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Possessive Pronouns

Pronouns are nifty little tools for consolidating your writing. Instead of repeating a noun over and over within the same sentence, you can simply replace it with a pronoun. The meaning stays clear and the message is concise. Compare the following sentences: Read more

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The word “that” is one of the most flexible words that the GMAT tests. It can take several roles and could easily be misused. More commonly, it serves as a red herring that forces readers to stop and think about the wrong things. That said, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of how “that” can be used and why. Read more

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In short; passive voice is acceptable on the GMAT.

If only it were that easy. Read more

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If you’ve been following these posts, you already have one kind of  noun modifier safely stashed away – opening modifiers. Let’s expand your repertoire using the same sentence: Read more

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Modifiers can seem overwhelming. They have lots of rules, impact meaning, and come in different kinds, each of which is restrictive in different ways. So why not throw modifiers out the window? They are the grammatical spice of life! Consider this simple sentence:

The dog ran down the street.

Basic. Boring. Factual, but unimportant. Now compare it this sentence: Read more

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Participles. Just the word is enough to inspire dread in the heart of most GMAT Test Takers. Let’s break down what they are and why you should care. Read more

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Have you been following our grammar tips series? We’ve already talked about opening modifiers and noun modifiers. We’re almost done with this much-feared topic. If you’re still having problems, it’s probably with adverbial modifiers.

These can be the most overwhelming, so let’s break them down now. Back to our favorite modifier-riddled sentence:

Barking ferociously, the dog, which was known to be vicious, ran down the street, chasing the boy who had been poking at it just moments before.

An adverbial modifier is something that describes almost anything in the world that is not a noun. There’s actually a one-word adverbial modifier in our ferocious dog sentence (or, put far more simply, an adverb). Go back and see if you can find it. Read more

Join us every other week for a commonly-tested grammar factoid that will improve both your accuracy and your confidence on GMAT Sentence Correction. 📖📝 Read more

Welcome to the final installment in a series of three articles about meaning and sentence structure in sentence correction. Our first one tested meaning and also covered issues related to having to break the sentence into chunks. In the second, we talked about how to use that chunk idea to strip the sentence down to the core structure vs. the modifiers.

Today, I’ve got a third GMATPrep® problem for you following some of these same themes (I’m not going to tell you which ones till after you’ve tried the problem!).

* “Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

“(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their

“(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

“(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in

“(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their

“(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in”

The first glance doesn’t indicate a lot this time. The answers change from small cars to more (fuel-efficient small cars), which isn’t much of a clue. Go ahead and read the original sentence.

What did you think? When I first read it, I shrugged and thought, “That sounds okay.” If you can’t come up with something to tackle from the first glance or the first read-through, then compare answers (A) and (B), looking for differences.

Hmm. I see—do we need to say that are more fuel-efficient? Maybe. Answer (C) uses that same structure. Oh, hey, answer (C) tosses in the word other! I know what they’re doing!

If you’ve seen the word other tested within a comparison before, you may know, too. If not, get ready to make a note. Take a look at these two sentences:

Read more