18 gmat grammar concepts

8/18/2019 18 GMAT Grammar Concepts

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PARTS O

SENTENC

KEY CONCE

ON GMAT

VERBAL

PARTS O

SPEECH

18 KEY GMAT GRAMMAR CONCEPTS

Everything you wanted to know about Sentence Correct ion grammar.

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Verbal Faculty

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Verbal Faculty

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

# 1 Nouns ...........................................................................................? ? ? ? ..? 8

# 2 Pronouns ? ....................................................................? ? ? .......................1

# 3 Adjecti ves .? ? .? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ...............................................? ? ? ...1

# 4 Verbs .........? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ......................? ? ? ? ? ? .................1

# 5 Adverbs .........? ..................? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................2

# 6 Preposit ions ....................? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................23

# 7 Conjunctions ........? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ..........? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................2

# 8 Interject ions .........? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ...........? ? ? ? ? ? .................2

# 9 Part s of Sentences ..? ? ? .....? ? ? ................................................................2

# 10 Phrases and Clauses ...............? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................3

# 11 Verbals ..........................? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................3

# 12 Punctuations ................? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................3

# 13 Subject Verb Agreement .............? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................3

# 14 Pronouns ........? ? ? ? ? .............? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................3

# 15 Modif iers .......................? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................4

# 16 Comparisons .........? ? .......? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................4

# 17 Tenses ........? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ..................................4

# 18 Idioms ..........................? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? .................4


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INTRODUCTION

This 5-Day Handbook will help you brush-up your basic grammar, especially that required t

ace the Sentence Correction section on the GMAT.

In this guide, we will discuss concepts as elementary as parts of speech, parts of sentences

tenses, idioms etc, but they wil l all be dealt with from a GMAT perspective.

- You need not memorize numerous grammatical terms and rules to score 700+ on th

GMAT. These are mentioned here only to help you understand concepts. You simply nee

to understand how to apply grammatical concepts to crack SC problems

- You need not go through the entire deck in one sit ting. This material has been organize

day-wise rather than section-wise on purpose. Every day, spend t ime reading and digestin

only the pert inent section and nothing more.

Here?s the good news ?GMAT Sentence Correction tests you on onl y 7 grammar concepts,

namely:

1. Subject Verb Agreement

2. Pronouns

3. Modif iers

4. Parallelism

5. Tenses

6. Comparison

7. Idioms


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The English language consists of just 8 basic Parts of Speech. Some words portray the name o

a person or place. Some describe actions. Some join two or more words and others describ

the quali ty of an object.

Let us look at this sentence:

Wow Sophia and her l it t le sister sang beauti full y at t he part y.

This sentence is composed of all the 8 parts of speech:

Nouns: Sophia, sister, party Adverb: beautifully

Pronoun: her Preposition: at

Adjective: littl e Conjunction: and

Verb: sang Interjection: Wow

PARTS OF SPEECH


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# 1 NOUNS

A noun is a ?naming word? It is used to name an object, place, person,

animal, trait or action.

Examples:

- Names of objects and things ? book door curtain glass bag

- Names of places, people or animals ? Eva boy Indian house Sweden sister tiger sparrow

- Names of actions ? sleeping eating sailing watching

- Names of t raits/quali ties ? loyalty splendor happiness courage coldness

By adding suffixes to words, we can make them nouns. For example, prosper-prosperit

aspire-aspiration exclaim-exclamation etc.

Common noun suff ixes are - ness, -ity, -ure, and ?ition

Proper Nouns & Common Nouns

A proper noun refers to the name of a

particular person, place or thing. An important

characteristic of a proper noun is that it always

begins with a capit al letter.

Examples: Australia Carl Taj Mahal

California Cisco

A common noun refers to a class of person,

place or thing.

Examples: mirror table woman village town

taxi pencil

Adele - Proper Noun

Woman - Common Noun


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Countable and Uncountable Nouns

A countable noun refers to nouns that can be

counted. Therefore, it has both a singular and a

plural form.

Examples:

Paul kept the book under the table.

The computers are installed in the last room.

An uncountable noun refers to nouns that

cannot be counted. Therefore, it has only the

singular form.

Examples:

Susan prefers eating rice at home.

She attended art and music classes dail y.

As we can see, rice, art, music etc are not

countable. More examples: furniture, air, oil,

yogurt, news, water, liberty, money, power,

cleverness, but ter, electricity and so on.

Amusingly, at times the same noun can be countable and uncountable, leading to a differen

meaning.

Examples:

Noise (as countable noun): Did you hear the noise coming f rom back side?

Noise (as non-countable noun): Increasing vehicles on the road are creating noise pollutio

Work: One of her most famous works included her l atest Arabic song.

Work: Without any work, Wil liam fel t bored.

Are you clear about countable and uncountable nouns?

Test yourself

wi th this mini exercise dril l

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-countable-uncountable-nouns.phphttp://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-countable-uncountable-nouns.phphttp://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-countable-uncountable-nouns.phphttp://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-countable-uncountable-nouns.php


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Collect ive Nouns

A coll ect ive noun refers to a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You would be

able to count the individual elements of the group, but generall y you consider t he group as one

single entit y. To maintain the principles of subject-verb agreement, you need to identif y

collective nouns. As mentioned earl ier, coll ective nouns are l ike non-countable nouns but not

the same.

Examples:

- The army played a signif icant role during the war.

- The company is ready to take up new projects.

- The family is going on a long vacation to Paris.

If you notice in these examples, singular verbs are used with collective nouns as a whole unit

and plural verbs in case of a coll ection of individual elements.

More examples:

Association, audience, class, club, college, commit tee, community, company, crowd,department

electorate, enemy, family, f irm, generation, government, group, jury,orchestra, population,

press, public, school, staff , team, university, and the names ofspecif ic organizations such as the

Royal Bank of Scotland, the AIR, Oracle, Maruti.

