Chapter 12

Giving Grammar a Glance

IN THIS CHAPTER

Identifying the purposes of the parts of speech

Understanding various sentence structures

Reviewing the rules regarding punctuation and capitalization

Watching out for misplaced modifiers, redundancy, and double negatives

Homing in on homophones

You probably wince when you hear the word “grammar.” That’s okay; so do most people. Folks tend to run screaming when they hear the word because they imagine “grammar” as a set of “rules for the sake of rules” that some highfalutin’ person imposes on them in an effort to force them to speak “properly.”

Grammar rules aren’t rules “because someone says so.” Rather, grammar refers to the internal logic by which words in English — or any other language — connect to one another in speech or writing. This chapter reviews the rules you need to know to ace the Praxis Core exam by featuring selected-response questions that cover standard English usage, revision in context, and sentence correction.

Getting a Grip on the Parts of Speech

The parts of speech are the categories into which different words are organized. English has eight of them: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. These terms probably sound familiar to you from elementary school (with the possible exception of “interjections,” which refer to stand-alone exclamations like “Wow,” but interjections don’t come up on the Praxis, so this is the last time this book will mention them).

Like most grammar tests, the Praxis writing test doesn’t ask you directly about the parts of speech — you aren’t asked to identify what part of speech a particular word within a sentence is. But because it’s impossible to discuss grammar without using the terms for the different parts of speech, we review them here. Along the way, we alert you to different types of Praxis questions that involve the various parts of speech, so you know what to look out for.

Bear in mind that a given word doesn’t always act as the same part of speech. What part of speech a word is depends on its function in the sentence in which it appears. For example, “purple” is an adjective in the sentence “I like purple lollipops,” but it’s a noun in the sentence “Purple is my favorite color.”

Finding nouns as subjects and objects

A noun is a person, place, or thing. It’s important to clarify that “things” don’t necessarily have to be physical objects — for our purposes here, concepts and ideas are also “things.” Thus, words like “justice,” “honor,” “hunger,” and “love” (when they’re not acting as verbs or adjectives, of course) can also be used as nouns. Three types of objects that you may see on the Praxis that function as nouns are direct objects, which receive the action of action verbs; indirect objects, which receive the action of the verb when the sentence also contains a direct object; and objects of the preposition, which follow the preposition in a prepositional phrase. (We explain objects in more detail later in this chapter.)

Every sentence must have a noun or pronoun (a word that replaces a noun) and also a verb. (Commands that consist solely of verbs, such as “Help!” or “Stop!”, are still complete sentences because the subject is implied to be whomever the speaker is addressing.)

Although nouns are the bedrock of any language, we don’t need to talk too much about them, because the Praxis doesn’t try to trip you up where nouns are concerned. There’s really only one noun-related trick or difficulty that you need to watch out for: Although the subject of a sentence is always a noun or pronoun, and you may be used to thinking of “the subject” as meaning “whoever or whatever the sentence is about,” that’s actually not the most efficient way to locate the subject of a sentence in grammatical terms. For example, in the sentence “One of my best friends is a lawyer,” the subject isn’t “friends” or “lawyer” — it’s “one.” (For more tips on this issue, consult the section “The sentence skeleton: Identifying the main subject and verb” later in this chapter.)

Putting verbs to work

Verbs are “action words” and “being words.” Along with nouns or pronouns that replace nouns, they’re one of the parts of speech that you absolutely need in order to have a complete sentence (and in a command, a verb can be a complete sentence all by itself because the subject is understood).

Making verbs agree with other words

The order of the day when it comes to verbs on the Praxis, or any other grammar test, is agreement. A verb has to agree with the noun or pronoun that performs the action or has the state of being. A verb also has to agree with the other verbs in the sentence.

As far as agreement between verbs and nouns (or pronouns) is concerned, the main issue is number agreement, as in singular versus plural. A singular noun needs to govern a verb in its singular form (as in “the elephant dances”), and a plural noun needs to govern a verb in its plural form (as in “the elephants dance”). Number-agreement issues are easy to spot when the noun and verb are right next to each other, but a favorite trick of grammar tests is to give you a sentence where the noun and verb aren’t right next to each other. (See the later section “The sentence skeleton: Identifying the main subject and verb” in this chapter for more details about finding the subject and verb when they aren’t side by side.)

The other type of agreement you need to look out for is tense agreement, which concerns the agreement of one verb with another verb. For example, you can’t say “I ran to the store and buy cat food” or “I run to the store and bought cat food”; it has to be “I ran to the store and bought cat food” or “I run to the store and buy cat food.” Just as with number agreement, problems with tense agreement are easy to spot when the words concerned are close to each other in the sentence, but the Praxis tries to trick you by writing a long sentence in which the words concerned are far apart.

You should also be aware that, under certain circumstances, not every verb in a sentence has to be in the same tense: For example, it’s just fine to say, “I ran to the store to buy cat food” (this time, buy is in the infinitive, so it doesn’t have to agree with the past-tense ran). Mixing verb tenses is also perfectly alright if the actions in question were performed at different times. For instance, in the sentence “I got a good grade on the test because I had studied that book in high school,” the verb got is in the past tense and the verb had studied is in the past-perfect tense, but the sentence is correct because one action was performed more recently than the other.

You don’t have to know the different tense names on the Praxis Core, but you should be familiar with their various forms. Check out the progression of the verb “to run” in the following list:

• Present: I run
• Present progressive: I am running
• Present perfect: I have run
• Past: I ran
• Past progressive: I was running
• Past perfect: I had run
• Future: I will run
• Future progressive: I will be running
• Future perfect: I will have run

Watch out for the trick where the test gives you a sentence containing a noun whose singular and plural forms are identical (such as “sheep” or “fish”) or a verb whose present- and past-tense forms are identical (such as “read”). In these cases, look for context clues elsewhere in the sentence to determine the number intended for the noun or the tense intended for the verb.

Some verbs have transitive and intransitive forms: The verb is different depending on whether it takes an object. “Rise/raise” is a good example: Compare the sentences “I rise from my chair (no object = intransitive) and “I raise the window” (object = transitive). In the first sentence, you yourself are rising, and in the second, you are raising something else. This rule is the explanation to the allegedly difficult (but not really so difficult once you know the rule) “lie/lay” conundrum: “lie” is intransitive and “lay” is transitive, so it’s “I lie down” but “I lay the book down on the table.”

Parallel phrasing

If you just felt a heart attack coming on when you saw the word “parallel” because you remember it from math class rather than English class, don’t worry — this rule doesn’t involve any geometry (nor is it as difficult as parallel parking, in case what you just experienced was actually a driver’s ed flashback). Parallel phrasing simply means that when you have a sentence with multiple verb phrases, the verbs in those phrases all need to be in the same form. (And if you actually enjoyed geometry, then I hope we never meet. Get it? Parallel? “Never meet?” Oh, forget it!)

Verbals are words, or contain words, that were originally verbs but are used as or in other parts of speech. The three types of verbals, which grammar tests like to mix up when creating parallel-phrasing questions, are the

• Infinitive (with “to” in front of a word that started out as a verb, like “to be” or “to go,” used as a noun, adjective, or adverb)
• Participle (word that was originally a verb but is used as an adjective)
• Gerund (word that was just a verb at its creation but is used as a noun and ends with “ing”)

None of these forms is more correct than the others — they just have to match. So, for example, it’s fine to say either “I like to swim and to bike” or “I like swimming and biking,” but you can’t say “I like to swim and biking” or “I like swimming and to bike.”

There are other, less blatant violations of parallel phrasing as well. For example, the sentence “Nobody cares about what I say or my actions” should be revised to read either “Nobody cares about what I say or what I do,” or “Nobody cares about my words or my actions.” See how the second two sentences flow better? This sort of parallel phrasing, however, is more about style than grammar, so standardized tests almost always limit mix-ups to infinitives and participials.

Which of the following choices presents the best revision of the following sentence?

The time to compose outlines has passed, so you should begin writing your essay, making sure to use persuasive arguments and inspiring quotations.

(A) The time to compose outlines has passed, so you should begin writing your essay, making sure to use persuasive arguments and inspiring quotations.

(B) The time for composing outlines has passed, so you should begin to write your essay, to use persuasive arguments, and to inspire with quotations.

(C) The time to compose outlines has passed, so you should begin to write your essay, to be sure to use persuasive arguments and inspiring quotations.

(D) The time to compose outlines has passed, so you should begin to write your essay, in which you should use persuasive arguments and inspiring quotations.

(E) The time for composing outlines has passed, so you should begin writing your essay, making sure of using persuasive arguments and inspiring quotations.

The correct answer is Choice (D). The verbs in the first two clauses (“to compose” and “to write”) are both in the infinitive, the infinitive/participial choice in the next clause is avoided through the use of an “in which” clause, and the word “inspiring” doesn’t have anything to do with the parallel-phrasing issue, because it’s being used as an adjective. Choice (A) is the best of the incorrect choices, but it could be better; the juxtaposition of the infinitive (“to compose”) and the participial (“writing”) in the first two clauses is a bit messy. Choice (B) seems like it might be right at first, because all the verbs are in the infinitive, but the list-like structure makes it seem as if writing the essay, using arguments, and using quotations are three different activities, when what the sentence wants to imply is that the second two are a part of the first (don’t simply look at verb forms without paying attention to the flow of the sentence as a whole). Choice (C) is simply messy and confusing: The “to be” that opens the final clause makes it sound like a list is coming, but then the sentence stops short. Choice (E) may seem right at first, because all the verb forms are parallel, but the alteration of “to use” to “of using” is extremely awkward — there is more at stake in a sentence than whether the verbals match.

