What you'll learn
Standard English Conventions is the grammar domain: sentence boundaries, punctuation, agreement, and verb forms. These rules are learnable and consistent — high-value, reliable points.
Sentence boundaries
Two independent clauses can be joined by:
- A period or semicolon: She studied hard; she passed.
- A comma + coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS): She studied hard, so she passed.
- A comma alone is not allowed (that's a comma splice).
Punctuation
- Commas separate items in a series and set off nonessential information (My brother, who lives in Ohio, is visiting).
- Colons introduce a list or explanation after a complete clause: She needs three things: focus, time, and rest.
- Apostrophes: singular possessive = 's (the girl's book); plural possessive ending in s = s' (the girls' team); its = possessive, it's = it is.
- Dashes can set off an aside in a pair, like commas.
Subject–verb agreement
The verb matches the subject, not the words in between. The list of items is long. With neither…nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject. "The number of" is singular; "a number of" is plural.
Pronouns
- Use subject pronouns (I, he, she) for subjects; object pronouns (me, him, her) after prepositions: between you and me.
- A pronoun must agree with what it refers to (singular/plural). Collective nouns like committee are usually singular: the committee announced its decision.
Verb tense and modifiers
- Keep tenses consistent; use past perfect (had left) for an action before another past action.
- Avoid dangling modifiers: the thing described must follow the opening phrase. Walking home, I got caught in the rain (not "the rain").
Strategy
- Test each choice against one rule at a time.
- Read the whole sentence — the error often sits outside the underlined part's neighbours.
- When choices differ only in punctuation, decide what's being joined.
Common mistakes
- Comma splices.
- it's/its and their/there/they're mix-ups.
- Agreement errors caused by words between subject and verb.
Learn these rules once and they pay off on every test.