Possessive Nouns

Possessive nouns refer to those nouns that are used to i ll ustrate that something belongs to

somebody or something. We generally add ('s) to a singular noun and an apostrophe (') to a

plural noun.

Examples:

The girl ?s dress (one girl )

The girls?dresses (two or more girls)

If you observe these examples, in t he first case, as there is only one girl, ('s) is added to the

singular noun. And in the second case, there are more than a single girl , an apostrophe (') is

added to the plural noun.

You can check out a huge l ist of Col lect ive Nouns here

Watch this short interact ive presentat ion to learn more about

Possessive Nouns

http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=wcn1601http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=wcn1601http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=wcn1601http://www.englishleap.com/grammar/collective-nouns


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Abstract Nouns

Abstract nouns refer to those nouns that are theoretical in nature. These nouns cannot be

identi f ied by your f ive senses. They cannot be heard, seen, felt , tasted or smelled. Abstract

nouns display philosophies, concepts, ideas which are intangible in nature.

Examples:

- Love conquers the world

- He was awarded for his bravery.

- Her dedication towards her work made her receive the best employee award.

Other examples of abstract nouns are concepts like independence, power, trust, happiness,

intell igence, sympathy, anger, hatred, compassion, beauty, skil l, integrit y, misery, belief s, pain,

knowledge, and so on.

Singular and Plural Nouns

In GMAT, one of the most vital noun-related questions includes the differences between th

singular and plural nouns.

- A Singular noun refers to one entity only, such as pen, dog, moon, girl, etc.

- Plural nouns refer to more than one entit y such as f lowers, dresses, tables, hands, lamps, etc

- Usually, plural nouns end in ?s?or ?es?but this is not a thumb rule. Not all nouns ending wit

?s?or ?es?are plural nouns such as Thomas Gates.

Read more about Singular and Plural Nouns here

https://sites.google.com/site/englishgrammarguide/Home/singular-and-plural-nouns


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Compound Nouns

Compound nouns refer to those nouns that are constructed by two or more words. Some

compound nouns are adjoined by a hyphen. You must have come across these types of nouns

quite of ten.

Examples:

Output, newspaper, toothpaste, father-in-law,

dry-cleaner, underpass, whi teboard, paper-clip,

check-in, carpet , eyeball , moonl ight , rainbow,

bodyguard, houseboat, inside, joystick,

wel l-being, and so on

Concrete Nouns

Concrete nouns refer to those nouns that you can experience with your five senses. Thes

nouns can be touched, seen, heard, felt or smelled. Concrete nouns can be recognized by a

least one of your f ive senses.

Examples:

- This perfume has a capt ivating fragrance.

- Learn how to eat with fork and knife.

- The teacher shouted at the students.

As you can see above, nouns like perf ume, fork,

knife, teacher and students are all concrete

nouns that can be identified by at least one of

our senses. Other examples of concrete nouns

are sugar, wall, window, plate, rainbow, fire,

curtains, computers, employees, cat, butterfly,

noise and so on.

Try out this mini-dril l to see how well you have understood Compound

Nouns

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5247http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5247http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5247


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# 2 PRONOUNS

A Pronoun refers to a word that works as a substitute for a noun. It i s used to replace a noun o

another pronoun such as I, my, us, he, she, we, you, thou, these, those, this, that, they, it ,

everyone, each, all , both, such, who, your, his, her, our, thei r, somebody, everybody, etc.

Pronouns remove the unnecessary elements of repetit iveness from your sentences.

For Example:

While wri ting an essay on your best friend Sam, instead of wri ting

Sam is my best friend Sam is eight years old Sam?s father is a doctor?

With pronouns, we can rephrase the essay like:

Sam is my best friend He is eight years old His father is a doctor?

Types of Pronouns

1. Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns refer to those pronouns are that are used as a subject or predicate noun

such as I, he, she, you, we, they, it, who, etc.

Examples

:

- They wil l reach the party hall in half an hour.

- She is a teacher.

2. Object Pronouns

Object pronouns refer to those pronouns that are used as an indirect object, direct object, or

object of a preposit ion such as you, me, her, him, them, whom, it , us.

Examples:

- Can you please tel l me the way to the Cit y hospit al?

- Please return the book to me in two days.

Test your knowledge of Subject and Object Pronouns here and here

http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/subjectobjectpronouns2.htmlhttp://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/subjectobjectpronouns2.htmlhttp://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/subjectobjectpronouns.htmlhttp://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/subjectobjectpronouns.html


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3. Singular Pronouns

Singular pronouns are those pronouns that appear to be plural at their surfaces. Infact, only

singular verbs are used after these pronouns. Can you recall some of these? Such as each, any

anybody, everybody, everyone, anything, nobody, etc

Examples: ·

Each of these students was involved in the prank.

Nobody has submitted the assignment to me.

4.

Relat ive Pronouns

Relative pronouns refer to those pronouns that connect one phrase or clause to another

phrase or clause. It is so called because it ?elates?to the word that it modif ies and is not

precise. Such as who, whom, whose, that, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, etc

Examples: ·

The girl, who assisted me to buy the vegetables, is my neighbor.

The house, which is located near the Church, belongs to my f riend.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns refer to those pronouns that do not pertain to any particular person

or place or thing. They replace nouns without specifying which noun they are replacing

Examples: ·

Each player was given a second chance.

Many people wi ll attend this seminar.

Some of the Singular indef inite pronouns are: each, every, everyone, anyone, someone,

nobody, etc.

Some of the Plural Indefinite pronouns are: few, many, others, several, etc.

Some of the singular/ plural indefini te pronouns are: most, any, none, etc

.

Test yoursel f on Relat ive Pronouns

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/relative_pronouns2.htmhttp://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/relative_pronouns2.htmhttp://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/relative_pronouns2.htm


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5. Interrogat ive Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are those pronouns that are used to commence or establish

interrogative sentences such as who, whom, whose, what, and which, etc. Though they are

simi lar to relative pronouns but are used dif ferently.