Gerunds: Verb forms that acts as nouns

Some words may appear to be verbs but are actually nouns, and they’re called gerunds. A gerund ends in “ing” and is a verb form that works as a concept in the sentence rather than as an action performed by, or state of being of, a noun or pronoun. Check out these examples:

• Boxing is a sport that has been around for a long time.
• Standing in a busy road is not wise.
• Looking for gerunds is fun.

None of the underlined words are verbs, though they can be used as verbs. They are nouns. In fact, they’re the subjects of the sentences. A gerund doesn’t always need to be the subject of a sentence, however. In the sentence “Dancing is fun,” the gerund is the subject, but in the sentence “I like dancing,” the gerund is the object. In short, the key to recognizing gerunds is to look out for verb forms that are being referred to as ideas, rather than being performed by nouns or pronouns.

There are other cases where a word that is normally a verb can be a noun, like run in the sentence “I’m going to go for a run” or dance in the sentence “The big dance raised a lot of money for the school,” but these aren’t examples of gerunds — they’re just words that can be nouns as well as verbs. In general, there’s a lot of overlap between nouns and verbs.

Because they are technically nouns, gerunds are grammatically possessions, so the noun that “owns” the gerund should be in the possessive: “Nina’s singing is lovely,” “I appreciate your answering the telephone,” “Please excuse my spilling that drink,” and so on.

Using adjectives to describe people, places, and things

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. You probably don’t have too much difficulty spotting an adjective when you see one, and in any case, the Praxis doesn’t ask you to simply pick out all the adjectives in a given sentence, so we can get right to discussing the adjective-related tricks that the test does use.

When it comes to the Praxis writing test, the most common adjective-related trick is to substitute an adjective for an adverb, or vice versa, in an effort to see whether you catch the mistake. Look out for this trick, especially on those “no error” questions wherein four portions of a given sentence are underlined, and you have to indicate which portion contains an error or select “no error” if the sentence is correct. Anytime you see an adjective or an adverb underlined by itself on such a question, you should always double-check to insure that the word in question is being used correctly.

The reason this trick is possible to play, of course, is because most (but not all) adjectives can be turned into adverbs with the addition of “-ly.” Examine, for example, the roles of the adjective quick and the adverb quickly in the similar sentences: “The quick dog ran up the hill” and “The dog ran quickly up the hill.” True to their respective functions, the adjective modifies a noun (dog), and the adverb modifies a verb (ran). The Praxis tries to trick you by giving you a sentence in which the words that are supposed to agree are not right next to each other. If, for example, you encountered the sentence “The dog ran up the hill quick,” it may be less immediately noticeable that quick should be quickly. (Even though quick is next to the noun hill, the intent of the word is still to modify the verb; therefore, it must be an adverb, because adjectives cannot modify verbs.)

And if the Praxis really wants to get tricky, it will throw a participial verb form into the mix, so that you have to figure out whether the “-ing” word is a noun (in which case it should be modified by an adjective) or a verb (in which case it should be modified by an adverb). Consider the differences between these two correct sentences:

• Constant dancing has worn out my shoes.
• My shoes are worn out because I am constantly dancing.

In the first sentence, dancing is a gerund (and the subject of the sentence), so it is modified with the adjective constant. In the second sentence, dancing is a verb in the present-progressive tense, so it’s modified with the adverb constantly. Pretty sneaky, huh?

Not all adverbs end in “-ly,” not all adjectives can be turned into adverbs by adding “-ly,” and some words that end in “-ly” are adjectives (adverbs are discussed in more detail in the next section). Take adjectives of number, for example. Five is an adjective in the sentence “There are five cupcakes on the table” (it modifies a noun, after all), but there’s no such word as fively. Old is an adjective in “The old forest is beautiful,” but the forest can’t do something oldly, because no such word exists. Elderly is a word, but guess what? It’s an adjective — as is elder, making elder/elderly one of the few cases where a word and the same word with “-ly” attached are both adjectives, albeit ones with different meanings: The first is a comparative adjective meaning “older (than someone else),” and the second just means “old.” If that isn’t enough to blow your mind, note that “beautiful” in the sentence about the forest is, of course, also an adjective, despite the fact that it comes next to the verb is.

Don’t try to determine whether a word is (or should be) an adjective or an adverb based on how it’s spelled or what it looks like. Instead, look at the job it is doing in the sentence — that is, whether it’s modifying a noun/pronoun or a verb.

The last bit of adjective-related funny business concerns punctuation. In the sentence “The four young French girls are charming,” you may notice something odd: There are no commas in the sentence, even though the noun girls has three adjectives in front of it. You’ve presumably been taught that you need commas when multiple adjectives modify the same noun (as in “The hairy, hungry, faithful dog ran up the hill”), so what’s going on here?

Certain types of adjectives don’t need to be separated by commas when they appear in a series before a noun — in this case, our exceptions are “articles,” “adjectives of number,” “adjectives of age,” and “adjectives of nationality.” Adjectives of size are another exception: You wouldn’t put a comma between big and American in “the big American ship,” would you? (Nor, for example, would you ever say “the American big ship,” because another convention dictates that adjectives of nationality must immediately precede the noun.) You need to separate adjectives with commas only when adjective order does not matter. When adjectives indicating age, nationality, size, and other characteristics are used, order does matter, so commas should not be used to separate them.

Trust your ear. Although memorizing rules certainly has its place when it comes to grammar, it’s not always the most efficient strategy. You may not have known that there were any rules about adjective order, but if you had heard someone say, “the Japanese old five cars,” it would have sounded wrong to you, right? You would have simply sensed that it should be “the five old Japanese cars,” for some reason you couldn’t explain. When you have an instinct like that, following it is usually more reliable than racking your brain for a rule. Speakers of a language — especially native speakers — often sense rules that may never have been explained to them. Cool, huh?

Calling on adverbs to describe actions and conditions

Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs — and they don’t need to be anywhere near the words they modify to get the job done. All things considered, adverbs are probably the most versatile part of speech. They can look many different ways, they can perform many different jobs, and they can appear just about anywhere in the sentence. In short, whenever you find yourself looking at a word and wondering “What the heck part of speech is this word?” the safe bet is that it’s an adverb.

Just consider the following three correct sentences:

• I studied tirelessly all night. (Tirelessly is an adverb modifying the verb studied.)
• The movie was very sad. (Very is an adverb modifying the adjective sad.)
• I handled the dynamite extremely gently. (Extremely is an adverb modifying the other adverb gently, which is modifying the verb handled.)

In those examples, two of the adverbs end in “-ly,” and the one that doesn’t is still fairly easy to spot as an adverb, because very means the same thing as extremely.

But adverbs can disguise themselves much more confusingly than that. They can even look like nouns. For example, in the sentence “I’m going to a concert tonight,” the word tonight is an adverb. Why? Because it is doing the job of an adverb. If I asked you to describe what the word tonight is doing in that sentence, you’d probably say that it’s modifying (or adding more information to) the word going (namely, it answers the question of when the speaker is going). And because going is a verb, the word that modifies it must therefore be an adverb.

When it comes to adverbs, be aware that they are masters of disguise. Never try to pick out adverbs based on what they look like. Instead, look at what the word in question is modifying. If it’s modifying a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, it’s an adverb, no matter what it looks like.

In cases where the word looks so little like an adverb that you simply can’t believe it is one, a good way to double-check is to substitute a word that does look like an adverb and see whether it can do the same job. For example, if you alter the sentence “I’m going to a concert tonight” to read “I’m going to a concert excitedly” or “I’m going to a concert cheerfully,” you can see that all three sentences are grammatically correct and that excitedly and cheerfully are clearly adverbs. Therefore, tonight must be an adverb too, because it occupies the space in the sentence that needs to be occupied by an adverb.

Getting the lowdown on pronouns

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Pronouns were created to avoid repetition of nouns. Think about the repetitive nature of the following sentence:

Richard went to the store and bought Richard some bread, and then Richard drove to another store where Richard often shops.

Now look at what pronouns can do:

Richard went to the store and bought himself some bread, and then he drove to another store where he often shops.

The words “himself” and “he” are pronouns, and they take the place of the noun “Richard” three times in the preceding sentence. The most common pronouns — and the ones that are probably the most familiar to you — are the personal pronouns. Basically, personal pronouns represent specific people and things and work as substitutes for their specific names.

When it comes to pronouns on the Praxis, there are two tricks you have to watch out for: singular versus plural, and subjective case versus objective case. Table 12-1 summarizes these properties, and we go into these properties in more detail in the following sections.

