Sentence Correction BasicsFor The GMAT:

A 5-Day Handbook

(Please read this Prep Material before attending yourSentence Correction Classes)

Day 1

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This 5-Day Handbook will help you brush-up

your basic grammar, especially that

required to ace the Sentence Correction

section on the GMAT.

This is a required pre-read for our

Sentence Correction course.

Introduction

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

speech, parts of sentences, tenses, idioms etc, but they will all be

dealt with from a GMAT perspective.

You need not memorize numerous grammatical terms and

rules to score 700+ on the GMAT. These are mentioned here only

to help you understand concepts. You simply need to understand

how to apply grammatical concepts to crack SC problems!

You need not go through the entire deck in one sitting. This

material has been organized day-wise rather than section-wise on

purpose. Every day, spend time reading and digesting only the

pertinent section and nothing more. 

Expectations

The 7 Concepts Tested On GMAT SC

1. Subject Verb Agreement

2. Pronouns

3. Modifiers

4. Parallelism

5. Tenses

6. Comparison

7. Idioms

Here’s the good news – GMAT Sentence Correction tests you on only 7 grammar concepts, namely:

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives

Contents of SC Pre-Read

Day 1: Parts of Speech

Parts Of Speech

The English language consists of just 8 basic Parts of Speech. Some words portray the name of a person or place. Some describe actions. Some join two or more words and others describe the quality of an object. Let us look at this sentence:

Wow! Sophia and her little sister sang beautifully at the party.

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

Nouns: Sophia, sister, party Adverb: beautifullyPronoun: her Preposition: atAdjective: little Conjunction: andVerb: sang Interjection: Wow!

#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 traits/qualities – loyalty, splendor, happiness, courage,

coldness

By adding suffixes to words, we can make them nouns. For example, prosper-prosperity, aspire-aspiration, exclaim-exclamation etc.

Common noun suffixes are - ness, -ity, -ure, and –ition

 

A common noun refers to a class of person, place or thing.

Examples: mirror, table, woman, village, town, taxi, pencil   

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 capital letter.

Examples: Australia, Carl, Taj Mahal, California, Cisco

WomanCommon Noun

OprahProper Noun

Countable & 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 daily.As we can see, rice, art, music etc are not countable. More examples:furniture, air, oil, yogurt, news, water, liberty, money, power, cleverness, butter, electricity and so on.

 Amusingly, the same noun can sometimes be countable and uncountable, leading to different meanings.

Examples:Light (countable): Can you switch off the lights?Light (uncountable): There’s too much light in the room - please close the curtains.  Work (countable): Her most famous works were composed in this very room.Work (uncountable): Without any work, William felt bored.

 

Are you clear about countable and uncountable nouns?Test yourself with this mini exercise drill! 

Countable & Uncountable Nouns

A collective noun refers to a group of things, animals, or persons. The individual elements of the group can be counted, but the group is treated as one single entity.

Examples: The army has played a significant role in the war. The company is ready to take up new projects. The family is going on a long vacation to Paris.   More examplesAssociation, audience, class, club, college, committee, community, company, crowd, department, electorate, enemy, family, firm, generation, government, group, jury, orchestra, population, press, public, school, staff, team, university, and the names of specific organizations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, the AIR, Oracle, Maruti.  

You can check out a huge list of Collective Nouns here! 

Collective Nouns

A possessive noun is used to illustrate that something belongs to somebody or something. We generally add ('s) to a singular noun and an apostrophe (') to a plural noun to make it a possessive.

Examples:

The girl’s dress (one girl)

The girls’ dresses (two or more girls)

 

Watch this short interactive presentation to learn more about

Possessive Nouns! 

Possessive Nouns

Compound nouns are constructed from two or more words. They may be written as a single word or joined with a hyphen.  

Examples:

 

Try out this mini-drill to see how well you have understoodCompound Nouns! 

Compound Nouns

newspaper, toothpaste, father-in-law,dry-cleaner, underpass, whiteboard,paper-clip, check-in, eyeball, moonlight, rainbow, bodyguard, houseboat, joystick,well-being, and so on

Concrete nouns can be experience with at least one of the five senses. These nouns can be touched, seen, heard, felt or smelled.

Examples:

This perfume has a captivating fragrance. Learn how to eat with a knife and fork. The teacher shouted at the students. 

More examples:sugar, wall, window, plate, rainbow, fire, curtains, computers, employees, cat, butterfly, noise and so on.

Concrete Nouns

Abstract nouns are conceptual in nature. These nouns cannot be heard, seen, felt, tasted or smelled. Abstract nouns display philosophies, concepts, and ideas that are intangible in nature.

Examples:

Love conquers the world! He was awarded for his bravery. Her dedication towards her work got her the Best Employee Award.

Abstract Nouns

More examples:independence, power, trust, happiness, intelligence, sympathy, anger, hatred, compassion, beauty, skill, integrity, misery, beliefs, pain, knowledge, and so on.

On the GMAT, one of the most vital noun-related questions includes the differences between singular and plural nouns.

  A Singular noun refers to one entity only. For e.g. a pen, a dog,

the moon, a girl, etc. Plural nouns refer to more than one entity. For e.g. flowers,

dresses, tables, hands, lamps, etc. Usually, plural nouns end in ‘s’ or ‘es’ but this is not a thumb rule.