Examples:

What is the capital of Sweden?

·

Who

was the first President of the United States?

6. Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns or emphatic pronouns refer to those pronouns that end wi th ?self ?or

?selves?and highl ight a noun or another pronoun such as myself, yourself , himself , herself ,

it self , oneself , ourselves.

Examples:

She f inished solving the question paper herself .

The driver himself carried the luggage at the counter.

7. Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns refer to those pronouns that replace possessive nouns.

For e.g. my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, our, ours, its, their, theirs, whose.

Examples:

- Your dress is very pretty.

- Our team will win this match.

Take a mini-test on Possessive Pronouns

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-possessive-pronouns.phphttp://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-possessive-pronouns.php


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# 3 ADJECTIVES

An adjective refers to a word that describes, identif ies or quantif ies words, making them more

meaningful. Adjectives are necessary to make the meanings of sentences more precise and

relevant. Common suff ixes for adjectives are -able, -ous, and ?er. They are placed directly

preceding a noun or noun phrase.

Such as beautif ul, soft, healthy, taller, ten, wooden, green, etc

Examples:

He looks handsome in f ormals.

Sandra is shorter than her sister.

Types of Adjecti ves

1. Comparative and Superl at ive Adject ives

Comparative adjectives refer to those adjectives that help us to compare two things. (No

three or more) such as smaller, larger, fairer, cheaper, etc.

Examples: ·

Peanuts are cheaper than cashews.

·Pebbles are smaller than rocks.

Superlati ve adjectives refer to those adjectives that i l lustrate the extreme or highest degre

of a quality of one thing in a group of three or more things. Such as farthest, nearest, riches

quickest, coolest, etc

Examples: ·

Peter is the richest guy in his locali ty.

Antarctica is one of the coldest places on earth.

2. Demonstrati ve Adject ives

Demonstrative adjectives refer to those adjectives that are used to demonstrate or indicat

specif ic things such as this, that, these and those, etc.

Examples: ·

Please pass me that paper, I need to note down something important.

If you will feed this dog, he will continue to stay nearby you.

Test yourself on Demonstrative Adjectives

http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-39218.phphttp://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-39218.php


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Indefinit e Adject ives

Indefinite adjectives are those adjectives that do not point out specific things. They ar

formed f rom indef init e pronouns such as no, any, many, few and several, etc.

Examples:

·

Many of f ices will be closed on next Friday.

Very few people wil l agree to this.

Predicate Adject ive

Predicate adjectives or subject complement are those adjectives that modify the subject l ik

other descriptive adjectives, but essentially follow a linking verb in a sentence. Such as fun

calm, great, cold, etc

Examples:

The day will t urn warm by afternoon.

Ruth seems sad nowadays.

Noun as an Adjecti ve

Now you are well aware of what a noun and an adjective are. A noun is a person, place or thin

and an adjective is a word that describes a noun. At times we use a noun to describe anothe

noun. In such a situation, the first noun acts as an adjective. Such as tennis ball, race horse

dress exhibition, school shoes, chocolate box, etc.

Examples:

This love story has a happy ending.

Please repair i t at the bicycle shop.

In some exceptional cases, you can even come across many successive nouns acting a

adjectives.

Example:

American airways traff ic investigation centre

Fascinatingly, here so many nouns are describing the noun ?centre?that investigates into th

traff ic of the airways of America.


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# 4 VERBS

Verbs refer to words that depict action, existence, or happening. The verb is possibly the mos

signif icant parts of speech. It is not possible to make a meaningful sentence without a verb in

it. Even the shortest sentence comprises a verb. Such as ?Shoot ? Words l ike are, was, play, run

teach, write, are all verbs.

Examples:

The children wil l play in the evening.

She visits the hospital twice a week.

Verbs are usually referred to as ?action?words. This is true to a great extent. Such as do, work,

dig, add, cook, and so on. However, some verbs instead of expressing an action, describe the

idea of existence such as be, exist, belong, seem, and so on.

Examples:

Henry seems very happy.

Let i t be here.

Types of Verbs

1. Helping verbs and Main verbs

Helping verbs refer to those verbs that have no meaning on their own, however they are vital

for the correct grammatical structure of the sentence. These verbs do not convey much when

used alone. Helping verbs are generally used with the Main verbs.

Examples:

- He must

- The shop wil l

- Andrew can

- Main verbs

Main verbs refer to those verbs that have a proper meaning of their own. They express

something concrete.

Examples:

- Michael sings.

- Dogs bark.

Try out this fun exercise on Helping Verbs

http://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_10/47/12266/3140307.cw/index.htmlhttp://wps.ablongman.com/long_fowler_lbh_10/47/12266/3140307.cw/index.html


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Transit ive and Intransit ive verbs

A transit ive verb refers to a verb which must consist of an object to make it meaningful, and t

receive the action displayed.

Examples:

- She wants to buy the pink dress.

- He wrote the essay in one hour.

An Intransit ive verb

refers to a verb which is complete in i tself , or which is completed by

other words without requiring an object.

Examples: ·

- James arrived at the airport half an hour early.

- Clara went for her daily aerobic classes.

Act ive and Passive Verbs

We generally speak in Act ive voice in which the subject of the verb is the agent. It expresses

?Who does what?.

Examples:

The teacher explained the lesson to the students.

The customer ordered the dinner.

Conversely, the Passive voice is used quite less in comparison to active voice. In passive voic

the subject receives the action of the verb being performed by the object. It expresses ?

?What was done by whom?

Examples:

The lesson was explained to the students by the teacher.

The dinner was ordered by the customer.