TABLE 12-1 Pronouns and Their Properties

	Subjective Case		Objective Case
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
First person	I	we	me	us
Second person	you	you	you	you
Third person	he, she, it	they	him, her, it	them

Singular versus plural pronouns

One of the most important issues with pronouns is that they agree in number with their antecedents (antecedent is the fancy word for “the noun that a pronoun takes the place of,” but although the word literally means “comes before,” it’s important to note that a pronoun doesn’t always come after the word it’s standing in for in the sentence).

Take, for example, the following correct sentence:

If a student wants to drop a class, he or she must visit the Registrar’s office.

You don’t know who this hypothetical student is, but regardless, you still know there is only one hypothetical student, so you need a singular pronoun. Although it’s now very common to use they in spoken English as a gender-neutral singular pronoun (to avoid the labor of constantly saying “he or she” or the sexism of just saying “he” when gender is unknown), be advised that the Praxis and virtually all grammar tests do not yet consider this to be correct. Inclusive and time-saving as it is, “they” is still plural and only plural as far as most tests are concerned. While there is a growing acceptance of “they” as singular, not everyone has caught on yet. So, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

As an example, consider the following correct sentence:

If students want to drop a class, they must visit the Registrar’s office.

This time, of course, the pronoun’s antecedent (“students”) is actually plural, so they is correct. You only have to watch out for mismatches like the following:

• Incorrect: If a student wants to drop a class, they must visit the Registrar’s office.
• Incorrect: If students want to drop a class, he or she must visit the Registrar’s office.

Subjective versus objective pronouns

Aside from singular versus plural (see the preceding section), the most common pronoun-related trick that the Praxis uses involves subjective versus objective case. If those terms aren’t familiar to you, don’t worry: You already know what they mean, even if you don’t know the fancy terms. The difference between subjective and objective case is the difference between “I” and “me,” or “we” and “us,” or “he/she” and “him/her,” or “they” and “them.” Namely, the difference is that you use the second word (the objective case) when the pronoun is the object of a verb or a preposition. A pronoun doesn’t have to be the subject of the sentence for you to use the first word, or subjective case — you use it whenever the pronoun is not the object of anything.

Even if you’ve never heard the terms “subjective case” and “objective case” before, you probably still sense that it’s wrong to say, “He hit I” or “Throw the ball to I.” As an English speaker, situations where you should say “me” instead of “I” (or “us” instead of “we,” and so on) are simply something you sense. You’ve probably been using subjective and objective pronoun cases correctly 99 percent of the time all your life, even if nobody has ever taught you the rule for doing so.

What you need to be concerned about for the Praxis is that 1 percent of cases where you don’t automatically sense what the correct usage is. Also, predictably, the way a test tries to trip you up with pronoun case is the same way it tries to trip you up with anything else: by putting other words in between the two words that are supposed to agree with each other.

Look at the following four sentences, all of which are incorrect, but some of which are more obviously incorrect than others:

• Obviously incorrect: Please take I home now.
• Obviously incorrect: Throw the ball to I.
• Less obviously incorrect: Please take Taryn and I home now.
• Less obviously incorrect: Throw the balls to my friends and I.

The error in all four of those sentences is that the pronoun should be in the objective case instead of the subjective case — in other words, it should be “me” instead of “I.” In two of the sentences, the pronoun is the object of a verb (“take”), and in the other two, it is the object of a preposition (“to”). But putting another noun in between the verb or preposition and the pronoun makes it a lot less obvious that the wrong pronoun case is being used, doesn’t it?

The verb “be” doesn’t take an objective case for its object, because it cannot have an object. It is used for connecting subjects to words that rename them and adjectives that modify them. The subject for “be” is the same person or thing as the subject of the clause: That’s why it’s correct to say, “This is she” instead of “This is her” when you answer the telephone and someone asks to speak to you. It is never grammatically correct to use the objective case of a pronoun when it is not an object.

Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Before you take the photograph of Deloris and I, let us adjust our lights.

(A) Deloris and I, let

(B) Deloris and me, let

(C) Deloris and myself, let

(D) Deloris, and I let

(E) Deloris, and me let

The correct answer is Choice (B). The pronoun is one of the objects of the preposition of, so it should be the objective-case me, not the subjective-case I. The comma should be placed between that pronoun and the verb let, because that’s the point at which the introductory subordinate clause ends and the main independent clause (which is a command) begins.

The right answer is not Choice (A) because the pronoun is one of the objects of the preposition of, so it should be the objective-case me, not the subjective-case I.

The right answer is not Choice (C) because the speaker has not yet appeared in the sentence and is not reflexively performing any verb upon himself, so there’s no need to use myself instead of me.

The right answer is not Choice (D) because the pronoun is one of the objects of the preposition of, so it should be the objective-case me, not the subjective-case I. Additionally, the comma should be placed between that pronoun and the verb let, because that’s the point at which the introductory subordinate clause ends and the main independent clause (which is a command) begins.

The right answer is not Choice (E) because the comma should be placed between the pronoun and the verb let, because that’s the point at which the introductory subordinate clause ends and the main independent clause (which is a command) begins.

The dreaded “whom” made easy

Perhaps no single word in the English language strikes more terror into the hearts of those who are about to take a grammar test than whom. Hardly anyone who isn’t an English teacher has any confidence whatsoever in his or her ability to use it correctly, and most people just avoid using it altogether. But believe it or not, whom’s bark is much worse than its bite. Its usage is really not all that difficult to understand.

Just as “me” is the objective case of “I” or “us” is the objective case of “we,” “whom” is simply the objective case of “who.” The rules for who/whom are no different from the rules for I/me, he/him, we/us, or they/them. So where did its fearsome reputation come from? Well, who/whom is made a bit more complicated than the other pronouns by the fact that who is frequently used as an interrogative pronoun, meaning that it’s used to ask questions. The arrangement of words in a question is different from the arrangement of words in a statement. For example, in a question, the pronoun may be the first word, whereas the verb of which it is the object may be the last word. So, a question like “Who do you love?” should actually be “Whom do you love?” because the pronoun is the object of the verb love.

Most of the time, if a question on the Praxis involves whom, it employs whom as a relative pronoun rather than an interrogative one. Consider the following sentence, which uses whom correctly but as a relative pronoun (that is, it’s used to link clauses rather than to ask a question):

My grandmother, from whom I inherited my green eyes, lives in Wisconsin.

You remember the simple grade-school rule about how you’re supposed to use who when you’re talking about a person, but that or which when you’re talking about an animal or a thing, right? Okay, so the sentence you just examined is no different from saying:

This book, from which I learned grammar, was well worth the price.

In both cases, the relative pronoun is right next to the preposition from, so it’s easy to spot as the object. In the first sentence, you use who/whom instead of which, because you’re talking about a person, and the form is whom instead of who because it’s the object of a preposition. If whom comes up on the Praxis, it will probably be in a situation like that.

Reflexively using intensive and reflexive pronouns

Reflexive and intensive pronouns are the same words, but they are used differently. They end with “self” and include words like “myself,” “yourself,” and “herself.” “Himself” and “themselves” are pronouns, but “hisself” and “theirself” are not. It is important to be careful not to use those. Remember that a group of people cannot be just one self.

Reflexive pronouns are necessary to the meanings of sentences, but intensive pronouns are not. Intensive pronouns just intensify sentences. For example, in the sentence “John himself organized the party,” “himself” is an intensive pronoun. It is not vital to the meaning of the sentence, but it does add effect. However, “John saw himself in the mirror” uses the word “himself” as a word that is needed for making the point. It is a reflexive pronoun.

The major rule concerning reflexive pronouns is that they should never be used when personal pronouns can be used instead.

• Incorrect: I saw Jenny, and she said that herself is moving to Florida.
• Correct: I saw Jenny, and she said that she is moving to Florida.

Considering conjunctions

Conjunctions link parts of a sentence together (think conjoin), be they individual words (as in “I bought bread and eggs”) or entire clauses (as in “I went cycling on Saturday, and I went swimming on Sunday”). In addition to the “big three” conjunctions — and, but, and or — some other common ones are so, yet, and nor. (For can also be a conjunction, but most of the time, for is a preposition, as in “The telephone call was for you.”)

The seven words discussed in the preceding paragraph are the only seven coordinating conjunctions, which you can remember with the mnemonic FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). But there are many more subordinating conjunctions (because, since, although, when, unless, while, and until are just a few).

So, what’s the difference? When two clauses are linked with a coordinating conjunction, the conjunction can only go in the middle, whereas a subordinating conjunction may appear at the beginning of a sentence or between two clauses in a sentence.

In terms of taking the Praxis writing test, why do you need to know this? The answer is “commas.” Questions on the Praxis writing exam expect you to know where commas do or don’t go. In fact, in the questions that underline four portions of a sentence and instruct you to pick the portion that contains an error (or select “no error” if there are no errors), occasionally a single comma by itself is underlined as one of the four choices, so you need to know whether a comma belongs in that spot. And knowledge of conjunction rules plays a big part in knowing where commas should or shouldn’t go.

So, say you have two independent clauses: “I studied hard” and “I aced the test.” Now say you want to link them with a conjunction. If you want to link them with a coordinating conjunction, there’s only one way to do that: Put the coordinating conjunction between the independent clauses and place a comma before the conjunction (“I studied hard, so I aced the test”).