Not allnouns ending with ‘s’ or ‘es’ are plural nounsFor e.g. Thomas Gates.

Read more about Singular and Plural Nouns here!

Singular & Plural Nouns

#2: Pronouns

A pronoun works as a substitute for a noun. It is used to replace a noun or another pronoun and thus avoid awkward repetition of words. Example:Instead of writingSam is my best friend. Sam is an only child.Sam’s father is a doctor. I like Sam a lot.

We can use pronouns to write:Sam is my best friend. He is an only child.His father is a doctor. I like him a lot. 

More examples of pronouns: I, my, us, she, we, you, thou, these, those, this, that, they, it, everyone, each, all, both, such, who, your, his, her, our, their, somebody, everybody, etc.

Subject & Object Pronouns

1. Subject Pronouns Subject pronouns refer to those pronouns that are used as a subject.

Examples: They will 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 object.

Examples: The politician lied to all of us. Please return the book to me in two days.

Test your knowledge of Subject and Object Pronouns here and here!

3. 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.

4. Singular Pronouns

Singular pronouns are those pronouns that appear to be plural, but are really not. In fact, only singular verbs are used after these pronouns.

Examples: Each of these students was involved in the prank. Nobody has submitted the assignment.

A few more examples: any, anybody, everybody, everyone, anything.

Possessive & Singular Pronouns

Take a mini-test on Possessive Pronouns!

5. Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns refer to those pronouns that connect one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause. As their name suggests, they relate to the word that they modify.

Relative Pronouns

RelativePronoun

Modifies

Which Things, Situations

That Things, Situations

Whose People

Who People

Whom People

Where Place

When Time

Examples:

The judges that passed the sentence…

This sentence is incorrect as “judges” are people and therefore, “that” cannot modify “judges”.

The garden where his mother was buried...

This sentence is correct because “where” can modify garden, a place. “In which” is typically used to describe situations or circumstances.

Example: My friend and I had an argument yesterday in which she nearly lost her temper.

Relative Pronouns (Contd.)

Test yourself on Relative Pronouns!

6. 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 will attend this seminar.

Examples of Singular Indefinite pronouns : each, every, everyone, anyone, someone, nobody, etc

Examples of Plural Indefinite pronouns : few, many, others, several, etc

Examples of Indefinite pronouns that can be both Singular and Plural : Most, Any, None, All, Some (MANAS).  

Indefinite Pronouns

For the MANAS indefinite pronouns, examine the “of” phrase following the pronoun to determine whether it is singular or plural:

Most of the boys are unwell. “Boys” is the word that follows the “of” phrase and therefore, we need the plural verb “are”.

Any kind of music goes.“Music” is singular and therefore, we use the singular verb “goes”.

All of the money was stolen.“Money” is singular and requires the verb “was”.

None of the ships have returned.“Ships” is plural and therefore, we use “have”.

MANAS Indefinite Pronouns

7. Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to commence or establish interrogative sentences. For e.g. who, whom, whose, what, and which etc.Though they are similar to relative pronouns, they are used differently.

Examples:

What is the capital of Sweden? Who was the first President of the United States?

Interrogative Pronouns

8. Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns or emphatic pronouns end with ‘self’ or ‘selves’ and highlight a noun or another pronoun.

Intensive Pronouns

Examples:

She finished solving the question paper herself. (‘herself’ emphasizes ‘she’)

The driver himself carried the luggage at the counter. (‘himself’ emphasizes ‘driver’)

Other examples include myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves etc.

Adjectives are “describing words” that qualify a noun/noun phrase, and give more information about it.

Examples:

He looks handsome in formals. Sandra is a short girl. It was a pleasure seeing a skilled artist

at work The green leaves swayed in the breeze.

#3: Adjectives

Comparative & Superlative Adjectives

1. Comparative adjectives help us compare two things. They usually end with ‘-er’.

Examples: Peanuts are cheaper than cashews. Pebbles are smaller than rocks. 2. Superlative adjectives illustrate the extreme or highest degree of a quality of one thing in a group of three or more things. They typically end with ‘-est’.

Examples: Peter is the richest guy in his locality. Antarctica is one of the coldest places on earth.

Demonstrative Adjectives

3. Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives are used to demonstrate or indicate specific things. For e.g. this, that, these, those etc.

Examples:

Please pass me that book, I need to note down something important. If you feed this dog, he will stay by your side always!  

Test yourself on Demonstrative Adjectives!

Indefinite Adjectives

4. Indefinite Adjective

Indefinite adjectives do not point out specific things.

They are formed from indefinite pronouns such as no, any, many, few, several etc.

Examples:

Many offices will be closed on next Friday. Very few people will agree to this.

When one noun is used to describe another, the former acts as an adjective (a describing word). For e.g. tennis ball, race horse, dress exhibition, school shoes, chocolate box, etc.

Examples: This love story has a happy ending. Please go to the bicycle shop. What kind of story? A love story.Which shop? A bicycle shop.

In some cases, you may even comeacross multiple nouns acting as adjectives.

Example: American airways traffic investigation centreThe nouns ‘American’, ‘airways’, ‘traffic’ and ‘investigation’ are describing the noun ‘centre’.

Nouns As Adjectives

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