Test your understanding of Transit ive & Intransit ive Verbs here

http://www.towson.edu/ows/exerciseTransIntransVbs.htmhttp://www.towson.edu/ows/exerciseTransIntransVbs.htm


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Auxil iary Verbs and Lexical Verbs

English language consists of f our Auxil iary verbs such as Be, Have, Wil l and Do. These auxil iar

verbs are followed by another verb, referred to as the ful l verbs.

Examples:

- Please be with me during the bad days.

- Do you have any brother?

Lexical verbs or full /main verbs refer to those verbs which are not auxil iary verbs. They

express a concrete idea and are independent of another verb.

For Example:

- She played very well .

- The child crawled out of his room.

Take a short quiz on Auxil iary & Lexical verbs here

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/verbs/ex4.htmhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/verbs/ex4.htmhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/verbs/ex4.htmhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/verbs/ex4.htmhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/verbs/ex4.htm


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# 5 ADVERBS

Adverbs refer to those words that modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase or a

clause. An adverb depicts t ime, place, manner, cause, or degree and answers questions such a

?where?, ?when?, "how," "how much", etc. Some adverbs are characterized by the suff ixes like

?ly? and ?ily? such as easily, soft ly, eagerly, slowly, more, fast, wi l lingly and so on.

Examples:

·

- Robin f inished his homework quickly in order to watch the cricket match.

- She was eagerly waiting for her results to be out.

The main dif ference between adjectives and adverbs is that adjectives describe ?nouns?and

adverbs describe ?verbs? An adverb can be placed just before or just after a verb, such as

"She answered all the questions confidently?.


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Types of Adverbs

There are dif ferent types of adverbs as mentioned below:

1. Adverbs of Manner answer the question ?How?? This adverb is generally placed after th

direct object or if there is no direct object, aft er the verb itself .

Examples:

anxiously, carefully, kindly, loosely, suddenly, etc

2. Adverbs of Time answer the question ?When?? This adverb is generally placed either at th

very beginning of the sentence or at the end.

Examples ? tomorrow, tonight, f requently, seldom, later, etc

3. Adverbs of Place answer the question ?Where?? This adverb is generally placed after th

object, otherwise after the verb.

Examples above, here, indoors, towards, elsewhere, etc

4. Adverbs of Degree answer the question ?To What Extent?? This adverb is generally place

before the word i t modifies.

Examples nearly, almost, just, quite, too, etc

5. Adverbs of Frequency answer the question ?How many times?? This adverb is placed afte

the verb ?o be?

Examples weekly, rarely, daily, often, sometimes, etc


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# 6 PREPOSITIONS

Preposit ions refer to those words that connect nouns, pronouns to other words in a sentence.

Preposit ions are placed before a noun or a pronoun and provide a grammatical relation to a

verb, adjective, or another noun or pronoun. Thus, a preposition depicts a chronological,

logical or spatial relationship such as on, at, by, over, above, against, in, from and so on.

In the following examples we wil l see how prepositions can alter the posit ion of the same

object.

Examples:

- The pen is kept at the table.

- Please keep this pen besides the book.

- I couldn? find my pen inside the box.

- Please write your answers with this pen.

- She hid my pen below the desk.

As you can see above, in each of these sentences, a preposit ion posit ions the noun ?pen?.


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Preposit ion Phrase

There is also something known as ?A preposit ional phrase.? It is composed of the preposit io

it s object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A preposit ional phrase can act as a nou

an adjective, or an adverb such as at office, with Peter, by working, under the chair, from

Wil l iam and so on.

Universal Rule for Preposit ions

Preposit ions have a rule that is universal in it s application:

?A preposit ion is always fol lowed by a "noun". It i s never f oll owed by a verb.?

Infact, a preposition cannot be followed by a verb. Even if we require to follow a prepositio

by a verb, it is mandatory to use the "-ing" form which is a gerund or verb in noun form.?

Though prepositions aren? tested on the GMAT specifically, but still it is vital to have a

understanding of prepositions. Students should concentrate on the exact meaning o

prepositions instead of attempting to memorize every possible combination in whic

prepositions can be placed in a sentence. Many questions in GMAT, which are assumed to b

relating to idioms, could be answered effortlessly by students if they have a clea

understanding of preposit ions.


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# 7 CONJUCTIONS

Conjunctions refer to the words or phrases that help to link words, clauses, phrases, o

sentences.

Such as but , and, because, as, yet, or and so on. Interestingly, some conjunctions like ?but? an

?for? can also be used as preposit ions.

Examples

- My favorite holiday places are London and France.

- Give me a call when you reach your off ice.

- He couldn? attend the party because she was out of town.

- David wants to attend the seminar but he is not well .


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Types of Conjunctions

1. Co-ordinat ing Conjuncti ons

Co-ordinating conjunctions are those conjunctions that join individual words, phrases, and

independent clauses that are grammatically equal. Such as but , because, or, nor, yet, so, for.

Examples:

- She came home late because i t was raining heavil y.

- George and Harris went to play tennis. In the fi rst sentence, the co-ordinating conjunction

?because? is used to connect two independent clauses. And in the second sentence, the

co-ordinating conjunction ?and? connects two nouns.

Read more about Coordinati ng Conjunctions here

2. Subordinat ing Conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction refers to a conjunction that establ ishes a dependent clause and

specif ies the nature of the relationship among the dependent clause(s) and independent

clause(s). In other words, a subordinating conjunction connects a subordinate (dependent)

clause to a main (independent) clause such as although, before, how, after, since, when, where

while, whether, though, ti ll , unti l, than and so on.

Examples:

· If you eat nutrit ious diet, you wil l get wel l soon.

· After he graduated f rom college, he received lucrative job of fers.

In the f irst sentence, the subordinating conjunction ?if ? is establ ishing a dependent clause ?i

you eat nutri tious diet? and in the second sentence, the subordinating conjunction is

establ ishing a dependent clause ?after he graduated f rom college?.

