Conventions of standard English ACT

FANBOYS

Coordinating conjunctions

For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

These words are used to combine 2 Independent Clauses into a compound sentence

Ex. Anthony planned on going to the park, but the thunderstorm forced him to stay inside.

After introductory clauses, use

A comma

When there is a non-essential-clause

Use a comma before and after the clause

Between adjectives whose order is reversible

Use a comma

Ex. intelligent, passionate student

passionate, intelligent student

Between adjectives whose order is not reversible

DO NOT use a comma

Ex. beautiful modern art

NOT modern beautiful art

Between a subject and a verb

DO NOT use a comma

Between an adjective and a noun

DO NOT use a comma

Before or after a preposition

DO NOT use a comma

Comma splice

When a comma is mistakenly used between two independent clauses

Ex. I plan to attend a liberal arts college, my parents want me to get a well rounded education. (Incorrect)

To correct it, replace the comma with a period, a semi-colon or a comma with FANBOYS

Possessive form of nouns

Use an apostrophe

Ex. Mary's horse, river's width etc.

Singular and plural possessive

Singular: apostrophe before the 's' Ex. boy's (belonging to the boy)

Plural: apostrophe after the 's' Ex. boys' (belonging to the boys)

Possessive pronouns

Have no apostrophe

Ex. his, her, their, your, etc.

Plural form of letters and numbers

Use an apostrophe e.g. 6's, i's etc.

Before a list

Use a colon

*Remember you need a full sentence before the colon followed by a list.

Before a piece of information that adds to a statement

Use a colon

its vs. it's

its - possessive of "it" - IT owns something

it's - contraction of "it is" , "it has", "it was"

whose vs. who's

whose - possessive of who

who's - who is

When you see parenthesis in a sentence

Apply the same rules you'd use without the parenthesis

A dash is used

Before and after a non essential clause

Before an explanation at the end of a sentence

Between a compound subject or a compound object

DO NOT use a comma

Ex. Tom and Jerry

NOT Tom, and Jerry

Before an emphatic pronoun

DO NOT use a comma

Ex. The president himself attended the dinner party.

NOT The president, himself ...

In an essential clause

DO NOT use a comma

Ex. Jennifer visited the city where she went to college.

NOT Jennifer visited the city, where she went to college.

"which" is used ____.

_____ is used with a non-essential clause with commas (or dashes) before and after the clause

"that" is used

With an essential clause without commas before or after the clause

Subject-Verb Agreement

Singular subjects require singular verbs, and plural subjects require plural verbs.

Ex. The dogs eat the dog food. (plural)

The owner of the dogs feeds the dog food. (singular)

Subject-Verb Agreement: Singular pronouns

If the subject is singular, then the pronouns referring to the subject should be singular as well.

Ex. I, he, she, it, every, each, everyone, none, whoever, someone, nobody, either neither, someone etc.

Subject-Verb Agreement: Plural Pronouns

If the subject is plural, then the pronouns referring to it should be plural as well.

Ex. we, you, they, those, few, many, some etc.

Subject-Verb Agreement: the clauses after the preposition ...

Do not affect the subject-verb agreement

Ex. One of the students is selected.

NOT: One of the students are selected.

The advantages of this new system are plenty.

NOT: The advantages of this new system is plenty.

Nominative Pronouns

Replace the nouns

e.g. I, you, he, she, it, they, we

Objective Pronouns

Act as direct or indirect objects

Ex. me, us, you, him, her, it, them

Relative Pronouns

Used to identify people, places and objects in general

Ex. who, whom, whose, which, what, that, where

Simple Past

Something that happened in the past and is no longer happening

Ex. The guests left yesterday.

Present Perfect

Something that started in the past and is ongoing

has/have + participle form

Ex. I have lived in the city for 5 years.

Past Perfect

Something that had happened in the past before another event.

had + participle form

Sam had worked at a university before he decided to become an actor.

Simple Present

The action takes place continuously or regularly

Ex. My brother comes home late from work.

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: swim

swim, swam, swum

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: run

run, ran, run

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: come

come, came, come

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: read

read, read, read

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: shrink

shrink, shrank, shrunk

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: fling

fling, flung, flung

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: bear

bear, bore, borne

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: bet

bet, bet, bet

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: cost

cost, cost, cost

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: lay

lay, laid, laid

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: lie (down)

lie, lay, lain

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: seek

seek, sought, sought

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: spin

spin, spun, spun

Present, Past, and Participle Forms: wake

wake, woke, woken

Misleading/ambiguous pronoun usage

A pronoun should be placed such that it refers to a specific noun, called an antecedent.

