PSAT Grammar

1. verb tense Subject-verb agreement Pronoun usage Double negatives Idioms Passive voice Misplaced/dangling modifiers Parallelism Sentence structure Coordination/subordination Punctuating with colons Adverbs Adjectives Prepositions Appositives Infinitives Gerunds Participles clauses PSAT Grammar Mrs. Nichols English II Pre-AP

2. Consistency of verb tense Past perfect tense Historical present Writing about literature VERB TENSE Mrs. Nichols English II Pre-AP

3. Consistency of Verb Tense • The tense of verbs must remain consistent in the sentence. If the sentence starts in present tense, it should stay in the present tense. If it begins in the past, it should remain in the past. • EX – Because she sang so beautifully, she wins the contest. • Sang is past tense while wins is present. We need to change wins to won.

4. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. The leprechaun walked to school, and on the way he drops his pot o’ gold.

5. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. The concert finally ended, but all the taxis are busy.

6. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. The rhino has some good points, but he also had some tough skin.

7. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. The man tries to rescue the hamster, but he was not successful.

8. Answers • The leprechaun walked to school, and on the way he dropped his pot o’ gold. • The concert finally ended, but all the taxis were busy. • The rhino has some good points, but he also has some tough skin. • The man tries to rescue the hamster, but he is not successful.

9. Past Perfect Tense • The past perfect tense always uses the helping verb had with the main verb. This tense is used to indicate a time that precedes another time mentioned in the sentence. • EX—I had seen the movie before I saw Janet at the store. • The action of seeing the movie occurred before the action of seeing Janet. The first action to happen requires past perfect tense. The last action to happen requires past tense. Using these two tenses keeps the time reference clear in written English.

10. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. Until last Friday, we thought we lost the unicorn.

11. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. By the time Matilda left, Bruce ate the entire cake.

12. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. David probably saw the error long before he corrected it.

13. Write the corrected sentences in your notes. After finding her absent, I knew that she went to the Beyonce concert with Devlin.

14. Answers • Until last Friday, we had thought welost the book. • By the time Kelly left, Mary had eaten the entire cake. • David probably had seen the error long before he corrected it. • After finding her absent, I knew that she had gone to the concert.

15. Historical Present Tense • Part of the sentence may be in the past tense, but another part might be in the present if that second part is something that is always true. • For example, we know as a fact that light travels faster than sound. Since this is always true, we state the fact in the present tense, regardless of what happens in the rest of the sentence.

16. Example of historical present tense Incorrect: His research was based on the concept that light traveled faster than sound. Correct: His research was based on the concept that light travels faster than sound.

17. Present Tense When Discussing Literature • Another time we consistently use the present tense is when discussing literature: the accepted convention is to discuss the actions in fiction in terms of present tense. • Incorrect: The main character of the story disregarded his father’s wishes. • Correct: The main character of the story disregards his father’s wishes.

18. Assessment of what you’ve learned: Write the corrected sentences in your notes. By the time I left, Baxter ate the entire wheel of cheese.

19. Assessment of what you’ve learned: Write the corrected sentences in your notes. Through experience Janet learned that hot dogs and ice cream produced obesity.

20. Assessment of what you’ve learned: Write the corrected sentences in your notes. In the novel, the hero stressed his love for the woman.

21. Assessment of what you’ve learned: Write the corrected sentences in your notes. Jerry said that Newton’s third law of physics stated that for every action there was an equal and opposite reaction.

22. Answers • By the time I left, Baxter had eaten the entire wheel of cheese. • Through experience Janet learned that hot dogs and ice cream produce obesity. • In the novel, the hero stresses his love for the woman. • Jerry said that Newton’s third law of physics states that for every action there isan equal and opposite reaction.

23. Subject followed by prepositional phrase Subject following the expletive there Subject after verb Compound subjects joined by orornor SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Mrs. Nichols English II Pre-AP

24. Subject-Verb Agreement • The concept of subject-verb agreement is relatively simple: the subject and verb of each sentence must agree with each other in number (singular subject, singular verb, etc.) • Common errors occur • with a simple subject followed by a prepositional phrase • with a subject following the expletive there • with the subject following the verb • with a compound subject whose parts are joined by or or nor

25. Subject-Verb Agreement • Subject followed by prepositional phrase • Singular subject must be followed by singular verb (verb ending with s) • Plural subject must be followed by plural verb (verb with no s) • Common prepositions – of, with, at, on, for, to, between, beneath, below, above, along, against • One of the boats are sinking. • One of the boats is sinking.

26. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following a prepositional phrase One of the boats are sinking.

27. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following a prepositional phrase The man with two platypi are walking down the street.

28. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following a prepositional phrase The two girls in the gym is going to be in my class.

29. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following a prepositional phrase The boys in my science class tries daily to blow things up.

30. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following a prepositional phrase One of the pictures of the centaur are lost.

31. Subject-Verb Agreement • Deciding whether or not the verb agrees with the subject is sometimes difficult because of the nature and placement of the subject. • Incorrect: There is always two men on guard at this post. • Correct: There are always two men on guard at this post.

32. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following the expletive there There goes the three moose of the mountain.

33. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following the expletive there There were never a harder decision to make.

34. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following the expletive there There was only two pirates at the door to greet us.

35. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject following the expletive there There seem to be a strong odor in the room.

36. Subject-Verb Agreement • The third type of error deals with the placement of the subject after the verb. • Example: Down the road in a bright red car came the two girls. • Incorrect: Far away from the rest of the crowd stands the three men. • Correct: Far away from the rest of the crowd stand the three men.

37. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject after the verb Beneath those pictures on the wall are the artist’s name.

38. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject after the verb Around the corner from my house lives the Lord Voledmort.

39. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject after the verb Under the beds in his room were the dragon.

40. Correct these sentences in your notes.Subject after the verb Without his hat or his coat stand the detective.

41. Subject-Verb Agreement • When a compound subject is joined by or or nor, we look at the part of the subject that sits closest to the verb to determine singular or plural. • Example: Neither the girl nor the two boys want to go eat breakfast.

42. Correct these sentences in your notes.Compound subjects joined by or or nor Either Jane or Sally (seem, seems) to be weirder than usual.

43. Correct these sentences in your notes.Compound subjects joined by or or nor The lantern or the street lights on the road (is, are) shining brightly.

44. Correct these sentences in your notes.Compound subjects joined by or or nor The cyborg on the roof or the cow in the pasture (was, were) singing.

45. Correct these sentences in your notes.Compound subjects joined by or or nor Either Sam or the girls in the green car (ask, asks) a lot of questions.

46. Pronoun antecedent agreement Pronoun as a compound element Ambiguous reference Who vs. which Shift in person PRONOUN USAGE Mrs. Nichols English II Pre-AP

47. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement • A pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun. The noun that the pronoun replaces or to which it refers is called the antecedent. Look at the sentence below. Mary went home because she was not feeling well. • In the sentence, the pronoun she is a substitute for the noun Mary. Mary is the antecedent of she. The antecedent of a pronoun is merely the word to which to pronoun refers. The pronoun and its antecedent must agree in number (singular antecedent = singular pronoun; plural = plural)

48. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement… Incorrect: If someone calls, tell them I left early. Correct: If someone calls, tell him I left early. • The word someone is actually singular. Any pronoun referring to that word must also be singular. The pronoun them is plural so it does not agree with the antecedent someone.

49. Correct these sentences in your notes.Pronoun Antecedent Agreement • We wanted each of the men to do their share of the work. • Everyone should bring their books when they come to class. • Neither Dorothy nor Janice had washed their face. • Each player must put their own clothes in the locker.

50. Pronoun as a Compound Element • When pronouns are used as part of a compound element, students really get confused. Tom and Sally went to the movies. Tom went to the movies. Sally went to the movies. Tom and she went to the movies. Tom went to the movies. She went to the movies. He and Sally went to the movies. He went to the movies. Sally went to the movies. He and she went to the movies. He went to the movies. She went to the movies. • If you will break the sentence apart and read it twice, once for each word in the compound element, you will realize the correct answer. Dad gave Tom and Sally the gifts. Dad gave Tom the gifts. Dad gave Sally the gifts. Dad gave him and Sally the gifts. Dad gave him the gifts. Dad gave Sally the gifts. Dad gave Tom and her the gifts. Dad gave Tom the gifts. Dad gave her the gifts. Dad gave him and her the gifts. Dad gave him the gifts. Dad gave her the gifts.