OOPT Sentence Structure and Syntax 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sentence has the correct word order with an adverb of frequency?
- She always is late for class.
- She is always late for class. (Correct answer)
- Always she is late for class.
- Late she always is for class.
Correct answer: She is always late for class.
Adverbs of frequency like 'always' are placed after auxiliary verbs and before main verbs.
Question 2: Which sentence correctly uses 'neither...nor' with subject-verb agreement?
- Neither the students nor the teacher were ready.
- Neither the students nor the teacher was ready. (Correct answer)
- Neither the students nor the teacher are ready.
- Neither the students nor the teacher have been ready.
Correct answer: Neither the students nor the teacher was ready.
With 'neither...nor,' the verb agrees with the subject closest to it — 'the teacher' is singular, so 'was' is correct.
Question 3: Which sentence correctly uses a relative clause?
- The book that I bought it yesterday was expensive.
- The book which I bought yesterday was expensive. (Correct answer)
- The book that I bought yesterday it was expensive.
- The book I bought it yesterday was expensive.
Correct answer: The book which I bought yesterday was expensive.
The relative pronoun 'which' replaces the object pronoun, so you should not add an extra 'it'.
Question 4: Which sentence uses a participial phrase correctly?
- Running through the park, the rain began to fall.
- Running through the park, she was caught by the rain. (Correct answer)
- While running through the park, the rain fell heavily.
- To run through the park, the rain was falling.
Correct answer: Running through the park, she was caught by the rain.
The participial phrase 'Running through the park' must refer to the subject of the main clause, which is 'she'.
Question 5: Which option correctly combines: 'He studied hard.' and 'He passed the exam.'
- He studied hard, and so he passed the exam. (Correct answer)
- He studied hard although he passed the exam.
- He passed the exam despite he studied hard.
- He studied hard even though he passed the exam.
Correct answer: He studied hard, and so he passed the exam.
'And so' correctly expresses a cause-and-effect relationship between studying hard and passing the exam.
Question 6: Which sentence demonstrates correct parallel structure?
- She likes swimming, to run, and hiking.
- She likes to swim, running, and to hike.
- She likes swimming, running, and hiking. (Correct answer)
- She likes swim, run, and to hike.
Correct answer: She likes swimming, running, and hiking.
Parallel structure requires all items in a list to use the same grammatical form — here, all gerunds (-ing forms).
Question 7: Which of the following is a complex sentence?
- The dog barked and the cat ran away.
- She sang beautifully at the concert.
- Although it was raining, we went for a walk. (Correct answer)
- He ran, she walked, and they both arrived on time.
Correct answer: Although it was raining, we went for a walk.
A complex sentence has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause; 'Although it was raining' is a dependent clause.
OOPT Sentence Structure and Syntax 1
Which sentence has the correct word order with an adverb of frequency?