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ACT English 1.1 Grammar and Usage 739 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 1. What should replace the underlined word?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by corndogs. An abomination against hot dogs.

00:09

Albeit a delicious abomination.

00:11

What should replace the underlined word below?

00:14

At the state fair, she and her friends eats hotdogs and corndogs.

00:26

The name of the game here is subject verb agreement.

00:29

Don't sweat it, though, it's really a pretty simple game. Even a child could play it.

00:34

All we have to do is make sure that the subject and predicate are getting along.

00:38

If the subject is singular, the verb that follows should be singular too.

00:43

If the subject is plural, then the predicate should be as well. It's as simple as that.

00:48

So, the subject in this sentence is "she and her friends," because they're the ones doing

00:53

something.

00:54

In this case chowing down on a feast of hotdogs and corndogsand probably regretting it later.

00:59

Since there's more than one person engaging in this feeding frenzy, the subject is plural,

01:04

so we know that the verb that follows needs to be plural as well.

01:07

Now that we've got that sorted out, we can eliminate (A) because "eats" is singular.

01:11

Yeah, despite the fact that it has an s on the end.

01:15

One "eats." Many "eat."

01:18

We can kick (C) to the curb for the same reason. "Is" is singular, so it doesn't get along

01:23

with our plural subject.

01:24

(D) is also no good, because "eaten" requires the helping verb "have." It just can't make

01:29

it in this world alone.

01:31

And so we're left with (B), which totally works for us because "eat" is plural like

01:34

our subject.

01:36

It's the only choice that can handle the hotdog/corndog devouring horde.

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