SAT Grammar Rules Cheat Sheet

An Independent Clause (IC) is the same thing as a complete sentence: it has a subject and a verb. If you can put a period at the end, it's an Independent Clause.

The FANBOYS are For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. Here's a big clue, though: The SAT basically only ever uses "and" and "but." Remember those and you're fine.

Phrase within IC

A phrase within a single independent clause always gets matched punctuation.

Labels

When you have a label in front of a name, you never put any punctuation between them.

But when the description is longer and more detailed, it's a phrase, not a label. Phrases get commas.

Simple list

When the items have no commas inside them, separate them with commas.

Complex list

When the items already have commas inside them, separate them with semicolons.

Check whether the blank needs to complete a question or a statement, then match the ending.

Hint

Punctuation before the blank? Probably a question. No punctuation? Probably a statement.

Subject and verb

No single piece of punctuation between a subject and its verb.

Noun and preposition

No single piece of punctuation between a noun and its preposition.

(Prepositions are words like of, on, in, etc.)

That

A phrase that starts with “that” gets no punctuation in front of it.

TLDR

If you can't say why punctuation is needed, leave it out.

Anytime a verb is in the answer choices, find its subject.

When you see to or -ing verbs in the answer choices, the question is testing one thing: does the subject already have a main verb, or does it need one?

A sentence needs two things to be complete: a subject and a verb. To and -ing verbs can't be the verb that makes a sentence complete. We call verbs that can make a sentence complete main verbs.

• If there isn't a main verb in the text, the answer needs to provide one.
• If the sentence already has its main verb, the blank can't be another one.
• If you have an 'and' or 'or' right before the blank, you need two main verbs, and they have to match.
• Missing a verb is actually the same thing as to or -ing, because you're still missing a main verb.

Always start with plurality, then move on to tense.

Plurality

A singular subject takes a singular verb. A plural subject takes a plural verb.

Hint

• Put is or are after the subject to see if it's singular or plural.
• Put it (if the subject is singular) or they (if the subject is plural) in front of all four answer choices and eliminate the ones that don't work.

Tense

• If all four choices are singular, or all four are plural, plurality won't decide this one. That makes it a tense question.
• Look for something in the text telling you when this is happening.

A pronoun refers back to another noun. Honestly, it's a lot like verbs: your first step will always be to find the "subject" of the pronoun and test the plurality.

The only real difference? Sometimes the subject (antecedent) can be in an earlier sentence.

On pronouns, apostrophes are always contractions:

'Its' and 'their' without apostrophes are possessive: you use them when the pronoun possesses the thing following it.

The easy trick? Just expand the contraction and see if it makes sense. If it does, it's correct. If it doesn't, eliminate it.

On the SAT, unlike pronouns, nouns never get contractions.
Noun apostrophes are always possessive:

If a noun is singular, it gets 's, whether or not that noun ends in s. Irregular plural nouns (people, mice, women) also get 's, whereas plural nouns ending in s just get a ' after them.

When you see a ton of words changing in the answer choice, the thing that is technically changing is the subject.

• Find the real subject in each option.
• The subject is usually as far to the left as possible.
• Watch out for possessives; they're the main way the SAT moves the subject away from the beginning of the answer choice.
• Find the describing phrase right before the blank.
• Eliminate any choice where the phrase can't describe its subject.

Hint

Answers that open with "there are" or "it is" are almost never right.