ACT English common mistakes
ACT English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Choosing the answer that sounds most formal or sophisticated rather than the one that is grammatically correct, especially on questions testing who/whom, fewer/less, or pronoun case.
Writers associate formal register with correctness, so an awkward but technically right option gets passed over for a polished-sounding wrong one. The test deliberately offers elevated-sounding distractors.
What to do instead
Strip the sentence to its core subject and verb, then test each option in that bare frame. If a choice only sounds better when dressed in extra clauses, it is probably a register trap.
Treating every underlined segment as needing a change, so a correction is forced even when the original wording is already correct.
Test-takers assume the underline signals an error. In fact one option always restates the original text unchanged, and it is frequently the answer.
What to do instead
Before reading the choices, read the original segment in context and ask whether it is already grammatical and clear. If yes, look for the choice that preserves it exactly and select that.
Reading only the underlined portion plus the words immediately around it, ignoring the sentence that precedes or follows.
The underline draws the eye and creates a narrow tunnel of attention. Many items depend on information outside the underlined span, such as an antecedent, a transition, or a repeated noun.
What to do instead
Read the full sentence containing the underline plus one sentence before and one after before evaluating any choice. For transition and addition questions, read the whole paragraph.
Judging comma placement by where a pause feels natural when reading aloud.
Spoken rhythm does not map onto written punctuation rules; readers pause for emphasis in places grammar forbids, and fail to pause where a comma is required.
What to do instead
Apply structural tests instead of listening: locate the main subject and verb, identify whether the clause is essential, and check whether the material between commas could stand alone as a sentence.
Joining two complete sentences with only a comma, or with a comma plus a conjunctive adverb such as however or therefore.
These constructions feel smooth and are extremely common in casual writing, so they pass unnoticed. The comma creates the illusion of a boundary that is not grammatically there.
What to do instead
For any two-clause span, verify a period, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction (and, but, so, yet) sits at the seam. A conjunctive adverb requires a semicolon before it and a comma after it.
Answering questions about whether to add or delete material based on personal opinion about whether the detail is interesting, rather than on the stated purpose of the essay or paragraph.
The prompt asks a judgment question, so test-takers answer as readers with tastes instead of as editors serving a goal. Interesting-but-irrelevant details get kept.
What to do instead
Restate the paragraph's stated goal in one sentence, then ask whether the material directly supports that goal. If it does not, delete it, regardless of how engaging it is.
Selecting a transition word by its general tone (contrast versus addition) without checking the precise logical relationship between the two sentences.
Words like however, therefore, and moreover are grouped loosely in memory, so a contrast word gets chosen where the second sentence actually restates or exemplifies the first.
What to do instead
Write the relationship in plain words first: does sentence two contradict, cause, illustrate, or continue sentence one? Then match that exact relationship to the transition, and confirm both sentences still make sense with it inserted.
Leaving a pronoun or modifier attached to the wrong noun because the intended referent is clear in the writer's mind but ambiguous on the page.
The reader already knows what they meant to say, so the sentence feels unambiguous. Dangling participles and pronouns with two possible antecedents slip past self-review.
What to do instead
For every pronoun, point to the single noun it replaces; if two nouns qualify, the choice is wrong. For every opening modifier, confirm the noun immediately after the comma is the thing being described.
Assuming an answer choice is wrong because it changes the meaning, when the original itself is garbled and the task is to restore the intended meaning from context.
Test-takers over-apply the rule that the correct answer preserves original meaning, and reject the option that actually repairs a nonsensical original.
What to do instead
First decide whether the original is coherent. If it is not, use the surrounding sentences to infer the intended idea and pick the choice that expresses it, even if that choice departs from the original wording.
Spending uniform time on every question and running out of time before reaching the later passages, which are worth the same as the early ones.
Early questions feel equally important, and unfamiliar topics invite rereading. The section is paced by question count, not difficulty, so stalls are costly.
What to do instead
Set a per-question ceiling of roughly 45 seconds. Mark and move past any item requiring more than one full reread, then return with remaining time. Never leave a bubble blank, since there is no penalty for a guess.