It is incorrect to place a comma before a coordinating conjunction unless the coordinating conjunction links two independent clauses (compare “I like watching TV and playing video games” and “I like watching TV, and I like playing video games”) or precedes the last item in a series (compare “I invited James, Tom, Scott, and Brian”).

If, on the other hand, you feel like linking the two clauses with a subordinating conjunction, you have two options: Put the subordinate clause second and don’t use a comma (“I aced the test because I studies hard”), or put the subordinate clause first and use a comma (“Because I studied hard, I aced the test”). Keep in mind that if you include the comma when the subordinate clause comes second or omit the comma when the subordinate clause comes first, the sentence is incorrect.

Perusing prepositions

You hear a lot about prepositions in the section on pronouns, because it talks about how pronouns should be in the objective case when they’re the objects of either verbs or prepositions. Of course, that knowledge isn’t much help if you don’t know a preposition when you see one.

So, what is a preposition? It’s a word that provides information about the relationship of words to each other in time and space: before and after are prepositions, for example, as are over and under. (The “time and space” rule is not absolute, however. About is one example of a preposition that does not relate to relationships in time and space, as in “The movie was about skateboarders.” Oh, and be aware that about can also be an adverb meaning approximately, as in “The movie was about two hours long.”)

There are too many prepositions for you to simply memorize all of them, but a handy, short list includes the following: aboard, about, above, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but (when used like except, as in “I want everything but anchovies on the pizza”; the rest of the time, it’s a conjunction), by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like (when used to mean similarly to or such as, as in “He looks like my cousin” or “Some countries, like Switzerland, are landlocked”), near, of, off, on, over, past, since (when used to signify the last time something occurred, as in “I haven’t seen him since Monday”), through, throughout, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, and without.

Many people find it helpful to refer to prepositions as “squirrel words,” meaning that they represent things a squirrel can do: The squirrel ran around the room; the squirrel ran under the table; the squirrel jumped over the chair; the squirrel crawled inside my desk; the squirrel ran down the hallway, past the water fountain, and through the door; and so on.

Most preposition-related questions on the Praxis writing exam involve determining whether the pronoun should be in the subjective or objective case. The only other common type of preposition question on the Praxis concerns preposition selection itself. Occasionally, a “no error” question will have a preposition underlined by itself, and you’re expected to know whether the preposition is being used correctly in that context or whether another preposition would be better. Consider these examples:

• Correct: I’m obsessed with grammar.
• Incorrect: I’m obsessed on grammar.
• Correct: The movie was based on the book.
• Incorrect: The movie was based about the book.

So, whenever you see a preposition underlined by itself on a “no error” question, make sure it’s the best one to use in that context. Unfortunately, preposition usage in English is largely idiomatic, which is the fancy word for “you say it that way because you just do.” Think about it: Why do you say “in the morning” but “at night?” or “get in the car” but “get on the plane?” You just do.

Many prepositions can also function as other parts of speech, so the mere presence of a word that, in some instances, can be a preposition doesn’t necessarily mean that the pronoun following it should be in the objective case. (Compare “I get to use the bike after him,” in which after is a preposition, to “After he is done using it, I get the bike,” in which after is a subordinating conjunction.) As mentioned earlier, but and since are two more words that can be either prepositions or conjunctions, and the incredibly versatile word like can actually function as any part of speech except a pronoun!

If you want to memorize many of the most common prepositions, do an Internet search for “prepositions Jingle Bells.” There’s a song setting a list of prepositions to the tune of “Jingle Bells” that’s incredibly helpful and quite easy to memorize.

Making Sense of Sentence Structure

Now that you’ve reviewed the parts of speech and how to put them together (see the preceding sections), it’s time to brush up on how groups of words fit together to make sentences. When it comes to “groups of words,” there are two types: clauses and phrases. Without getting unnecessarily technical, the difference is that a clause has both a subject and a verb whereas a phrase does not.

Now, you probably know that the definition of a sentence is that it has both a subject and a verb. So, you’re probably wondering what the difference is between a clause and a sentence. Well, the best analogy is that it’s like the difference between a home and a building. If you live in a house, then your home and your building are the same thing. But if you live in an apartment, then your building contains other homes in addition to yours. To qualify as a home, a given space needs to contain a few essential elements: a bedroom and a bathroom, for example. A big, fancy house may have multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, but it’s still just one home. Conversely, an apartment building can contain many bedrooms and bathrooms but be divided up into many different homes, each of which contains one bedroom and one bathroom.

A sentence, then, may only contain one clause — in this case, the clause and the sentence are the same thing. A longer sentence, on the other hand, can contain multiple clauses. It also may contain one or more phrases — bits of extra information that are nice to have, but not necessary to make a complete sentence. To continue with the “home” analogy, you can say that a phrase is like a den: It’s nice to have a den in your home, but you don’t need to have one for your home to count as a home; at the same time, a den all by itself cannot be said to constitute a home.

To turn now to punctuation, you can say that punctuation marks are like walls. Periods are the outer walls that separate your home from other people’s homes, and commas (or semicolons, dashes, and so forth) are the inner walls that separate the rooms in your home from one another. Sometimes these inner walls are absolutely necessary (it would certainly be odd if your bathroom were not separated from the other rooms by any walls), and other times, they’re not (the kitchen and the dining room may just be two separate areas within one big room). Most of the time, clauses and phrases are separated from one another by punctuation marks such as commas, but under certain circumstances, they may not be. We review punctuation later in the chapter. This section focuses on sentence structure.

Independent clauses versus everything else

Independent clause is the fancy name for “a group of words that can stand as a complete sentence by itself.” Some sentences consist of a single independent clause, while others consist of an independent clause joined to one or more phrases or subordinate clauses. Still others consist of two or more independent clauses joined to one another, or of two or more independent clauses joined to one or more phrases or subordinate clauses, and so on. From a strictly grammatical standpoint, you can combine as many clauses and phrases as you like into a single sentence, as long as you combine them according to the rules.

Take the sentence “I eat popcorn.” It is both an independent clause and a complete sentence. But say you want to make this sentence a little more interesting, so you change it to “I eat popcorn at the movies.” At the movies is a prepositional phrase (which you can tell by the fact that at is a preposition). It’s not divided from your initial independent clause with commas, and you can say that it’s now part of your independent clause, even though it’s not an essential part — you can get rid of it and still have a complete sentence. Now suppose you expand the sentence yet again, to read “Every Tuesday, I eat popcorn at the movies.” Now you have an adverbial phrase at the beginning, followed by a comma, because it precedes the independent clause. Now say you expand the sentence even further, to read “Every Tuesday, if I’m hungry, I eat popcorn at the movies.” This time, you’ve added a dependent clause: “I’m hungry” could be a complete sentence by itself, but here, it’s bonded to the subordinating conjunction if, so the clause is dependent. You now have multiple subjects and verbs in the sentence, but the main subject and verb of the whole sentence are still “I eat,” from your initial independent clause. Anything that isn’t an independent clause is considered a fragment, which doesn’t generate a complete thought.

The sentence skeleton: Identifying the main subject and verb

Don’t worry: You don’t actually need to know the difference between one type of phrase and another to answer any questions on the Praxis writing test. You do, however, need to be pretty good at quickly identifying the main subject and verb of a sentence. The ability to do this is useful when it comes to answering all sorts of grammar questions, and being familiar with the terms independent clauses, dependent clauses, and phrases makes the task easier (the preceding section gives you the lowdown on these terms).

In other words, you don’t technically need to know the fancy names for all the different types of “extra stuff” that can be in a sentence, but you do need to be able to tell the difference between the things that need to be there in order to have a complete sentence and the things that don’t.

So, okay, say you’re asked to identify the main subject and verb of this sentence:

According to biologists, one of the most endangered animals is the Javan rhinoceros.

If you correctly discerned that the subject is one and the verb is is, good job! The nouns in the sentence that jumped out at you were probably biologists, animals, and Javan rhinoceros, but none of these is the main subject. Why not? Well, biologists can’t be the subject of the sentence because it’s part of an introductory phrase rather than the main independent clause. Animals can’t be the subject because it’s part of a prepositional phrase (specifically, the one governed by of). And Javan rhinoceros can’t be the subject because it’s the object. That leaves you with one, the singular pronoun that serves as the subject of the sentence.

The use of the word one can sometimes be confusing in this case, as it is sometimes used as a numerical expression. However, one is an indefinite pronoun in the sentence, which is a predicate nominative for Javan rhinoceros. Other indefinite pronouns, such as all, many, or some could be substituted in its place, and the sentence would still make sense.

As for the verb, not only is is the main verb, but it’s actually the only verb in the whole sentence! According to is an expression that works like a preposition, and endangered here is an adjective modifying animals.

No matter what sort of grammar question you’re dealing with, it’s always a good idea to ground yourself by first identifying the main subject and verb — what I call the “sentence skeleton,” because everything else in the sentence is constructed around it. You can get rid of everything in a sentence except the main independent clause (or, for that matter, the subject and verb of the main independent clause) and still have a complete sentence. The sentence won’t be as informative, but it will still be grammatically correct. And no word that’s located in one of the parts of the sentence you can get rid of can possibly be the main subject or main verb. For example, if you were to take all the prepositional phrases and clauses from the sentence about the rhinoceros, you’d be left with the sentence One is the Javan Rhinoceros.

