NGSA English common mistakes
NGSA English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Selecting a pronoun by ear in compound subjects and objects, e.g. choosing "between you and I" or "her and I went" because the pronoun sounds formal or familiar.
Candidates judge pronoun case by how the phrase sounds rather than by grammatical function, and formal-sounding "I" is overgeneralised to object positions. The subject/object distinction is never tested in isolation during practice, so the ear becomes the only guide.
What to do instead
Apply the drop test: remove the other person from the compound and read the sentence with the pronoun alone ("between I" fails, so "between me"). Then classify the pronoun's job: subject of the verb takes I/he/she/they/who; object of a preposition or verb takes me/him/her/them/whom. Drill ten compound constructions daily, rewriting each in both cases and labelling the function.
Matching a verb to the nearest noun instead of the true subject in sentences with interrupting phrases, inverted order, or indefinite subjects such as "each", "neither", or "everyone".
Proximity governs perception: the noun closest to the verb feels like the subject, especially in phrases like "the list of items are long" or questions like "where are the keys". Indefinite pronouns are also assumed plural because they refer to many people.
What to do instead
Cross out every prepositional phrase between subject and verb before choosing the verb form, then read subject and verb together aloud. Memorise the singular indefinite set (each, either, neither, everyone, everybody, nobody, someone) and the compound-subject rules ("and" joins to plural; "or/nor" agrees with the nearer element). Practise with inverted sentences by rewriting them in normal order first.
Treating a comma as sufficient to join two independent clauses, producing run-ons and comma splices in the composition section.
In speech the two clauses are separated by a pause, and the comma appears to mark that pause. Candidates have not internalised the finite list of legitimate clause joiners, so punctuation is chosen by feel rather than by structure.
What to do instead
Test each clause for a subject and a finite verb; if both have them, the join must be a period, semicolon, colon, or comma plus a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Practise by taking ten of your own run-ons and repairing each one three different ways, then check that the meaning survives each repair.
Confusing restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses, so commas are inserted around clauses that identify the noun, or omitted from clauses that merely add extra information.
The distinction depends on meaning rather than on length or pause, and candidates punctuate by where they would breathe. The word "which" is also assumed always to take a comma and "that" never to, regardless of the clause's function.
What to do instead
Ask whether the clause can be deleted without changing which person or thing is meant. If deletion changes the identity, the clause is restrictive: no commas, and "that" is preferred for things. If deletion leaves the reference intact, the clause is non-restrictive: set it off with paired commas. Rewrite five sentence pairs ("The students who passed..." versus "The students, who passed,...") and state the difference in meaning each time.
Choosing an answer word from surface similarity or a single familiar context rather than from the sentence's logic, e.g. picking "reluctant" where "reticent" fits, or missing that a blank requires a contrast with the previous clause.
Vocabulary is studied as isolated word lists with one gloss each, so candidates never see how a word behaves in context. They also ignore structural signals such as "although", "because", or a colon that dictate the blank's direction.
What to do instead
Before reading the options, predict the blank's meaning and direction from the sentence's connectors and rewrite the sentence in your own words. Then eliminate options that fail either the meaning or the grammatical slot (word class, transitivity, countability). Build a context notebook: for each new word record a full sentence, its collocations, and one near-synonym with the distinction spelled out.
Answering reading comprehension items from prior knowledge, personal opinion, or a single remembered phrase instead of locating and citing the supporting lines.
Under time pressure candidates skim for a keyword and accept the first option that echoes it, and inference questions feel like invitations to speculate. Distractor options are deliberately plausible and often quote the passage accurately but misstate the relationship.
What to do instead
For every question, return to the passage and underline the exact words that decide the answer, then state the line number beside your choice. Classify each question first (stated detail, inference, main idea, vocabulary in context, tone) and apply the matching strategy. For inference items, reject any option that requires information the passage does not supply, however reasonable it seems.
Confusing the passage's main idea with a supporting detail or with an over-broad generalisation, and choosing titles that are too wide or too narrow.
The opening sentence often contains a vivid detail that sticks in memory, and the longest or most abstract option feels authoritative. Candidates also mistake the topic (what the passage is about) for the main idea (what it says about that topic).
What to do instead
After reading, write a one-sentence summary in your own words before looking at the options, then choose the option that matches your summary. Test each option with two questions: does the whole passage support it, and is it specific enough to exclude other passages on the same topic? Eliminate options that cover only one paragraph.
Misplacing or omitting apostrophes in possessives and plurals, writing "its" for "it's", or inserting apostrophes into plain plurals such as "the 1990's" and "three CD's".
The apostrophe has several unrelated jobs, and the possessive and plural forms sound identical in speech. Candidates also over-apply the rule that possessives take apostrophes to every word ending in s.
What to do instead
Run a two-question test on every apostrophe: is the word a contraction (expand it and check), or does it show possession (ask whether something belongs to it)? If neither, delete the apostrophe. Learn the fixed points: its/it's, whose/who's, singular possessive adds 's even after s (James's), plural possessive adds only an apostrophe after a regular plural (the teachers' room), and decades and abbreviations take no apostrophe.
Writing sentences with dangling or misplaced modifiers, so an introductory participial phrase attaches to the wrong noun, as in "Walking to school, the rain began".
The writer knows who performs the action but leaves that participant unstated, and English allows the implied subject to stay invisible. The result reads smoothly to the writer, who supplies the missing subject unconsciously.
What to do instead
For every sentence that opens with a participle or an adjective phrase, name the doer of that action and check that it is the grammatical subject of the main clause. If it is not, either supply the subject ("Walking to school, I felt the rain begin") or convert the phrase to a full clause ("As I walked to school, the rain began"). Practise by correcting ten dangling modifiers and labelling the doer in each.
Producing faulty parallelism in lists and comparisons, mixing forms such as "hiking, swimming, and to fish", and comparing unlike things such as "her salary is higher than her brother".
Parallelism is a structural requirement that carries no meaning signal, so nothing in the sentence flags the error. Comparisons are also written from the writer's intended meaning rather than from what the words literally compare.
What to do instead
When a sentence contains a list, a correlative pair (either/or, not only/but also), or a comparison, lay the elements out vertically and check that each has the same grammatical shape. For comparisons, complete the sentence explicitly ("than her brother's salary") and check that both sides are the same category. Rewrite five faulty sentences twice, once with all-infinitives and once with all-gerunds, to feel the constraint.