Subject-verb agreement sounds like the simplest rule in English: singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs. "The dog barks" and "the dogs bark" are distinctions that any English speaker can make without thinking. So why does the ACT devote 5 to 7 questions per test to it? Because the test is not checking whether you know the rule. It is checking whether you can still apply the rule when the sentence is engineered to confuse you. The ACT buries subjects under layers of prepositional phrases, dangles distracting nouns right next to the verb, and uses tricky pronouns and inverted structures that make you second-guess yourself. Every one of these tricks follows a predictable pattern, and once you learn those patterns, agreement questions become some of the fastest, most reliable points on the test.
Subject-verb agreement sounds like the simplest rule in English: singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs. "The dog barks" and "the dogs bark" are distinctions that any English speaker can make without thinking. So why does the ACT devote 5 to 7 questions per test to it? Because the test is not checking whether you know the rule. It is checking whether you can still apply the rule when the sentence is engineered to confuse you. The ACT buries subjects under layers of prepositional phrases, dangles distracting nouns right next to the verb, and uses tricky pronouns and inverted structures that make you second-guess yourself. Every one of these tricks follows a predictable pattern, and once you learn those patterns, agreement questions become some of the fastest, most reliable points on the test.
The first thing to understand is a quirk of English that trips up many students: verbs behave in the opposite way from nouns when it comes to the letter "s." With nouns, adding "s" makes them plural: one dog, two dogs. But with present-tense verbs, adding "s" makes them singular. "The student writes" is singular; "the students write" is plural. This counterintuitive pattern is responsible for more errors than you might expect, and the ACT exploits it by placing verbs in positions where the -s ending creates confusion about number.
Here is how the main verb forms break down. In the present tense, singular verbs end in -s or -es ("the scientist researches"), while plural verbs use the base form without -s ("the scientists research"). With helping verbs, singular uses "has," "does," or "is," while plural uses "have," "do," or "are." Most past-tense verbs do not change between singular and plural. The one critical exception is the verb "to be," which splits into "was" (singular) and "were" (plural). Because "to be" is the most irregular verb in English, it is also the most frequently tested on the ACT. Know these pairs cold: is/are, was/were, has been/have been.
You can identify agreement questions almost instantly by scanning the answer choices before reading the sentence. If the choices toggle between forms like is/are, was/were, or has/have, you are looking at an agreement question. Once you spot this pattern, your entire job reduces to one task: find the true subject and determine whether it is singular or plural. Everything else — the distracting phrases, the complex structure, the distance between subject and verb — is just noise.
Most singular and plural subjects are straightforward, but the ACT specifically targets the cases where intuition breaks down.
Words that look plural but are singular. Certain words end in "-s" but refer to a single concept: mathematics, economics, physics, statistics (the field), politics (the topic), linguistics, measles, mumps, the news, the United States. "Mathematics is challenging" is correct because it names one field, not many items. When you see one of these on the ACT, treat it as singular despite the -s ending.
Words that look singular but are plural. Some words carry no -s but are always plural: people, children, police, criteria (plural of criterion), data (formally plural of datum), phenomena (plural of phenomenon). "The criteria are established by the board" is correct.
Collective nouns. Words like team, committee, jury, audience, family, staff, government, and class name groups. In American English, which the ACT exclusively uses, collective nouns are singular when the group acts as one unit: "The team is celebrating its victory." "The committee has reached a decision." British English often uses plural verbs with these words, but that will always be wrong on the ACT. When in doubt, go singular.
Compound subjects with "and" are almost always plural: "Tom and Jerry are friends." The rare exception is when two nouns describe one thing: "Peanut butter and jelly is a classic combination." Compound subjects with "or" or "nor" follow the proximity rule — the verb agrees with whichever subject is closer to it: "Either the coach or the players are responsible" (players is closer) versus "Either the players or the coach is responsible" (coach is closer). This proximity rule is heavily tested.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo popularized a revolutionary urban planning concept: the 15-minute city, where residents can access all essential services within a quarter-hour walk or bike ride from home. This idea, reshaping how planners think about urban density and mixed-use development, promises to reduce car dependency while improving quality of life. Cities from Melbourne to Milan has embraced variations of this model, reimagining neighborhoods as self-contained ecosystems.
