Educate Yourself..!

1. Misplaced Modifier (modifiers must stay close to home)
   

Sentences that begin with a verb, adjective+verb, and adjective phrases need to be followed by the noun or pronoun they are modifying. Usually end with –ing.

 

Example: "Coming out of the department store, John's wallet was stolen."

"Coming" is the modifier. Was john's wallet coming out of the store? à
Incorrect

Possible solution to look for:

1. Correct the reference
   
2. Put a noun or pronoun into the 1^st part of the sentence turning the 1^st part into an adverbial clause. Thus can stand apart without needing to watch the modifier.
   

 

1. Parallel Construction
   

There are two kinds of ERS sentences that test the parallel construction. The first is a sentence that contains a list, or has a series of actions set off from one another by commas.

The second kind is a sentence that's divided into two parts.

Both types must have parallel types of verbiage:

• …..to ____, to ____
  
• ate _____, slept ____, drank ____.
  

  
   

Bad construction might look like:

• …to ____, _____
  
• …ate _____, sleep _____, drank ____.
  

 

There are a few more things to be observed in a parallel construction sentence.

 

1. Comparisons must be logical and compatible
   

   Find the two things being compared and see if the sentence is structured in balance. Don't be afraid to consider changing verbs or adjectives to get the balance.
   

   
    

   The words "like,"
   "unlike," "similar to," "as…so", "when" and "in contrast to" are the most common indicators of comparisons. In comparisons, compatibility is determined by subject matter. For example:
   

   
    

   "As domesticated animals, indoor cats typically lose their ability to hunt for their own food, so too do domesticated dogs come to rely exclusively on their owners for sustenance."
   

   
    

   Here, domesticated cats are compared to domesticated dogs, and the comparison works because they are both domesticated animals — they are like terms. Whenever you see a comparison being set up in a sentence, check to see that the terms of the comparison are compatible.
   

   
    

2. Parallelism is not just about clauses, but verb usage
   

   Example: -ing and –ing, to…… to…… , either ….. or, neither ……. nor.
   

   
    

   In a series of two or more elements, what you do on #2 determines what you do on 3+. In other words, everything after #2 must match #2:
   

• I like to swim, to run, and to dance.
  
• I like to swim, run, and dance.
  

are okay.

 

• I like to swim, run, and to dance.
  
• I like to swim, to run, and dance.
  

are NOT okay.

 

1. Verb Tense
   

On the GMAT, tense problems are often just a matter of parallel construction. In general, if a sentence starts out in one tense, it should probably remain in the same tense.

 

Some major categories of tense: Don't need to memorize types. Just be familiar

1. Present tense     example: He walks three miles a day.
   
2. Simple Past     example: When he was younger, he walked three miles a day.
   
3. Present Perfect    example: He has walked.
   
4. Past Perfect     example: He had walked.
   
5. Future         example: He will work.
   
6. Present Perfect – Describes action that began in the past but continues until the present. Key identifier – "has" "have". Sidenote:
   Sometimes used when deadline exists.
   
7. Past Perfect – Describes action that started and stopped in the past.     Key identifier – "had"
   
8. Present Progressive – Used as emphasis by the speaker that the action is happening this very minute.    Key identifier – verb 'to be' + a verb with an –ing ending.
   
9. Perfect Progressive – Occupies more than one moment in the past. In other words, ongoing for a period of time.    Key identifier – "had been"
   

 

One exception to this rule is a sentence that contains the past perfect (in which one action in the past happened before another action in the past).

Examples:

He had ridden his motorcycle for two hours when it ran out of gas.

The dinosaurs are extinct now, but they were once present on the earth in large numbers.

 

Two events that have taken place, are taking place or will take place at the same time must have the same tense in the sentence.

 

Passive verbs begin with the form of "to be" (Example: to be, were, was) and end with a different verb in the past tense.

 

1. Subject-Verb agreement errors
   

A verb is supposed to agree with the subject.

1. Singular + Plural agreement. Do the two agree in plurality? Can be made very complex when prepositional phrases separate verb from noun/subject by 5 or more words. Easy to overlook cross referenced subject-verb relationship.
   
2. To tell if a verb paradigm is plural or singular.
   

   Mentally put "They" in front of the verb ß plural
   

   Mentally put "He" in front of the verb ß singular
   

3. Verb plurality: (This comes up A LOT on the GMAT)
   

Adding an "s" to the end of an adjective makes it singular.

For example, dislike ß plural dislikes ß singular

 

quote:

I chose A, but the correct answer is B.

The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental methods used by investigators in the field.

a. ...

b. The greater part of the talk was

c. The bulk of the talk has been

d. A large amount of the talk has been

e. A predominance of the talk was

Good one!!

"majority" should be used with count nouns only.

