ACT English Grammar Rules

ACT English Grammar Rules

Periods

• Periods break up two separate standalone statements.

Commas

• Use commas whenever you need a brief pause.

• If you don't need a brief pause, leave it out.

• Commas should not be used to connect two standalone thoughts; use a period or a semicolon.

Semicolons

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

• Anywhere you can use a semicolon, you can also use a period.

• Semicolons highlight the relationship between two standalone thoughts.

• It is rarely seen as a correct answer choice on the ACT or especially on the SAT.

Colons

• Colons introduce an explanation, description, or a list.

• Don't use it after the phrase "such as".

• Order:

  1. Thing to be explained/described.

  2. The colon.

  3. Explanation/description/list.

• Example for a list: I went to the grocery store to buy all the things I needed to bake chocolate chip cookies: butter, flour, sugar, salt, and chocolate chips.

• It could also be a list of one item, I went to the store to buy the only thing I needed to make chocolate chip cookies: chocolate chips.

• It could also be a description or an explanation. So I could say, like, I was looking forward to baking chocolate chip cookies: my favorite cookie of all time.

Em Dash

• The single em dash can be used anywhere a colon can be used following the rule above.

• For a list, description, or explanation in the middle of the sentence, use the double em dash.

• Example with a double em dash: All of the creative elements of a film—casting, acting, cinematography, effects, and editing—are the responsibility of the director.

• The em dash is interchangeable with parentheses.

Possessives

• Singular Possessives: "That is the girl's sweater."

  • The apostrophe signifies possession. The word before the apostrophe is in possession.

• Plural Possessives: "The boys’ favorite game is football."

  • The apostrophe comes after the s in boys, so we know the boys, plural, are in possession of a favorite game.

• Pay attention to the commonly confused possessives with no apostrophes: it's versus its.

  • "The dog ate its food" (possessive, no apostrophe).

  • "It's going to rain" (contraction, apostrophe).

Contractions

• Contractions are when you take two words, like "it is," and smush those two words together, but you take out one of the letters (in this case, the i in is) and replace that i with an apostrophe.

Choosing the Right Word in Context

Commonly Confused Words

• Accept (with an A) versus Except:

  • Accept (with an A): Use "accept" (with an A) for action (verb form).

  • You were there to accept the award.

  • Except to be an exception to something. I like all types of ice cream except rocky road or something like that—an exception to something. You were there to accept the award.

• Affect (with an A) versus Effect:

  • Affect (with an A): A for action (verb form).

  • Example: "I was affected by the fact that this person guided by a course."

  • Effect (with an E) is not an action; it's a thing (noun).

  • I use the Adobe Premiere Pro effect for transitions, it's like a category kind of.

• Access (with an A) versus Excess:

  • The verb form has got to be accessed with an A. I access to the secret database or something like that.

  • Excess would be an extra of something. I think there is a noun form of access, like I gained access to something.

• Precede versus Proceed:

  • Precede: pre means to come before. World War I preceded World War II.

  • Proceed means to move forward, to continue.

• Then (with an E) versus Than (with an A):

  • Then (with an E) is for sequence, chronology. First, I did this, then later I did that, because the E, and then there's an E in sequence as well.

  • Than (with an A) is for comparisons. She is taller than her boyfriend I use that to remember than with an A is for comparisons.

• Who, Whom, and Whose:

  • Whose is possessive.

  • If the word is preceded by a preposition, use whom (with an M). Examples: to whom, for whom, of whom, by whom.

Prepositions

• Common prepositions: of, into, for, with, on, at, from, by, about.
  Prepositions describe the relationship between two things.

• Example: You are in your house, you could climb on the roof, and you would be on your house; You could be under your house. You could be walking from your house; you could be walking to your house; you could be walking around your house. You could be flying over your house. You could be by your house.

General Vocabulary

• Boost academic vocabulary by looking up unfamiliar words during prep work and reading. By turn your current work, any reading you do in your classes—your English class, your history class, your science class, whatever—just turn it into ACT prep by looking up words you don't know.

Keep It Simple

• Whenever possible, say it with fewer words.

  • Incorrect: The ice begins thawing in late summer, and such thawing follows several weeks of higher temperatures.

  • Correct: The ice begins thawing in late summer following several weeks of higher temperatures.

• You don't have to use fancy words or complex sentence structure. Say it simply and clearly. Also, avoid the passive voice when possible.

  • Incorrect: The dogs were taken for a walk by me.

  • Correct: I took the dogs for a walk.

• Avoid unnecessarily repetitive or redundant statements.

• When combining two sentences, avoid answer choices with more than one subject.

Good Introductions, Transitions, and Conclusions

• Good introductions prepare the reader to easily understand the ideas being presented in a passage. You have to read ahead in the paragraph/passage before you decide how to best introduce it.
  *Along with good introductions, good transition sentences are fundamental to good writing. Good transition sentences reference a previous idea and connect it to a new idea.
  *Good conclusions summarize the main point of a passage or article. Reread the title and the first paragraph of the passage to find the main idea.

Back Up Claims With Relevant Evidence (mostly necessary for SAT)

• Carefully study all graphs, starting with the title, Y and X axis, and key.

• Supporting claims with specific evidence is a good idea as long as it's relevant.

• Providing examples or definitions of technical or unfamiliar terms is always a good idea too.

Avoid Misplaced Modifiers

• The modifying (aka description) phrase must always come immediately before or immediately after the word it is modifying.

  • Incorrect: Blazing through the night sky for brief periods of time, humans have long been fascinated by comets.

  • Correct: Blazing through the night sky for brief periods of time, comets have long fascinated humans.

Make It Match

Make it Match: Number

• If you have a singular subject, you need to have a singular verb. If you have a plural subject, you need to have a plural verb.

• Example: "A pack of wild wolves is roaming through the neighborhood."

  • A pack (singular) of wild wolves prepositional phrase describes the pack.

  • Test the verbs with the singular pronoun "it" (e.g., "it is" for a singular verb).

  • Test the answer choices with the plural pronoun they. So can you say they is?

• If you need singular, there will be just one singular answer choice, so quite often, the right answer is the odd man out.

Make it Match: Tense

• The band played its hit tune, and the audience erupted in applause.

• Match the tense (past, present, or future) consistently within a sentence or paragraph.

Make it Match: Style and Tone

• Avoid conversational language.

  • Incorrect: The polar bear is a carnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle. They are super cute, but they can be mean.

Parallel Structure

• Maintain the same structure or pattern in a sentence.

  • Example: Along with running and rock climbing, surfing is one of my favorite activities. Just stick with that pattern.

Matching Pairs of Words

• Not only is always followed by some form of but also.

• Neither is always followed by nor.

• Either is always followed by or.

Compare Only Directly Related Ideas

• Compare two activities or compare two people, but don't compare an activity to a person.

• Incorrect: Compared to working at a desk, marine biologists get a lot more fresh air and exercise.

• Correct: Compared to office secretaries, marine biologists get a lot more fresh air and exercise.

Logical Order

• Avoid interrupting the flow of thought.

  • Incorrect: The bear population in Alaska has grown by 15 percent in the past decade. There is an abundance of other fish and wildlife in Alaska. The exact reason for the increase in bear populations is currently unknown.

• Plug the sentence into the paragraph, and be sure to read three sentences total. You got to read the sentence before the one in the question, then you got to read the sentence in the question, then you read the sentence after, and make sure that all the ideas flow logically from one to the next.

Trust Your Ear and Trust Your Instincts

• If you don't know the exact rule, trust your ear and go with your first instinct.