MCAS Language

Grammar

You use grammar every day.  Every time you talk with your friends or leave a note for your parents, you use the rules of grammar that you've heard since you first went to school.  Grammar relates to how we assemble words to make sense.  If you spew out random words -- bubblegum telephone jumped crazy rope -- no one will have any idea what you mean, even if you have the most advanced vocabulary on Earth.  There are many grammar rules, but we've sorted out the valuable information to highlight rules that the MCAS exams have covered in the past.  Review this section to refresh your memory about specific grammar rules, especially the material most important for doing well on the exam.

Parts of Speech

Grammar is about jargon, key terms that indicate specific parts of speech.  It is like playing basketball.  Your coach calls a "foul" and gives you a "free throw."  You need to know what these terms mean in order to play.  Similarly, the MCAS exam writers expect you to understand their terms when they ask you to identify gerunds and adverbs.  What are gerunds?  Read on.....

Noun

A noun is a person, place, thing, or an idea. 

A person:  Nomar Garciaparra, Allison, grandmother, president

A place:  Springfield, Connecticut River, high school, street

A thing:  popcorn, sweatshirt, credit card, college

An idea:  love, excellence, optimism, Boyle's Law

Here are some rules about nouns.

Proper noun

Proper nouns are very specific nouns that indicate particular people, place, or ideas like Nomar Garciaparra or the Connecticut River or Boyle's Law.  Proper nouns take capitals.  Examples of other proper nouns are Massachusetts, Queen Elizabeth, Acting Governor Swift, and the Korean War.

Plural nouns

If there is more than one noun, the noun is called plural.

Most plural nouns end in s:  sodas, dates, jokes, diets, podiatrists.

Quizzes are on Fridays.

Videos are on sale.

Some plural nouns do not end in s:  men, women, children, geese, mice

Flying sheep are not easy to count.

Mice scare most people.

Watch out!  Some nouns end in s but are not plural:  mathematics, news, politics, statistics

Mathematics is his worst subject.

Collective Nouns

Some nouns look plural but aren't.  United States, family, committee.  These nouns are called collective nouns, and they indicate several individuals, but are singular -- and take singular verbs -- because they describe one single group.

The United States is a fairly young country.

My family is nutty enough to be on a sitcom.

Gerund

A noun that ends in ing may act as the subject of a sentence when it is called a gerund.  What are the subjects of the two sentences below?

Eating bamboo shoots is a panda's favorite activity.

Watching movies is fun.

Remember: Check to make sure your sentence has a subject by making sure it answers the question, "What is/does....?" or "Who is/does....?"

What is a panda's favorite activity?  Eating.  What is fun?  Watching.

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.  It is a stand-in.  We often use pronouns instead of repeating names and words over and over.  Here are some examples:  I, you, it, we, they, who, what, anyone, something.

Antecedent

The word a pronoun stands in for is called the antecedent.

Cathy gave away her dessert.

In the sentence above, her stands in for Cathy.  So the antecedent is Cathy.

My next-door neighbor, who hoarded stuff for Y2K, felt pretty silly in the end.

Who replaces my next-door neighbor.  The antecedent is my next-door neighbor.

I have e-mailed my cousin Alexandria, who lives in Danbury, to invite her to my graduation.

Who and her replace my cousin Alexandria.  The antecedent is my cousin Alexandria.

If you replace a pronoun with an antecent, the sentence should still mean the exact same thing.  When Laura and her sister Allison went to the store, they left their Dad home alone.  Try substituting they with its antecedent, Laura and Alison.  Laura and Allison left their Dad home alone,  Same as the first sentence?  Yes, you've found the antecedent.

Agreement

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent.  In other words:  Check whether or not a pronoun should be mascuine or feminine, singular or plural, by looking back at the word it represents.

Ask yourself, "Is the pronoun masculine or feminine?  Check.  Is the pronoun singular or plural?  Check.

Jonathan put his backpack in the closet.

Masculine pronoun?  Yes.  Singular pronoun?  Yes.

I called my sister, Jennifer, who has her license, to ask her for a ride home.

Is each pronoun feminine?  Yes.  Is each one singular?  Yes.

Verb

Every sentence has a verb, which describes what the subject did or was.

Usually verbs express actions.  Here are some examples:  snore, waken, wash, brush, gobble, burp, invert, reproach.

Some verbs describe states of being.  Here are some examples:  am, seem, appear, become, remain.

Kareem aced his exams.

Rachel was late the morning after her pajama party.

What did Kareem do?  He aced his exams.  What did Rachel do?  She was late.

Although there are many subjects about verbs that you may have covered in your classes about verbs, there are only two you will need to focus on for this exam:  tense and voice.

Tense

Verb tense refers to when the verb's action takes place.

Today I snored.                            Present Tense

Yesterday I snored.                      Past Tense

I have always snored.                    Present Perfect Tense

I will snore.                                   Future Tense

I will have snored.                         Future Prefect Tense

Voice

In addition to when a verb occurred (its tense), it has a voice that the action happened in.  Verb voice refers to whether you phrase things in a straightforward, "active" way or whether you put things in a more roundabout way by using a form of "to be."