Run-ons and comma splices

Although you probably remember the term run-on from school, you may not be 100 percent sure what it means. Many people mistakenly believe that a run-on sentence is just a sentence that is too long, but that’s not actually what the term means.

A run-on sentence is a sentence wherein two (or more, in especially messy cases) independent clauses have been placed next to each other without being joined. A comma splice is a situation in which two independent clauses are joined with only a comma, when more than just a comma is necessary.

The run-on sentence’s ugly cousin is the comma splice. A comma splice is a run-on sentence that attempts to join two independent clauses with only a comma, when more than just a comma is necessary.

In short, both run-ons and comma splices are grammatical errors, and very similar ones — the difference is that a comma splice has a comma in it and a run-on doesn’t.

In case all that was about as clear as mud, here are some examples. Start by examining the correct, complete sentence “Shakespeare is my favorite writer, and his characters are the most memorable.” This sentence consists of two independent clauses (“Shakespeare is my favorite writer” and “his characters are the most memorable”), joined with the conjunction and and a comma before the conjunction. Using a comma and a conjunction is the most common way to correctly join two independent clauses. A comma splice is when the writer puts in just the comma without the conjunction, and a run-on is when the writer puts nothing at all between the two clauses, as in these sentences:

• Comma splice: Shakespeare is my favorite writer, his characters are the most memorable.
• Run-On: Shakespeare is my favorite writer his characters are the most memorable.

Most grammar tests for older students or adults don’t bother throwing in too many run-ons, because they’re easy to spot. But test-writers just love to throw comma splices at you! Learn to spot a comma splice from a mile away, and your score will shoot up significantly solely due to your acquiring that one skill!

Which of the following sentences is not grammatically correct?

(A) Before your friends get here, we should pick up some snacks.

(B) That movie was too long, I almost fell asleep.

(C) If I don’t get this question right, I’m going to be deeply ashamed.

(D) I’m afraid of that dog, so I’m going to walk the long way home.

(E) The sun is warm, the sky is blue, and I’m happy.

The correct answer is Choice (B). That sentence presents two independent clauses joined with only a comma, making it a comma splice and the only one of the five choices that is not a correct sentence. Choice (A) presents an independent clause preceded by a dependent clause, with a comma between the two, which is correct. Choice (C) links a subordinate clause to an independent clause by placing a comma between them and using the subordinate conjunction “if” at the beginning of the first clause, which is correct. Choice (D) links two independent clauses with a comma and a coordinating conjunction, which is correct. Choice (E) presents three independent clauses as a list. That is why the use of a comma between the first two, and the use of a comma and a conjunction between the second and last, is correct.

Pondering Punctuation

Just as road signs or traffic signals are placed wherever streets intersect with one another, punctuation marks appear at the junctures where different parts of a sentence come together. Now that you know all about phrases and clauses, it’s time to review how punctuation marks are used to mark their intersections. You already know that a period (or a question mark or exclamation point) comes at the end of a sentence, so we don’t need to talk about periods. Instead, this section is mainly concerned with commas, as well as with the other, less common, punctuation marks that may come up on the Praxis writing test.

Commas

It may be a little gross, but you may find it helpful to think of commas as the scars that are left when a sentence is operated on. The “operation” may be a “transplant,” wherein a portion of the sentence is moved elsewhere (for example, placing a subordinate clause before the main independent clause instead of after it), or it may be a “graft,” wherein two elements of a sentence are spliced together (for example, making two independent clauses into one sentence or adding extra information to an independent clause).

Comma placement is determined by what is happening at a given point in the sentence. There are six situations in which commas are necessary, which we outline in the following sections.

Joining two or more independent clauses

A comma is always necessary if there is more than one independent clause in the sentence (unless another punctuation mark, such as a semicolon, colon, or dash, does the job).

• “There was no school” and “I went to the beach”
• There was no school, so I went to the beach.

Note that a coordinating conjunction is absolutely required after the comma. In cases where more than two independent clauses are being combined, a comma is still required after each one, but the coordinating conjunction is only necessary before the last, as in “Ben plays guitar, Brian plays bass, and Scott plays drums.”

Following an introductory clause or phrase

When the sentence opens with a subordinate clause that functions as an adverb or adjective, a comma is required after the introductory clause.

If you want to pass the test, you must study.

When an introductory clause functions as a noun, it should not be followed by a comma.

Whether you pass the test will depend on how much you study.

When a sentence begins with a phrase, following the phrase with a comma is required in some cases but only recommended in others. If a sentence opens with a prepositional phrase, following the phrase with a comma is a requirement if the phrase has more than four words. Otherwise, use of a comma following an introductory prepositional phrase is merely recommended. An introductory participial phrase should be followed by a comma in every case. So should every introductory infinitive phrase that functions as an adverb or adjective.

To make money, Al mowed yards.

That is because the infinitive phrase functions as an adverb that modifies “mowed.” However, no comma is necessary for following an infinitive phrase that functions as a noun.

“To be happy is what I wish.”

In that sentence, “To be happy” is the subject of the sentence. There is no reason to follow it with a comma.

In summary, commas must follow introductory clauses and phrases that function as adverbs or adjectives, except commas are not required to follow introductory prepositional phrases with four or fewer words. Commas are still optional in those cases. Commas should not follow introductory noun clauses or introductory noun phrases.

Whether a clause is independent or subordinate, as well as whether a comma is required, has nothing to do with the length of the sentence. You can have a long independent clause preceded by an introductory phrase as brief as a single word in length (“Relieved, he called his friends and family to tell them how well he did on the test”), or you can have a brief independent clause preceded by a fairly lengthy subordinate/dependent one (“Although he tried not to be saddened by all the sorrow and confusion in this crazy, modern world of ours, he wept”).

Before an “afterthought”

An “afterthought” is like an introduction, but it comes after the independent clause instead of before or within it.

• I don’t need a tune-up, just an oil change.
• I saw my two favorite animals at the zoo, lemurs and red pandas.

On both sides of an “interrupting” clause, phrase, or word

Usually, when a subordinate clause or a phrase comes in the middle of an independent clause, it needs to be set off with commas on both sides. For example, the second sentence in the afterthought section could also have taken the form of “I saw my two favorite animals, lemurs and red pandas, at the zoo.” The phrase “lemurs and red pandas” is an example of an appositive phrase because it gives more specific details of what is referred to by a previous word, “animals.” “Lemurs” and “pandas” are the appositives in the appositive phrase because they specify which animals are referred to by “animals.” Like other interrupting phrases, appositive phrases used within independent clauses need to be separated from the rest of their sentences by commas.

However, an interrupting appositive that comes alone, not in a phrase, needs commas beside it only if it is the only thing that can rename the previous word. If Adam is John’s only brother, John could write correctly, “My brother, Adam, lives in my neighborhood.” If John has more than one brother, he should not use commas around the appositive. He can write, “My brother Adam lives in my neighborhood.” Use commas when only one of what is named exists. There’s no rhyme or reason to which part of the sentence has to be the interrupting phrase or clause; it all depends on how you feel like writing it: You can say either “Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, was the first president with a beard” or “The 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, was the first president with a beard.”

Participles and participial phrases also need to be separated by commas when they interrupt independent clauses. Commas are necessary for separating the participial phrase in the sentence “William, still really surprised, accepted his trophy.” Even if the participle were not part of a phrase, it would need to be separated by commas. The sentence would be “William, surprised, accepted his trophy.”

Although, for the sake of your sanity, this book avoids using all the fancy names for the many types of interrupting clauses, phrases, and words, there are some other types that don’t technically involve appositives or participles but still need to be set off with commas. A which clause is a good example, as in “Halloween, which was called Samhain by the Celts, is my favorite holiday.” Other types of interrupting clauses, phrases, and words can be used, like for example or however (as in “This sentence, for example, has a very short interrupting phrase in the middle” or “This sentence, however, has just an interrupting word”). It is the interruption that calls for commas.

Separating items in a list

When three or more words or phrases are listed, commas are used to separate the items in the list. You may be listing individual words.

I bought cheese, milk, bread, pasta sauce, and fireworks.

You may be listing phrases or concepts several words long.

I bought a book with a green cover, an umbrella with purple stripes, six leopards that can dance the tango, and fireworks with which to scare the leopards if they won’t stop dancing.

The comma preceding the and before the last item in the list — the so-called Oxford comma — is considered optional by grammarians. It is correct either to include or omit it, and the Praxis doesn’t ask you questions about this rule.

Separating multiple adjectives before a single noun

“The brave, popular, wizened, sleepy, jocular elephant taught the leopards to tango” is an example of a sentence containing multiple adjectives that all modify the same noun. Accordingly, they are separated by commas. As explained in the section on adjectives earlier in this chapter, certain types of adjectives don’t require commas even when they appear in series, but grammar tests very rarely test on this.

Semicolons

As far as the Praxis writing and virtually all other grammar tests are concerned, semicolons do one thing and one thing only: Namely, they separate two independent clauses within a single sentence. We’ve already talked about how two independent clauses can be joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction; the semicolon takes the place of both the comma and the coordinating conjunction. So, you can write either of the following sentences:

• I fed the cats, and now they like me.
• I fed the cats; now they like me.

