English Grammer

Welcome to CAT's Grammar Module!

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In this module, you will:
Learn the grammar rules that are tested most often on your exam.
Practice applying the rules through several exercises.
Learn about how this knowledge is tested on your exam.
This module focuses on content, so it covers the relevant principles of English grammar and
seeks to make them comprehensible. We won't be working with in-format test questions, or
giving you a score, today, but rest assured that the content is what every student (or at least,
every student whose test includes grammar) needs to know! Begin with this module, and then
proceed to the Sentence Correction modules to practice applying your module knowledge to
test-like questions.
This is Not Your High School Grammar
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English grammar is not everyone's favorite subject, by a long shot. For many of us, grammar
was never taught in a way that made it fun. Many of us recall nothing more than lists of
sometimes illogical, often uninteresting, rules.
So will this module make grammar fun for you? Maybe so; maybe not. But we'll tell you what is
fun: realizing that, in the verbal portion of your standardized test, the questions are going to
focus on a very limited number of grammatical rules. As a result, once you have a better
understanding of those rules, you can convert a small amount of knowledge into lots of extra
points on test day. That, you ought to find fun!
Remember that during the module, if you want more information about any underlined word
or phrase, just click on it and a more detailed explanation will appear.
The Basics of the Sentence
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Sentences range from the very basic to very complex. At their most simple, they look something
like this:
Example 1: John buys a hat.
John is the subject because he performs the action of the sentence. The verb, here "buys,"
indicates what that action is; it tells you what John is doing. Finally, "hat" is the object of the
sentence. The object, when you have one, is what the verb acts on. In this case, it tells you what
is being bought. (Some sentences, like "John sleeps," have no object.) You aren't likely to see
many sentences this simple on your exam, but every sentence, no matter how complicated,
builds upon these basic elements.
For instance, we can expand on Example 1 as follows:
Example 2: Wanting to cover up his bald spot, John, in spite of Jane's advice, buys a particular
hat with red stitching.
Example 2 gives you more information than Example 1, and perhaps tells you more than you'd
like to know about John and his purchase. Still, both sentences have at their heart the same
basic structure.
While We're on the Subject: Subject Verb Agreement
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When sentences become particularly sophisticated or wordy, it can become more difficult to
see initially whether the subject and verb "agree." They agree when a plural subject takes a
plural verb, and when a singular subject takes a singular verb. This rule is tested often, so it's a
good idea always to identify the subject and verb in a sentence and see how well they get
along. It's always easier to see whether the subject and verb agree when sentences are short
and simple. For instance, which of the following is correct?
Example 1: The crowd assembles to greet the movie star.
Example 2: The crowd assemble to greet the movie star.
The first sentence is correct, because "crowd" is singular so it takes the singular verb
"assembles."
When the subject and verb are split up by a phrase or clause, their agreement can be more
difficult to determine. For instance, look at the following sentence and identify the error:
Example 3: The crowd, consisting of people from ten different states and making a lot of noise,
assemble to greet the movie star.
The intervening phrase (everything between the commas, from "consisting" to "noise") adds
distance between the subject and verb, and that can make it difficult to keep track of the
subject by the time you get to that verb. Nevertheless, "crowd" is still singular, so the verb still
needs to be "assembles," not "assemble," no matter what information the test-makers stick
between them.
Subject/Verb Agreement: Try it Yourself
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Task: Identify the subject and verb in each of the following sentences. If they agree, click yes, if
not, click no. Then click continue.
1. Janie, with her poodle Fido limping behind her, walk to the dog park.
Yes No
Even though Janie is with her dog, she is still the singular subject, so the verb must be "walks,"
not "walk." If the sentence read "Janie and her poodle Fido walk to the park," that would be
correct, but the subject of the sentence only becomes plural if the word "and" connects Janie
and Fido.
2. There is a lot of issues involved in this proposal.
Yes No
This sentence is rather tricky, since the subject ("a lot of issues") follows the verb ("is").
Rearrange the sentence and make the subject come first: "A lot of issues (plural) are (plural)
involved in the proposal." When the subject precedes the verb, as it does in the rearranged
sentence, it's easier to see that the verb following "issues" should be "are."
3. Spaghetti and meatballs is my favorite meal.
Yes No
Spaghetti and meatballs together as a unit constitute the favorite meal, so they act as a singular
subject. They are different foods, but the sentence doesn't discuss them as separate foods. As a
single meal, they take the singular "is," so the sentence is correct as it stands.
4. The box of toys has been unpacked.
