English Proficiency 1: Comprehensive Study Notes

Pronouns and Antecedents

• Pronoun: a word that replaces a noun in a sentence; used to avoid repeating the same nouns.
• Antecedent: the noun (or noun substitute) that the pronoun refers to.
• Major pronoun types covered:
  • Personal pronouns: I, me; you; he, she, it, him, her; we, us; you; they, them.
  • Reflexive pronouns: end in -self or -selves (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves); refer back to a noun/pronoun earlier in the sentence and can strengthen the action.
  • Possessive pronouns: my, mine; your, yours; his, her, its, hers; our, ours; their, theirs.
  • Indefinite pronouns: refer to non-specific persons/things (someone, somebody, anyone, everybody, no one, nothing, everything, anything, etc.).
  • Demonstrative pronouns: this, these, that, those.
  • Interrogative pronouns: what, whose, which, whom, who.
  • Relative pronouns: who, whose, whom, which (identify or add information about nouns mentioned in the sentence).

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

• Core idea: pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number, person, and gender.
• Antecedent types and agreement considerations:
  • Indefinite pronouns used as antecedents should be treated as singular and gender-neutral unless gender is known.
  • Each, each one, either, neither, etc. typically require singular pronouns; when two or more antecedents are joined by and, a plural pronoun is usually used unless each/every precedes them.
  • When antecedents are joined by or/either…or/neither…nor, the pronoun should agree with the nearer antecedent (closer in the sentence).
  • If one antecedent is singular and one is plural joined by or/nor, the pronoun should agree with the nearer (closer) antecedent.
  • Collective nouns (class, crew, team, audience, family, etc.) can be singular or plural depending on meaning: singular when acting as a unit; plural when referring to members acting individually.
  • Gender considerations: use gender-neutral pronouns when gender is unknown or non-binary; singular they is acceptable in many contexts.
• Rules (summary):
  • Rule #1: Pronoun and antecedent must agree in number.
  • Rule #2: Treat some indefinite pronouns with plural meanings as singular grammatically.
  • Rule #3: Treat generic nouns as singular when using words like a, every, each, etc.; use plural forms or gender-neutral forms otherwise.
  • Rule #4: Compound antecedents joined by and are generally plural; with each/every preceding, singular; with or/nor, agree with closer antecedent.
  • Rule #5: Collective nouns: singular vs plural depending on meaning.
  • Rule #6: Agreement in gender and person; gender-neutral pronouns are preferred when gender is unknown.
  • Rule #7: With or/nor, nearer antecedent governs agreement in a compound antecedent.
• Examples and notes:
  • Singular vs plural with each/every: Every family and business must do its part to conserve energy. (singular pronoun)
  • Two singular antecedents joined by and usually take a plural pronoun: His car and boat were left in their usual places. (plural)
  • With ambiguity or unknown gender, singular they is acceptable: Each student submitted their assignment. (uses they as a neutral singular)
• Collective nouns examples:
  • The group presented its resolution. (group acting as a unit)
  • Yesterday the team signed their contracts for the coming season. (team members acting individually)

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: Indefinite Pronouns as Antecedents

• When indefinite pronouns are used as antecedents, the pronouns that follow should be singular and gender-neutral unless gender identity is known.
  • Examples: each, each one, either, either one, neither; anyone, anybody, anything, everyone, etc.; someone, somebody, something, everybody; none, no one, nobody, everything.
• Example sentences:
  • Each of the clerks does a good deal of work around his or her office. (note: traditional; could also use singular they: Each of the clerks does a good deal of work around their office.)
  • Neither of the men looked as if he wanted the job.

Singular vs. Plural Antecedents (and number agnosticism)

• Two singular antecedents joined by and usually require a plural pronoun.
• However, antecedents preceded by each or every require a singular pronoun.
• With two or more antecedents joined by or/either…or/neither…nor, pronoun agrees with the nearer antecedent.
• If gender is unknown or nonbinary, singular they is appropriate for the nearest antecedent rule.
• When one singular and one plural antecedent are joined by or/either…or or neither…nor, pronoun agrees with the nearer antecedent.

Collective Nouns as Antecedents

• Collective nouns may be singular or plural depending on meaning:
  • Singular: The group presented its resolution. (acting as a unit)
  • Plural: The team signed their contracts for the coming season. (members acting individually)

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: Practice and Corrections

• Examples of correct pronoun-antecedent agreement have been shown in class materials, including gender-neutral revisions such as replacing his/her with their when the antecedent is plural or gender unspecified.

