PSAT Tested Grammar RulesYes, you need to know these! You need these for the PSAT in October, AND you need these to be a sound writer!

Verb Tense• Consistency—verbs maintain

present, past, or future tense– Incorrect: He walked down the hall

and drops his books. – Correct: He walked down the hall

and dropped his books.

Verb Tense

• Historical/Literary Context– when talking about geography, proven science methods or theories, commonly accepted truisms, or literature, always use present tense – Correct: Honesty is the best policy.– Incorrect: Romeo killed himself. – Correct: Romeo kills himself.

During reading workshop, we choose our own novels, and we had conferences with the teacher about

our reading. As reading The Odyssey, the students saw

Odysseus and consider how he revealed the traits of a hero. When we studied Animal Farm, students read quickly and try to understand

the allegory.

Practice 1. The child walked to school, and he

drops his books on the way. 2. As the cake was delivered, all the

children sing “Happy Birthday.”3. The hero of the story tries to rescue

the child, but he was not successful. 4. His research was based on the

concept that light traveled faster than sound.

5. The concert finally ended, but all the taxis are busy.

Practice 1. The main character has good

intentions, but he also had some bad traits.

2. Tom realized that San Francisco sat on the western coast of America.

3. Alex went to the show, and then sits in his living room and complains.

4. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck rescued Jim several times.

5. Our elementary teacher taught us that blue and yellow made green.

Verb Tense

Up for a Challenge?!

If verb tense is easy, move onto the next verb tense rule!

Verb Tense

• Past Present Tense—this tense always uses the helping verb had with the main verb. It is used to indicate a time that preceded another time mentioned in the sentence. **The first action uses past perfect!– Example: I had seen the movie before I

saw Janet at the story.

Practice

1. By the time Kelly left, Mary ate the whole cake.

2. David probably saw the error long before he corrected it.

3. Jenny told us that she changed her mind before coming to class.

4. After finding her absent, I knew that she went to the concert.

S-V Agreement

Subject-verb agreement is fairly easy to understand. The subject and the verb of each sentence must agree with each other in

number. Example: We are. He is.

However, be aware of the following sentence structures that may make agreement confusing.

S-V Agreement

• Subject followed by a Prepositional Phrase—when a subject is followed by a prep. phrase, be sure that you do not confuse the noun in the phrase for the subject of the sentence. – Incorrect: One of the boats are sinking.– Correct: One of the boats is sinking.

• Subject following There—the word there can never be the subject of a sentence. When you see there, carefully consider what the subject of the sentence is. – Incorrect: There is always two men

on guard at this post.– Correct: There are always two men

on guard at his post.

S-V Agreement

The students in English class at Langham is taught many grammar lessons. The most important lesson

taught in these classes include subject-verb agreement. There

seem to be a higher score on the PSAT for these students.

Practice

1. The man with the two dogs are walking down the street.

2. There goes three leaders of the program.

3. There was no results listed on the board.

4. One of the pictures of the mountains are lost.

S-V Agreement

• Subject after the Verb—be cautious when you notice that a sentence begins with a verb. Locate the subject and consider agreement. – Incorrect: Far away from the rest of the

crowd stands the three men.– Correct: Far away from the rest of the

crows stand the three men.

• Compound Subjects Joined by OR or NOR—look at the subject that sits closest to the verb. It determines the number agreement – Example: Neither the girl nor the two

boys want to go eat breakfast. – Example: Neither the two boys nor the

girl wants to go eat breakfast.

S-V Agreement

Usually, either math or English is challenging for students. In one of

these two subjects reside many dilemmas. Helpful teachers nor concerned parents can do all the

work to help kids. Students of high school age must learn to seek out aid and be pro-active in their

attempt to reach success.

Practice

1. Beneath those pictures on the wall are the artist’s name.

2. Around the corner from my house lives the old men.

3. Either Jane or Sally seem to be quieter that usual.

4. Along the bank of the river flows the logs.

Practice

1. Neither the book nor the paper were disturbed on the desk.

2. Either Sam or the girls in the green car ask a lot of questions.

3. Under the bed in his room was the dog.

4. The lantern or the street light on the road is shining brightly.