ACT English - Grammar Practice #1

Appositives should be set off by commas or dashes. Example: 'My brother, a skilled musician, plays guitar.'

When a compound subject is joined by 'and', use a plural verb. Example: 'The cat and dog are playing.'

'Its' is a possessive pronoun meaning 'belonging to it'. 'It's' is a contraction for 'it is' or 'it has'. Example: 'The dog wagged its tail.' vs 'It's raining today.'

A run-on sentence occurs when two or more independent clauses are joined without proper punctuation or conjunction. Example: 'I love to read I have many books.'

A semicolon connects closely related independent clauses. Example: 'I have a big test tomorrow; I can't go out tonight.'

A colon is used to introduce a list, quote, or explanation. Example: 'She has three hobbies: reading, painting, and hiking.'

'Affect' is a verb meaning to influence. 'Effect' is a noun meaning the result of a change. Example: 'The weather can affect your mood.' vs 'The effect of the storm was devastating.'

A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence. Example: 'Running down the street, the dog barked.' (It sounds like the dog was running.)

Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses. Examples include 'and', 'but', 'or'. Example: 'I wanted to go, but I was too tired.'

Quotation marks are used to indicate direct speech or quotations. Example: 'She said, "I will be late."'