1. Mrs. Nichols English II Pre-AP
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. SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
Subject followed by prepositional phrase
Subject following the expletive there
Subject after verb
Compound subjects joined by or or nor
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
Mrs. Nichols
English II Pre-AP

3. 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

4. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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.

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

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

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

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

15. 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.

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

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

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

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

20. 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.

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

22. Correct these sentences in your notes
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.

23. The cyborg on the roof or the cow in the pasture (was, were) singing.
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.

24. Correct these sentences in your notes
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.

25. Heaton English II Pre-AP
Pronoun antecedent agreement
Pronoun as a compound element
Ambiguous reference
Who vs. which
Shift in person
Those notes, tho!
PRONOUN USAGE
Heaton
English II Pre-AP

26. 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 had a giant pimple.
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)

27. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement…
Incorrect: If someone calls, tell them I ate the entire pizza.
Correct: If someone calls, tell him I ate the entire pizza.
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.

28. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
We wanted each of the elephants to eat their share of peanuts.

29. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
Each of the students should bring waffles when they visit Heaton’s for breakfast.

30. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
Neither Dorothy nor Janice had washed their pet pigeon.

31. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
Each alien must put their own ray guns in the locker.

32. 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.

33. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun as a Compound Element
Betty went to mars for Susan and (I, me).

34. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun as a Compound Element
You and (he, him) can continue planking later.

35. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun as a Compound Element
Janet and (I, me) ate the entire wheel of cheese.

36. Correct these sentences in your notes. Pronoun as a Compound Element
The astronaut gave the juice to Don and (she, her).

37. Let’s practice some more together… Pronoun as a Compound Element
David told Jerry and (I, me) that dragons live in China.

38. Let’s practice some more together… Pronoun as a Compound Element
If Gerry and (she, her) had waited, the unicorn would have come.

39. Let’s practice some more together… Pronoun as a Compound Element
Voldemort surprised Darlene and (he, him).

40. Let’s practice some more together… Pronoun as a Compound Element
Katniss surprised Darlene and (I, me).

41. Ambiguous Pronoun Reference
The third area of pronoun usage concerns the ambiguous reference of pronouns. Earlier we saw that all pronouns must have an antecedent. When that antecedent is not clear, we have an ambiguous reference problem.
Incorrect: They say in that magazine that scores have dropped rapidly.
Correct: In that magazine, an authority states that scores have dropped rapidly.
In the incorrect version, the pronoun they is vaguely referring to someone, but we have no clear picture of who it is. If the antecedent is not clear, you can’t use the pronoun.

42. Correct these sentences in your notes. Ambiguous Pronoun Reference
Bobby bought meat loaf ice cream for John and his sister.

43. Correct these sentences in your notes. Ambiguous Pronoun Reference
The evil manager told her secretary that she must pay the fee for stealing all of the magic beans.

44. Correct these sentences in your notes. Ambiguous Pronoun Reference
It surprised me when the Texas Tech game happened.

45. Who vs. Which
The pronoun who refers to people. Which refers to things. That’s all there is to it.
Note: animals are considered things in written English.

46. Correct these sentences in your notes. Who vs. Which
He sat on a throne (who, which) was made of legos.

47. Correct these sentences in your notes. Who vs. Which
The students (who, which) read Harry Potter are cool.

48. Correct these sentences in your notes. Who vs. Which
This is the newspaper (who, which) posted that headline.

49. Correct these sentences in your notes. Who vs. Which
We saw a dog (who, which) looked like Clifford.

50. Shift in person
The last kind of problem regarding pronoun usage is the problem of shifting person in the sentence.
1st person I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours
2nd person you, your, yours
3rd person he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs
The rule in standard written English is that you may not shift from one person to another within the sentence.
Incorrect: I think I will be fine, but you have to be prepared for the unexpected.
Correct: I think I will be fine, but I have to be prepared for the unexpected.

51. Correct these sentences in your notes. Shift in person
If you intend to go to college, one should try to go to the best school: TCU.

52. Correct these sentences in your notes. Shift in person
One should be nice to others if you expect kindness in return.

53. Correct these sentences in your notes. Shift in person
I tried to eat the order, but one can only eat so much.