Sentence Structure and Grammar Flashcards

Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

Answer: The committee members or the chairperson presents the findings tomorrow.

The correct answer is 'The committee members or the chairperson presents the findings tomorrow.' When subjects are joined by 'or' or 'nor', the verb agrees with the subject closer to it. In this case, 'chairperson' is singular, so the verb 'presents' is correct. 'List' is singular, so it should be 'is'. 'Each' is singular, so the pronoun should be 'his or her'. 'Dog' is the singular subject, so the verb should be 'was walking'.

A student wrote the following sentence: 'The training was difficult, it required many hours of practice.' Which revision corrects the error in the original sentence?

Answer: The training was difficult, and it required many hours of practice.

The original sentence contains a comma splice, which is an error where two independent clauses are joined by only a comma. The correct revision is 'The training was difficult, and it required many hours of practice.' Using the conjunction 'and' after the comma correctly links the two complete thoughts into a compound sentence.

Identify the sentence that uses punctuation correctly.

Answer: It's a shame that the dog lost its collar.

The correct sentence is 'It's a shame that the dog lost its collar.' 'It's' is a contraction for 'it is'. 'Its' is a possessive pronoun that shows ownership. The first part of the sentence needs the contraction 'It is', and the second part needs the possessive pronoun 'its' to show the collar belongs to the dog.

Which of the following is a complete sentence?

Answer: The new manager starts her job next week.

A complete sentence must have a subject and a verb and express a complete thought. 'The new manager starts her job next week' has a subject ('manager') and a verb ('starts') and forms a complete idea. The other options are sentence fragments; they are dependent clauses or phrases that do not express a complete thought on their own.

A job applicant wants to describe their skills in a cover letter. Which sentence is structured most effectively?

Answer: My skills include data entry, database management, and answering phones.

The sentence 'My skills include data entry, database management, and answering phones' uses correct parallel structure. All items in the list ('data entry', 'database management', 'answering phones') are in the same grammatical form (nouns/gerund phrases), which makes the sentence clear and balanced. The other options mix different grammatical structures, making them less effective.

Which sentence has a misplaced modifier, creating confusion?

Answer: The customer returned the sweater to the store that was too small.

The sentence 'The customer returned the sweater to the store that was too small' contains a misplaced modifier. The phrase 'that was too small' incorrectly modifies 'store' instead of 'sweater'. It makes it sound like the store was too small. A clearer version would be 'The customer returned the sweater that was too small to the store.'