- Welcome to this first lesson of the form, structure, and sense category. In the prior set of lessons, we cover topics related to punctuation and clause connection. The stuff of boundaries questions. In this set of lessons, we're going to look at the way SAT tests internal grammatical consistency in form, structure, and sense questions.

First up, we're going to talk about one of the most tested mechanical rules on the digital SAT, subject verb agreement. And since it's so heavily tested, we are going to split this into two lessons. This one will cover general rules and common distractors. The next one will cover specific subject types and how to ensure they agree with their verbs.

Let's start with the core rule. Very simply, singular subjects should have singular verbs and plural subjects should have plural verbs. That's agreement. Seems simple enough, yeah. But the challenge isn't knowing the rule. The challenge is finding the main subject of the sentence and matching that main subject to its verb.

Why is that a challenge, pray tell? Well, SAT test writers are incredibly good at filling texts with something we'd like to call fluff. And you wanna become incredibly good at spotting and ignoring the fluff. So, what the fluff! What is the fluff exactly?

Fluff is a lot of the stuff that separates the subject from its verb. The SAT uses fluff to cause confusion about either the main subject or main verb in a sentence. Your mission, ignore it. But of course, that's tough to do unless you can spot it.

So, let's talk about the fluff test. Can you remove something between the subject and verb, and still have a complete logical sentence? If yes, then that stuff is fluff and you can ignore it. If no, it's not fluff and you should not ignore it. Quickly applying the fluff test is one of the most powerful SAT skills you can develop.

So, let's take a moment to look at common types of fluff. First up, prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases often begin with, well, prepositions. Words like "of," "in," "on," "with." Here is an example. "The bouquet of roses is beautiful." Take a second to identify the fluff in this sentence.

If you put your finger on "of roses." Nicely done. That is fluff. "Of roses" describes the main subject "bouquet," but it is neither the main subject nor the main verb, which is "is." Here's why the test works.

If we cut "of roses," the sentence is still complete, logical, and conveys the same message just with less description. Now, of course, you cannot strike through or remove chunks of text on the digital SAT, but you do have a highlighter tool.

And highlighting the main subject and main verb can help you ignore all the fluff between, which trust me, is really helpful when you're dealing with a super long, complex SAT sentence. Let's check out another common bit of fluff. Relative clauses.

Relative clauses begin with words like "who," "which," or "that," and are often but not always surrounded by commas. When they are, those commas can be a clue that everything between them is fluff. Here's your example.

So, what is the fluff here? If you identified "who conducted the experiment," excellent. That part of the sentence is just giving us extra unnecessary information about the scientists. If we ignore it, we have a sentence that is still communicating the same complete idea.

The scientists are presenting their findings this afternoon. Ready for the next example? It's similar to relative clauses, and it's called appositives. Now, before we proceed, I wanna remind you that you do not need to memorize any of the grammar terminology I'm throwing at you.

I'm only bringing them up because it makes it easier to talk about them. And back to appositives, which are a chunk of text that renames the noun that precedes it. It's another type of additional information, and like relative clauses, is often set off by commas.

That's the pattern you wanna seek out. Commas inside of a sentence, that's usually a fluff indicator. Here's your example. Take a moment. See if you can spot the appositive, the fluff. Yep, it's the thing right there between the two commas, "a pioneering scientist." Is that nice information to know? Maybe.

Is it fluff in this sentence? Absolutely. Because we have our main subject, "Marie Curie," and the main verb that describes what she did, "won," and then the rest of the sentence, "two Nobel prizes." Removing "a pioneering scientist" still leaves us with the complete picture of her accomplishments.

All right, here's one more common fluff pattern to be mindful of, participle phrases. Participle phrases often start with an "-ing word." They also provide additional description and are surrounded by or preceded by, and you should be used to this by now, commas.

Here's your example. "The committee, reviewing the proposal carefully, has reached a decision." By this point, hopefully your eyes jump straight to what's sitting between the commas. "Reviewing the proposal carefully" is fluff.

It's just providing additional information about what the committee did during its deliberations. Without it, we still have a complete logical sentence that tells us what the committee did. And that does it for a run through of the types of fluff you should be aware of.

Here's one last quick check with a sentence that's a little more SAT-like. Find the subject, find the verb, cut the fluff, and make a selection. Try this one on your own. Pause and make a selection. Resume the lesson when you are ready.

All right. If you chose is, answer A, you've got it. Here's why it is A. The main subject is "collection," "of rare manuscripts" is fluff that just provides description for the contents of the collection.

Hopefully the "of" caught your attention as a clue. And then we have, "which were donated by private collectors," also fluff. The word "which" and the two commas should have helped you spot it. And the thing we need for the blank is the main verb.

Well, "the collection" is singular. So, that means we need a singular verb to agree, and that is "is." Collection is a type of noun called a collective noun, which we will talk about more in a moment. But in a nutshell, collective nouns are used to describe a group of people or things, but they act as a singular noun.

If you're still scratching your head and wondering why manuscripts, which is plural, isn't the main subject, here's the rule you need to know. Prepositional phrases like "of rare manuscripts," add detail, but never contain the main subject of a sentence.

You'll usually wanna see what comes before the prepositional phrase to ID the main subject. And remember, this rule is essential to avoid falling for annoying and common SAT traps. And that is gonna wrap up Part One of agreement. You are now very well versed in identifying fluff.

When you're ready, head on over to Part Two where we will talk about specific types of subject-verb agreement scenarios that you wanna be mindful of. See you there.