The nouns in the sentence that jumped out at you were probably biologists, animals, and Javan rhinoceros, but none of these is the main subject. Why not? Well, biologists can’t be the subject of the sentence because it’s part of an introductory phrase rather than the main independent clause. Animals can’t be the subject because it’s part of a prepositional phrase (specifically, the one governed by of). And Javan rhinoceros can’t be the subject because it’s the object. That leaves you with one, the singular pronoun that serves as the subject of the sentence.

The use of the word one can sometimes be confusing in this case, as it is sometimes used as a numerical expression. However, one is an indefinite pronoun in the sentence, which is a predicate nominative for Javan rhinoceros. Other indefinite pronouns, such as all, many, or some could be substituted in its place and the sentence would still make sense.

As for the verb, not only is is the main verb, but it’s actually the only verb in the whole sentence! According to is an expression that works like a preposition, and endangered here is an adjective modifying animals.

No matter what sort of grammar question you’re dealing with, it’s always a good idea to ground yourself by first identifying the main subject and verb — what I call the “sentence skeleton,” because everything else in the sentence is constructed around it. You can get rid of everything in a sentence except the main independent clause (or, for that matter, the subject and verb of the main independent clause) and still have a complete sentence. The sentence won’t be as informative, but it will still be grammatically correct. And no word that’s located in one of the parts of the sentence you can get rid of can possibly be the main subject or main verb. For example, if you were to take all the prepositional phrases and clauses from the preceding sentence, you’d be left with the sentence, One is a Javan Rhinoceros.

Run-ons and comma splices

Although you probably remember the term run-on from school, you may not be 100 percent sure what it means. Many people mistakenly believe that a run-on sentence is just a sentence that is too long, but that’s not actually what the term means.

A run-on sentence is a sentence wherein two (or more, in especially messy cases) independent clauses have been placed next to each other without being properly joined. Just as the bones in your body need to be connected to one another with ligaments, independent clauses must be connected to one another with the proper combination of conjunctions and/or punctuation.

The run-on sentence’s ugly cousin is the comma splice. The comma splice is a run-on sentence that attempts to join two independent clauses with only a comma, when more than just a comma is necessary.

In short, both run-ons and comma splices are grammatical errors, and very similar ones — the difference is that a comma splice has a comma in it and a run-on doesn’t.

In case all that was about as clear as mud, here are some examples. Start by examining the correct, complete sentence “Shakespeare is my favorite writer, because his characters are the most memorable.” This sentence consists of two independent clauses (“Shakespeare is my favorite writer” and “his characters are the most memorable”), joined with the conjunction because and a comma before the conjunction. Using a comma and a conjunction is the most common way to correctly join two independent clauses. A comma splice is when the writer puts in just the comma without the conjunction, and a run-on is when the writer puts nothing at all between the two clauses, as in these sentences:

• Comma splice: “Shakespeare is my favorite writer, his characters are the most memorable.”
• Run-On: “Shakespeare is my favorite writer his characters are the most memorable.”

Most grammar tests for older students or adults don’t bother throwing in too many run-ons, because they’re easy to spot. But test-writers just love to throw comma splices at you! Learn to spot a comma splice from a mile away, and your score will shoot up significantly solely due to your acquiring that one skill!

Appositives: Interruptions to the independent clause

So far, we’ve been talking about independent clauses and other types of clauses and phrases that can be added onto the root independent clause. But in addition to all the non-independent clauses and phrases that can be added around the main independent clause, there’s one other type of extra information that can be added to a sentence, and it’s extra-tricky because it gets inserted into the main independent clause. It’s called an appositive.

Based on the information in the preceding sections, you may have been under the impression that the main subject and verb of a sentence — which may not be right next to each other — won’t be separated from each other by any commas, because commas are used to separate all the extra clauses and phrases from the central independent clause. And that’s true, unless the sentence contains an appositive. The good news is that, although they fall into an inconvenient location within the sentence, appositives at least have the decency to be set off with punctuation.

Examine the following sentences, in which the main subjects and main verbs appear in boldface:

• Jack, my youngest cousin, is a carpenter.
• The movie, though it wasn’t completely faithful to the book, made interesting choices.
• Most of the restaurants in this neighborhood, while they may not deliver or stay open very late, pride themselves on their affordability.