Test yoursel f on Subordinat ing Conjunctions

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/english-subordinating-conjunctions2.htmlhttp://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/english-subordinating-conjunctions2.htmlhttp://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/english-subordinating-conjunctions2.htmlhttp://www.chompchomp.com/terms/coordinatingconjunction.htm


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# 8 INTERJECTIONS

Though sound to be complicated and huge, interjections refer to t iny exclamations that do no

have any relevant grammatical signif icance, though they are used quite often, especially in

verbal conversation. Interjections are basically used to express an emotion or sentiment such

as Hey Oh Ouch Um Shh Interjections may or may not be followed by an exclamation mark

( ) in wri tten communication. In most cases, interjections are posit ioned in the start ing of the

sentences.

Examples:

- Hi Nice to see you here.

- Hmm I think you are right.

- Wel l , what do you think about this project?

- Ouch The injection is so painful.

- Alas Today is our last day in college.

Interjections f il l in the gaps when people do not know exactly what to say such as um and er.

Examples:

- To reach the famous bakery shop, you take? er? a left turn.

- I will reach home by? um? six in the evening.

Interject ions are never tested on the GMAT

Test yourself on the various Parts of Speech

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/english-subordinating-conjunctions2.htmlhttp://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/english-subordinating-conjunctions2.htmlhttp://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-parts-of-speech.phphttp://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-parts-of-speech.php


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# 9 PARTS OF SENTENCES

Parts of sentences are nothing but a collection of phrases and clauses that port ray how

sentences are constructed by l inking these together. Though parts of speech and parts of

sentences are not directly linked, a thorough knowledge of these two wil l build up your

conf idence to face GMAT. In a part of sentence, a subject could be anything, a noun, a pronoun

or even a phrase or a clause. To form a grammatically correct English sentence, you need to be

clear about various concepts like subject, object, predicate, phrase, clause and modif iers. Onc

you go through these, you wil l get a clearer picture how to approach GMAT questions.

Consider the fol lowing sentences:

- After it stopped raining

- While he was sleeping

- Unti l you reach home safely

Do you find anything ambiguous about these sentences? Are they complete by themselves?

Certainly not These sentences come under the category of ?sentence fragments?as these

sentences express unfinished ideas. Anyone who wil l read these sentences wi ll be requir ing

more information to get a complete idea of the writ er or speaker.

Now, consider these sentences:

- Jenny drove his car.

- He wept.

- Joseph ran.

Do you find above sentences complete? Certainly yes Thus, these are not examples of

sentence fragments. A sentence fragment doesn? mean it has to be short , it only means that i

is incomplete.

So, now you must got an outline what goes into constructing a meaningful sentence

composed of phrases and clauses. Let?s delve a little more into what are the dif ferent parts of

sentences, what functions they perform and how these should be connected to form

grammatically correct sentences and avoid errors relating to run-on sentences, lack of

subject-verb agreement and lack of parallel structure.

Read more about Sentence Fragments here

http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/grammar-quiz.htmlhttp://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/grammar-quiz.html


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Subject , Object & Predicate

Parts of sentences consist of a subject, object and a predicate. These are the central part of

any sentence and are crucial t o create a meaningful sentence. Let?s delve a l it t le into these

grammatical t erms and f ind out how signif icant these are in construct ing a sentence.

Subject

Subject refers to the person or a thing who or which performs the action of the verb. In

simpler words, subject is the ?noun?to which the sentence's verb refers to. A subject is like a

?eader?of the sentence. Examples:

- Jul ie is eating the lobster.

- Annie has wri tten this poem.

In the f irst sentence, the verb or the action is ?eating? This action is performed by Julie, who is

the subject of the sentence. In the second sentence, Annie is the subject who is performing

the action of ?writing?

Object

Object refers to the person or a thing upon whom or upon which the action of t he verb is

performed. It showcases the subject?s action or relates to the subject. In the f irst example, the

action of ?eating?is performed upon t he ?obster? So, lobster is the object of the sentence. And

in t he second example, the action of ?writing?is performed upon the poem, so poem is the

object in this sentence. A sentence may have indirect objects along with the direct ones.

Examples:

- Please send me that email .

In this example, ?email?is the direct object and ?me?is the indirect object.


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To clarify, in the first sentence, the phrase ?s eating? is the predicate and in the secon

sentence ?has wr it ten?is the predicate of the sentence. Thus, it is necessary for the predicat

to have a verb, infact at times, a verb all by itself can also be a predicate. Nevertheless, it wi

be wrong to conclude that a predicate and a verb are synonymous, as some verbs are no

predicates and some predicates wi ll have something more than just verbs.

Predicate

Predicate refers to what a person or a thing does or did or what happened to a person or to a

thing? A predicate consists of a verb and other parts of speech.

Certain rules for predicate include

- The predicate must agree in number with the subject

- It must have the correct tense, and it must be in the proper voice (active or passive)


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# 10 PHRASES AND CLAUSES

Phrases

A Phrase refers to a collection of words which makes some sense, but not the enti re sense. It

an assortment of related words without a subject doing a verb.

Examples:

1. The book which Fredrick gave me is quite interesting.

2.

Af ter the lunch, start working on this project.

Clauses

A Clause refers to a collection of words that consists of both a Subject and a Predicate, bu

may not be able to convey full meaning independently. Some sentences may contain a singl

clause and some mult iple clauses knitted within other clauses.

Examples:

- The student, who came f ir st , is very hard-working.

- Mary failed in her exams, which I didn? expect.


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Types of Clauses

1. Independent Clause

I

ndependent clause is a clause which can stand by themselves and form a complete sense on

it s own. It does not require any other clause as it comprises suff icient information to construc

a complete sentence.

Examples:

- Betty didn? l ike the food but she enjoyed the dessert.

In the above sentence, we have two independent clauses ? "Betty didn? like the food" and

"she enjoyed the dessert ", joined by a coordinating conjunction ("but").

