HESI A2 Exam: Grammar
• How can you differentiate between a simple sentence and a sentence fragment?
• What are three things you can do to grammatically improve a run-on sentence?
• What is the pronoun-antecedent agreement?
• What should you do to verbs in past tense sentences?
Intro
A sentence requires a subject and a verb. The subject is a person, place, or thing that either performs an action or is described in some way. The verb tells what action the subject is doing.
A sentence fragment will be missing either a subject or a verb. “When we got to the theatre” is a sentence fragment. A sentence requires a subject and a verb. This sentence has the subject (we), but no action. What is it that we did when we got to the theatre? Because that is missing, it's a sentence fragment.
With a run-on sentence, either break it into two complete sentences, make it a compound sentence or make it a complex sentence.
“Cellular phones and laptops are used in communication everyone is using it every day.” We can fix this by either adding a comma and the word “and” or making it two sentences.
“Cellular phones and laptops are used in communication, and everyone is using it every day.”
“Cellular phones and laptops are used in communication. Everyone is using it every day.
Past vs. Present Tense
“Each of you is/are responsible for doing your chores.”
Each, everyone and everybody are singular and therefore require singular verbs (is rather than are).
The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring to two things.
When subjects are joined by neither (or either), the verb agrees with the subject closest to it.
“Neither my roommates nor myself has/have very much money.” Because “myself” is closest to the verb “has/have,” the verb must be singular and therefore has is correct.
Gives/gave/is giving
"For their grand opening last week, Brad's Toyplex gives/gave/is giving away free bicycles to the first 50 customers that come through the door."
"Gives" and "is giving" are both present verbs. "Gave" is a past tense verb. Since the action took place last week, gave is correct.
Past Perfect
"She _________ the building at 9:00 a.m. last Tuesday."
enters; has entered; had entered; will enter (which is correct?)
“had entered” is correct.
An action that took place at a specific time in the past is a past perfect verb tense. The past perfect verb tense for this sentence is "had entered."
Pronoun-antecedent agreement
An antecedent is the noun they refer to. For example, in the sentence "Any student can choose classes for next semester at his or her convenience," that noun is "student." Student is singular, and therefore the pronoun (his or her) must be singular.
Present Perfect Tense
The verb “walks” is a present tense verb. Walked would be past tense and will walk would be future tense. The present perfect tense is an action that began in the past and continued either up to the present or into the future. An example would be "Julie walked around the lake every day this week."
Past Perfect
An action that took place at a specific time in the past is a past perfect verb tense. An example could be the phrase "had entered."
Future Perfect
We use the future perfect verb tense to say that something will happen before another action in the future is complete. Or that something will happen before a specific time in the future. If the event is in the future, it's going to include the word "will."
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