MEMORIZE IT!

Jury, navy, company, administration, tour group, agency, family, couple, duo all singular!
Use amount h r something you can't count, and number for something you can count. For example, "A great
number of friends have shown me a great amount of kindness.''
Less and fewer work the same way. Use less for something you can't count (/ have less stress this term than
last) and few e r for something you can count (This express lane is only for people with ten items or fewer).
This means that most grocery stores are incorrect. Virtually all of their signs say "10 items or less." Since items
are countable, less should be fewer.
If the pronoun ends with -one, -thing, or -body {anybody, everyone, something, etc.), it's singular. Even more
importantly, the word each is singular.
A verb with the helping verb had is used to express "the past of the past."
Not all pronouns have antecedents:
An indefinite pronoun such as anyone will not have an antecedent.
The pronoun you is often used without an antecedent, both in reference to a specific person {Willyou please take
out the trash?) and in reference to the reader or people in general {You should learn about pronouns if you want to
do well on the GMAT).
In a few circumstances, the pronoun it doesnt need an antecedent, as in It's raining or It is hoped that taxpayers
will use these refund checks to stimulate the economy. Notice that it here comes at the beginning of the sentence.
In general, if one appears as a pronoun on the GMAT, it is very likely that there is an error.
Absolute adjectives are adjectives that are not capable of being intensified. Example Absolute adjectives: Dead, square, essential,
universal, immortal, absolute, unique, circular, Fatal, perfect
Present perfect verbs are used to describe actions that occurred at an unspecified time before the present. You cannot use the present
perfect with specific time expressions (yesterday, last week, etc.). The exact time of the action does not matter. What matters is the
effect in the present
Had verbs or Past Perfect verbs are used to express that something in the past occurred before something else in
the past. That is, these verbs express the double past!
There is an important rule that must be followed here: the part of the sentence before the colon must be able to
stand alone (that is, it must be an independent clause).
The colon goes before a list or explanation. Finally, colons are not just for going before lists. Colons can also go before
explanations, rules, or examples.
Some adjectives (timely, friendly, lovely, lively, ugly, silly, holy) that are not also adverbs end in -ly. If you want to use
friendly to modify a verb, you cant say friendlyly (thats not a word). Instead, say in a friendly manner or in a friendly
way
This so-called sentence consists of two independent clauses joined by only a comma. This specific kind of run-on
sentence is called a comma splice. Run-on sentences, including comma splices, are always wrong.
There is an important rule that must be followed here: the part of the sentence before the colon must be able to
stand alone (that is, it must be an independent clause).
The colon goes before a list or explanation. Finally, colons are not just for going before lists. Colons can also go before
explanations, rules, or examples.
The two parts on either side of a semicolon must be able to stand alone and must be closely related in meaning.
Do NOT use a semicolon before and or but. Use a semicolon before however and a comma after. In every case, the
parts before and after the semicolon must be able to stand alone.
Dont use that or which for peopleinstead, use who. Use when only for times. Use where only for places
When you list or compare two or more things, make sure your lists and comparisons are both logically and
grammatically parallel.
Prepositional phrases that are in parallel dont have to have the same preposition.
Do not compare a phrase that starts with that to one that starts with when, where, which, or who.
One more related example do not compare a phrase that starts with that to one that starts with when, where,
which, or who:

ADVANCED TIP
Technically, there is another type of pronoun. Relative pronouns are pronouns, such as which and that, that are used
to relate a subordinate clause to the rest of the sentence: The book that fell on the floor is great. Other relative
pronouns include who, whom, whose, when, where, and why. It doesn't really matter for purposes of the
GMAT that these words are technically pronouns. You can just think of them as words that introduce modifiers.
Modifiers will be discussed later.
Words like thus, therefore, moreover, and nevertheless can also be used after semicolons in the way that however is
used above. These words are all conjunctions, but they are not the "FANBOYS" conjunctions {for, and, nor, but, or,yet,
so) we learned about earlier on. When the "FANBOYS" conjunctions join two independent clauses, they are generally
separated by a comma, or occasionally by nothing at all. FANBOYS get commas; the rest of the conjunctions have to
use semicolons.
While who is only for people, whose can actually be used with objects. For instance, it is fine to say I am going to fix all
the tables whose legs are broken.











Cool Questions
Q: Flawed in two ways, the earthquake detection system would often find a geological precursor event when it wasn't
actually occurring and fail to find one when it was.
A: Flawed in two ways, the earthquake detection system would often find a geological precursor event when it wasn't
actually occurring and fail to find it when it was.
E: This complex sentence contains a string of pronouns: it, one, and it. Since you know that the pronoun one does not mix well with
other pronouns, you should be suspicious of this sentence. Indeed, the problem is in the final part: and fail to find one when it was.
Here, one and it are referring back to the same thing (the geological precursor event, whatever that is). One cannot be used
interchangeably with other pronouns when referring to the same thing, so the sentence is grammatically incorrect. The
sentence could be fixed by replacing one with another it. This does sound repetitive, but it is grammatically correct. All three
uses of it refer back to the geological precursor event, which is a singular noun.