2. Dependent Clause

Dependent clause is a clause that does not form a complete sense by itself . It is dependent on

some other clauses to form a meaningful sentence.

Examples:

- If you lend me that book, I wil l be grateful to you.

- When I was in New York, I worked for a law f irm. o-list

NOTE:

Phrases together form a Clause and Clauses form a Sentence.

As several punctuation marks--such as

commas, semicolons, and colons are based on

phrases and clauses, it is crucial to understand the dif ferences between phrases,

clauses, independent and

dependent clauses.

Test your understanding of clauses here

http://www.csus.edu/owl/index/sent/clause_quiz.htmhttp://www.csus.edu/owl/index/sent/clause_quiz.htm


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# 11 VERBALS

(GERUNDS, PARTICIPLES & INFINITIVES)

A verbal refers to a word formed from a verb but works as a different part of speech such a

nouns or adjectives. These words signif y action in a general way, without limit ing the action t

any t ime, or assert ing it of any subject.

There are 3 kinds of Verbals ? Gerunds, Part iciples & Infinit ives

Gerunds

A gerund refers to a verbal that terminates in -ing and works as a noun and is positione

similarly in a sentence that a noun would generally such as subject, direct object, subjec

complement, and object of preposit ion.

Examples:

- In college, he was famous for his dancing.

- My favorite pastime activi ty is fishing.

In the above examples, words l ike ?dancing?and ?ishing?are used as a noun and not as a ver

making them gerunds.

Participles

A participle refers to a verbal that usually ends in ?ing or ?ed and is used as an adjective

Though it is more of an adjective, it has some characteristics of verbs and some of adjective

Since participles function as an adjective, they can only modify nouns or pronouns.

Examples:

- The night sky was dotted with shooting stars.

- Her cheeks were stained with drying tears.

Read more about Gerunds here

Read more about Part icipl es here

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/02/http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/02/http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/01/


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Types of part iciples

1. Present part iciples and Past part iciples

Present part icipl es refer to those part iciples that express ?what a thing does?and are

usually ended in ??ng? It can be used with the Auxil iary verb 'to be' to form the

continuous tense such as singing, playing, cooking, eating, swimming, washing, etc.

Examples:

- Have you heard the story of the sleeping beauty?

- The dancing dolphins took away the hearts of many spectators.

In these sentences, words like ?sleeping?and ?dancing?are expressing something more

about beauty and dolphins respectively, forming present participles.

A past part icipl e denotes past or completed action or t ime. They generally express

?what was done to a thing?and are usually ended in ?ed, -en, -d, -t, or ?n such as cracked

lost, repaired, requi red, arisen, beaten, anchored, and so on.

Examples:

- Are you sti ll searching for your lost watch?

- Please throw away the cracked packet in the bin.

In these sentences, words like ?ost?and ?cracked?are being used as an adjective to

modify the noun ?watch?and ?packet?respectively, thus forming past participles.

2. Inf ini t ives

An inf ini t ive refers to a verbal that comprises the word ?o?and a verb (in its simplest

form) and functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb. Inf ini t ive is the base form of the

verb such as (to) eat, (to) be, (to) say, (to) play, (to) deliver, (to) eat and so on. It may also

function as a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a

sentence.

Examples:

- Please assist him to carry the luggage.

- You must have eaten your lunch by now.

- He should be helping his students with the chapters.

- Do not pretend to be what you aren?.


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Types of Infinit ives:

1. The perfect infinit ive (to have + past participle)

2. The continuous infinitive (to be + present participle)

3. The perfect continuous inf initive (to have been + present parti ciple)

4. The passive infinitive (to be + past participle)

Dist inct ion between Inf init ives and Preposit ional phrases

There is a clear distinction between infinitives and prepositional phrases. An infinitiv

consists of ?o + verb? whereas a preposit ional phrase consists of ?preposit ion + a noun o

pronoun and any modif iers.?

Examples:

Infinitive: Ask him to sit in t he class.

Here ?o?is the preposit ion and ?sit?is the verb.

Preposit ional Phrase: The traveler rested under the shaded tree.

Here ?under?is the preposit ion, ?he shaded?is the modif ier and ?ree?is the noun.

Read more about Inf init ives here


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Punctuation marks enable us to structure our sentences more accurately. For e.g.

period/ ful l-stop(.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation mark ( ), colon (:), semi-colon (;),

apostrophe (& ), brackets (()), quote (?), hyphen (-) etc.

The colon (:) and semi-colon (;) are tested on the GMAT.

1. Colon(:)

The colon is used in 2 situations:

While int roducing a list:

- Beth is planning to buy a few vegetables: capsicum, ladyfinger, carrot, cabbage,

caulif lower and snake gourd.

Whil e int roducing an explanat ion or an example:

- There was only one possible explanation: the fl ight had never arrived.

2. Semicolon(;)

Semicolons are used to split sentences that are grammatically independent but still hav

closely linked meaning.

Example:

- Annie is fond of ice creams; Joseph prefers chocolates.

Sometimes, conjunctions can be used in place of semicolons.

Example:

- Annie is fond of ice creams but Joseph prefers chocolates.

We cannot use a comma in place of a semicolon ? this would result in what is

known as a ?run-on sentence?.

Example:

- Annie is fond of ice creams, Joseph prefers chocolates.

# 12 PUNCTUATIONS


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# 13 SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT

The golden rule of Subject Verb Agreement is this:

A singular subject always takes a singular verb and a plural subject always takes a plural verb

Examples:

The stranger has stolen the lady?s purse.

The children are having a lot of fun

In the first sentence, the singular subject ?stranger?is accompanied by a singular verb ?ha

stolen? In the second sentence, the plural subject ?children?is accompanied by a plural ver

?are having? Any mismatch of singular and plural concept wi ll render the sentences incorrect

1. Addit ive Phrases

Example:

Nick, along with his brother, are going to attend the seminar.