Do, Does, and Did

• Definition: Auxiliary verbs used with the main verb to form questions, negatives, emphasis, and various tenses; the main verb expresses the action or state of being.
• Base form rule: After do/does/did, use the base form of the main verb (no -s, -ed, etc.).
• Do, Does, Did for questions:
  • Do is used with I, you, we, they (and plural subjects).
  • Does is used with he, she, it (third person singular) in the present.
  • Did is the past form used for all subjects.
• Negatives:
  • Do not (don’t), Does not (doesn’t), Did not (didn’t).
• Emphasis examples:
  • I do love you. He always does pay his bills. She did recite her poem so well.
• Forming wh-questions with Do/Does: When did you find out the truth? Who do you think will win the game?
• Do/Does/Did as action verbs:
  • Athena did a great job in her presentation. Volunteers do a lot of work around the town during disasters.
• Tense rules (simple present and simple past):
  • Simple Present: Subject + do not/does not + base form. Example: I go home early. We love music.
  • Simple Past: Subject + did not + base form. Example: It moved. You visited Japan last week.
• Contractions and spoken forms for negatives.
• Have/Do as auxiliary verbs: indicates perfect tenses; use with has/have for present perfect; use did for past; have/has in questions (Have you been to Australia? Has anyone seen my phone?).

Has, Have, and Had

• Has, have, had as auxiliary/helping verbs; main verb follows in base form or past participle depending on tense.
• Has (singular) and have (plural) in the present.
• Had in the past (past perfect when combined with past participle).
• Usage:
  • Have is used with I, you, we, they; Has is used with he, she, it (or singular noun).
  • Had is the past tense of both has and have (used for past perfect structures).
• Contractions:
  • I’ve, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve; he’s, she’s, it’s; hasn’t/have not/had not forms.
• Questions with have/has and have got:
  • Have you been to Australia? Has Andrew left yet? Who has my pen? Has anyone seen my mobile phone?
• Perfect tenses:
  • Present Perfect: has/have + past participle (e.g., Sarah has watched the movie; She has written papers for most of her classes).
  • Past Perfect: had + past participle (e.g., Sarah had seen the movie before I watched it; She had written several papers before switching universities).
  • Future Perfect: will have + past participle (e.g., By the time I finish this semester, I will have read ten novels).
• Present Perfect Continuous (Progressive): has been / have been + verb-ing (e.g., The children have been sleeping; She has been writing a paper all night).
• Past Perfect Continuous: had been + verb-ing (e.g., The children had been sleeping when we arrived).
• Future Perfect Continuous: will have been + verb-ing (e.g., The children will have been sleeping when we arrive).

The 12 Verb Tenses (Overview)

• Present, Past, Future tenses across four aspects: Simple, Perfect, Continuous (Progressive), and Perfect Continuous.
• Quick reference forms:
  • Present Simple: she writes a lot of papers.
  • Past Simple: she wrote the papers last month.
  • Future Simple: she will write papers next semester.
  • Present Perfect: she has written many papers; has been writing.
  • Past Perfect: she had written several papers before switching universities.
  • Future Perfect: she will have written many papers by the end of the semester.
  • Present Continuous: she is writing a paper now.
  • Past Continuous: she was writing a paper when her pencil broke.
  • Future Continuous: she will be writing a lot of papers next year.
  • Present Perfect Continuous: she has been writing a paper all night.
  • Past Perfect Continuous: she had been writing all night.
  • Future Perfect Continuous: she will have been writing this paper for three months when she hands it in.

Verb Tense Consistency

• Consistent tense means using the same time reference throughout a clause or paragraph unless a shift is warranted by time changes.
• Inconsistent tense examples show shifting tenses mid-sentence or across closely connected events; correction involves choosing a single tense or clarifying time references.
• Guidelines:
  • Use past tense for narrating past events or historical information.
  • Use present tense for facts, habitual actions, or current thoughts.
  • Use future forms to describe upcoming actions.
  • In longer passages, consider starting new clauses/sentences to indicate time shifts clearly.
• Examples of corrected consistency: "The crowd started cheering as Melina approached the finish line." (present vs past forms corrected to be consistent.)

Sentence Fragments

• A sentence fragment lacks a complete thought; it is incomplete as a sentence.
• Common causes:
  • Missing subject or verb; incomplete phrases or dependent clauses treated as complete sentences.
  • Fragments arising from phrases, subordinate clauses, or words in a series.
• Correction strategies:
  • Add the missing subject or verb to complete the thought.
  • Attach the fragment to a neighboring sentence to form a complete sentence.
  • Expand the fragment with the necessary object/complement.
• Key grammar terms related to fragments:
  • Direct Object: receives the action (answering whom/what the subject acts upon).
  • Indirect Object: recipient of the action (to whom/for whom processing occurs).
  • Complement: completes the meaning after a linking verb (subject complement describes the subject; object complement adds info about the object).
• Linking verbs list includes am, is, are, was, were, look, seem, appear, etc.
• Fragments can also begin with prepositions or gerunds and require proper attachment or expansion.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices

• Run-on: two or more independent clauses improperly joined without appropriate punctuation or conjunctions.
• Comma splice: two independent clauses joined only by a comma.
• FANBOYS conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) can join independent clauses when preceded by a comma; otherwise, use a period or semicolon.
• Correction methods:
  • End punctuation to separate clauses (two sentences).
  • Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS).
  • Use a semicolon to link closely related independent clauses (optionally with a conjunctive adverb).
• Appositive fixes:
  • Use appositive phrases to rename or describe; or split into separate sentences.

