Grammar Pretest

To be complete, a sentence must include which three components?

• a subject, an adjective, and a preposition

• a subject, a verb, and a complete thought

• a noun, a verb, and a period at the end

• a verb, a pronoun, and at least four words

Answer explanation

To be complete, a sentence must have a subject (a noun or pronoun to tell who or what the sentence is about), a verb (some kind of action or state of being), and express a complete thought. Without any one of those components, a sentence is a fragment or incomplete sentence. Check first for the subject and verb; without them most sentences will seem like they don’t have a complete thought. But if both are present but the sentence is still vague or confusing or unclear, it may be missing that complete thought.

What component is missing that makes this an incomplete sentence?

“Quietly tiptoeing out of the room.”

• 1. 
     

     a complete thought

• 1. 
     

     a subject

• a predicate

• a verb

Answer explanation

The reader has no way of knowing from this sentence who or what is quietly tiptoeing out of the room. It needs a subject to be identified so that the reader understands and is not left asking the question, “Who’s tiptoeing?”

What component is missing that makes this an incomplete sentence?

“Because it was a dark and stormy night.”

• a complete thought

• a verb

• 1. 
     

     a noun

• a predicate

Answer explanation

What happened because it was a dark and stormy night? Without some more information, the reader is left confused. That confusion would be cleared up with a complete thought. This is an example of a dependent clause trying to pass itself off as a complete sentence, but it just can’t do that because there’s not enough information to provide a complete thought.

What component is missing that makes this an incomplete sentence?

“The brand-new shiny red car”

• a noun

• commas

• a verb

• a complete thought

Answer explanation

The reader is left wondering, “huh?” and the missing piece is the verb. What did the brand-new car do? With that information, we would likely have a complete thought and be clear on the sentence.

When determining the missing component, in order of importance is subject and verb tied for first, complete thought second. You might say, “Well, this sentence doesn’t have a complete thought!” but save that for cases in which a subject and a verb are accounted for. When a sentence is missing either of those, by default it won’t have a complete thought.

Which sentence is written in active voice?

• The food safety video was watched by all new employees at the restaurant.

• The track and field athlete set a new world record at the meet last week.

• The cake was baked by Marjorie.

• On the course, a golf cart was driven by Yolanda.

Answer explanation

Active voice means that the subject of the sentence performs, has performed, or will perform the action of the verb. In this case, athlete set is the subject and verb. Keep in mind that tense does not determine voice. A sentence can be written in active voice about an action that already took place. In passive voice sentences, the action is done to the subject rather than by the subject. Note that all of the passive voice sentences include a “by” phrase to indicate who or what actually did the action. The active voice sentence does not include this phrase.

Which sentence is written in passive voice?

• The caterer delivered the food to the wedding hall.

• Joy, the photographer, takes pictures of the wedding guests as they arrive.

• All the wedding invitations were sent out by the bride and groom three months before the wedding.

• The bride’s father will walk her down the aisle.

Answer explanation

Passive voice means that the subject of the sentence receives, received, or will receive the action of the verb in the sentence. Passive voice sentences generally have a “by” phrase in them. Active voice means the subject did, does, or will do the verb. Remember that voice is not reliant on tense. Both active and passive voices can be written in present tense, past tense, or future tense.

In which sentence is the simple predicate underlined?

• Trish took out the trash as one of her chores.

• Trish took out the trash as one of her chores.

• Trish took out the trash as one of her chores.

• Trish took out the trash as one of her chores.

Answer explanation

A simple predicate is a verb or verb phrase—that’s it. In this case, it is took.

If the question asked you to find the complete predicate, it would be the verb or verb phrase plus all of the words that give more information about the action. In this case, the complete predicate would be took out the trash, but that’s not what is asked for in the question.

In which sentence is the complete subject underlined?

• Twelve-year-old Mitch, who lives on Mulberry Lane, drove his blue bicycle home from school each day.

• Twelve-year-old Mitch, who lives on Mulberry Lane, drove his blue bicycle home from school each day.

• Twelve-year-old Mitch, who lives on Mulberry Lane, drove his blue bicycle home from school each day.

• Twelve-year-old Mitch, who lives on Mulberry Lane, drove his blue bicycle home from school each day.

Answer explanation

A complete subject is the noun or pronoun serving as the subject of a sentence, plus all details or information about that subject. It does not include the verb—that is part of the predicate. In this sentence, the simple subject would be Mitch but all of the information provided about Mitch is contained in the complete subject.

Which of these sentences is a fragment or incomplete sentence?

• Elena worried.

• Headed to the store after breakfast.

• Arriving late, Micah tried to sneak in quietly.

• Laura went home.

Answer explanation

To be complete, a sentence must have a subject, a verb, and express a complete thought. “Headed to the store after breakfast” is an incomplete sentence because we don’t know who was headed to the store after breakfast; there is no subject and therefore no complete thought, either. In the other sentences, despite their length, they have all three necessary components.

Which of these clauses is dependent?

• She was awake until sunrise.

• 1. The book was a bestseller.

• We left after the movie.

• Before you leave for school in the morning.

Answer explanation

Dependent clauses cannot be judged by their length. All of the sentences are roughly the same length, but the longest “sentence” is actually the one that is not. A dependent clause is a group of words with the subject and a verb but without a complete thought. Without a complete thought, it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.