When it comes to semicolons, that’s about it. If you see a semicolon on the test, check to make sure that the words both before and after it constitute independent clauses. If they do, the semicolon is being used correctly; if they don’t, it isn’t. (This doesn’t necessarily mean that an answer choice that uses a semicolon correctly is the right answer, because it may be wrong for some other reason. It just means that the semicolon isn’t the reason it’s wrong.)

Apostrophes

Unlike the other punctuation marks discussed in this section, apostrophes don’t separate parts of a sentence. Rather, they’re used within individual words for two reasons: to show contraction (as in “cannot” becoming “can’t”) and to indicate possession (as in “that is my friend’s car”). When it comes to contractions, the apostrophe goes where the missing letter or letters would be. The only tricky thing about this is distinguishing certain contractions from similar-sounding words that don’t have apostrophes (we discuss that in the upcoming section on homophones).

As for using apostrophes to indicate possession, that’s a little more complicated, but not exactly difficult. Here’s what you need to know:

• To make a singular word (not ending in “s”) possessive, add both an apostrophe and an “s,” with the apostrophe coming before the “s,” as in “I borrowed my cousin’s guitar.”
• To make a singular word ending in “s” possessive, put an apostrophe after the “s,” and put an “s” after the apostrophe, as in “I like the bus’s windows.”
• To make a plural word ending in “s” possessive, add an apostrophe after the “s,” as in “My parents’ house is in the suburbs.”
• To make a plural word that does not end in “s” possessive, add both an apostrophe and an “s,” with the apostrophe coming before the “s,” as in: “That room is where we keep the children’s toys.”

Perhaps the most important apostrophe rule concerns what apostrophes are not used to do: Namely, they are never used to indicate pluralization. So, remember, it is not “My friend’s brought their guitar’s,” because friends and guitars in that sentence are simply plural and not possessive. Yes, the friends own the guitars, but the words themselves are not indicating possession from a grammatical perspective.

Misplaced Modifiers

Depending on when you went to school, you may be familiar with the rules in this section under a different name. Once upon a time, misplaced modifiers were called dangling participles. Then they were called dangling modifiers for a while. Then someone decided that the “dangling” business just sounded silly, so now grammarians call them misplaced modifiers.

A modifying clause is a dependent clause that opens a sentence and provides descriptive information about the subject of the subsequent independent clause. You can tell where one clause ends and the other begins because there’s always a comma between the dependent and independent clauses when the dependent clause comes first.

For example, take the sentence “After growing tired of the parade, Taryn went home.” The second clause is the main independent clause, and the first (a descriptive, dependent clause) provides more information about the subject, Taryn, and why she went home. The rule for such situations is that the noun being described by the dependent clause has to come right after the comma, and a sentence that violates this rule is said to contain a misplaced modifier.

The sentence in the preceding paragraph is correct, but if someone were to write “After growing tired of the parade, we found out that Taryn went home,” that would be an example of a misplaced modifier. A reader might be able to intuit from the context that Taryn is the one who left, but as written, the sentence means that we are the ones who got tired of the parade rather than Taryn, because we is the (pro)noun that immediately follows the modifying clause (and is the subject of the independent clause).

Which of the following sentences is correct?

(A) Needing to make an urgent call, Megan’s search for her phone charger was frantic.

(B) While playing football in the house, the lamp was broken.

(C) Confused by the directions, the gang drove around aimlessly.

(D) Never having met him before, I’m amazed you got along so well with Danny.

(E) Unlike some people, you can always depend on Gabriel.

The correct answer is Choice (C). “The gang” is who or what was “confused,” so this sentence places its subject in correct relation to its modifier (the fact that “the” precedes “gang” doesn’t matter). Choice (A) is wrong because, although the name “Megan” comes right after the comma, it is possessive, so the entire noun phrase is “Megan’s search” — and Megan’s search didn’t need to make a call; Megan herself did. Choice (B) is wrong because, although what the writer means to say is clear, the sentence as written means that the lamp was playing football, which it obviously wasn’t doing. Choice (D) is wrong because it’s clear from context that the person being addressed is the one who has never met Danny before, not the speaker, so “I’m” should not immediately follow the comma. Choice (E) is wrong because, although it’s clear from the context that reliable Gabriel is the one who is “unlike some people,” the sentence as written means that the person being addressed is the one who is “unlike some people,” which is presumably not what the speaker means to say.

Redundancy and Double Negatives

You should never repeat yourself or say the same thing twice. In other words, you should avoid doing what the previous sentence just did! In the grammar game, that’s known as redundancy. Redundancy can take the form of an entire phrase that repeats information provided by an earlier phrase (as in the little joke that opened this paragraph), or it can come down to something as simple as an unnecessary adjective, as in “the tree-filled forest” (by definition, a forest is filled with trees, so pointing this out is hardly necessary).

Grammar tests like to throw in some redundancy questions now and then because the test-writers know that most people are too concerned with grammar to stop and think about what a sentence actually means. (The first sentence in this section, for example, is grammatically correct in the sense that it doesn’t break any rules about clauses, agreement, punctuation, or anything like that, but it’s still undesirable, because you could chop the sentence in half and each half would mean the same thing.)

Double negatives are a special type of redundancy that occurs when two words that both indicate the negation of an idea are inserted into a sentence when only one is necessary, as in the sentence “Nobody gave me nothing.” Either “Nobody gave me anything” or “People gave me nothing” would be correct, but you don’t need to use a “negating” word twice. Doing so results in the opposite meaning from what is intended because the two negatives cancel each other. If nobody gives a person nothing, then everybody gives the person something. Singing “I can’t get no satisfaction” made the Rolling Stones a lot of money, but it wouldn’t have been a correct response on the Praxis or any other test.

Which of the following sentences contains an example of redundancy?

(A) The brisk wind swept across the shining surface of the frozen lake.

(B) Nobody had better tell me what I can’t do.

(C) I now see that the right time is now.

(D) Children will act the way that children will act.

(E) None of the above.

The correct answer is Choice (E). None of the first four choices actually contains an example of redundancy. Choice (A) isn’t redundant because none of the adjectives are unnecessary: Not all winds are brisk, so adding that detail is fine; not all surfaces are shining, so this detail is fine to add; and not all lakes are frozen, so it’s fine to specify that this one is. Choice (B) isn’t redundant because, despite the presence of both nobody and can’t, it isn’t actually a double negative: The speaker doesn’t want anyone to tell her that she isn’t able (or permitted) to do something, so “Nobody had better tell me what I can’t do” is exactly what she means. Choice (C) isn’t redundant because the two uses of “now” don’t refer to the same thing: The right time is now (as opposed to some other time), and the speaker has only just realized this (as opposed to realizing it at some other time). Choice (D) isn’t redundant because the speaker is presumably pointing out that some situation involving some rambunctious children is out of anyone’s control and that he doesn’t have a good explanation for why children act the way they do — in terms of logic, the sentence is a tautology, but a tautology isn’t the same thing as redundancy in a grammatical sense.

Homophones: “They’re in there with their bear”

As you probably remember from elementary school, homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Two things about homophones are likely to trip you up when you take the Praxis: the differences between words that are spelled the same, when one has an apostrophe; and the meanings of words that sound the same but have different spellings.

Which one has the apostrophe?

The types of homophones that give the average person the most trouble are the ones where one word is a contraction (that is, it has an apostrophe) and the other word is a possessive pronoun — for example, “it’s/its,” “you’re/your,” “they’re/their (and there),” and “who’s/whose.” In all of those cases, the one with the apostrophe is the contraction. Possessive personal pronouns should not have apostrophes. This concept is confusing because the first thing you learn about apostrophes is that they show possession, and now suddenly the word without the apostrophe is the possessive one. But hey, that’s the rule (don’t look at me — I didn’t invent the English language).

The easiest way to keep all this straight (and get the questions right on the Praxis) is simply to get in the habit of reading the words with the apostrophes as though they were two separate words: “it’s” means “it is,” so say/think “it is” whenever you see “it’s.” Say “you are” whenever you see “you’re,” say “they are” whenever you see “they’re,” say “who is” whenever you see “who’s,” and so on. If the sentence no longer makes sense, then the word in question should be the one without the apostrophe. Incorrect use of apostrophes can cause confusion because it can make words look like contractions when that is not what they are. For example, “Who’s backpack is this?” could be interpreted to mean “Who is backpack is this?” The second meaning does not make sense.

