SAT English Grammar Tips and Tricks

Introduction

• Focus on understanding grammar rules for the SAT.
• Offer of a free English workbook with additional exercises and strategies.
• Objective: Identify grammar issues quickly.

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Rule: The verb must agree with the subject in number.
• Example 1: "The box of chocolates are on the table" is incorrect; it should be "The box is on the table."
  • "Of chocolates" is a prepositional phrase and doesn’t affect the verb.
• Example 2: "The commissioner, along with his 20 staff members, run a campaign" should be "The commissioner runs."
  • Non-essential clauses can hide the subject.

Strategies for Grammar Questions

• Skip reading unnecessary parts when the blank is not in the first sentence.
• Use answer choices to determine what's being tested.
• Pronoun Trick: Test using singular and plural pronouns to identify if it’s subject-verb agreement or parallelism.

Parallelism

• Ensures verb tenses in a sentence are consistent.
• Verb Tenses:
  • Present: "He is"
  • Past: "He was"
  • Future: "He will be"
  • Past Perfect: "He had been" (ongoing in the past, stops in the past)
  • Present Perfect: "He has been" (ongoing in the past, continues in the present)
• Recognize modifiers like "since" indicating present perfect tense.

Punctuation Rules

• Colon:
  • Must have a complete sentence on the left.
  • Explains more about the statement on the left.
• Semicolon:
  • Separates two independent clauses or items in a list that are complex or contain commas.
• Comma:
  • Cannot separate two independent clauses without a conjunction.
  • Use with conjunctions (Fanboys) to separate clauses.
• Non-Essential Information:
  • Can't mix punctuation marks; if starting with a comma, end with a comma.

Apostrophes and Possession

• Singular Possessive: "Brother's toothbrush"
• Plural Possessive: "Brothers' lake house"
• Strategy: Use majority rules for apostrophes; pick choices that look similar.

Modifiers

• Introduces the subject and can't stand alone.
• Placement: Subject should immediately follow the modifier.
• Example: "As the country with the most mega cities, China..."
  • Ensure the subject fits logically after the modifier.

Conclusion

• Focus on strategies for tackling tricky grammar questions.
• Availability of a self-paced digital SAT English course with promotional offer.

Note: Understanding the grammar rules and effectively applying these strategies can help improve performance on the SAT English section.