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Which of the following changes makes this sentence correct?
“Attracting thousands of visitors every year, people who go to Disney World love its incomparable theme park experience.”
A. Attracting thousands of visitors every year, Disney World is beloved for its incomparable theme park experience.
B. Attracting thousands of visitors every year, people go to Disney World for its incomparable theme park experience.
C. Disney World attracts thousands of visitors every year, people who go to Disney World love its incomparable theme park experience.
Answer:
A. Attracting thousands of visitors every year, Disney World is beloved for its incomparable theme park experience.
If you recognized that the example sentence has a misplaced modifier, you’re a true grammar aficionado! When you begin a sentence with a present participle of a verb (“attracting,” in this example), you need to make sure that the subject of the sentence is what’s doing the action the verb describes. As is, the sentence implies that the people are attracting thousands of visitors, not Disney World itself.
Which sentence uses quotation marks correctly?
A. He asked me, “Do you believe in ghosts”?
B. I could hear her yelling “This place is awesome!” from all the way across the campground.
C. The lemonade stand on Fifth and Main has the “best” lemonade!
Answer:
B. I could hear her yelling “This place is awesome!” from all the way across the campground.
Quotation marks can be tricky: Which punctuation marks go inside them? When should you put a phrase in them? Question marks and exclamation points go inside quotations only if the text inside them is a question or an exclamation (respectively). For instance, the question mark in Choice A should be inside the quotes, because the section in quotes, “Do you believe in ghosts?” is a question while the full sentence is not. Choice B does this correctly, with the whole exclamation, “This place is awesome!” in the quotes, including the exclamation point. In addition, quotation marks are not used to add additional emphasis to something, as in Choice C.
Which sentence uses a semicolon correctly?
A. We’re going to the beach tomorrow; so you should pack your bathing suit.
B. I’m going to bring chips; Oreos, my favorite type of cookie; and lemonade.
C. The beach, which is called Mayflower; is supposed to be one of the nicest ones on Cape Cod.
Answer:
B. I’m going to bring chips; Oreos, my favorite type of cookie; and lemonade.
The semicolon is the bane of many a writer! A semicolon’s primary function is separating two parts of a sentence that could each grammatically function as its own complete sentence, but having them as one sentence makes things flow better, whether because the sections are so short or because the ideas are closely related. In Choices A and C, “So you should pack your bathing suit” and “Is supposed to be one of the nicest ones on Cape Cod” cannot be complete sentences. The first is a dependent clause, and the second is a verb phrase with no subject, so they should be separated from the rest of their sentences by a comma, not a semicolon.
Choice B presents another important purpose of semicolons, though, and this one uses them correctly. You should use a semicolon, rather than a comma, to separate items in a list if one or more of the items in the list already has a comma in it. In Choice B, “Oreos, my favorite type of cookie” is a single item in a list, but it has a comma in it. So the semicolons should be there to make the separate items in the list more clear; if there were only commas, it would be difficult to distinguish the separate list items.
True or false?
“I.e.” is an abbreviation that means “for example,” and you use it to introduce a list.
Answer:
False! “E.g.,” not “i.e.,” means “for example” (from the Latin exempli gratia), and it’s very easy to mix up the two. As for “i.e.,” this abbreviation actually means id est, or “that is.” You use “i.e.” to explain something another way or clarify something, not to introduce a list. For instance, you could say, “I’ll get back to you soon, i.e., by the end of the day tomorrow.” You’re clarifying what you mean by “soon.” Read on to find out the full difference between “e.g.” and “i.e.” and when to use each.
Which of the following sentences is correct?
A. He carefully laid the painting on the table to inspect it.
B. She lied down in her room to unwind after her workout.
C. They told their dog to go lay down so he wouldn’t bother the guests.
Answer:
A. He carefully laid the painting on the table to inspect it.
“Lay” and “lie” are two of the most easily confused words in English—and we totally understand why. “Lay” means to place something down, and it must have an object. Its past tense form is “laid,” as correctly used in Choice A. “Lie” is the more commonly used one—it doesn’t take an object, and it means to adopt or be in a horizontal position. Choice B is incorrect because “lied” is the past tense of the version of the word that means “to tell a lie,” but the past tense of the “lie down” version is “lay.” Choice C is incorrect because it should be in the present tense, so it should say “lie down,” not “lay down.”
Identify the conjunction in the following sentence:
There are lots of flowers in the park; however, you can see them only at certain times of the year.
A. In
B. However
C. Only
Answer:
B. However
Transition and connecting words like “however,” “because,” and “so” are conjunctions. “In” is a preposition, because it describes a spatial or positional relationship, and “only” is an adverb, because it modifies a prepositional phrase (“at certain times” in this sentence).
Which sentence is correct?
A. There’s a sneak peak of the new movie being released tomorrow!
B. The show is now in its seventh successful year on Broadway.
C. She’s training everyday so that she’ll be ready to run the marathon.
Answer:
B. The show is now in its seventh successful year on Broadway.
No, that “its” doesn’t need an apostrophe, because it’s not a contraction of “it is.” The possessive form of “its” has no apostrophe. As for the other choices, Choice A uses the form of “peak” that describes the top of a mountain; a “peek” means a quick glimpse or look. And Choice C uses “everyday” as one word when, in this sentence, it should be two words, since it means the same thing as “each day.”
So, how did you do ? No matter how well, or not, just remember that English is quite difficult to master. Give yourselves credit for trying !