In all three examples, an additional descriptive phrase — an appositive — is inserted into the middle of the independent clause, between the subject and the verb. Appositives are usually set off with a pair of commas, though they can also be set off with a pair of dashes, as in the first sentence of this paragraph. Think of an appositive as being similar to a parenthetical remark but not quite inconsequential enough to actually appear in parentheses. It’s also worth noting that an appositive often (though not always) could easily have been placed elsewhere in the sentence: The first example sentence could just as easily have read “My youngest cousin Jack is a carpenter” as “Jack, my youngest cousin, is a carpenter.” But either way, the subject is still Jack and the verb is still is.

When you’re searching for the main subject and verb of a sentence, you may also have to lift out an appositive that splits the independent clause, in addition to brushing away all the other types of extra clauses and phrases that come before and after the independent clause.

Commas

It may be a little gross, but you may find it helpful to think of commas as the scars that are left when a sentence is operated on. The “operation” may be a “transplant,” wherein a portion of the sentence is moved elsewhere (for example, placing a subordinate clause before the main independent clause instead of after it), or it may be a “graft,” wherein two elements of a sentence are spliced together (for example, making two independent clauses into one sentence or adding extra information to an independent clause).

Comma placement is determined by what is happening at a given point in the sentence. There are six situations in which commas are necessary, which we outline in the following sections.

Semicolons

As far as the Praxis writing and virtually all other grammar tests are concerned, semicolons do one thing and one thing only: Namely, they separate two independent clauses within a single sentence. We’ve already talked about how two independent clauses can be joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction; the semicolon takes the place of both the comma and the coordinating conjunction. So, you can write either of the following sentences:

• I fed the cats, and now they like me.
• I fed the cats; now they like me.

When it comes to semicolons, that’s about it. If you see a semicolon on the test, check to make sure that the words both before and after it constitute independent clauses. If they do, the semicolon is being used correctly; if they don’t, it isn’t. (This doesn’t necessarily mean that an answer choice that uses a semicolon correctly is the right answer, because it may be wrong for some other reason — just that the semicolon isn’t the reason it’s wrong.)

Apostrophes

Unlike the other punctuation marks discussed in this section, apostrophes don’t separate parts of a sentence. Rather, they’re used within individual words for two reasons: to show contraction (as in “cannot” becoming “can’t”) and to indicate possession (as in “that is my friend’s car”). When it comes to contractions, the apostrophe goes where the missing letter or letters would be. The only tricky thing about this is distinguishing certain contractions from similar-sounding words that don’t have apostrophes (we discuss that in the upcoming section on homophones).

As for using apostrophes to indicate possession, that’s a little more complicated, but not exactly difficult. Here’s what you need to know:

• To make a singular word (not ending in “s”) possessive, add both an apostrophe and an “s,” with the apostrophe coming before the “s,” as in “I borrowed my cousin’s guitar.”
• To make a plural word ending in “s” possessive, add an apostrophe after the “s,” as in “My parents’ house is in the suburbs.”
• To make a plural word that does not end in “s” possessive, add both an apostrophe and an “s,” with the apostrophe coming before the “s,” as in: “That room is where we keep the children’s toys.”

Perhaps the most important apostrophe rule concerns what apostrophes are not used to do: Namely, they are never used to indicate pluralization. So, remember, it is not “My friend’s brought their guitar’s,” because friends and guitars in that sentence are simply plural and not possessive. Yes, the friends own the guitars, but the words themselves are not indicating possession from a grammatical perspective.

Which of the following sentences is correct?

(A) Needing to make an urgent call, Megan’s search for her phone charger was frantic.

(B) While playing football in the house, the lamp was broken.

(C) Confused by the directions, the gang drove around aimlessly.

(D) Never having met him before, I’m amazed you got along so well with Danny.

(E) Unlike some people, you can always depend on Gabriel.

The correct answer is Choice (C). “The gang” is who or what was “confused,” so this sentence places its subject in correct relation to its modifier (the fact that “the” precedes “gang” doesn’t matter). Choice (A) is wrong because, although the name “Megan” comes right after the comma, it is possessive, so the entire noun phrase is “Megan’s search” — and Megan’s search didn’t need to make a call; Megan herself did. Choice (B) is wrong because, although what the writer means to say is clear, the sentence as written means that the lamp was playing football, which it obviously wasn’t doing. Choice (D) is wrong because it’s clear from context that the person being addressed is the one who has never met Danny before, not the speaker, so “I’m” should not immediately follow the comma. Choice (E) is wrong because, although it’s clear from the context that reliable Gabriel is the one who is “unlike some people,” the sentence as written means that the person being addressed is the one who is “unlike some people,” which is presumably not what the speaker means to say.

