6.2 High-Yield Grammar Review

A Fast Refresher for Section 2

The Structure and Written Expression section is the most coachable part of the TOEFL ITP. On Level 1 it is 40 questions in 25 minutes; on Level 2 it is 25 questions in 17 minutes. Items 1-15 are sentence-completion (pick the choice that produces correct standard written English); the remaining items are error-identification (choose the ONE underlined part that must be changed). The rules are fixed, so this review is a pre-test checklist: read each rule, study the wrong-versus-right contrast, then drill until recognition is automatic. All examples below are original.

The Most-Tested Rules at a Glance

Agreement: Find the Real Subject

The single most tested trap is subject-verb agreement broken by an intervening phrase. In The list of approved courses was posted, the subject is list (singular), not courses. Cross out any prepositional phrase between the subject and the verb before you decide. Remember the singular triggers: each, every, either, neither, everyone, somebody, and a noncount subject all take a singular verb.

A subject joined by and is plural (Math and science are required), but a collective noun (team, jury, committee, faculty) normally takes a singular verb in American usage. Inverted there is / there are must agree with the real subject that follows: There are three reasons; There is one reason.

Parallelism and Word Form

Parallel structure requires that items joined by and, or, or a correlative pair share the same grammatical form: three gerunds, three nouns, or three infinitives, never a mix. Watch the correlatives both...and, either...or, neither...nor, and not only...but also, which demand matching forms on each side.

Word-form items swap one part of speech for another, and the suffix usually reveals the right form before you even judge meaning: -tion/-ment/-ness/-ity are nouns, -ize/-ify/-ate are verbs, -ous/-ful/-al/-ive are adjectives, and -ly is an adverb. In He spoke very confident, the slot after very modifies the verb spoke, so it needs the adverb confidently.

Articles, Quantifiers, and Prepositions

Count nouns (book, idea, student) can be plural and take many, few, fewer, a number of; noncount nouns (water, advice, information, equipment) have no plural and take much, little, less, an amount of. So write fewer mistakes but less time. Only count, singular nouns take a/an (choose an before a vowel sound: an honor, a university); use the for something specific or already known, and no article for general plurals and noncount nouns.

Prepositions are often fixed inside a phrase: interested in, depend on, different from, capable of, consist of. For time, use at a clock time, on a day or date, and in a month, year, or area.

Commonly Confused Pairs

These pairs appear in error-identification items because they sound or look alike but fill different grammatical roles. When an underlined choice is one of these, check the role it plays in the sentence, not how it sounds.

Example (error-identification): Because the experiment was repeated (A) several times, the researchers were confident (B) that the effect (C) it had on growth was significant (D). Test each underlined part: A is correct past passive; B is the right word form (adjective after were); D is the right adjective. C is the noun effect, and here it correctly follows the and names a thing, so nothing is wrong with C either. The sentence is correct as written, which trains you not to invent an error: only change an underlined part that truly breaks a rule.