SAT Reading & Writing study guide · Chapter 26
Quick Reference 2: What Does This Word or Phrase Modify?
Reference 2: What Does This Word or Phrase Modify?
Most Form, Structure, and Sense questions ask the same underlying question in different clothing: what actually controls this word, and is it obeying that control? Find the controlling element first. The answer usually follows.
Subject controls the verb
Find the true subject and set aside everything between it and the verb, however long that stretch runs. A phrase full of nouns in the middle never becomes the subject just by sitting closest to the verb.
Wrong: The value of the collections the museum acquired during the war years have never been established.
Right: The value of the collections the museum acquired during the war years has never been established.
Inverted sentences hide the subject after the verb. A sentence opening with a phrase of place, beneath, among, across, within, here, there, can put the verb before its subject ever appears. Turn the sentence back into ordinary order before deciding the verb’s number.
Wrong: Beneath a slab that nobody had lifted for six hundred years was the bones, a crown, and a coin.
Right: Beneath a slab that nobody had lifted for six hundred years were the bones, a crown, and a coin.
With neither…nor and either…or, the verb agrees with whichever subject sits closer to it, not with whichever one is louder or arrives first.
Wrong: Neither the ores nor the technique that exploited them are available today.
Right: Neither the ores nor the technique that exploited them is available today.
Antecedent controls the pronoun
A pronoun needs one clear, singular-or-plural-matched thing on the page to stand for. If a sentence performs an action without ever naming what performed it, no pronoun can stand in for that unnamed thing; the sentence needs an actual noun instead.
Wrong: When her specimens were cataloged beside the papers, it revealed where the science was done.
Right: When her specimens were cataloged beside the papers, the comparison revealed where the science was done.
Its, their, whose, and their contracted look-alikes are decided by expansion, not by sound. Expand the contraction. If it is or they are fits, the apostrophe belongs. If not, the possessive form does.
| Possessive (no expansion works) | Contraction (expands cleanly) |
|---|---|
| its | it’s → it is |
| their | they’re → they are |
| whose | who’s → who is |
Wrong: The company knew that it’s tank had leaked from the day it was filled.
Right: The company knew that its tank had leaked from the day it was filled.
Owner controls the possessive form
A plural noun with nothing owned takes no apostrophe at all. One owner takes an apostrophe before the s. Several owners, once the plural already ends in s, take the apostrophe after it. Irregular plurals take the apostrophe before the s regardless: children’s, men’s.
| Meaning | Form |
|---|---|
| More than one, nothing owned | sisters |
| Belonging to one sister | sister’s |
| Belonging to more than one sister | sisters’ |
Wrong: The sister’s handwriting was the least of her problems; four of them shared a first name.
Right: The sisters’ handwriting was the least of her problems; four of them shared a first name.
The evidence that settles which form is correct often arrives after the blank, not before it. Read the whole sentence before choosing.
An introductory participial modifier must logically describe the following subject
A participial opening phrase, Walking, Having, Dated, Trained, Born, describes whichever noun follows the comma, and nothing else. All four choices in a question like this are usually grammatical sentences on their own; what breaks three of them is a phrase in front that cannot logically describe the noun that follows it.
Wrong: Having heard no human voice in four years, the sound of English was unbearable to Selkirk.
Right: Having heard no human voice in four years, Selkirk found the sound of English unbearable.
Ask directly: who or what actually did the thing this opening phrase describes? Put that noun right after the comma.
A clause needs a real, finite verb
An -ing word alone is not a verb. A clause built entirely on one, with no other finite verb anywhere in it, is a fragment, however long and well-constructed it otherwise sounds.
Wrong: The wooden footbridge over the creek, which had stood since the 1920s, having been swept away.
Right: The wooden footbridge over the creek, which had stood since the 1920s, was swept away.
Find the main clause’s actual verb. If every candidate is an -ing or -ed form functioning as a description rather than a predicate, the sentence has no verb yet.
The event’s position on the timeline controls its tense
Past perfect marks an earlier past event when that anteriority genuinely needs marking, especially to prevent ambiguity about which event came first: had done. It is not automatic. English often uses simple past for both events when the sequence is already clear from the sentence itself, particularly with before and after: after the storm ended, the crew returned needs no had anywhere in it. Words like by the time, before, after, and once are clues that a second, earlier moment may exist, not automatic tense triggers on their own; the actual sequence of events, and whether it is already unambiguous, is what decides.
Wrong: By the time the surveyors reached the summit, the snow buried the last of the markers.
Right: By the time the surveyors reached the summit, the snow had buried the last of the markers.
Each item in a list matches the form the first two set
Once two items in a coordinated list establish a form, infinitive, gerund, or plain verb, every remaining item has to match it, whichever item the question actually blanks out.
Wrong: Running the expedition meant charting the route, victualling the crews, and to assemble the gifts.
Right: Running the expedition meant charting the route, victualling the crews, and assembling the gifts.
A comparison holds the same kind of thing on both sides
Than, as, like, unlike, and compared with all require the two things being set against each other to actually match in kind. A place name can casually stand in for its buildings in speech; the clearest written form names the actual thing being compared. A possessive like Egypt’s can stand in for Egypt’s pyramids, which is worth checking directly against the other answer choices rather than assuming the shorter form is automatically wrong.
Wrong: The pyramids at Meroë are steeper and smaller than Egypt.
Right: The pyramids at Meroë are steeper and smaller than those in Egypt.
The one-line test
Before choosing, name the controlling element out loud: which subject, which antecedent, which owner, which noun, which earlier moment, which first two list items, which thing being compared. The answer almost always has to agree with something specific, not with whatever sits nearest the blank.