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

• Modifier: describes or clarifies another word/phrase; placement matters.
• Misplaced modifier: placed too far from the word it modifies, leading to awkward or illogical meaning.
• Dangling modifier: modifier that does not clearly modify any word in the sentence; cannot be fixed by simple repositioning.
• Common correction strategies:
  • Move the modifier to immediately before/after the word it modifies.
  • Rephrase so that the modifier clearly attaches to a proper subject.
  • For dangling modifiers, rewrite the sentence to include a clear subject and verb.
• Examples and correction patterns are provided in class materials, including how to handle introductory phrases, gerunds, prepositional phrases, and dependent clauses.

Redundancy and Wordiness

• Redundancy: unnecessary repetition or using multiple words that convey the same meaning.
• Wordiness: using longer or wordier phrases when shorter ones would suffice.
• Common redundant phrases to cut (examples from materials):
  • advance forward, blue in color, close proximity, etc.
  • avoid repeating nouns or pronouns unnecessarily (e.g., Riva she -> Riva).
  • replace wordy phrases with concise forms (e.g., spoke very convincingly -> spoke convincingly).
• Practical editing tips:
  • When two words convey the same meaning, drop one.
  • Prefer verbs over noun phrases where possible.
  • Trim phrases like “in order to” to simply “to” where appropriate.

Parallelism

• Parallel structure means elements that have the same function should have the same grammatical form.
• Three primary forms to parallelize:
  • Parallel words (same part of speech): The board reviewed aspects of the plan: financial, social, and educational.
  • Parallel phrases: She loves to swim in the ocean and to fish at the lake.
  • Parallel clauses: We wondered what was in the box, where it came from, who had sent it, and why it had not been unwrapped.
• Techniques to fix faulty parallelism:
  • Use parallel structure after coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS).
  • Maintain consistent form in lists or series (infinitives, prepositional phrases, etc.).
  • Ensure comparisons use parallel forms (I like reading better than watching).
  • Use consistent structure after linking verbs.
  • Use correlative conjunctions (either…or, neither…nor, not only…but also) with parallel structures.
• Examples of faulty vs corrected forms are provided in the material (e.g., “Nancy is good at writing, dancing, and she is also a debater” -> “Nancy is good at writing, dancing, and debating”).

Exercises and Correctness Checks (Practice techniques)

• The materials include various practice items: correcting sentences for fragments, run-ons, parallelism, pronoun-antecedent agreement, tense consistency, and redundancy.
• Typical strategies in the exercises:
  • Identify and fix fragments by adding subjects/verbs or combining with adjacent clauses.
  • Detect run-ons and fix with punctuation, conjunctions, or semicolons.
  • Check pronoun agreement with antecedents across sentences.
  • Correct tense inconsistency by selecting a single time frame or splitting into separate sentences with clear time markers.
  • Eliminate redundancy and tighten wordy constructions.

Quick Reference: Common Examples (from the transcript)

• Personal pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they; objective forms: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
• Reflexive pronouns end in -self/-selves: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
• Possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.
• Demonstrative pronouns: this, these, that, those.
• Interrogative pronouns: what, which, who, whom, whose.
• Relative pronouns: who, whom, which, whose.
• Important tense-related rules:
  • Present simple: I/you/we/they + base verb; he/she/it + base verb + s (in standard present for third person).
  • Past simple: base verb + -ed for regulars; irregulars vary (e.g., see-saw, went, etc.).
  • Present perfect: have/has + past participle; used for actions at unspecified times or continuing to present.
  • Past perfect: had + past participle; describes prior events to another past event.
  • Future perfect: will have + past participle.
  • Present continuous: am/is/are + verb-ing; describes ongoing actions now.
  • Past continuous: was/were + verb-ing; describes ongoing actions in the past.
  • Future continuous: will be + verb-ing.
• Misplaced modifiers and dangling modifiers examples:
  • Dangling: “Swinging from a giant tire, the tourists were delighted by the gorilla.” -> Correct: “Swinging from a giant tire, the gorilla delighted the tourists.”
  • Misplaced: “Looking up, the clouds turned dark.” -> Correct: “Looking up, I noticed the clouds turned dark.”

Endnote

• The above notes summarize the key concepts and rules from the transcript, including pronoun usage and agreement, Do/Does/Did usage, has/have/had tenses, sentence structure and correction, run-ons, modifiers, redundancy, parallelism, and verb tense consistency. Use these as a compact reference when studying for the exam and for quick drills on common grammar pitfalls.