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Grammar Pitfalls


  1. Using an incompatible subject and verb: Jacob's talent in English and Science prove he is a scholar.
  2. Shifting verb tenses: She gives me a birthday present and sang.
  3. Using an incorrect verb form: After we ate the cake she blowed out the candles.
  4. Disregarding parallel structure: People sometimes think that movie stars are spoiled, earn too much money, and egotistical.
  5. Using the wrong relative pronoun: The police officer issued a ticket to the man which went through the red light.
  6. Using a mismatched pronoun and antecedent: The high costs of utilities forced the restaurant to reduce their hours.
  7. Making an ambiguous pronoun reference: The friendship between John and Mark fell apart after he moved to Europe.
  8. Making a faulty comparison: Jorge's score on the SAT was higher than Peter.
  9. Connecting sentences with commas: The movie Saturday evening was fantastic, we went out to eat afterward and discussed it.
  10. Using unrelated sentence parts: President Nixon resigned because of Watergate, and who did this in 1974.
  11. Misusing colons, semicolons, and commas: a. The interior designer brought his materials; a portfolio of projects, paint samples, and a design sketch. b. I wrote a short story; which was published in a literary magazine. c. Opal lost all her money gambling and as a result she began living in a box on Broward Boulevard.
  12. Misplacing modifiers: That car in the parking lot which was speeding earlier was dented.
  13. Dangling participles/misplaced modifiers: Running down the street, the broken windows in the houses were not noticed by Jake.
  14. Writing an incomplete sentence: Jerry Muldoon, a character in the novel and the one who saved Lucy from falling into the cliff.
  15. Shifting pronoun person: If one studies hard in high school, you should be admitted to a college.
  16. Choosing the wrong pronoun: Between you and I, I don't think she likes me.
  17. Misusing coordinate and/or subordinate clauses: During rush hour traffic, a truck of oranges turned over on the highway, but it caused a traffic jam.
  18. Wordiness: Due to the fact the store is scheduled for remodeling, it will close early on Thursday.
  19. Using faulty idiom: Listening at the radio kept Miriam from falling asleep while driving to work.
  20. Misusing adjectives and adverbs: He spoke sharp to his daughter for coming home so late.
  21. Mixed sentence construction: Jean's ambition is to be a neurosurgeon and intends to go to acting school.
  22. Shifting noun and pronoun numbers: Teaching students grammar helps them become a good writer.
  23. Using awkward language: Although being informative, the film ignored basic facts about the Puritans.
  24. Shifting from active to passive sentence construction: Joey wants to attend the expensive college, but the tuition is unable to be afforded by his family.
 (Excerpted and adapted from Barron's SAT and SAT Grammar Workbook)

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