Yes No
Even though "toys" is plural, and it's the noun closest to the verb "has been unpacked," "box" is
the correct, and singular, subject. The box has been unpacked, not the toys (which can't really
be unpacked, after all).
Modifying Phrases
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Returning back to our original, basic sentence, we had "John buys a hat." The more complicated
rendition was: "Wanting to cover up his bald spot, John, in spite of Jane's advice, buys a
particular hat with red stitching."
One of the grammatical mechanisms which complicates the sentence is called a modifier.
Modifiers can be as simple as adjectives and adverbs: you modify the word "car" when you call
it a "red car." "Red" is the adjective which modifies "car." These one-word modifiers are not
tested very often, but modifying phrases are. Modifying phrases are lengthier descriptions,
often set aside from the main action of the sentence by a comma. In the second sentence, the
modifying phrase comes at the beginning: "Wanting to cover up his bald spot." It's called a
modifier because it modifies, or provides more information about, a person or thing in the
sentence - usually its subject or object.
A modifying phrase will never actually contain the main sentence's subject or object, but it
provides more information about that subject or object. Therefore, the modifying phrase
doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its own; it's incomplete, waiting for someone or
something to make sense of it. For this reason, the modifier always needs to be as close as
possible to the person or thing that it modifies.
Modifiers - The Golden Rule
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Now, modifiers are used incorrectly very often - in published materials, in daily conversation, in
textbooks, and so on. As a result, before you can start judging whether modifiers are correctly
used, you will probably need practice at simply identifying the common errors. Here's the good
news: modifier problems are very easy to fix because they always need to be fixed in exactly
the same way. Remember the golden rule: the modifier needs to be as close as possible to the
person or thing that it modifies.
Look at the two sentences below and decide which one is correct:
Example 1: After crying for two consecutive hours, the mother finally put the baby to sleep.
Example 2: After crying for two consecutive hours, the baby finally fell asleep.
What's the modifier? It's the phrase "After crying for two consecutive hours," and it clearly
refers to a person, but we need more of the sentence to figure out who it modifies. Is it logical
that the mother cried for two hours? Surely it seems plausible, especially given the
circumstances, but the fact that the mother "finally put the baby to sleep" indicates that it's the
baby who's been struggling in this sentence. Therefore, sentence 2 is correct because it places
"baby" right next to the phrase which modifies it.
Modifiers: Try it Yourself
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Task: Complete each of the sentences below with the appropriate ending, paying special
attention to modifiers. Click on the ending that you think is preferable, and then click Continue.
1. After speaking with her mother on the phone, __________.
Samantha decided to eat dinner.
 the family sat down to dinner.
Here we have a particular type of modifier problem, called a dangling modifier. The modifying
phrase "After speaking with her mother on the phone" clearly refers to a daughter, based on
the presence of the pronoun "her," so the daughter's name needs to follow the comma
immediately. The modifier "dangles" because it doesn't modify anything in the sentence; the
daughter's name is nowhere to be found. Instead, you're given an alternative subject, "the
family," which can't be modified by the modifying phrase since the family didn't speak with its
mother (the pronoun "her" tells us the sentence is referring to a single female person); a single
daughter spoke with her mother. Always look for clues in the modifier indicating that which
must immediately follow or precede it.
2. Jessica placed her coffee mug on the table __________.
that was still hot.
that collapsed with the extra weight.
Since the original clause ends with "table," the modifier which follows it must refer to the table.
The sentence which choice (1) creates has a classic misplaced modifier, which means that the
modifier is next to something which it doesn't modify. Clearly, it's the coffee mug which is still
hot, not the table, so the modifier needs to be moved closer to "coffee mug." You could
rearrange this sentence like this: "Jessica placed her coffee mug, that was still hot, on the
table," and it would be correct.
Choice (2) is correct because it's not the coffee mug that collapses but the apparently flimsy
table, and so the modifier is correctly positioned because it immediately follows the noun that
it modifies.
3. As the best-selling book explains, in order to lead a happy and fulfilling life __________.
Mr. Johnson advises that one abide by a systematic regime of fun and exercise.
one must ignore all self-help books.
The modifier "in order to lead a happy and fulfilling life" does not describe the author, Mr.
Johnson, but the anonymous person who would want such a life. The phrase modifies the
subject "one" which shows up five words into this choice. A correct rendition of this sentence
would read "As the best-selling book explains, in order to lead a happy and fulfilling life one
must abide by a systematic regime of fun and exercise." Choice (2) is correct as it because it
starts with "one," the subject that the modifying phrase explains.