Parallelism

Sentences should group ideas such that the words, phrases, and clauses must share the same grammatical form and parts of speech

Ex. Victoria likes swimming and to ride her bike. (incorrect)

Victoria likes swimming and riding her bike. (correct)

Run-on Sentence

Consists of more than one idea and is incorrectly written due to lack of punctuation or conjunctions

Ex. Janet is an actress she often appears in major television network shows. (incorrect)

Janet is an actress who often appears in major television network shows. (correct)

Misplaced Modifiers

Modifiers are descriptions that are best placed next to the things they describe.

Ex. Cassie had trouble deciding which college to attend at first. (incorrect)

At first, Cassie had trouble deciding which college to attend. (correct)

Dangling Modifiers

Words/phrases that modify a word not clearly stated in a sentence

Ex. Crawling on the wall, the cat was startled by a giant spider. (incorrect)

Crawling on the wall, a giant spider startled the cat. (correct)

"Who"

Refers to the person who is the subject of the sentence; always used after the noun

"Whom"

Refers to the person who is the object of the sentence; used before a noun or pronoun; used after a preposition

Fragments

Are incomplete sentences caused by unnecessary words or punctuation

Ex. My car is difficult to start in the winter. Because of the cold weather. (incorrect)

My car is difficult to start in the winter because of the cold weather. (correct)

Prepositional Idioms: abide

abide by (obey)

abide with (stay)

Prepositional Idioms: accustom

accustomed to

Prepositional Idioms: absolve

absolve from

Prepositional Idioms: coerce

coerce into (doing something)

Prepositional Idioms: compare

compare with (literal)

compare to (metaphorical)

Prepositional Idioms: comply

comply with (rule or law)

Prepositional Idioms: contemporary

contemporary of (a person)

contemporary with (an event)

Prepositional Idioms: depend

depend on (not upon)

Prepositional Idioms: differ

differ from (a thing)

differ with (a person over something)

Commonly Misused Words: accept/except

accept: to agree to or receive

except: "other than" or "but"

Commonly Misused Words: affect/effect

affect: is a verb meaning "to influence"

effect: is a noun meaning "a change that is the result of an action or other cause"

Commonly Misused Words: among/between

Among is used to discuss multiple objects that are not distinct. It indicates the subject is in the vicinity of objects or people, but does not give the subject's exact location.

Example: She was forced to choose among a myriad of science classes.

Example: Fear spread among the students as the pop quiz was announced.

Between is used to describe a set of distinct (countable), separately named objects. It also gives the precise location of the subject - the subject is between specific objects.

It comes down to the number of objects being discussed, and how distinct those objects are.

Example: The race between Amy and Emeril was very close.

Example: She needed to choose between physics, chemistry, and biology.

In the second example, even though you are discussing more than two objects, each of them is distinct, so you use "between."

Commonly Misused Words: Assure/Ensure/Insure

Assure: To convince

Ensure: To make certain of

Insure: To guard against loss

Commonly Misused Words: complement/compliment

complement: something that completes or adds to something else

compliment: praise

Commonly Misused Words: fewer/less

fewer: is used with countable items such as hours, bills, sticks etc.

less: is used with uncountable items such as time, money, wood etc.

Commonly Misused Words: too many/too much

too many: is used with countable items such as gallons, grains, sheets etc.

too much: is used with uncountable items such as milk, sand, paper etc.

Commonly Misused Words: lay/lie

lay: to put or place

lie: to rest or stay

Commonly Misused Words: principal/principle

principal: head or first

principle: a basic truth or law

Commonly Misused Words: their/there/they're

their: possessive form of they

there: an adverb specifying location

they're: they are

Commonly Misused Words: your/you're

your: possessive form of you

you're: you are

Prepositional Idioms: point

point to

Prepositional Idioms: indifferent

indifferent to/toward

Prepositional Idioms: efficient

efficient at

Prepositional Idioms: in awe

in awe of

Prepositional Idioms: familiar

familiar with

Prepositional Idioms: have confidence

have confidence in

Prepositional Idioms: adept

adept in/at

Prepositional Idioms: in contrast

in contrast to

*contrast with

Prepositional Idioms: compensate

compensate for

Prepositional Idioms: capable

capable of

Prepositional Idioms: sympathize

sympathize with

Prepositional Idioms: puzzled/confused/perplexed

puzzled/confused/perplexed by