The concept requires fundamental changes to traditional zoning laws. Where as conventional planning segregates residential, commercial, and office spaces, the 15-minute city integrates them. A typical neighborhood might feature ground-floor shops beneath apartments, with offices, schools, and medical clinics all within walking distance. Barcelona's "superblocks"—nine-block areas that restrict through traffic—demonstrate how reclaiming street space for pedestrians can transform urban living.
Critics argue that the 15-minute city could exacerbate inequality. Without careful planning, desirable walkable neighborhoods may become exclusive enclaves for the wealthy, pushing lower-income residents to car-dependent peripheries. Additionally, some worry that localizing services might limit economic opportunities and social connections. Proponents counter, these concerns by emphasizing inclusive planning policies: affordable housing requirements, diverse business incentives, and robust public transit connecting different neighborhoods.
Pronouns are the workhorses of English — they step in for nouns so we do not have to repeat full names in every sentence. But every time a pronoun appears, it must connect back to the correct noun, and that connection must be airtight. The ACT tests whether you can spot when that connection breaks. You will see 4 to 6 pronoun questions per test, and they fall into five predictable categories: case (I vs. me), number agreement (everyone...their), clarity (ambiguous references), who/whom, and consistency (shifting from "you" to "one" mid-paragraph). Each category has a reliable test you can apply in seconds.
Case means using the correct pronoun form based on its job in the sentence.
Subjective case (performs the action): I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who "She runs fast." "They built the bridge." "Who called?"
Objective case (receives the action or follows a preposition): me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom "Give it to him." "The teacher called her." "Between you and me."
Possessive case (shows ownership): my/mine, your/yours, his, her/hers, its, our/ours, their/theirs, whose "That is their car." "The dog wagged its tail."
The deletion test is your most powerful tool for compound constructions (a pronoun paired with another noun). Remove the other person and read what remains — your ear will immediately tell you the answer.
"John and (I/me) went to the store." Delete "John and": "I went to the store" sounds right. Answer: I. "The teacher gave the award to Sarah and (I/me)." Delete "Sarah and": "The teacher gave the award to me" sounds right. Answer: me.
The preposition rule: After any preposition (between, with, for, to, from, at, by, about, among), always use the objective case. "Between you and me" — never "between you and I." No exceptions.
The "myself" trap: Many people use "myself" when unsure whether to say "I" or "me," thinking it sounds more formal. On the ACT, this is almost always wrong. Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself) should only appear when the subject and object are the same person: "I taught myself to play guitar." Incorrect: "Please contact John or myself" — should be "John or me."
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress and declared that the United States would land a man on the Moon before the decade's end. At the time, NASA had managed only a single fifteen-minute suborbital flight — Alan Shepard's brief arc above the Atlantic aboard Freedom 7. The Soviets, meanwhile, had already put Yuri Gagarin into full orbit around the Earth, a feat that stunned American military and civilian leaders alike.
The engineers who answered Kennedy's challenge faced obstacles that seemed insurmountable. No one knew how to rendezvous two spacecraft in orbit, how to protect astronauts from lethal solar radiation, or how to land a vehicle on the lunar surface and launch it back again. The rivalry between Wernher von Braun and I over rocket design philosophy pushed both teams to innovate faster than either could have alone. Von Braun championed the massive Saturn V, while others favored smaller, modular designs that could be assembled in orbit.
By July 1969, every impossible problem had been solved. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Sea of Tranquility in the lunar module Eagle while Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia. Armstrong's first step onto the gray dust fulfilled Kennedy's challenge with five months to spare — a testament to what a nation can achieve when ambition, funding, and engineering talent converge on a single goal.
Every pronoun must match its antecedent (the noun it replaces) in number. This is the most heavily tested pronoun concept on the ACT. Step one on every pronoun question: find the antecedent. Trace the pronoun back to its noun. Then check the match.
Indefinite pronouns are the ACT's favorite trap. These words are always singular, even though they seem to refer to groups: everyone, everybody, everything, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, each, either, neither, every
WRONG: "Everyone must bring their book." RIGHT: "Everyone must bring his or her book."
Always plural: both, few, many, several. "Both of the candidates are qualified."
SANAM pronouns (some, any, none, all, most) can be singular or plural — check the noun after "of." "Most of the cake has lost its flavor" (singular). "Most of the students brought their textbooks" (plural).
Collective nouns (team, committee, jury, audience) are singular on the ACT when the group acts as one unit: "The team celebrated its victory."