The above sentence is incorrect, because ?Nick?is a singular subject and thus, requires a

singular verb ?s? The correct sentence is:

Nick, along with his brother, is going to att end the seminar.

Except ?and? all other addi tive phrases keep the subject singular. For e.g.

The king, together with his courtiers,was an honored guest at the artisan?s home.


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Either? or / Neither? nor

Thumb rules:

- If both subjects are singular, the verb takes the singular form.

- If both subjects are plural, the verb takes the plural f orm.

- If one subject is singular and one is plural, the verb takes the form of the subject closer t

it.

Example:

- Either Mona or her cousins is organizing the party.

This sentence is incorrect, since the subject closest to the verb (?organizing? is plural (?he

cousins?. So, the correct sentence will be:

- Either Mona or her cousins are organizing the party.

Each and Every ? always singular

Consider the foll owing sentences:

- Each of the students are participating in t he annual sports day.

- Every person in the country are working for a better li fe.

The above two sentences are incorrect as words ?each?and ?every?cannot be fol lowed by

plural verbs. In English grammar, a singular verb is always used wit h each and every. The correc

form is:

- Each of the students is part icipating in the annual sports day.

- Every person in the country is working for a better l if e.


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Collect ive Nouns

The team is going to play the match tomorrow.

This sentence is correct because ?he team of 11 players?is not seen as a collection of

individuals but as a single subject, requiring a singular verb ?s?

The herd of catt le is moving up the mountain slope.

This sentence is also correct because we are looking at the herd as a single ent ity.

Plural Nouns

Some nouns are inherently plural and take a plural verb. For e.g. belongings, congratulations,

earnings, goods, outskirts, particulars (= information), premises (= bui lding), riches, savings,

stairs, surroundings, thanks etc.

Example:

- His savings were not enough to t ide him over hard t imes.

?Savings? is a plural noun and therefore, requires the plural verb form ?were?.

On the GMAT, there are only two pronoun concepts you need to remember:

1. Pronouns must agree in number with the nouns they replace.

Example:

- The plight of the animals after i t was chased out of the forest was piteous.

Plural ?animals?requires plural pronoun ?hey?and plural verb ?were?

- The plight of the animals after they were chased out of the forest, was piteous.

2. Pronouns must have unambiguous antecedents. i.e. it must be clear what noun each

pronoun refers to.

Example:

- The tourists are afraid of the leeches as they suck their blood.

- ?hey?and ?heir?have ambiguous antecedents ? who is sucking whose blood?

# 14 PRONOUNS


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A modif ier is a non-compulsory constit uent in a phrase or a clause. It changes the meaning o

another element in the sentence, on which it is dependent. A modif ier can be long or short. O

the GMAT, modif iers can be prett y long.

Basic Rules for Modif iers:

1. The modif ier should be placed as close as possibl e to what it modif ies;

otherw ise the ent ire meaning of the sentence gets al tered drast ical ly.

Examples:

Possessing fif teen legs, Shyam had never seen such a creature in his life.

Who has f if teen legs? Shyam or the creature? The creature, of course

Thus, the modif ier ?Possessing fif teen legs? should be placed close to ?creature? and not

?Shyam?. Possessing fif teen legs, the creature was unl ike anything Shyam had ever seen in h

life.

2. An adjective can modify only a noun or a pronoun; adverbs can modify almost anything

except a noun or a pronoun.

Examples:

- Adjective modifying nouns and pronouns:

This is a fascinating book. (the adjective ?ascinating?modif ies the noun ?book?

- Adverbs modifying verbs:

Her sister danced gracefully. (the adverb ?gracefully?modif ies the verb ?danced?

- Adverbs modifying adjectives:

Jim is extremely rich. (the adverb ?extremely?modif ies the adjective ?ich?

# 15 MODIFIERS


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- Adverbs modifying other adverbs:

She decorated the house most beautifully. (the adverb ?most?modif ies another adverb

?beautifully?

- Adverbs modif ying clauses:

Certainly, his presence was disturbing to the gathered audience. (the adverb ?certainly?

modif ies the clause ?his presence was disturbing?

- Adverbs modifying whole sentences:

Tomorrow, we wi ll announce the winner. (the adverb ?omorrow?modif ies the enti re sentence)

A modif ying phrase can appear not only at the start of a sentence, but also in in the middle or a

the end.

Examples:

- Mrs. D?Souza, the tall lady, teaches us Engl ish.

- He fell t o the floor, his limbs fl ail ing helpl essly .

Misplaced Modif iers

Example:

- To come fi rst in the race, regular work-outs were done by the athlete.

In this sentence, ?o come fi rst in the race?is modifying a subject which is not mentioned wi thin

the phrase. The subject of the sentence is the person who is aiming to come fi rst. i.e. the

athlete.

As the modif ier should be as close as possible to what it modif ies, the above sentence is

incorrect. Thus, the correct sentence is:

- To come first in the race, the athlete worked out regularly..


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Dangling Modif iers

Example:

- Using the graphical charts, the concept was explained to the students.

Though this sentence seems to be correct at f irst glance, according to the rule of modif iers, the

person using the graphical charts must be mentioned after the comma.

Thus, this sentence fail s to indicate who is using the graphical charts, this is an example of

dangling modif ier. We need to add some more words to make this sentence correct.

- Using the graphical charts, the teacher explained the concept t o the students.

"That" VS "Which"

On the GMAT, you will come across quite a few modif iers that are linked to the rest of the

sentence using ?that? or ?which?. Many test-takers get confused between ?that? and ?which?

and make mistakes.

Use of comma:

Generally ?which? is preceded by a comma whereas ?that? is not.

Examples:

- The book that lay on the table had a red cover.

- The book,which lay on the table, had a red cover.

