Grammar Pitfalls
- Using an incompatible subject and verb: Jacob's talent in English and Science prove he is a scholar.
- Shifting verb tenses: She gives me a birthday present and sang.
- Using an incorrect verb form: After we ate the cake she blowed out the candles.
- Disregarding parallel structure: People sometimes think that movie stars are spoiled, earn too much money, and egotistical.
- Using the wrong relative pronoun: The police officer issued a ticket to the man which went through the red light.
- Using a mismatched pronoun and antecedent: The high costs of utilities forced the restaurant to reduce their hours.
- Making an ambiguous pronoun reference: The friendship between John and Mark fell apart after he moved to Europe.
- Making a faulty comparison: Jorge's score on the SAT was higher than Peter.
- Connecting sentences with commas: The movie Saturday evening was fantastic, we went out to eat afterward and discussed it.
- Using unrelated sentence parts: President Nixon resigned because of Watergate, and who did this in 1974.
- 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.
- Misplacing modifiers: That car in the parking lot which was speeding earlier was dented.
- Dangling participles/misplaced modifiers: Running down the street, the broken windows in the houses were not noticed by Jake.
- Writing an incomplete sentence: Jerry Muldoon, a character in the novel and the one who saved Lucy from falling into the cliff.
- Shifting pronoun person: If one studies hard in high school, you should be admitted to a college.
- Choosing the wrong pronoun: Between you and I, I don't think she likes me.
- 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.
- Wordiness: Due to the fact the store is scheduled for remodeling, it will close early on Thursday.
- Using faulty idiom: Listening at the radio kept Miriam from falling asleep while driving to work.
- Misusing adjectives and adverbs: He spoke sharp to his daughter for coming home so late.
- Mixed sentence construction: Jean's ambition is to be a neurosurgeon and intends to go to acting school.
- Shifting noun and pronoun numbers: Teaching students grammar helps them become a good writer.
- Using awkward language: Although being informative, the film ignored basic facts about the Puritans.
- 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)
