Erica Meltzer ACT Grammar Rules

Singular Possessive: Dogs

(For words that end with s) : Businesss
Plural Possessive: Dogs
Combine word with IS: Dogs (Dog is)

Whos = Who is / Whose = Possessive form of Who

Tom likes to swim, however, he does not like dancing. (This is WRONG)
Tom likes to swim./; However, he does not like dancing.

Treat common + FANBOYS as a Period / Semicolon to determine if common is needed before

FANBOY.

Commas are USUALLY put around non-essential things (words that can be removed but maintain
meaning of passage)/ people that are unique (e.g Mother/Father/Husband/first novel) OR if passage
already mentions the person/thing
Adjectives should never be separated from the nouns they describe by a comma. (e.g celebrated,
architect IM Pei)
Commas can only be used to separate different adjectives if the order of adjectives could be
reversed. (e.g innovative, passionate art can be reversed to passionate, innovative art)
Remove Parenthesis to test sentence
That should not come before/after any commas (e.g The world ,that, is big)

Commas should not be placed between compound subjects/objects which consists of 2 nouns joined
by AND/subjects and verbs (e.g Tom, and Jerry)/(e.g Tom and Jerry, were)
Commas should not be used between 2 adjectives separated by But or Yet (e.g strong, but/yet small)
Commas should not be placed before emphatic pronoun (e.g The pacific oceans is significantly older
than the canal, itself)

Colon can come before complete/incomplete sentence but must follow complete sentence.
Dashes and commas should not be combined.
Dashes = Colons
Any pronoun that comes after a preposition must be an object pronoun.
Whom cannot be used after verbs but must be used after prepositions.
Whose can refer to both people and things.
Preposition + which = where/when (e.g in which=where)