Pronouns
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A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun. Some common pronouns are "he," "she," "it,"
"they," and "we," and they keep us from having to repeat a person's name or a thing again and
again. We use pronouns to make our writing and speech less clumsy. Thus, instead of saying
"David read a book that David liked, and David later recommended it to David's friends," we say
"David read a book which he liked, and he later recommended it to his friends." The first
sentence, while grammatically correct in the strictest sense, is less pleasant to read because it's
so clunky.
Standardized exams love to test pronouns, which is good news for two reasons. First, pronoun
errors are easy to spot. Second, they are controlled by one very strict rule: a pronoun is used
correctly when you can't possibly mistake what it stands in for. Conversely, it's used incorrectly
when there's more than one possible noun that it could represent.
The Horror of Vague Pronouns
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First of all, let's get the relevant terms straight with the aid of the sentence below.
Example 1: Gabriela goes to the park, which she loves to visit because it is beautiful.
The first pronoun in the sentence is "which" and it's called a relative pronoun. Other common
relative pronouns are "that" and "who." There's only one thing you really need to know about
these pronouns: "that" and "which" refer to things, while "who" refers to people. Therefore,
you'd write "The park, which is beautiful" or "The park that is beautiful," but "Gabriela, who is
beautiful." The second pronoun in the sentence is "she." "He," "she," "we," "they," and even "I"
are all called personal pronouns (because they stand in for people), and they are the pronouns
most frequently tested. Is it clear who "she" stands for in the sentence above?
Indeed it is; "Gabriela" is the only woman in the sentence, so the pronoun must refer to her.
Therefore, the pronoun is grammatically correct.
The final pronoun in the sentence is "it," an objective pronoun (since it stands in for an object,
not a person) that refers to the park. The "park" is the antecedent of the pronoun, which simply
means that it is the word that the pronoun replaces (Gabriela was the antecedent of the
pronoun above). Whenever you see a pronoun, ask yourself what its antecedent is. If you can't
tell because there's more than one option, then the pronoun is misused in the sentence and
needs to be fixed. In this case, "the park" is the only possible antecedent for "it," so there's no
pronoun problem.
Pronouns: Try it Yourself
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Pronouns are words that substitute for nouns. Every pronoun must have a clear antecedent
(the word for which the pronoun stands).
Task: Identify, in each sentence, all of the pronouns whose antecedents are not perfectly clear.
Note: there may be more than one error per sentence.
1. Amina worked at her company for ten years, until they hired a younger associate who took
credit for her work and she quit.
Unclear pronouns:

Unclear pronouns: "they", "her", "she"

The first "her" is indeed a pronoun, but it's grammatically correct since it can only
refer to Amina at this point in the sentence.
The second pronoun in the sentence, "they," is flawed. We so often use "they" in
everyday speech without offering any antecedent for it, that we find ourselves
starting to treat it as a noun in its own right. Still, anytime a pronoun is used
without a clear antecedent it's flawed. Instead of "they," the author could provide
names or just say "the bosses."
The third pronoun in the sentence is the second "her," which is also flawed.
Logically, "her" would seem to refer to Amina, but technically, it could refer either
to Amina or to the younger associate. Just because you can figure out the
meaning, that doesn't mean the pronoun is used correctly. If there's more than
one possible antecedent, as there is here, then the pronoun is too vague.

