Sentence Correction Basics
For The GMAT:
A 5-Day Handbook
Day 1
(Please read this Prep Material before attending your
Sentence Correction Classes)
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Introduction
This 5-Day Handbook will help you brush-up your
basic grammar, especially that required to ace the
Sentence Correction section on the GMAT.
This is a required pre-read for our Sentence
Correction course.
Expectations
In this guide, we will discuss concepts as elementary as parts of speech, parts of
sentences, tenses, idioms etc, but they will all be dealt with from a GMAT
perspective.
 You need not memorize numerous grammatical terms and rules to
score 700+ on the GMAT.
These are mentioned here only to help you
understand concepts. You simply need to understand how to apply
grammatical concepts to crack SC problems!
 You need not go through the entire deck in one sitting. This material
has been organized day-wise rather than section-wise on purpose. Every day,
spend time reading and digesting only the pertinent section and nothing
more.
The 7 Concepts Tested On GMAT SC
Here’s the good news – GMAT Sentence Correction tests you on only 7 grammar
concepts, namely:
1. Subject Verb Agreement
2. Pronouns
3. Modifiers
4. Parallelism
5. Tenses
6. Comparison
7. Idioms
Contents of SC Pre-Read
Day 1: Parts of Speech
 Nouns
 Pronouns
 Adjectives
Parts Of Speech
The English language consists of just 8 basic Parts of Speech.
Some words portray the name of a person or place. Some describe actions.
Some join two or more words and others describe the quality of an object.
Let us look at this sentence:
Wow! Sophia and her little sister sang beautifully at the party.
This sentence is composed of all the 8 parts of speech:
Nouns: Sophia, sister, party
Pronoun: her
Adjective: little
Verb: sang
Adverb: beautifully
Preposition: at
Conjunction: and
Interjection: Wow!
#1: Nouns
A noun is a ‘naming word’. It is used to name an object, place, person,
animal, trait or action.
Examples:
 Names of objects and things – book, door, curtain, glass, bag
 Names of places, people or animals – Eva, boy, Indian, house, Sweden,
sister, tiger, sparrow
 Names of actions – sleeping, eating, sailing, watching
 Names of traits/qualities – loyalty, splendor, happiness, courage, coldness
By adding suffixes to words, we can make them nouns.
For example, prosper-prosperity, aspire-aspiration,
exclaim-exclamation etc.
Common noun suffixes are - ness, -ity, -ure, and –ition
Proper Nouns & Common Nouns:
A proper noun refers to the name of a
particular person, place or thing.
An important characteristic of a proper noun
is that it always begins with a capital letter.
Woman
Common
Noun
Examples:
Oprah
Proper
Noun
Australia,
California, Cisco
A common noun refers to a class of person, place or thing.
Examples: mirror, table, woman, village, town, taxi, pencil
Carl,
Taj
Mahal,
Countable & Uncountable Nouns
A countable noun refers to nouns that can be
counted. Therefore, it has both a singular and a plural
form.
Examples:
 Paul kept the book under the table.
 The computers are installed in the
last room.
An uncountable noun refers to nouns that cannot be
counted. Therefore, it has only the singular form.
Examples:
 Susan prefers eating rice at home.
 She attended art and music classes daily.
As we can see, rice, art, music etc are not countable. More examples:
furniture, air, oil, yogurt, news, water, liberty, money, power, cleverness, butter,
electricity and so on.
Countable & Uncountable Nouns
Amusingly, the same noun can sometimes
uncountable, leading to different meanings.
be
countable
and
Examples:
Light (countable): Can you switch off the lights?
Light (uncountable): There’s too much light in the room please close the curtains.
Work (countable): Her most famous works were composed in this very room.
Work (uncountable): Without any work, William felt bored.
Are you clear about countable and uncountable nouns?
Test yourself with this mini exercise drill!
Collective Nouns
A collective noun refers to a group of things, animals, or persons. The individual
elements of the group can be counted, but the group is treated as one single entity.
Examples:
 The army has played a significant role in the war.
 The company is ready to take up new projects.
 The family is going on a long vacation to Paris.
