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SAT Digital Reading and Writing Test quick start guide: Difference between revisions
SAT Digital Reading and Writing Test quick start guide (view source)
Revision as of 21:08, 25 November 2024
, 25 November 2024→Transition Word quick start guide
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> to do | > to do | ||
== Other "Parts of Speech" quick start guide == | |||
"Parts of Speech" refers to general categories of words, principally adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, nouns, prepositions, verbs, etc. | |||
Here for important parts of speech uses on the SAT that are not covered above (see Verbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions) | |||
=== Adjectives === | |||
* Adjectives modify nouns | |||
* Adjectives are not separated from nouns by punctuation | |||
** thus the other parts of speech that act like adjectives do not | |||
*** these include articles, attributive nouns, participles (verbs acting like an adjective) and prepositions | |||
*** exceptions are introductory prepositional phrases ("Last Tuesday, I went to the gym" | |||
**** which is the same as "I went to the gym last Tuesday" | |||
***** (thus no comma when the prepositional phrase is next to the sentence part it modifies (here "went") | |||
* adjectives may only be separated from a noun they modify if they are part of a list | |||
** = "coordinate adjectives" = both adjectives act equally and separately upon the noun | |||
*** ''the big, nasty spitball'' | |||
**** = a spitball that was both big and nasty | |||
*** as opposed to a ''nasty spitball that was big = big nasty spitball'' | |||
**** these are "cumulative adjectives" | |||
=== Nouns === | |||
==== Appositive nouns, especially titles ==== | |||
* appositive nouns and phrases are nouns that modify or add information to another noun | |||
** ''The road, a mere path, was windy and overgrown'' | |||
*** a mere path = an appositive phrase that adds modifying, or descriptive, information to the noun, "road" | |||
*** note that the appositive noun, "path" is itself modified by the adverb, "merely" | |||
* The SAT will try to fool students into mistaking an appositive (noun acting like an adjective) for a subject of a sentence | |||
** usually with titles of authors, scientists, professors, etc. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|+Appositives and Subjects | |||
!Syntax | |||
!Example | |||
!Notes | |||
|- | |||
|Definite or specific | |||
|''The professor, Steve Jones, published his book'' | |||
|Indicates that "the professor" who happens to be Steve Jones, published his book | |||
|- | |||
|Definite or specific | |||
|''The professor Steve Jones published his book'' | |||
|Indicates that Steve Jones is the professor who published his book | |||
|- | |||
|Attributive (noun as adjective) | |||
|''Professor Steve Jones published his book'' | |||
|Without an article (a / the) the title "Professor" becomes an adjective (attributive noun) | |||
|- | |||
|Indefinite or non-specific | |||
|''A professor, Steve Jones, published his book'' | |||
|The indefinite article, "a", requires that "Steve Jones" is a parenthetical appositive phrase, as the subject indicates that "a professor" published his book, and it happens to be Steve Jones. | |||
|} | |||
=== Possessive nouns === | |||
* see below under Apostrophe for details | |||
* in general, remember that possessive nouns are modifiers that act like adjectives, i.e. | |||
** they modify a noun and not another part of speech (verb, preposition, etc.) | |||
** they are not separated from the noun they modify by punctuation | |||
** they are singular | |||
== Punctuation quick start guide == | == Punctuation quick start guide == | ||