 

The majority of the water is dirty.

Is "unidiomatic," because "water" is a non-count noun.

Just in case, count nouns can be counted (bottle, idea, person, brush, etc.);

Noncount nouns cannot be counted (water, furniture, information, soap, luggage, etc.).

 

There is, however, a lot of overlap between the two--beer, coke, coffee, material, love, etc. can all be either count or non-count, depending on our meaning, context, or level of formality.

 

One of the most common questions is something like this:

Do I say:

"Most of the people is/are...?"

"Most of the water is/are...?"

 

Here's the rule:

quantifier + of + NOUN + verb

 

The NOUN determines whether the verb is singular or plural.

 

For example:

Most of the people is/are...

because the quantifier "most" refers to "people," (a plural noun) so "most" is plural in this sentence.

 

Most of the water is/are...

because the quantifier "most" refers to "water," (a non-count noun) so "most" is plural (singular)in this sentence.

 

So, from these examples, you should notice that we are looking mainly at whether the object of the preposition is count or non-count because the quantifier will take on this property from the object of the preposition.

 

In other words, in these sentences:

Most of the people are...

"Most" becomes a count noun because "people" is a count noun.

Most of the water is...

"Most" becomes a non-count noun because "water" is a non-count noun.

So, this rule tells us only whether the quantifier is count or non-count.

 

To figure out whether the quantifier is singular or plural, we need to check one more thing...

Sometimes, a quantifier refers only to one thing, not many things. For example,

each, every, and one always refer to one thing, but 10%, half, all, and most would refer to more than one thing if the object of the preposition is count (with one possible exception that I will show you in a second).

 

Of course, if the quantifier is always singular, then the verb must always be singular, too. (Let's not forget our common sense in grammar, okay??) For example, we say:

• One of the people is...

• Each of the students is...

 

Of course, when I first wrote out these rules, I imagined a situation like this:

• 1% of the 100 people is/are...

because, of course, 1% of 100 is one, and that's singular, right? And there's invariably some student in my class who will try to find an exception (that's what I do in class, too!! My teachers hated it!! )

Anyway, I think most people would say that this is simply a bad sentence and should be rewritten. This sentence I've shown you is more of a grammar puzzle than a real sentence.

But I know that somebody out there will want to know the "answer." Well, you can't go wrong if you write it in the singular, can you?

• The teacher together with the student IS (or ARE) going to...?
  
• The teacher and the student ARE (or IS)going to?
  

  Generally speaking, we need a conjunction to create a plural subject from more than one singular noun. "together with" is NOT a conjunction, and therefore cannot create a plural subject. "and" on the other hand, IS a conjunction and CAN create a plural subject.
  

  I'm concluding:
  

  "a number of ..." always takes plural verbs.
  

  "the number of ..." always takes singular verbs.
  

  
   

  Eg: the number of people has increased
  

  A number of people have gone
  

  
   

  The important thing here is that the number in the first example (the number of women employed outside the home) is an actual number--35,000, for example. Even if you add more women to the original number, there will still be one number, right?
  

  The second usage of "numbers" is also correct, and means that there are many people in that group. For example, it is correct to say:
  

  People are leaving California in greater numbers.
  

  People are spending more money on the Internet in greater numbers.
  

  
   

  Second, "curfew" is a singular count noun and therefore requires a determiner (the).
  

  I agree with you that skill can be both a count noun as well as a non-count noun. It all depends upon the context.
  

  
   

  Have a look at the example below:
  

  1. Harry knows quite a few driving skills.
  

  Conversely, if were to ask Harry about his driving skills, I would ask.
  

  
   

  2. How much skill do you have in driving a car, Harry?
  

  So you see, the word "skill" remains the same but depending on the context, skill can be a non-count or a count noun?
  

  
   

With fractions, percentages and indefinite quantifiers, the verb agrees with the preceding noun or clause. With singular or non-count nouns or clauses, use a singular verb:

• One third of this article is taken up with statistical analysis.
  
• All of the book seems relevant to this study.
  
• Half of what he writes is undocumented.
  
• About fifty percent of the job is routine.
  
• All the information is current.
  

  
   

  With plural nouns, use plural verbs:
  

  
   

• One third of the students have graduate degrees.
  
• Fifty percent of the computers have CD-ROM drives.
  
• Many researchers depend on grants from industry.
  

  
   

  With collective nouns, use either singular or plural, depending on whether you want to emphasize the single group or its individual members:
  

  
   

• Half of my family lives/live in Canada.
  
• All of the class is/are here.
  
• Ten percent of the population is/are bilingual.
  

  
   

  This is another reason, and this one's a bit harder to explain. In a nutshell, though, we can't use a that noun clause with the word directive, just as we cannot with order, as hellogmat has pointed out.