The final pronoun is "she," and it's wrong for the same reasons that the second
"her" is wrong.
2. The scandalous exhibit remained in the museum for several months, even
though it received a great deal of negative publicity and the mayor himself
condemned it.

Unclear pronouns:
Unclear pronouns: "it", "it"
The first pronoun in the sentence is the first "it." This pronoun could refer either to
the exhibit or to the museum (and even make sense in either situation), so the
pronoun is not used correctly.

The second pronoun is "himself." Specifically, it's a pronoun which provides

emphasis, stressing the fact that the mayor (important person that he is)
condemned the exhibit. It is used correctly since the mayor is the only possible
male subject in the sentence.
The third pronoun is the second "it," which could refer either to the exhibit or to
the museum, so the pronoun would need to be replaced with the appropriate
subject to make the sentence grammatically correct.

Verbs: The Tension of Tenses

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The rules that govern verbs are plentiful and often complicated. Take comfort
from the fact that you can usually figure out verb tense errors - whether the verb
should be in the present, past, future, conditional, or whatever other tense -
based on the meaning of the rest of the sentence. Also, if you're a native speaker
of English or have spent a great deal of time listening to English, you'll usually be
able to hear what "sounds" right if you're paying attention.

A sentence's verb tense can be flawed in many different ways, so it's less
important to look for particular flaws than to isolate the sentence's verbs and see
whether they make sense together. Know in advance that every verb in a
particular sentence does not need to have the same tense to be correct. Pay
attention to shifts in the direction of the sentence; don't look to see whether the
tenses are the same, but whether they make sense together.

Verbs: The Basics

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Sorry to drag you through this, but it is important that you know what the different
tenses are. You know the basics: the present tense describes something
happening now, the future tense marks what will happen, the simple past
describes something that did happen. Nevertheless, you'll need to distinguish
among a few others.

The Present Perfect: I have played the piano for many years. You can always
identify the present perfect by the presence of the word "has" or "have" in front of
another past-tense verb (here "played"). The present perfect describes an action
that began in the past but continues into the present. Accordingly, the person in
the sentence above started playing the piano somewhere in the past, and still
plays it now.
The Past Perfect (or Pluperfect): Miguel had talked with his father for two hours.
The past perfect always carries the hallmark "had + verb in past tense" form. It
describes an action that started in the past and ended in the past. Accordingly,
Miguel had a conversation that already ended.

The Present Progressive: I am preparing for a standardized test. You can spot
the present progressive by its standard form: a form of the verb "to be" + a verb
with an -ing ending. It should be used only when the speaker wants to emphasize
that the action is happening at this very minute. Otherwise, the simple present (I
prepare for a standardized test) is more appropriate.

Keeping Verb Tenses Straight

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Often, the verbs in a sentence will be and should be in the same tense. Take the
sentence below:

Example 1: When Johanna left work, she was exhausted.

The sentence describes two things happening at the same past time ("when"
indicates that they're happening in the same general moment), so they both need
to be in the same tense. Nevertheless, compare the following:

Example 1: After Johanna leaves work, she goes to the store.

Example 2: After Johanna leaves work, she will go to the store.

Both sentences are correct, but they communicate different meanings. The first
sentence suggests that Johanna habitually goes to store after work. The second
sentence focuses on one particular time when Johanna goes to the store after
leaving work. Again, just make sure that different tenses make sense together,
especially in more complicated sentences.

Verbs: Try it Yourself

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Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence. As we will see on this
page, verbs are classified in many ways. First, some verbs require an object to
complete their meaning: "She gave _____ ?" Gave what? She gave money to the
church. These verbs are called transitive. Verbs that are intransitive do not
require objects: "The building collapsed." In English, you cannot tell the
difference between a transitive and intransitive verb by its form; you have to see
how the verb is functioning within the sentence. In fact, a verb can be both
transitive and intransitive: "The monster collapsed the building by sitting on it."

Task the following sentences and click on the verb in the parentheses that best
completes the sentence.