Active:  I ate the last ice cream bar.      I know the number of calories.

Passive:  The last ice cream bar was eaten by me.  The number of calories is known to me.

Unless you have a good reason to use the passive voice, it is usually best to use the simpler, more direct active voice.

Subject

Every sentence has a subject.  The subject is who or what the sentence is mainly about.  Subjects are always nouns or pronouns.  See if you can spot the subjects in the two sentences below.

Sentence A:  The wrestler won the match.

Sentence B:  Her tattoo is unforgettable.

Look for the verb in Sentence A and you find won.  Ask yourself, "Who won?"  The wrestler won.  The wrestler is the subject.

Look for the verb in Sentence B and you find is. Ask yourself, "What is?"  Her tattoo is.  Her tattoo is the subject.

If the subject is missing, you may have an incomplete sentence, also known as a fragment.  A fragment cannot stand by itself as a sentence.

Incorrect:  Raising both arms in victory.

This sentence is wrong because there is no subject.  Who was raising both arms?  You can't tell from this group of five words.  You could correct this fragment by adding a subject.

Correct:  The wrestler was raising both arms in victory.

 

Finding the subject in a sentence is easy.  First find the verb (action word) in the sentence.  Then, ask yourself, "Who or what (is doing the verb)?"  The answer is the subject of the sentence.

 

Adjective

Adjectives describe nouns.  They often describe a person or thing's appearance, sound, taste, smell, or feel:  flashing lights, stentorian music, salty peanuts, noxious odor, sticky floor.

Adjectives answer one of three questions:

• What kind?
• Which one?
• How many?

I love pop music like Britney Spear's.

What kind or music?

Pop music.

Pop is an adjective modifying music, because it tells us what kind of music.

 

I thought I'd pack the blue tie.

Which one of your ties?

The blue one.

Blue is an adjective modifying tie, because it tells which one you are packing.

 

Michael wants two Cokes.

How many Cokes?

Two Cokes.

Two is an adjective modifying Cokes, because it tells us how many Cokes Michael wants.

 

Ask yourself, "Can I describe the noun more specifically?  If there is an adjective, you can answer this question.  Can I describe more specifically movies that are hard to sit through?  Excruciating movies.

Adverb

Adverbs usually describe verbs -- but sometimes they give more information about adjectives.  They often describe to what extent the action takes place, usually by telling us how, when, or where:  arrive late, dance flamboyantly, slip abruptly, laugh loudly, leave early.

Be careful not to use an adjective when you need an adverb:

Wrong:  He laughed loud.

Correct:  He laughed loudly.

When an adjective needs more definition about how, when, or where, it is modified by an adverb.

Sally wears very big earrings.

How big were Sally's earrings?  Very.

My dog wears a flamboyantly orange collar so he won't get lost in the dark.

What kind of orange collar does my dog wear?  Flamboyantly.

Adverbs can even modify adverbs, by telling us more information about how something was done.

Sam plays the right guard position very aggressively.

How aggressively does Sam play?  Very.

Practice

Remember, we are only reviewing the grammar concepts most likely to appear on the exam.  Let's get a feel for how the MCAS exam will check these skills.  The Winnipeg Wolf passage might be followed by questions like these, if it appeared on your MCAS exam.  Review the answers that follow the questions to check your accuracy.

1. In paragraph 5, the word "it" (used twice) refers to which antecedent?

   1. curl

   2. snow

   3. lips

   4. narrator

2. The last sentence of paragraph 3 ends:   "...and there in the middle was a group that stirred me to the very soul."  The word very here acts as a

   1. noun.

   2. address.

   3. adverb.

   4. adjective.

3. In the first sentence of paragraph 3, the word poplar serves as a(n)

   1. pronoun that replaces "Emerson".

   2. adverb that describes how the thickets drift.

   3. adjective that modifies the noun country.

   4. adjective that modifies the adverb nearly.

Answers

1. A  Using POE, you will know that C, lips, must be wrong.  It is wrong because lips are plural (there's more than one) and antecedents always agree with their pronouns (it refers to something singular).  Plug the remaining choices into the place of it to identify the right answer choice.  B, snow, makes no sense.  Cross it off.  There is no reason to believe that it refers to the narrator.  Eliminate D.  So the answer is A, the curl of the lips.  When you substitute this answer choice in the text, the sentence reads the same as it did before -- the curl of the lips makes the wolf look proud and contemptuous.

2. C  First, remember that very can't be a verb, noun (an address), or an adjective, so kick out A, B, and C.  Jackpot!  POE leaves you with one choice, D.  Be careful and test this answer choice.  What kind of soul?  My very soul.  Perfect!

3. C  Poplar describes what kind of country we are looking at (one with lots of poplar trees), so it is an adjective (a word describing a noun).

There should only be a couple of grammar questions but you should remember these conventions when you write your Composition.  

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