More examples
Association, audience, class, club, college, committee, community, company, crowd,
department, electorate, enemy, family, firm, generation, government, group, jury,
orchestra, population, press, public, school, staff, team, university, and the names of
specific organizations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, the AIR, Oracle, Maruti.
You can check out a huge list of Collective Nouns here!
Possessive Nouns
A possessive noun is used to illustrate that something belongs to somebody or
something. We generally add ('s) to a singular noun and an apostrophe (') to a
plural noun to make it a possessive.
Examples:
 The girl’s dress (one girl)
 The girls’ dresses (two or more girls)
Watch this short interactive presentation to learn more about
Possessive Nouns!
Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are constructed from two or more words. They may be
written as a single word or joined with a hyphen.
Examples:
newspaper, toothpaste, father-in-law,
dry-cleaner, underpass, whiteboard,
paper-clip, check-in, eyeball, moonlight,
rainbow, bodyguard, houseboat, joystick,
well-being, and so on
Try out this mini-drill to see how well you have understood
Compound Nouns!
Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns can be experience with at least one of the five senses. These
nouns can be touched, seen, heard, felt or smelled.
Examples:
 This perfume has a captivating fragrance.
 Learn how to eat with a knife and fork.
 The teacher shouted at the students.
More examples:
sugar, wall, window, plate, rainbow, fire, curtains, computers, employees, cat,
butterfly, noise and so on.
Abstract Nouns
Abstract nouns are conceptual in nature. These nouns cannot be heard, seen,
felt, tasted or smelled. Abstract nouns display philosophies, concepts, and ideas
that are intangible in nature.
Examples:
 Love conquers the world!
 He was awarded for his bravery.
 Her dedication towards her work got her the Best
Employee Award.
More examples:
independence, power, trust, happiness, intelligence,
sympathy, anger, hatred, compassion, beauty, skill,
integrity, misery, beliefs, pain, knowledge, and so on.
Singular & Plural Nouns
On the GMAT, one of the most vital noun-related questions includes the
differences between singular and plural nouns.
 A Singular noun refers to one entity only. For e.g. a pen, a dog, the moon,
a girl, etc.
 Plural nouns refer to more than one entity. For e.g. flowers, dresses,
tables, hands, lamps, etc.
 Usually, plural nouns end in ‘s’ or ‘es’ but this is not a thumb rule. Not all
nouns ending with ‘s’ or ‘es’ are plural nouns
For e.g. Thomas Gates.
Read more about Singular and Plural Nouns here!
#2: Pronouns
A pronoun works as a substitute for a noun. It is used to replace a noun or
another pronoun and thus avoid awkward repetition of words.
Example:
Instead of writing
Sam is my best friend. Sam is an only child.
Sam’s father is a doctor. I like Sam a lot.
We can use pronouns to write:
Sam is my best friend. He is an only child.
His father is a doctor. I like him a lot.
More examples of pronouns: I, my, us, she, we, you, thou, these, those, this, that,
they, it, everyone, each, all, both, such, who, your, his, her, our, their, somebody,
everybody, etc.
Subject & Object Pronouns
1. Subject Pronouns
Subject pronouns refer to those pronouns that are used as a subject.
Examples:
 They will reach the party hall in half an hour.
 She is a teacher.
2. Object Pronouns
Object pronouns refer to those pronouns that are used as an object.
Examples:
 The politician lied to all of us.
 Please return the book to me in two days.
Test your knowledge of Subject and Object Pronouns here and here!
Possessive & Singular Pronouns
3. Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns refer to those pronouns that replace possessive nouns.
For e.g. my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, our, ours, its, their, theirs, whose.
Examples:
 Your dress is very pretty.
 Our team will win this match.
Take a mini-test on
Possessive Pronouns!
4. Singular Pronouns
Singular pronouns are those pronouns that appear to be plural, but are really
not. In fact, only singular verbs are used after these pronouns.
Examples:
 Each of these students was involved in the prank.
 Nobody has submitted the assignment.
A few more examples: any, anybody, everybody, everyone, anything.
Relative Pronouns
5. Relative Pronouns
Relative pronouns refer to those pronouns that connect one phrase or clause to
another phrase or clause. As their name suggests, they relate to the word that
they modify.