Which of the following sentences contains an example of redundancy?

(A) The brisk wind swept across the hard surface of the frozen lake.

(B) Nobody had better tell me what I can’t do.

(C) I now see that the right time is now.

(D) Children will act the way that children will act.

(E) None of the above

The correct answer is Choice (E). None of the first four choices actually contains an example of redundancy. Choice (A) isn’t redundant because none of the adjectives are unnecessary: Not all winds are brisk, so adding that detail is fine; not all surfaces are hard, so this detail is fine to add; and not all lakes are frozen, so it’s fine to specify that this one is. Choice (B) isn’t redundant because, despite the presence of both nobody and can’t, it isn’t actually a double negative: The speaker doesn’t want anyone to tell her that she isn’t able (or permitted) to do something, so “Nobody had better tell me what I can’t do” is exactly what she means. Choice (C) isn’t redundant because the two uses of “now” don’t refer to the same thing: The right time is now (as opposed to some other time), and the speaker has only just realized this (as opposed to realizing it at some other time). Choice (D) isn’t redundant because the speaker is presumably pointing out that some situation involving some rambunctious children is out of anyone’s control and that he doesn’t have a good explanation for why children act the way they do — in terms of logic, the sentence is a tautology, but a tautology isn’t the same thing as redundancy in a grammatical sense.

Which one has the apostrophe?

The types of homophones that give the average person the most trouble are the ones where one word is a contraction (that is, it has an apostrophe) and the other word is a possessive pronoun — for example, “it’s/its,” “you’re/your,” “they’re/their (and there),” and “who’s/whose.” In all of those cases, the one with the apostrophe is the contraction.

This concept is confusing because the first thing you learn about apostrophes is that they show possession, and now suddenly the word without the apostrophe is the possessive one. But hey, that’s the rule (don’t look at me — I didn’t invent the English language).

The easiest way to keep all this straight (and get the questions right on the Praxis) is simply to get in the habit of reading the words with the apostrophes as though they were two separate words: “it’s” means “it is,” so say/think “it is” whenever you see “it’s.” Say “you are” whenever you see “you’re,” say “they are” whenever you see “they’re,” say “who is” whenever you see “who’s,” and so on. If the sentence no longer makes sense, then the word in question should be the one without the apostrophe.

If the homophone you have trouble with is their versus there, you can remember that their is the possessive because it contains the word heir, and that there is the one about places because it contains the word here (that’s not actually why the words are spelled that way; it’s just a good way to remember which is which).

Spelled and used differently, but sound the same

When it comes to homophone trouble in cases where neither word has an apostrophe, here are the most common pairs of words that give people grief and how to remember which is which:

• Then/than: Then is an adverb indicating order (“I aced the test, and then I went straight to the bar”), and than is a subordinating conjunction used for comparison (“I know grammar better than my friends do, thanks to this book”). Getting into the habit of pronouncing them differently helps a lot, but if there’s no time for that, then just use the “e” and “a” themselves as clues, and think then = order and than = comparison.
• Affect/effect: Ninety-nine percent of the time, the difference is that affect is a verb and effect is a noun: “His insults did not affect me” versus “His insults had no effect on me.” Unfortunately, there’s more. Effect can also be a verb meaning “to bring about,” as in “You’ll need to do more than sign petitions if you really want to effect change.” And just to make sure your day is completely ruined, affect can also be a noun — but you’ll probably never see it unless you’re a psych major, since affect as a noun is only used in scientific contexts to signify the behavioral trait that’s being studied in a psych experiment (so feel free to forget I ever told you that). So for the purposes of the Praxis, just remember that affect is a verb and effect is a noun, unless the verb means “to bring about,” in which case it’s effect.
• To/too: To is a preposition that can be used in all sorts of ways. Too is an adverb that can mean either “extremely” or “unacceptably” (“The music is too loud”), or “also” (“I’m coming too”). The best method for keeping them straight is to remember that one word is used way more than the other: There probably isn’t a single paragraph in this book that doesn’t use to. So rather than trying to memorize the million different things that to can do, just remember that if it means “unacceptably/very” or “also,” it’s too, and if not, then it’s to.” (There’s also two, which means the number between one and three, but most people don’t have any trouble with that.)
• Compliment/complement: The one with the “i” means saying something nice about somebody, and the one with the “e” means that two things go together well (“He complimented me on the fact that my shoes complement my dress”).
• Whether/weather: The first one means that something is in question, and the second one refers to what it’s like when you go outside (“I don’t know whether the weather will improve”). As with than/then, it helps to get into the habit of pronouncing them differently. Your friends may think it’s obnoxious of you to start pronouncing the “h” in “whether,” but you can stop after the test.
• Farther/further: These words aren’t technically homonyms, because they’re pronounced differently, but they still give people a lot of trouble. The difference is that farther relates to actual physical distance, whereas further indicates the extent to which you feel like doing something (“I don’t want to have any further discussion about whether you can long-jump farther than I can”).

1. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

The childrens’ toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

(A) The childrens’ toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

(B) The childrens’ toys are all over the floor, so you’d better watch you’re step.

(C) The children’s toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch you’re step.

(D) The children’s toys are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

(E) The childrens toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

2. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long its been in the refrigerator.

(A) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long its been in the refrigerator.

(B) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long it’s been in the refrigerator.

(C) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you; I’m not sure how long its been in the refrigerator.

(D) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long; it’s been in the refrigerator.

(E) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you; I’m not sure how long it’s been in the refrigerator.

3. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

That hotdog restaurant, was a village landmark, I can’t believe it closed!

(A) That hotdog restaurant, was a village landmark, I can’t believe it closed!

(B) That hotdog restaurant, it was a village landmark, and I can’t believe it closed!

(C) That hotdog restaurant — as a village landmark — I can’t believe it closed!

(D) That hotdog restaurant was a village landmark — I can’t believe it closed!

(E) That hotdog restaurant being a village landmark, so I can’t believe it closed!

4. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

The album containing all my birthday pictures is missing!

(A) The album containing all my birthday pictures is missing!

(B) The album containing all my birthday pictures are missing!

(C) The album contains all my birthday pictures are missing!

(D) The album contains all my birthday pictures is missing!

(E) The album containing all my birthday pictures, which is missing!

5. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

She was running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(A) She was running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(B) Because she was running late for work, and Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(C) Running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(D) Running late for work, and Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(E) Running late for work; Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

6. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Although we’ve had a rough couple of seasons, because I think this might be our year.

(A) seasons, because I think

(B) seasons, I think

(C) seasons, but I think

(D) seasons, however, I think

(E) seasons: I think

7. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

The affects of the anesthesia has begun to wear off.

(A) The affects of the anesthesia has begun to wear off.

(B) The affects of the anesthesia have begun to wear off.

(C) The effects of the anesthesia have begun to wear off.

(D) The effects of the anesthesia has began to wear off.

(E) The effects of the anesthesia have began to wear off.

8. How many commas are needed to correctly punctuate the following sentence?

The fastest two-legged animal the ostrich may be found in Australia and zoos all over the world.

(A) None

(B) One

(C) Two

(D) Three

(E) Four

9. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

When I was young, I won a year supply of pretzels in a radio contest.

(A) a year supply

(B) a year’s supply

(C) a years’ supply

(D) yearly a supply

(E) a year of supplies

10. The problem with the following sentence is that it contains a

As someone whom I have known for years, I’d expect you not to take his side over mine.

(A) comma splice.

(B) misplaced modifier.

(C) parallel-phrasing error.

(D) redundancy.

(E) misuse of “whom.”

11. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Don’t let any of the cats’ toys slide under the stove, it will whine all night.

(A) stove, it

(B) stove, or it

(C) stove, they

(D) stove, or they

(E) stove; it

12. How many of the words in the following sentence are capitalized when they should not be?

Neither my Father nor I could believe that Coach Collins wanted me to start in center field for the Brooklyn Beavers this Spring.

(A) None

(B) One

(C) Two

(D) Three

(E) Four

13. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

It’s going to take more than one person to get this couch upstairs.

(A) It’s going to take more than

(B) Its going to take more then

(C) It’s going to takes more than

(D) Its going to takes more then

(E) It’s going to take more then

14. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Before you take the picture of Sam and I, let us fix our hair.

(A) Sam and I, let

(B) Sam and me, let

(C) Sam and myself, let

(D) Sam, and I let

(E) Sam, and me let

15. A sentence that contains a colon is definitely grammatically incorrect if

(A) the colon does not precede a list or quotation.

(B) the sentence does not also have a comma in it.

(C) the portion of the sentence after the colon is longer than the portion before it.

(D) the colon is not preceded by an independent clause.

(E) the colon is not both preceded by and followed by independent clauses.