Spelled and used differently, but sound the same

If the homophone you have trouble with is their versus there, you can remember that their is the possessive because it contains the word heir, and that there is the one about places because it contains the word here (that’s not actually why the words are spelled that way; it’s just a good way to remember which is which). When it comes to homophone trouble in cases where neither word has an apostrophe, here are the most common pairs of words that give people grief and how to remember which is which:

• Then/than: Then is an adverb indicating order (“I aced the test, and then I went straight to the bar”), and than is a subordinating conjunction used for comparison (“I know grammar better than my friends do, thanks to this book”). Getting into the habit of pronouncing them differently helps a lot, but if there’s no time for that, then just use the “e” and “a” themselves as clues, and think then = order and than = comparison.
• Affect/effect: Ninety-nine percent of the time, the difference is that affect is a verb and effect is a noun: “His insults did not affect me” versus “His insults had no effect on me.” Unfortunately, there’s more. Effect can also be a verb meaning “to bring about,” as in “You’ll need to do more than sign petitions if you really want to effect change.” And just to make sure your day is completely ruined, affect can also be a noun. Affect as a noun is a word that has to do with a person’s behavior. For the purposes of the Praxis, just remember that, in the vast majority of cases, affect is a verb and effect is a noun, but there are exceptions.
• To/too: To is a preposition that can be used in all sorts of ways. Too is an adverb that can mean either “extremely” or “unacceptably” (“The music is too loud”), or “also” (“I’m coming too”). The best method for keeping them straight is to remember that one word is used way more than the other: There probably isn’t a single paragraph in this book that doesn’t use to. So rather than trying to memorize the million different things that to can do, just remember that if it means “unacceptably/very” or “also,” it’s too, and if not, then it’s to.” (There’s also two, which means the whole number between one and three, but most people don’t have any trouble with that.)
• Compliment/complement: The one with the “i” means saying something nice about somebody, and the one with the “e” means that two things go together well (“He complimented me on the fact that my shoes complement my dress”).
• Whether/weather: The first one means that something is in question, and the second one refers to what it’s like when you go outside (“I don’t know whether the weather will improve”). As with than/then, it helps to get into the habit of pronouncing them differently. Your friends may think it’s obnoxious of you to start pronouncing the “h” in “whether,” but you can stop after the test.
• Farther/further: These words aren’t technically homophones, because they’re pronounced differently, but they still give people a lot of trouble. The difference is that farther relates to actual physical distance, whereas further indicates the extent to which you feel like doing something (“I don’t want to have any further discussion about whether you can long-jump farther than I can”).

Capitalization: What You Need to Know

When you first began looking into what is or isn’t tested on the Praxis writing exam, your reaction to finding out that there were questions about capitalization was probably something like “There are questions about capitalization on this test?! What am I, in third grade?”

Yes, you almost certainly already know that the first letters of the first words of sentences are capitalized, as are people’s names; the names of proper places like cities, states, or countries; the names of companies like “Facebook”; the names of sports teams and bands; and the words in the titles of books, movies, and so on.

You may not, however, know some of the trickier rules about capitalization, and those are the ones that the Praxis writing test will ask about. Here’s a rundown of the most common capitalization-related tricks:

• Titles, like “president”: Titles, such as “president,” “mayor,” and so forth, are only capitalized when they are placed before the name of, or used to indicate, a specific president or mayor or what have you. So, you should write “Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president,” but “Everyone knows that President Lincoln wore a stovepipe hat.” If you’re talking about the current president (or mayor, or whomever), you capitalize the word even if the person’s name doesn’t appear in the sentence, because you’re still indicating a specific person: “The President held a press conference this morning.”

  The same rule applies for God versus a god: You capitalize “God” when referring to a/the deity with the proper name God, but not when you’re talking about deities in general: “I prayed to God that I would pass the test” versus “Apollo was one of the Greek gods.”

• The names of seasons: Many people are unclear about this, but the rule is that the names of seasons are only capitalized if you are addressing the season directly, as you might in a poem. So, you say “I love the way the leaves change color in the fall,” but “Oh, my beloved Fall, how I love it when your leaves change color!”
• The names of specific regions, even if they are not actual countries: You should capitalize the names of all proper nouns, and that includes geographical areas that are not technically specific countries, cities, and the like: “My uncle frequently travels to the Far East.” You should not, however, capitalize the names of cardinal directions when they’re just used to indicate directions rather than an areas: “My uncle has to fly east to get to the Far East.” You should also not capitalize the “cardinal direction” part of a name when a suffix is attached to it, because that involves a comparison rather than a proper name, with the exception of cases where the cardinal direction with a comparative suffix is part of an actual proper noun: “Many people don’t realize that northern Brazil lies in the Northern Hemisphere.”
• Specific eras in history: The title of a specific period in history, even a slang or unofficial one, is a proper noun and should be capitalized accordingly: “The Disco Era was mercifully short-lived.”

Practice Questions about Grammar

These practice questions are similar to the questions about grammar that you’ll encounter on the Praxis.

1. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

The childrens’ toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

(A) The childrens’ toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

(B) The childrens’ toys are all over the floor, so you’d better watch you’re step.

(C) The children’s toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch you’re step.

(D) The children’s toys are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

(E) The childrens toys, are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step.

2. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long its been in the refrigerator.

(A) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long its been in the refrigerator.

(B) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long it’s been in the refrigerator.

(C) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you; I’m not sure how long its been in the refrigerator.

(D) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you, I’m not sure how long; it’s been in the refrigerator.

(E) I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you; I’m not sure how long it’s been in the refrigerator.

3. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

That hotdog restaurant, was a village landmark, I can’t believe it closed!

(A) That hotdog restaurant, was a village landmark, I can’t believe it closed!

(B) That hotdog restaurant, it was a village landmark, and I can’t believe it closed!

(C) That hotdog restaurant — as a village landmark — I can’t believe it closed!

(D) That hotdog restaurant was a village landmark — I can’t believe it closed!

(E) That hotdog restaurant being a village landmark, so I can’t believe it closed!

4. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

The album containing all my birthday pictures is missing!

(A) The album containing all my birthday pictures is missing!

(B) The album containing all my birthday pictures are missing!

(C) The album contains all my birthday pictures are missing!

(D) The album contains all my birthday pictures is missing!

(E) The album containing all my birthday pictures, which is missing!

5. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

She was running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(A) She was running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(B) Because she was running late for work, and Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(C) Running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(D) Running late for work, and Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

(E) Running late for work; Megan locked herself out of her apartment.

6. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Although we’ve had a rough couple of seasons, because I think this might be our year.

(A) seasons, because I think

(B) seasons, I think

(C) seasons, but I think

(D) seasons, however, I think

(E) seasons: I think

7. Which version of the following sentence is correct?

The affects of the anesthesia has begun to wear off.

(A) The affects of the anesthesia has begun to wear off.

(B) The affects of the anesthesia have begun to wear off.

(C) The effects of the anesthesia have begun to wear off.

(D) The effects of the anesthesia has began to wear off.

(E) The effects of the anesthesia have began to wear off.

8. How many commas are needed to correctly punctuate the following sentence?

The fastest two-legged animal the ostrich may be found in Australia and zoos all over the world.

(A) None

(B) One

(C) Two

(D) Three

(E) Four

9. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

When I was young, I won a year supply of pretzels in a radio contest.

(A) a year supply

(B) a year’s supply

(C) a years’ supply

(D) yearly a supply

(E) a year of supplies

10. The problem with the following sentence is that it contains a

As someone whom I have known for years, I’d expect you not to take his side over mine.

(A) comma splice.

(B) misplaced modifier.

(C) parallel-phrasing error.

(D) redundancy.

(E) misuse of “whom.”

11. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Don’t let any of the cats’ toys slide under the stove, it will whine all night.

(A) stove, it

(B) stove, or it

(C) stove, they

(D) stove, or they

(E) stove; it

12. How many of the words in the following sentence are capitalized when they should not be?

Neither my Father nor I could believe that Coach Collins wanted me to start in center field for the Brooklyn Beavers this Spring.

(A) None

(B) One

(C) Two

(D) Three

(E) Four

13. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

It’s going to take more than one person to get this couch upstairs.

(A) It’s going to take more than

(B) Its going to take more then

(C) It’s going to takes more than

(D) Its going to takes more then

(E) It’s going to take more then

14. Which version of the underlined portion makes the sentence correct?

Before you take the picture of Sam and I, let us fix our hair.

(A) Sam and I, let

(B) Sam and me, let

(C) Sam and myself, let

(D) Sam, and I let

(E) Sam, and me let

15. A sentence that contains a colon is definitely grammatically incorrect if

(A) the colon does not precede a list or quotation.

(B) the sentence does not also have a comma in it.

(C) the portion of the sentence after the colon is longer than the portion before it.

(D) the colon is not preceded by an independent clause.

(E) the colon is not both preceded by and followed by independent clauses.

Answers and Explanations

Use this answer key to score the practice grammar questions in this chapter.

1. D. The children’s toys are all over the floor, so you’d better watch your step. The sentence is two independent clauses joined by the coordinating conjunction “so,” so you need only one comma, placed right before the conjunction. The possessive of the word children is children’s, and the possessive second-person pronoun is your.

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because there’s no such word as childrens’ (with the apostrophe after the “s”), and because no comma is needed between the subject and the verb. The right answer is not Choice (B) because there’s no such word as childrens’ (with the apostrophe after the “s”), and because the possessive form is your, not you’re.

   The right answer is not Choice (C) because no comma is needed between the subject and the verb, and because the possessive form is your, not you’re. The right answer is not Choice (E) because there’s no such word as childrens (with no apostrophe), and because no comma is needed between the subject and the verb.