Relative
Pronoun
Modifies
Which
Things, Situations
That
Things, Situations
Whose
People
Who
People
Whom
People
Where
Place
When
Time
Relative Pronouns (Contd.)
Examples:
 The judges that passed the sentence…
This sentence is incorrect as “judges” are people and therefore, “that” cannot
modify “judges”.
 The garden where his mother was buried...
This sentence is correct because “where” can modify garden, a place.
“In which” is typically used to describe situations or circumstances.
Example:
 My friend and I had an argument yesterday in which she nearly lost her
temper.
Test yourself on Relative Pronouns!
Indefinite Pronouns
6. Indefinite Pronouns
Indefinite Pronouns refer to those pronouns that do not pertain to any particular
person or place or thing. They replace nouns without specifying which noun they
are replacing.
Examples:
 Each player was given a second chance.
 Many people will attend this seminar.
Examples of Singular Indefinite pronouns : each, every, everyone, anyone,
someone, nobody, etc
Examples of Plural Indefinite pronouns : few, many, others, several, etc
Examples of Indefinite pronouns that can be both Singular and Plural : Most, Any,
None, All, Some (MANAS).
MANAS Indefinite Pronouns
For the MANAS indefinite pronouns, examine the “of” phrase following the pronoun
to determine whether it is singular or plural:
 Most of the boys are unwell.
“Boys” is the word that follows the “of” phrase and therefore, we need the
plural verb “are”.
 Any kind of music goes.
“Music” is singular and therefore, we use the singular verb “goes”.
 All of the money was stolen.
“Money” is singular and requires the verb “was”.
 None of the ships have returned.
“Ships” is plural and therefore, we use “have”.
Interrogative Pronouns
7. Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative pronouns are used to commence or establish interrogative sentences.
For e.g. who, whom, whose, what, and which etc.
Though they are similar to relative pronouns, they are used differently.
Examples:
 What is the capital of Sweden?
 Who was the first President of the
United States?
Intensive Pronouns
8. Intensive Pronouns
Intensive pronouns or emphatic pronouns end with ‘self’ or ‘selves’ and highlight a
noun or another pronoun.
Examples:
 She finished solving the
question
paper
herself.
(‘herself’ emphasizes ‘she’)
 The driver himself carried the
luggage at the counter.
(‘himself’ emphasizes ‘driver’)
Other examples include myself,
yourself, himself, herself, itself,
oneself, ourselves etc.
#3: Adjectives
Adjectives are “describing words” that qualify a noun/noun phrase, and give more
information about it.
Examples:
 He looks handsome in formals.
 Sandra is a short girl.
 It was a pleasure seeing a skilled artist
at work
 The green leaves swayed in the breeze.
Comparative & Superlative Adjectives
1. Comparative adjectives help us compare two things. They usually end with
‘-er’.
Examples:
 Peanuts are cheaper than cashews.
 Pebbles are smaller than rocks.
2. Superlative adjectives illustrate the extreme or
highest degree of a quality of one thing in a group of
three or more things. They typically end with ‘-est’.
Examples:
 Peter is the richest guy in his locality.
 Antarctica is one of the coldest places on earth.
Demonstrative Adjectives
3. Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives are used to demonstrate or indicate specific things. For
e.g. this, that, these, those etc.
Examples:
 Please pass me that book, I need to note down something important.
 If you feed this dog, he will stay by your side always!
Test yourself on
Demonstrative
Adjectives!
Indefinite Adjectives
4. Indefinite Adjective
Indefinite adjectives do not point out specific things.
They are formed from indefinite pronouns such as no, any, many, few,
several etc.
Examples:
 Many offices will be closed on next Friday.
 Very few people will agree to this.
Nouns As Adjectives
When one noun is used to describe another, the former acts as an adjective (a
describing word). For e.g. tennis ball, race horse, dress exhibition, school shoes,
chocolate box, etc.
Examples:
 This love story has a happy ending.
 Please go to the bicycle shop.
What kind of story? A love story.
Which shop? A bicycle shop.
In some cases, you may even come
across multiple nouns acting as adjectives.
Example:
 American airways traffic investigation centre
The nouns ‘American’, ‘airways’, ‘traffic’ and ‘investigation’ are describing the noun
‘centre’.
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