1. Carrie will go to college if she (will find, finds, has found) enough money to
cover tuition.

will find

finds

has found

While it is true that the first verb in the sentence, "will go," is in the future tense,
the future "will find" does not fit with the meaning of the sentence. Carrie will go
to college once she has enough money, so she needs to find the money in the
present tense before she will be able to attend college. Therefore, the proper
choice is "finds." This might be easier to see if you rearranged the sentence and
started with the if-clause. Thus, "If she finds enough money to cover tuition,
Carrie will go to college."

The final choice "has found" is incorrect. This choice would work if there were a
deadline involved - if Carrie's ability to attend college depended on her having
found money by a certain date. As the sentence stands, the perfect "has found"
doesn't work because there's no reason why the sentence needs to travel into
the past.

2. Rocio had been living in Bogota for ten years when she (had decided, decided,
will have decided) to leave.

had decided

decided
 will have decided

"Had been living" is an example of what's called the past perfect progressive
tense. "Had decided" is wrong not because the tenses are different, but because
of the sentence's meaning. We learn that Rocio had been in Bogota for a while;
"had been living" indicates that the action occupied more than one moment in the
past - that the action was ongoing for a period of time. Making the decision to
leave has to happen at one fixed time, not over a period of time. You can worry
about a decision for a long time, but actually making a decision occurs at one
fixed moment. Therefore, "she decided to leave" at one particular moment after a
prolonged stay in Bogota.

The final choice, "will have decided," makes the sentence jump into the future.
This is incorrect because the first verb ("had been living") indicates that the
action of the sentence both started and ended in the past.

3. Return your books on time in order (to avoid, that you avoid, to have avoided)
a late penalty.

to avoid

that you avoid

to have avoided

The infinitive "to avoid" perfectly completes the sentence, because it follows most
eloquently from "in order." The imperative or command at the beginning of this
sentence ("Return") does not determine the next verb tense; rather it's the
preposition "in order" which indicates what must follow. One last time: determine
the appropriate tense by the meaning of the sentence and by what "sounds"
right, not just by the other verb tenses in the sentence.

Technically, the choice "that you avoid" is grammatically correct, but it would not
be the correct answer over "to avoid." Remember that your exam tests
grammatical correctness and effectiveness; while you can make an argument for
"that you avoid," it's not as eloquent or clear as "to avoid," so it wouldn't be the
correct answer.

A Related Issue: The Passive Voice

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A passive construction occurs when you make the object of an action into the
subject of a sentence. That is, whoever or whatever is performing the action is
not the grammatical subject of the sentence.

Your test-makers tend to focus on grammatical errors that English speakers

commonly make, and this next error is a very popular one. Nevertheless, it's easy
to fix; the challenge comes in learning how to identify it.

The easiest way to explain the passive voice is to use an example. Compare the
following three sentences:

Example 1: Elaine purchased new software for the company.

Example 2: New software was purchased for the company by Elaine.

Example 3: New software was purchased for the company.

The first sentence uses the active voice, which means that subject of the
sentence (Elaine) performs the action (purchasing some software). The second
sentence uses the passive voice, because the subject of the sentence (Elaine)
no longer creates the action. Instead, the original object (software), which had
received the action of the sentence, becomes its subject. Through the third
sentence, you can see that the passive voice allows you completely to remove
the subject: the action is done, and we don't know by whom.

You can always identify the passive voice by the verb: a passive verb will begin
with a form of the verb "to be" and end with a different verb in the past tense
(hence, "was purchased").

It Is To Be Avoided

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Whenever you can put a sentence into active voice, you should do so. But doing
so is not always possible. Sometimes there is no logical or eloquent subject for a
sentence, as in the following: The flowers were left on my doorstep. If you really
don't know who left them, then the passive voice is acceptable.
Why does this all matter to you? Well, the passive voice rears its ugly head
frequently on standardized exams, and while it may not be the only grammatical
flaw in a sentence, you should always reject it in favor of a reasonable alternative
with the active voice.

Taking Control: Making the Passive Active

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Task: Rewrite each of the following sentences, taking each out of the passive
voice and making it active. When you're done, look at the example and compare
it to yours. Small alterations are insignificant; just make sure you've placed the
subject and verb in the correct places. Note that you may need to provide a
subject for some sentences.
1. The car is purchased by Jennifer.