?That? is used for an essential modif ier ? it s removal wi ll change the meaning of the sentence.

?Which? is used for a non-essential modif ier ? it s removal wi ll not affect the meaning of the

sentence.


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# 16 COMPARISONS

Compared i tems must be logical ly simi lar.

Example:

- The doctors of Cit y hospital are more dedicated than other hospitals.

This sentence is incorrect because it is comparing doctors with hospitals, which is il logical.

The correct sentence is:

- The doctors of City hospital are more dedicated than those of other hospitals.

Compared i tems must be grammatical ly simi lar.

It means that nouns should be compared wi th nouns, verbs with verbs, etc. It is grammatically

wrong to compare a noun wi th an adverb or an adjective with a pronoun.

Example:

Paul l ikes eating yogurt more than to drink buttermilk.

This sentence is incorrect because it is comparing ?eating?(gerund) with ?o drink?(inf init ive).

This is grammatically incorrect.


Paul likes eating yogurt more than drinking buttermilk.


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Compared i tems must be logical ly simi lar.

Example:

- The doctors of Cit y hospital are more dedicated than other hospitals.

This sentence is incorrect because it is comparing doctors with hospitals, which is il logical.


- The doctors of City hospital are more dedicated than those of other hospitals.

Compared i tems must be grammatical ly simi lar.

It means that nouns should be compared wi th nouns, verbs with verbs, etc. It is grammatically

wrong to compare a noun wi th an adverb or an adjective with a pronoun.

Example:

Paul l ikes eating yogurt more than to drink buttermilk.

This sentence is incorrect because it is comparing ?eating?(gerund) with ?o drink?(inf init ive).

This is grammatically incorrect.


Paul likes eating yogurt more than drinking buttermilk.


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Unclear Comparisons

- Patrick dislikes Sandra more than Julie.

This is an example of unclear comparisons because this sentence can be understood in

two ways.

Patrick dislikes Sandra more than he dislikes Julie OR Patrick dislikes Sandra more than Julie

dislikes Sandra.

This confusion can be rectif ied by adding certain words:

- Patrick dislikes Sandra more than he does Julie.

- Patrick dislikes Sandra more than Julie does.

Illogical Comparisons

- The fl owers in this vase are much more beauti ful than other vases.

This sentence indicates an i ll ogical comparison, as it is ridiculous to compare f lowers with

vases.

A logical comparison would be:

- The flowers in this vase are much more beauti ful than the flowers in other vases.

- The flowers in this vase are much more beauti ful than those in other vases.


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Comparative forms are used when we compare two things, and superlative forms are used

when we compare more than two things.

Examples:

- Between Charles and Stephen, Charles is smartest.

- Among all the students, Rene is more intell igent.

Both the above sentences are incorrect In the f irst sentence, as the comparison is between

two people, comparative form should be used. In the second sentence, as the comparison is

between more than two people, superlative form should be used.

- Between Emily and Kate, Kate is taller.

- Among all the students, Rene is the most int ell igent .

Read more about Comparative and Superl at ive f orms here

Word Omissions

In comparisons, certain word omissions are grammatically correct.

For example:

- Alan?s ideas are better than Ian?s (ideas).

- He works harder than his brother (does).

- My dress is prett ier than Jessie?s (dress).

- Mart in received more marks in Physics than (he received) in Chemistry.

http://www.eflnet.com/tutorials/adjcompsup.php


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Types Of Tenses

Tenses are verb forms used to indicate time in English language.

Basically there are three types of tenses:

1. Past tense

2. Present tense

3. Future tense

There are four variations of each of these three tenses:

- Simple

- Perfect

- Continuous

Past Tense ? Used to talk about events/actions that happened in the past

Example: Harry sang in the class yesterday.

Present Tense ? Used to talk about general truths or events/actions/ facts that are true at

present.

Example: Harry sings in the class everyday.

Future Tense ? Used to talk about events/actions that wi ll happen sometime in the future

Example: Harry wi ll sing in the class tomorrow.

# 17 TENSES


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The Past Tense

Simpl e Past : The event/action took place in the past and is complete.

Example: Maria sang in the class.

Past Perf ect: Used to show the sequence of events when we discuss 2 events that happened in

the past. It takes the (had+verb) form.

Example: The program had ended by the time we reached the hall.

Past Cont inuous: Used to depict an action/event that was ongoing ti ll a certain t ime in the past

Example: Jerry was playing video games til l 11 PM last night.

Simple Future: The event/ action wil l happen in future. Nothing is mentioned about i ts state o

completion.

Example:

The sun wil l set .

Future Perf ect : The event/ action will happen in f uture, before another event/ action happens.

Used to show sequence.

Example:

Mr. Jones wi l l have arri ved by 8 PM.

Future Cont inuous: Used to depict an action/ event that wi ll happen at some time in the

future, and will not be complete at that particular t ime.

Example:

- The family wi ll be eati ng dinner at 9 PM.

The FutureTense


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# 18 IDIOMS

An idiom is a phrase or a group of words that has a figurative meaning different f rom it s l it er

meaning. The idioms tested on the GMAT, however, have more to do wi th the way certa

phrases are f ramed. Idioms are not governed by logic or rules ? they are just the way they are

Examples:

- The Great Himalayan Blue Monkey is nat ive to Himachal Pradesh.

- The Board concurred with his suggestions.

- You are old enough to distinguish good from bad.

For GMAT test-takers whose f irst language is not English, idioms are a tough nut to crack, simpl

because there is no logic or rule to learn them.

The best way to learn idioms is to create your own study l ist. Make sure that you learn only th

?ight versions?of the idioms ? if you try to learn what is right and what is wrong, you may en

up gett ing confused on test day

On the bright side, the GMAT will never give you a Sentence Correction question based sole

on idioms. Every question wil l test you on mult iple concepts.


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18 gmat grammar concepts

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