Compound antecedents: Nouns joined by "and" are plural ("Tom and Sarah packed their bags"). Nouns joined by "or/nor" follow the proximity rule — the pronoun matches the nearer noun: "Neither the coach nor the players could contain their excitement."
Quick challenge — which sounds right?
A) Running through the park, Sarah's phone buzzed with notifications. B) Sarah's phone buzzed with notifications running through the park. C) Running through the park, Sarah heard her phone buzz with notifications.
If you picked C, you are already ahead of 65 percent of test takers. But here is the twist: even students who ace every other grammar rule lose 3 to 5 points on modifier questions. Why? Because modifiers are the shapeshifters of English grammar — they seem perfectly fine until you realize they have attached to the wrong word. Think about someone texting "Covered in cheese, I ate the entire pizza." Did they take a cheese bath? That is a modifier error in the wild. These sneaky mistakes appear on 5 to 8 ACT questions per test, and once you learn the three patterns behind them, they become some of the easiest points to earn.
A modifier is any word, phrase, or clause that describes, limits, or qualifies another element in a sentence. Modifiers answer questions like which one, what kind, how, when, where, and why. Without them, sentences are bare and lifeless. With them placed correctly, writing becomes vivid and precise. With them placed incorrectly, writing becomes confusing or unintentionally hilarious.
Think of modifiers as accessories for your sentence's core elements. The core of any sentence is its subject and verb: "The musician performed." Modifiers dress that core up: "The talented jazz musician performed brilliantly at the downtown festival last Saturday." Every word beyond "musician performed" is a modifier adding detail.
Single-word modifiers are the simplest and rarely cause ACT problems. Adjectives modify nouns (the talented musician), and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (she sang beautifully).
Phrase modifiers are where most ACT errors occur. A phrase modifier is a group of words without its own subject-verb pair that acts as a descriptor: - Participial phrases use verb forms as adjectives: Running late, John hailed a taxi. - Prepositional phrases show relationships: The book on the shelf is mine. - Infinitive phrases use "to + verb": To succeed, you must practice daily. - Appositive phrases rename a nearby noun: My sister, a talented chef, opened a restaurant.
Clause modifiers have their own subject and verb but still modify something in the main clause: - Relative clauses: The student who studied hardest aced the test. - Adverbial clauses: When the rain stopped, we went outside.
The golden rule: a modifier must be placed as close as possible to the word it modifies. Distance creates confusion. Every modifier error on the ACT violates this rule in one of three ways: dangling, misplaced, or squinting.
A dangling modifier is a descriptive phrase whose intended subject is completely missing from the sentence. The modifier "dangles" because it has nothing logical to attach to. The key difference: a misplaced modifier has the right word in the sentence but in the wrong spot. A dangling modifier's intended word is not in the sentence at all.
Dangling modifiers almost always appear at the beginning of a sentence, set off by a comma. The pattern is:
[Modifier phrase], [wrong subject or no logical subject]
The critical test: ask yourself, "Who or what is performing the action in the opening phrase?" Then check whether that person or thing appears immediately after the comma. If it does not, the modifier dangles.
Pattern 1 — Participial phrases (most common on ACT): WRONG: Walking down the street, the trees were beautiful. — Who was walking? Not the trees. RIGHT: Walking down the street, I noticed the beautiful trees.
WRONG: Having studied all night, the exam seemed surprisingly easy. — The exam did not study. RIGHT: Having studied all night, Maria found the exam surprisingly easy.
Pattern 2 — Infinitive phrases: WRONG: To succeed in college, good study habits are essential. — Study habits cannot succeed. RIGHT: To succeed in college, students need good study habits.
Pattern 3 — Prepositional phrases: WRONG: At the age of six, my family moved to Texas. — The family was not six years old. RIGHT: At the age of six, I moved to Texas with my family.
The possessive trap is one of the sneakiest variants. A possessive noun is not the same as the noun itself: WRONG: Rushing to class, Sarah's books fell out of her bag. — "Sarah's books" is the subject, but the books were not rushing. "Sarah's" is functioning as an adjective. RIGHT: Rushing to class, Sarah dropped her books. — Now Sarah herself is the subject.
Two ways to fix any dangling modifier: Method 1: Change the main clause so the correct subject appears right after the comma. Running through the rain, we finally reached the car. Method 2: Rewrite the modifier as a full clause with its own subject. As we ran through the rain, we finally reached the car.
