JC Identify Sentence Errors #1
1. SVA / Subject Verb Agreement: A singular subject demands a singular verb; a plural subject demands a
plural verb. That is the simple principle behind subject-verb agreement. In sum, match the subject and
verb number.
a. SVA Review 1 / SVA Review 2
b. SVA Quiz
2. Pronoun Usage/Agreement: A pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the text (its antecedent)
and must agree in number — singular/plural — with the thing to which it refers.
a. PN Review
b. PN Usage Quiz
3. Parallel Construction: Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or
more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level.
The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions (see below) such
as "and" or "or."
a. PC Review
b. PC Quiz
4. Principle vs. Principal: An easily confused homophone. Know the difference and never make the
mistake again. Remember this: “My pal is the principal.”
a. P vs. P Review
5. Redundancy: Consider the follow quote from grammar guru William Strunk: “Vigorous writing is
concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for
the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his
subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
a. Redundancy Review
b. Writing Concise Sentences Exercise / Eliminating Wordiness Exercise / Rewriting Bloated
Sentences Exercise
6. Usage Error: Since the Romans and Englishmen didn’t share a single king, the noun needs to be plural
to clarify the meaning.
7. SVA / Subject Verb Agreement: See #1 above …
8. Adverb: As we will see, adverbs often tell when, where, why, or under what conditions something
happens or happened. Adverbs frequently end in -ly; however, many words and phrases not ending in ly serve an adverbial function and an -ly ending is not a guarantee that a word is an adverb. The words
lovely, lonely, motherly, friendly, neighborly, for instance, are adjectives.
a. Adverb Review
b. Adverb Quiz
9. Dangling Modifier: When we begin a sentence with a modifying word, phrase, or clause, we must make
sure the next thing that comes along can, in fact, be modified by that modifier. When a modifier
improperly modifies something, it is called a "dangling modifier." This often happens with beginning
participial phrases, making "dangling participles" an all too common phenomenon. In the sentence
below, we can't have a car changing its own oil. Basic Principle: Modifiers are like teenagers: they fall in
love with whatever they're next to. Make sure they're next to something they ought to modify!
a. Modifier Review 1 / Modifier Review 2
b. Modifier Quiz
10. Conjunctions: A conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects (conjoins) parts of a sentence.
a. Conjunctions Overview / Coordinating Conjunctions Review
JC Identify Sentence Errors #2
1. Amount vs. Number: Since individual senators can be counted, the correct wording would be “actual
number” vs. “actual amount”
2. Counts Nouns vs. Mass Nouns or Non-Count Nouns: When deciding between less vs. fewer, remember
that individual items that can be counted, such as calories, dollars, or nobles, require the adverb fewer.
a. Count vs. Non-Count Nouns
b. Identifying Count vs. Non-Counts Nouns Quiz
3. Double Negatives: Recent attempts to demonstrate that double negatives have a respected place in
our language's history and to show how double negatives function in other languages and in English
dialects to emphasize the negative are not enough to redeem this Bad Boy of Standard English. A
double negative results when one uses more than one negative word or construction to express a
single negative thought. The parallel with algebra—however faulty it may be in terms of linguistic
theory—has a powerful hold on the popular attitude toward double negatives. Two negatives, people
say, make a positive. That surely isn't always true: there is no way that the line of the popular song
"Can't get no satisfaction" can be read as a positive. Still, using a double negative in formal prose is a
definite no-no (!) and will lead only to confusion for most readers, who will try to reconfigure the
double negative into something algebraically positive. Remember, too, that words such as hardly,
barely, and scarcely are negative in effect, as is n't, the contraction of not.
a. Double Negative Review
b. Double Negative Quiz
4. SVA / Subject Verb Agreement: A singular subject demands a singular verb; a plural subject demands a
plural verb. That is the simple principle behind subject-verb agreement. In sum, match the subject and
verb number.
b. SVA Review 1 / SVA Review 2
c. SVA Quiz
5. Lie vs. Lay: There are two problems here. One is that lie and lay mean more or less the same thing; it's
just that lie is intransitive and lay is transitive. In addition, the past tense of lie is identical to the
present tense lay. Just remember that in the present, you lie down/on/in, but you lay something. Once
you've got that straight in your head, you just need to work on the past tenses and you'll be all set - no
lie!
a. Lie vs. Lay Review / Lie vs. Lay Review
b. Lie vs. Lay Quiz and (Sit, Set)
6. Parallel Construction: Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or
more ideas have the same level of importance. This can happen at the word, phrase, or clause level.
The usual way to join parallel structures is with the use of coordinating conjunctions (see below) such
as "and" or "or."
d. PC Review
e. PC Quiz
7. Agree on vs. Agree with:
8. Pronoun Usage / Pronoun Case:
a. Pronoun Case Review
b. Pronoun Case Quiz 1 / Pronoun Case Quiz 2
9. No Error
10. SVA / Subject Verb Agreement: See #4 above …
JC Identify Sentence Errors #3
1. Pronoun Usage: Be sure to match/use the proper case (subjective or objective) of the pronoun. Finish
off the comparison in this one by adding the “to be” verb to test it out. “… less dependable than he
was” vs. “less dependable than him was”. You can easily hear which the correct one is.
a. PN Review
b. PN Usage Quiz
2. No error: Some people try to make this correction as a verb tense agreement (VTA) issue, but when
discussing plot events in a piece of literature we always stay in the present tense.
3. Pronoun Usage/Agreement & Dangling Modifier: A pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the
text (its antecedent) and must agree in number — singular/plural — with the thing to which it refers.
a. PN Review
b. PN Usage Quiz
c. Modifier Review 1 / Modifier Review 2
d. Modifier Quiz
4. Conjunctions: A conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects (conjoins) parts of a sentence. The
correct one is “but” here, because a contrast is presented.
a. Conjunctions Overview / Coordinating Conjunctions Review
5. SVA / Subject Verb Agreement: A singular subject demands a singular verb; a plural subject demands a
plural verb. That is the simple principle behind subject-verb agreement. In sum, match the subject and
verb number. Everyone is actually singular. That’s what trips people up in this example. Some people
also reason that the semicolon in this example is a reason why you don’t have to match the verb
tenses. Speaking of semicolons, Do a little review on the semi, please. But don’t, I implore you,
overuse it in your writing.
a. SVA Review 1 / SVA Review 2
b. SVA Quiz
c. Semicolon Review / Semicolon Example / Colon Example
d. Punctuation Mark Quiz
6. Conjunctions (when to use neither and nor vs. either and or): See #4 above …
a. Neither/Nor vs. Either/Or Review
7. Who vs. Whom: Use “who” for the subjective case. Use “whom” for the objective case.
a. Pronoun Forms Review
b. Who vs. Whom Quiz #1 & Who vs. Whom Quiz #2
8. Dangling Modifier: See #1 in the first set of errors …
a. Modifier Review 1 / Modifier Review 2
b. Modifier Quiz
9. Verb Tense Agreement (VTA): In this example, Shakespeare lived in the past and is long dead, so the
tense should be shifted to “would have been pleased”.
a. Verb Tense Agreement/Consistency Review
10. Redundancy: Strive to write concisely. See #5 in the first set of errors …
a. Redundancy Review
b. Writing Concise Sentences Exercise / Eliminating Wordiness Exercise / Rewriting Bloated
Sentences Exercise