ACT Grammar Rules of English

Periods

Used to connect two stand alone thoughts and separate two independent clauses.

Ex: I went to the store. I bought milk.

Independent Clause

Complete thought with a subject and a verb.

Ex: I went to the store.

Dependent Clause

Although having a subject and a verb it is usually connected with a subordinating conjuction like because, although , if, or relative pronouns like which or that.

Ex: Because it was raining

Commas

Used when you need a brief pause, should NOT connect two standalone thoughts.

If you have a subordinating conjunction you need to place a comma to explain the dependent clause.

Ex: Even though it was snowing, I still went outside.

Comma interjection is when you put a dependent clause in between an independent sentence and another independent sentence.

Ex: I went outside, surprisingly, it was raining.

Semicolons

connect two related statements can still stand on their own as complete sentences.

Colons

Introduces an explanation, description, or a list, DO NOT USE “such as”.

Template:

1. Thing to be explained/described/listed

2. The colon

3. explanation/description/list

Ex: Chocolate cookies are made up of many ingredients: chocolate chips, flour, milk, and more!

The Em-Dash (-)

Follows the same rules as a colon except when you use this in the middle of a sentence you have to use a double em-dash.

Ex: “All of the creative elements of a film — casting, acting, cinematography, effects, and editing — are the responsibility of the director.”

Possessives (Singular)

“That is the girl’s sweater.”

Add apostrophe after the subject and an S to signify singularity ON THE SUBJECT.

Possessives (Plural)

“The boys’ favorite game is football”

Apply Apostrophe after plural subject to signify it is a plural possessive.

Its vs It’s

Its - Possessive

It’s - Contraction

Affect vs Effect

Affect - Doing something to act onto the subject

(A for Action)

“The car crash affected my life”

Effect: A thing or a noun not an action.

“I used the Adobe Effect on my video.”

Who vs Whom

Who - Subject

Whom - use when there is a preposition beforehand

“ to whom does that belong to?”

Prepositions

A group of words that come before a subject, noun, verb, action, or adverb to show direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an object.

Most common:

1. of

2. in

3. to

4. for

5. with

6. on

7. at

8. from

9. by

10. about

11. as

12. into

13. like

14. through

15. after

16. over

17. between

18. out

19. against

20. during

21. without

22. before

23. under

24. around

25. among

Modifier

A word, phrase, or clause that provides additional information about another word, phrase, or clause. A modifier does not have a subject , but helps add information of a subject.

Ex: After running for an hour, Bob went home.

Partcipial phrase

A type of modifier that uses a partciple (has a verb act as a describing word that uses -ing or -ed) to describe the subject and what he does.

Example:

Removing his coat, jack rushed to the river.

Coordinate adjectives

Two adjectives that describe the same noun and of equal importance. You can use a comma for these but if it is not you cannot use a comma.

Ex: "The long, challenging, and odd relationship"

You can switch the order and it will still make sense.

Ex of not a Coordinating Adjective: Yellow Bright Jacket

If you switch it around it does not work.

Non essential phrase

Phrases in the middle of a sentence that do not really matter. Usually put in between two commas.

Ex: The big tree, also known as bob, drinks a lot of water.

To test if it is non-essential, take it out of the sentence and read it normally without the part to see if we need it.

Authors Considering Adding Question Types

Fragments - 90% Yes

1-2 line- 80% No

3-4 line- 95% Yes

Two types of no:

Does not talk about

Redundancy

If it says shifts from the topic or topic change thats not adding something completely unrelated

If its a topic change its not redundant

Authors purpose questions (formula)

1. Go to the first paragraph and title and see if it relates to what the author is talking about.

   • if it is not then it is a no

   • If it is then its yes

     2. Look at 2 remaining answer choices and see which one is yes or no

Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions: used to relate words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance with FANBOYS

Subordinating conjunction: used to connect a dependent clause with an independent clause with words like because, since, although, when, after,