GMAT Verbal Section: Grammar Review

Singular vs. plural

• A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. There are several different types of pronouns, but the most common is the ‘subject pronoun’. For example:

“I saw Aziz Ansari at Whole Foods. Aziz Ansari is hilarious.”

BECOMES

“I saw Aziz Ansari at Whole Foods; he is hilarious.”

•  On the GMAT, it’s important to determine whether or not the pronoun is singular or plural. Since subject pronouns take the place of the sentence’s subject, knowing their plurality is essential to understanding whether or not the subject and verb are in agreement.

Countable vs. non-countable pronouns

• Plural pronouns are particularly helpful when used in sentences that are trying to count a number of items. For example, if you’re trying to write a sentence quantifying your patience, a non-countable noun, do you use more/less or many/fewer?

To native speakers the answer is obvious – you can’t have ‘many’ patience – but for the non-native speaker, it may not be so apparent. In this case, ‘more/less’ is the right answer because it matches a non-countable noun with a non-countable pronoun.

Countable nouns:

In a sentence:  “More/Fewer/Many + Noun + Than”

For example:  “I have more patience than my sister.”

Non-Countable nouns:

In a sentence:  “As + Much/Less/Little + Noun”

For example:  “I don’t have as much money as my sister.”

Who vs. whom

• ‘Who’ replaces the subject noun/phrase and is followed by a verb.

“Dr Dre was a gangster. Dr Dre now works in the c-suite.”

BECOMES

“Dr Dre is the former gangster who now works in the c-suite.”

• ‘Whom’ replaces the object noun/phrase and is followed by a noun/phrase.

“Tanner is standing by the brewery. Everyone thinks Tanner is pretentious.”

BECOMES

“Tanner, whom everyone thinks is pretentious, is standing by the brewery.”

• A good test to determine whether or not you’re using who/whom correctly is to replace ‘who’ with ‘he/she’ and ‘whom’ with ‘him/her’. For example, “Who is Dr Dre?” “He works in the c-suite.”

Like vs. as

• When comparing two words or phrases, it can often be unclear whether one should use ‘like’ or ‘as’ between them. These words appear similar, but they can’t be used in all situations. Specifically, ‘like’ compares two nouns and ‘as’ compares two clauses. Therefore, ‘like’ isn’t followed by a second verb, while ‘as’ always is.

“In the summer, like other seasons in Minnesota, it snows.”

VS.

“It snows in Minnesota in the winter, as it does throughout the Midwest.”

Between vs. among

• Similarly to making comparisons with ‘like’ and ‘as’, there can be confusion when choosing ‘between’ or ‘among’ for a sentence. ‘Between’ should be used when comparing a direct relationship between individual items. ‘Among’ should be used when generally comparing a group of items.

“Walter was deciding between wearing a foam cheese head or a giant bullseye to the Vikings game. Either way, he was asking for trouble.”

VS.

“Sitting in the middle of Section 206, Walter panicked when he realized he was the only Packers fan among a sea of purple and gold.”

Either vs. neither

• What change does one letter make? In this case, 180 degrees worth - it changes the possibility of having one or the other, to not having any of the items. Regardless, if ‘either’ or ‘neither’ is the subject of a sentence, they are considered singular.

• If ‘either’ is used to compare two items, ‘or’ is used. If ‘neither’ is used to compare two items, ‘nor’ is used. When doing so, the second item being compared is the subject. That means the verb will be singular or plural depending on that item.

“Either pasta or pizza is for dinner.”

VS.

“Either pasta or pierogi are for dinner.”

Definition

• Simply put, a modifier is a word or phrase that describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about another word. Using the example from the ‘Sentence structure’ section:

“Sarah read a novel today.”

OR

“Still recovering from the bike accident, Sarah stayed inside and read a novel.”

• In the first sentence, ‘today’ is a modifying word, and in the second, ‘still recovering from the bike accident’ is a modifying phrase.

Misplaced modifiers

• There are four kinds of modifier errors relating to prepositional phrases: participial phrases, appositive phrases, and relative clauses. These join sentences to add detail and complexity. So as not to confuse the reader, these need to be placed at a precise point in the modified sentence.

• The greatest offender is ‘relative clauses’ and its ‘misplaced modifier’ error. Relative clauses have one simple rule: the modifier must be placed directly next to the subject it’s modifying. If not, the reader might be unsure of what’s being modified. For example:

“Scandalous yet alluring, Barb’s eye caught the cover of EL James’ new book.”

SHOULD BE

“Scandalous yet alluring, the new book by EL James caught Barb’s eye.”

• While Barb certainly could be scandalous and alluring, that’s not what the sentence is trying to say. To correct, rearrange the subject to the position next to the modifier.

• For relative clauses - those that include ‘which’, ‘who’, or ‘where’ - modifiers must be placed directly next to what they modify. Incidentally, ‘which’ can never modify a person - in this instance, ‘who’ should be used instead.

• For other parts of speech, such as words that end in ‘-ing’, modifiers don’t always have to be right next to the subject they’re modifying. Beware of use of the word ‘being’, however. A subject is either something or not: the use of ‘being’ to describe something’s state could very well be an error on the GMAT.

Definition

• Parallelism requires the verbs in a sentence to be in a similar form. For example, if you wanted to make a list of the household chores you did this morning, you would write:

“Today I washed the car, cleaned the closet, and dusted the TV.”

NOT

“Today I washed the car, clean the closet, and will dust the TV.”

• Parallelism can also be tested via idioms. Take the common ‘either…or’ idiom. If a sentence went as follows, “The milkman ran out of milk and was forced to deliver either Sprite and Red Bull.” The ‘and’ should be replaced with ‘or’.

• Overall, parallelism speaks to the flow of a sentence. Logic is your best tool here - does the construction of the sentence, order of words and punctuation, convey the complete thought of the writer? If not, you’ve likely found a parallelism error.