Comparison questions on the ACT are testing something deceptively simple: when you compare two things, do you actually compare the same kind of thing on both sides? "My GPA is higher than Sarah" compares a number to a person — that is logically absurd, even though most people would not blink at it in conversation. The correct version is "My GPA is higher than Sarah's," where the possessive implies "Sarah's GPA," keeping both sides in the same category.
The ACT puts these errors into passages about science, history, and social studies where the formal language and complex sentence structure make them harder to spot. You will see 2 to 3 of these per test, and once you learn the patterns, they become some of the most predictable points available. Every comparison question falls into one of six categories: like-to-like errors (comparing things from different categories), incomplete comparisons (missing the second item or the basis), faulty parallel structure (mismatched grammatical forms), wrong degree (comparative vs. superlative), double comparisons (redundant markers like "more better"), and self-inclusion errors (comparing something to a group it belongs to without the word "other"). Each category has a clean, reliable fix that you can apply in seconds.
The golden rule of comparisons is that you must compare equivalent things — people to people, things to things, actions to actions, concepts to concepts. This sounds obvious, but the ACT disguises these errors inside complex sentences where the mismatch is easy to miss. The key is to strip away the extra words and ask: what two things are actually being placed side by side?
Error Type 1 — Possession confusion. This is the single most common like-to-like error on the ACT. It happens when a sentence compares someone's attribute (salary, score, work, opinion) to the person themselves rather than to the other person's equivalent attribute. WRONG: Jake's salary is higher than his colleague. — Compares a salary (thing) to a colleague (person). A salary cannot be higher than a human being. RIGHT: Jake's salary is higher than his colleague's. — The possessive colleague's implies "colleague's salary," making the comparison logical.
WRONG: Ann Patchett's books sold more copies than Elizabeth Gilbert. RIGHT: Ann Patchett's books sold more copies than Elizabeth Gilbert's.
WRONG: Anya's cooking is just as good as Nia. RIGHT: Anya's cooking is just as good as Nia's.
Error Type 2 — Action vs. object mismatch. This compares an activity to a static noun, creating a category clash. WRONG: Running is healthier than a sedentary lifestyle. — An activity vs. a thing. RIGHT: Running is healthier than living a sedentary lifestyle. (activity to activity) Also right: A running routine is healthier than a sedentary lifestyle. (thing to thing)
Error Type 3 — Category mismatch with missing words. The sentence compares items from fundamentally different groups because a key word was accidentally omitted. WRONG: The test scores of students were better than last year. — Compares scores to a time period. RIGHT: The test scores of students were better than those of last year. — "Those" stands in for "the test scores."
WRONG: Massachusetts students scored better than New Jersey. — Students vs. a state. RIGHT: Massachusetts students scored better than those of New Jersey.
WRONG: The interest at a loan company is higher than a bank. — Interest rate vs. institution. RIGHT: The interest at a loan company is higher than that at a bank. — Interest vs. interest.
The "that of" and "those of" fix is your most powerful tool for repairing like-to-like errors without repeating the full noun. Use "that of" when replacing a singular noun and "those of" when replacing a plural noun: "The population of China is larger than that of India." ("that" = "the population") "The novels of Dickens are longer than those of Hemingway." ("those" = "the novels")
Quick check: Find the comparison word (than, as, like). Name the two items on either side. Ask: are they in the same category? If not, add the missing word, use a possessive, or insert that/those of.
Every comparison needs three things: two clearly identified items, a comparison word (than, as...as, like, unlike, similar to, different from), and a clear basis — what quality or trait is being measured. If any of these elements is missing, the comparison is incomplete and therefore flawed.
Missing second item — the most straightforward type. The sentence uses a comparative word but never finishes the thought. Incomplete: "This method is more efficient." — More efficient than what? Than the old method? Than doing nothing? The reader has no way to know. Complete: "This method is more efficient than the traditional approach."
Incomplete: "Students today study harder." — Harder than whom? Than students ten years ago? Than their teachers? Complete: "Students today study harder than previous generations did."
Incomplete comparisons sound perfectly natural in casual speech — we say "this way is better" all the time without specifying "better than what." The ACT exploits this gap between spoken and formal written English.
Ambiguous reference — grammatically complete but logically unclear because two readings are possible. Unclear: "I like pizza more than John." Reading 1: "I like pizza more than John does." (comparing our levels of liking pizza) Reading 2: "I like pizza more than I like John." (comparing my feelings toward pizza vs. John) The ACT always prefers the version that eliminates ambiguity entirely.