2. Everything is being done to insure passenger safety.

3. The families have been notified that they need to evacuate.

4. The active voice should be used whenever possible.

5. Grammar is tested often.

Parallelism: Keeping Everything in Line

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First things first, what is parallelism? Well, it's what you get when you place
similar elements of a sentence in a similar form. Why does parallelism matter to
you? Again, it's tested pretty frequently, so you'll want to learn how to identify it,
and how to correct it.

Let's take the following sentence:

Example 1: I like to play tennis and watching baseball.

Does anything strike you as wrong? The problem is that the sentence's structure
is not parallel. It offers two activities that follow from the initial verb "I like." If they
were expressed as two different sentences, they would be: "I like to play tennis. I
like watching baseball." As separate sentences, no problem; but when they're
placed in one sentence, the activities need to be expressed in the same
grammatical form. Thus, the sentence needs to read:

I like to play tennis and to watch baseball.

I like to play tennis and watch baseball.

I like playing tennis and watching baseball.

In all three corrections, the two activities have similar grammatical forms. This
makes them parallel, and correct.

When is Parallelism an Issue?

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As we saw in the last example, the simple conjunction "and" can create a need
for parallelism. Basically, whenever more than one part of the sentence picks up
on the same phrase earlier in the sentence, you're dealing with parallelism.

However, there are some word pairs which alert you to the fact that a parallel is
being set up. They are:

eitheror

neithernor

not onlybut also

Whatever follows the first and the second part of these pairs must have the same
grammatical form. Thus, if you have an adjective following one, you need an
adjective to follow the other, and so on. See the following correct examples:

Either Jane or Elena must attend the party. (Proper nouns follow "either" and
"or.")

Neither the sofa nor the chair was comfortable to sit on. (Nouns follow "neither"
and "nor.")

When she finished the competition, she was not only exhausted, but also
exhilarated. (Adjectives follow "not only" and "but also.")

One Odd Rule

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Whenever a sentence lists more than two things in parallel form, it has to follow a
certain rule if certain prepositions ("under," "in," "on," etc.), articles ("a," "an,"
"the"), or infinitive stems ("to") are involved. Look at the following sentence:

Example 1: Mytilee likes to dance, read, and to talk to her friends.

This sentence is flawed because the stem "to" shows up only with the first and
third verbs. It either needs to be used in all three cases or only in the first case,
as the following two examples demonstrate.

Example 2: Mytilee likes to dance, read, and talk to her friends.

Example 3: Mytilee likes to dance, to read, and to talk to her friends.

These are the only correct alternatives given the structure of the sentence.

Yes, this is a pretty pedantic rule - you can certainly understand all three
sentences equally well - but make sure you know it well by test day.

Parallelism: Try it Yourself

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Task: Identify the flaw or flaws in each of the following sentences. When you
think you have it/them, click Continue and see if you're right.

1. I spent time in Paris, Barcelona, and on the southern coast of Spain.

The sentence is going along fine until the end, but it changes prepositions from
"in" to "on" (error #1), introduces a preposition in the third clause after it's been
absent from the second (error #2), and then modifies Spain so that it is no longer
parallel with the names which precede it (error #3). A correct version of this
sentence would read, "I spent time in Paris, Barcelona, and Spain." If the
information about the Southern coast is important, the sentence can be
restructured to read as follows: "I spent time in Paris and Barcelona, and on the
southern coast of Spain." Now the sentence structure respects a different kind of
parallelism: preposition (in, on) followed by place names.

2. Harry is a man with the best intentions and who has the highest principles.
Again, you could salvage this sentence by splitting it into two different sentences
about Harry. However, the more eloquent solution is to fix the parallelism. Harry
has two qualities, and they both need to be expressed in the same grammatical
form. If you want to keep the first "with" structure, the sentence needs to read:

Harry is a man with the best intentions and ("with" is optional) the highest
principles.

If you want to keep the second "who has" structure, the sentence needs to read:

Harry is a man who has the best intentions and ("who has" is optional) the
highest principles.

