Grammar Pre-Test
Part I - Parts of Speech
Identify each of the underlined words as one of the following:
a. Noun b. pronoun c. adjective d. adverb e. conjunction
____1. Knowing the particulars of English grammar is important to writing.
____2. If a person can write well, he can communicate well.
____3. Communication skills are essential in today’s society, so we must learn
them.
____4. A serious student will pride himself in achieving good writing skills.
____5. Caring English teachers emphasize writing in their curricula.
____6. Equally caring students will work diligently to do their best writing at all
times.
____7. College-bound students know that they will do much writing in the years
to come.
____8. Research papers and essay exams will be the rule rather than the
exception.
____9. It should be understood that professors demand perfection in writing.
____10. Because writing is so important, we simply must spend more time on it.
Part II - Sentence types
Identify each of the sentences as one of the following:
a. simple
b. compound
c. complex
d. compound-complex
____11. Good students with a serious attitude about their education most often succeed
in college.
____12. Some good students fail in college because they have a poor or lackadaisical
attitude.
____13. College is important to professional aspirations, and a profession can lead to
success in life.
____14. Studying leads to good grades; good grades lead to a degree, and a degree
leads to a job.
____15. Because the job market is competitive, education counts, and a degree is a
must.
____16. Therefore, students should begin studying hard in high school.
____17. Good students challenge themselves because not all classes may be
challenging.
____18. Good teachers challenge students, and good students rise to the challenge.
____19. If a teacher does not make the class challenging, the student should consider
her options.
____20. After all, what good is the “seat time” if nothing is being accomplished; school
is for learning.
Part III - Sentences and fragments
Identify each group of words as one of the following:
a. complete sentence b. fragment
____21. Fragments, those pests causing good writers to become mediocre.
____22. Because good essay writing, crucial to college success, contains no fragments.
____23. Well written essays contain only complete sentences.
____24. Depending, of course, on the professor.
____25. But nearly all college professors at the freshman level frown on fragments in
essays.
Part IV - Punctuation
Identify each of the sentences as one of the following:
a. correct b. incorrect
____26. When a sentence is unclear it is probably due to poor punctuation.
____27. Correctly punctuated sentences are clear and they are easy to read.
____28. Fluency in writing is important but, it comes with hard work.
____29. Correct punctuation helps, it puts pauses where they should be.
____30. Learn your grammar; write regularly; apply all rules correctly, and you will
succeed.
Part V - Principal parts of verbs
Identify each set of principal parts as one of the following:
a. correct
b. incorrect
____31. to lie (be reclining)
____32. to lay
laid
____33. to wear
worn
____34. to freeze froze
____35. to break broke
____36. to begin
began
____37. to swim
swam
____38. to drink
drank
____39. to choose choose
____40. to eat
ate
____41. to run
ran
____42. to see
seen
____43. to do
did
____44. to sneak sneaked
____45. to shine (sun) shone
____46. to go
went
____47. to drive
drove
____48. to speak spoke
____49. to come
went
____50. to set
set
lay
lain
laid
worn
froze
broke
begun
swum
drunk
chosen
ate
run
seen
done
sneaked
shone
went
drove
spoken
went
set
Part VI - Pronoun - antecedent agreement
Identify each sentence as one of the following:
a. correct
b. incorrect
____51. If a student wants to learn to write correctly, they should work hard on their
essays.
____52. Everyone should learn to speak and write their native language as well as
possible.
____53. Neither school does well on their SAT exams.
____54. Every school has it’s own priorities, and writing well is a priority at SHS.
____55. All students should attempt to help themselves to learn to write well.
Part VII - Subject - Verb agreement
Identify each sentence as one of the following:
a. correct
b. incorrect
____56. The student with his peers do the editing of the essay in class.
____57. A pair or a group make the editing process work well.
____58. Each of the papers are better after editing.
____59. Every single one of the students have an essay to edit in class.
____60. The entire group are doing a good job on the essays.
Part VIII - Pronoun usage
Identify each sentence as one of the following:
a. correct
b. incorrect
____61. She is editing her essay with him and me.
____62. We and they are editing our essays together.
____63. She found out it was us who graded her essay.
____64. Us English scholars should stick together.
____65. Him and I have finished editing our papers.
____66. I, myself, have finished writing and editing.
____67. Our group will be him, her, and me.
____68. She is the one whom we have chosen to edit the paper.
____69. She is editing with him, her, and myself.
____70. He, she, and I will join their group.