Another example: "We have known Chen a great deal longer than Anzu." Clear A: "...longer than we have known Anzu." Clear B: "...longer than Anzu has."
Missing basis — both items are present but the sentence never specifies what quality is being compared. Vague: "Crickets are better than cattle." — Better in what way? Taste? Environmental impact? Nutritional value? Specific: "Crickets are more efficient at converting feed to protein than cattle are."
The "as...as" construction requires both instances of "as." Dropping the first is a common error, especially in compound comparisons. WRONG: "UWF is as large or larger than UNF." — "As large" is incomplete without its second "as." RIGHT: "UWF is as large as or larger than UNF." Also right: "UWF is as large as UNF, if not larger."
Context can sometimes complete a comparison on its own: "Of all the options, this is the most efficient" is complete because "of all the options" establishes the group. However, on the ACT, if context does not make the second item unmistakably clear, the comparison is considered incomplete.
The difference between adjectives and adverbs is one of those grammar topics that sounds basic until the ACT puts it in front of you. In casual speech, almost everyone says "I did good on the test" without a second thought. On the ACT, that sentence is wrong — "good" is an adjective that modifies nouns, but here it is trying to modify the verb "did," which requires the adverb "well." The correct version is "I did well on the test." These modifier questions show up 3 to 4 times per test, and they follow a single core principle: identify what word is being modified, then choose the correct modifier type. If the modified word is a noun, use an adjective. If it is a verb, adjective, or another adverb, use an adverb. That one rule, plus a handful of exceptions and traps, covers every question in this category.
Adjectives describe, limit, or qualify nouns and pronouns. They answer which one? (the tall building), what kind? (a brilliant scientist), and how many? (three attempts). They usually appear directly before the noun they modify (the careful driver) or after a linking verb (the driver is careful).
Adverbs modify everything else — verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They answer how? (speak clearly), when? (arrive early), where? (search everywhere), and to what extent? (extremely difficult). Adverbs are more flexible in position than adjectives — they can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence and still make sense.
The -ly signal is the most common adverb marker: quick becomes quickly, careful becomes carefully, beautiful becomes beautifully. But there are important exceptions. Some words ending in -ly are actually adjectives: friendly, lovely, ugly, elderly, costly, cowardly, deadly, lonely. You cannot say "She spoke friendlily" — that is not a real word. Instead, you would say "She spoke in a friendly manner."
The one question that solves everything: When you see a modifier question on the ACT, ask yourself, "What word is this modifier describing?" If the answer is a noun or pronoun, use an adjective. If the answer is a verb, adjective, or another adverb, use an adverb. This single question correctly answers the vast majority of these problems.
If there is one concept in this chapter you must master, it is the linking verb rule. This is the single most common way the ACT tests adjective vs. adverb knowledge, and it trips up students who otherwise know their grammar.
A linking verb does not describe an action. Instead, it connects the subject to a word that describes or renames the subject. Think of a linking verb as an equals sign: "She IS tired" means "She = tired." The word after the linking verb describes the subject (a noun), so it must be an adjective, not an adverb.
Core linking verbs: forms of to be (am, is, are, was, were); sense verbs (look, feel, smell, taste, sound); state-of-being verbs (seem, appear, become, remain, stay, grow, turn, prove).
The tricky part is that sense verbs can be either linking or action verbs depending on context. When they describe a quality of the subject, they are linking and take adjectives. When they describe an action the subject performs, they are action verbs and take adverbs.
"The soup tastes delicious." — Linking verb. The adjective describes the soup. "The chef tastes the soup carefully." — Action verb. The adverb describes how the chef tastes.
"She looks beautiful." — Linking verb. The adjective describes her. "She looks carefully at the painting." — Action verb. The adverb describes how she looks.
The replacement test: Replace the verb with a form of "to be" (is, was). If the sentence still makes sense with essentially the same meaning, you have a linking verb and need an adjective. "The soup is delicious" — works, so "delicious" (adjective) is correct. "The chef is the soup carefully" — nonsense, so "carefully" (adverb) is correct. This test works every single time.
Common ACT errors: WRONG: The flowers smell sweetly. RIGHT: The flowers smell sweet. WRONG: The music sounds beautifully. RIGHT: The music sounds beautiful. WRONG: He remained calmly during the crisis. RIGHT: He remained calm during the crisis.