2. Our personalities are shaped by both heredity and what type of

environment we grow up in.

The two things that shape us need to be in the same format, so if the first is a
noun ("heredity"), the second needs to be a noun as well. Your corrected
sentence would read something like this:

Our personalities are shaped by both heredity and environment.

If you want to be more specific about "environment," you'd need to do so in

another sentence. Parallelism limits what you can do with a sentence. Once you
start, you have to keep going in the same form.

Idioms: The Basics

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Idioms are grammatical usage that follow no general rules. They are phrases
whose meanings derive from their standard usage, not from the meanings of the
individual words they contain.

We can break idioms into two general camps:

Idioms in expressions.

Idioms involving prepositions.

Let's look at each one.

Idioms In Expressions
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Here are some examples of idioms in expressions:

You drive a hard bargain.

She's under the weather.

Jacob is out of his mind with fear.

In each of the examples, the words when considered individually don't make a lot
of sense with the others that surround them. One drives a car, not a bargain, and
yet we understand the sentence "You drive a hard bargain" because we don't just
focus on each individual word. The sentence's meaning becomes clear when its
words are read together as a unit. That suddenly comprehensible unit is called
an idiom. Similarly, it makes no sense to be "under the weather"; the weather
doesn't cut off at some physical point that you can stand under. Nor is there any
reason why this phrase would describe an illness, but it does, and we know it
does, because we're familiar with the idiom.

Idioms Involving Prepositions

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The first type of idiom is not tested all that frequently, but the second type is. You
may object to this second categorization right off the bat (another idiom), by
noting that there were prepositions in the examples we already saw, and you'd
be right. Nevertheless, this second category is devoted to those prepositions that
must travel with certain verbs in order to make grammatical sense.
Here are some examples of idioms involving prepositions:
I argued with my brother.
The kids turned out the light, switched off the radio, and clicked on the TV.
We agree to a proposal (we agree on a procedure; we agree with a position).
There's no particular reason why one would argue with someone, rather than
argue against someone. Similarly, there's no particular reason why one turns out
a light but doesn't switch out a radio. The last example demonstrates how a
single verb requires different prepositions in different contexts.
Idioms: Don't Let Them Get You Down
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The good news is, if you've spent a lot of time around English speakers, you'll
have an intuitive sense of most idioms. How do you know to say "Iris had to bring
up the subject of money" instead of "bring out" or "bring on"? You just do. Unless,
of course, English is not your first language, in which case you simply have to
familiarize yourself with these idioms.
On test day, pay attention to idioms and see whether they're correct. Any
grammatically correct sentence will use idiomatic English, which is just to say
that it uses it's idioms correctly.
Idioms: Try it Yourself
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Task: Identify the correct preposition to complete the sentence in each of the
following sentences.
1. Rajani is coming with me to pick __________ the food order that I phoned in.
out up
"Out" can't be right, based on the rest of the sentence. One can pick out a movie
and be grammatically correct, but one picks up an order. Sorry, there's really
nothing more to explain, because there's no reason why this (or any other) idiom
behaves in a certain way. It just does.
Notice too that we phone orders "in". Why? 'Cause we do.
2. Kelly used to get angry __________ Peggy for always being late.
toward at
One doesn't get angry "toward" anyone (though one might perhaps "display
anger toward" someone.) "At" completes this idiom correctly.

3. After several years she finally reconciled herself __________ her friend's
behavior.
to with
The idiom is "reconciled ... to." Period. By the way, on a related note, there does
exist in English a distinction between "compared with" and "compared to." Look it
up; it's interesting. But because the distinction is so narrow, it is not likely to
appear on your standardized test.
Grammar: Next Steps
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You've now explored the grammatical rules most commonly tested on
standardized exams. Notice that there were no lessons about punctuation, or
about vocabulary. That's because you won't be tested on those issues.
As you practice, work on identifying the different grammatical principles
discussed above, and practice assessing their correctness. For instance, when
you see a pronoun underlined on test day, your immediate reaction should be to
look for it's antecedent and determine whether that antecedent is clear.
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