2. E. I wouldn’t eat that sandwich if I were you; I’m not sure how long it’s been in the refrigerator. The two independent clauses are correctly separated by a semicolon, and the correct it’s (the one with the apostrophe, which means it is, or in this case, it has) is used.

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because this sentence contains a comma splice, and because the wrong its is used (you need the one with the apostrophe, which means it has in this case). The right answer is not Choice (B) because this sentence contains a comma splice.

   The right answer is not Choice (C) because the wrong its is used (you need the one with the apostrophe, which means it is or it has). The right answer is not Choice (D) because the punctuation is misplaced: You need a semicolon in place of that comma, and no punctuation at all in the place where the semicolon currently appears.

3. D. That hotdog restaurant was a village landmark — I can’t believe it closed! This sentence correctly presents two independent clauses separated by a single dash (a semicolon would also have been correct, but that’s not one of the options).

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because the first comma, which appears between the subject and the verb, is unnecessary, and because the second comma results in a comma splice.

   The right answer is not Choice (B) because there’s no need to repeat the subject by inserting a comma and a pronoun (it) before the verb. That portion of the sentence should simply read “restaurant was,” rather than “restaurant, it was.” (The inclusion of and after the second comma avoids creating a comma splice, but the sentence is already incorrect for the aforementioned reason.)

   The right answer is not Choice (C) because double dashes are only appropriate when the portions of the sentence outside the dashes work together to form a complete sentence (in other words, the dashes work like parentheses). The right answer is not Choice (E) because being can’t work here as the main verb of the sentence; it should say was.

4. A. The album containing all my birthday pictures is missing! The main verb of the sentence is the singular is (because the subject is the singular album), and the word containing functions as a participle here.

   The right answer is not Choice (B) because the subject of the sentence is album, so the verb should be the singular is, not the plural are. The right answer is not Choice (C) because contains is not meant to be the verb; you need the participle containing, not contains. Additionally, the subject of the sentence is album, so the verb should be the singular is, not the plural are.

   The right answer is not Choice (D) because contains is not the verb; it is meant to work as a participle here, so you need containing, not contains. The right answer is not Choice (E) because the sentence has no main verb. The use of is following which makes is part of a subordinate clause, so the sentence would have to keep going after the which clause to form a main verb clause.

5. C. Running late for work, Megan locked herself out of her apartment. This sentence correctly presents an independent clause preceded by a participial phrase and a comma.

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because it contains a comma splice. The right answer is not Choice (B) because neither clause is independent, as the first begins with because and the second begins with and (omit either of those words, and the sentence would be correct).

   The right answer is not Choice (D) because the second clause is the independent clause, and no conjunction is necessary. The right answer is not Choice (E) because the introductory phrase is not an independent clause, so you need a comma instead of a semicolon.

6. B. seasons, I think. The presence of the subordinating conjunction although means that the first clause is not independent, so the second of the two clauses should be an independent clause with no conjunction (this is the “although trick”).

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because the presence of both although and because means that both clauses are subordinate — in other words, the sentence contains no independent clause. The right answer is not Choice (C) because, although the sentence would be correct with either “although” in the first clause or “but” in the second, it is incorrect to include both.

   The right answer is not Choice (D) because however with commas on either side properly interrupts a single independent clause; it doesn’t join two clauses (in other words, however is not a conjunction). In any case, the presence of although in the first clause means that this sentence would still be incorrect even if however were a conjunction.

   The right answer is not Choice (E) because the clause that precedes a colon must be independent (which this clause is not, because it is subordinated to although).

7. C. The effects of the anesthesia have begun to wear off. Effects is the subject of the sentence and a noun, so it should be spelled with an “e.” It is also plural, so the verb should be have, not has. Finally, the present perfect plural form of begin is have begun, not have began.

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because effects is the subject of the sentence and a noun, so it should be spelled with an “e.” It’s also plural, so the verb should be have, not has. The right answer is not Choice (B) because effects is the subject of the sentence and a noun, so it should be spelled with an “e.”

   The right answer is not Choice (D) because effects is plural, so the verb should be have, not has, and because the present perfect plural form of begin is have begun, not have began. The right answer is not Choice (E) because the present perfect plural form of begin is have begun, not have began.

8. C. Two. Only two commas are needed, one on either side of the appositive clause the ostrich. The main sentence works as a single independent clause if the ostrich is lifted out. No comma is needed for the series of adjectives that precede animal, because they limit or modify each other. And no comma is needed before the and, because the verb found extends to both places.

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because commas are definitely needed in this sentence. The right answer is not Choice (B) because more than one comma is needed in this sentence.

   The right answer is not Choice (D) because fewer than three commas are needed in this sentence. The right answer is not Choice (E) because fewer than four commas are needed in this sentence.

9. B. a year’s supply. Even though the pretzels belong to the speaker and not literally to the year, the word year must still be possessive: “a year’s supply,” “a year’s worth,” and so on.

   The right answer is not Choice (A) because the word year must be possessive. The right answer is not Choice (C) because you are talking about one year’s supply of pretzels, so you need the singular possessive (with the apostrophe before the “s”), not the plural possessive.

   The right answer is not Choice (D) because it’s difficult to discern what this sentence is trying to say; the syntax is awkward in a way that impedes comprehension. The right answer is not Choice (E) because, although it is possible to discern what the sentence means to say, it’s unnecessarily wordy. Why say “a year of supplies of pretzels” rather than simply “a year’s supply of pretzels”?

10. B. misplaced modifier. The sentence contains a misplaced modifier. The initial modifying clause reads “As someone whom I’ve known for years,” which means that a word referring to the person whom the speaker knows (either a proper name or pronoun) must immediately follow the comma.

    The right answer is not Choice (A) because both clauses are not independent, so the sentence doesn’t contain a comma splice. The right answer is not Choice (C) because there’s no parallel-phrasing issue with this sentence.

    The right answer is not Choice (D) because there’s no example of redundancy in this sentence. The right answer is not Choice (E) because whom is used correctly in this sentence (the pronoun is the object of known, so it should be in the objective case).

11. D. stove, or they. The plural possessive form cats’ in the non-underlined portion of the sentence establishes that you are dealing with more than one cat, so the pronoun should be they rather than it. A conjunction (in this case, or) is also needed to avoid a comma splice.

    The right answer is not Choice (A) because it’s a comma splice, and because the pronoun should be they, not it. The right answer is not Choice (B) because the pronoun should be they, not it.

    The right answer is not Choice (C) because it’s a comma splice. The right answer is not Choice (E) because the pronoun should be they, not it.

12. C. Two. Neither father nor spring should be capitalized, because they’re not being directly addressed. The other capitalized terms, Coach Collins and Brooklyn Beavers, are proper nouns and are appropriately capitalized.

    The right answer is not Choice (A) because there are words in the sentence that are incorrectly capitalized. The right answer is not Choice (B) because more than one word in the sentence is incorrectly capitalized.

    The right answer is not Choice (D) because fewer than three words in the sentence are incorrectly capitalized. The right answer is not Choice (E) because fewer than four words in the sentence are incorrectly capitalized.

13. A. It’s going to take more than. The sentence is correct as it is, because it appropriately includes the contraction it’s (for it is), the infinitive to take, and the comparative conjunction than (spelled with an “a”).

    The right answer is not Choice (B) because you need the contraction it’s (for it is), not the possessive its, and because you need the conjunction than, not the adverb then. The right answer is not Choice (C) because you need the infinitive to take, not to takes.

    The right answer is not Choice (D) because you need the contraction it’s (for it is), not the possessive its; the infinitive to take, not to takes; and the conjunction than, not the adverb then. The right answer is not Choice (E) because you need the conjunction than, not the adverb then.

14. B. Sam and me, let. The pronoun is one of the objects of the preposition of, so it should be the objective-case me, not the subjective-case I. The comma should be placed between that pronoun and the verb let, because that’s the point at which the introductory subordinate clause ends and the main independent clause (which is a command) begins.

    The right answer is not Choice (A) because the pronoun is one of the objects of the preposition of, so it should be the objective-case me, not the subjective-case I. The right answer is not Choice (C) because the speaker has not yet appeared in the sentence and is not reflexively performing any verb upon himself, so there’s no need to use myself instead of me.

    The right answer is not Choice (D) because the pronoun is one of the objects of the preposition of, so it should be the objective-case me, not the subjective-case I. Additionally, the comma should be placed between that pronoun and the verb let, because that’s the point at which the introductory subordinate clause ends and the main independent clause (which is a command) begins.

    The right answer is not Choice (E) because the comma should be placed between the pronoun and the verb let, because that’s the point at which the introductory subordinate clause ends and the main independent clause (which is a command) begins.

15. D. the colon is not preceded by an independent clause. The one hard-and-fast rule for colons is that the portion of the sentence preceding the colon must contain an independent clause.

    The right answer is not Choice (A) because a colon doesn’t necessarily have to precede either a list or a quotation. Those are just the most common uses for colons. The right answer is not Choice (B) because there’s no rule about any kind of relationship between the presence of a colon and the presence of a comma.

    The right answer is not Choice (C) because there’s no rule about whether the portion of the sentence before or after the colon has to be longer. The right answer is not Choice (E) because a colon isn’t used to link two independent clauses — that’s the rule for a semicolon.