GMAT Grammar Rules with Examples

Knowing the proper GMAT grammar rules help you solve the GMAT verbal section. Let’s discuss the GMAT grammar rules that you must know:

1.GMAT Grammar-Sentences and Fragments

Every sentence generally contains a subject and the main verb. The sentences which lack the main verb are known as a fragment.

2.GMAT Grammar-Non-Essential Clauses 

Non-essential clauses are used one before and one after by commas and, as their name suggests, are not essential to the meaning of a sentence.

Example: The body’s circadian rhythms, which are responsible for controlling sleep cycles and which function on a 24-hour clock, and they are more sensitive to light at night—even when a person’s eyes are closed.

The correct answer: The body’s circadian rhythms, which are responsible for controlling sleep cycles and which function on a 24-hour clock, are more sensitive to light at night—even when a person’s eyes are closed.

3.GMAT Grammar- Pronouns

4.GMAT Grammar- Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are words like-

• Who(m) = people
• Which, that = things
• Whose = people + things
• Where = places
• When = times
• Preposition + which can be used as an alternative to where and when.

Example: The contemporary environmental movement began in 1962, the year where Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring revealed the dangers of pesticides.

The correct answer- The contemporary environmental movement began in 1962, the year when/in which Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring revealed the dangers of pesticides.

5.GMAT Grammar-Subject-Verb Agreement 

Singular verbs end in –S; plural verbs do not end in –S, e.g. he speaks = singular, they speak = plural.

Example:

Most experimental results do not produce large changes in human understanding; improvements in theoretical scientific understanding is typically the result of a gradual process of development over time, sometimes across different domains of science.

(A) improvements in theoretical scientific understanding is typically the result of

(B) improvements in theoretical scientific understanding typically results from

(C) improvements in theoretical scientific understanding, which typically result from

(D) improvements in theoretical scientific understanding are typically the result of

(E) improvements in theoretical scientific understanding has typically resulted from

The subject of the verb is (singular) is improvements (plural). The correct answer must therefore contain a plural verb. (A), (B), and (E) all contain singular verbs and can thus be eliminated immediately.

Of the remaining answers, (C) creates a fragment and can be eliminated, leaving (D).

6.GMAT Grammar-Verb Tense and Form 

7.GMAT Grammar-Faulty Comparisons 

8.GMAT Grammar-Amounts: Countable vs. Uncountable 

9.GMAT Grammar-Modification 

GMAT dangling modifiers is tricky. Modifiers include clauses, words, or phrases which help in demonstrating other parts of a sentence. Dangling modifiers misplaces the modifying phrase, which makes it illogical:

For example,

A young blonde-haired girl, the president thought Rachel was extremely studious.

Here, the president is definitely not regarded as the blonde-haired girl here.

The answer would be:

The president thought Rachel, a young blonde-haired girl, was extremely studious.

10.GMAT Grammar- Parallelism 

Example can simplify this to understand:

Wrong: I want to retire to a place WHERE I can relax AND I pay low taxes.

Right: I want to retire to a place WHERE I can relax AND WHERE I pay low taxes.

Without the repetition of the subordinator where the first sentence could be read, I want to retire ... and I pay low taxes. Repeating the where eliminates ambiguity. The signal words do not have to be the same word.

To simplify parallelism questions, start by focusing on the first word of each item.

11.GMAT Grammar-GMAT Word Pairs 

Word pairs (or correlative conjunctions) are pairs of words or phrases that must always be used together.

• Not only…but also
• As…as
• More/less…than
• Between…and
• So/such…that
• Just as…so

Note that only half of a word pair is likely to be included in the underlined portion of a sentence. To identify that a question is testing word pairs, you must often rely on information in the non-underlined section.

Incorrect: The Hale–Bopp comet received so much media coverage, becoming one of the most highly observed astronomical bodies in history.

Correct: The Hale–Bopp comet received so much media coverage that it became one of the most highly observed astronomical bodies in history.

12.GMAT Grammar-Redundancy 

13.GMAT Grammar-Whether vs. If vs. That 

Use whether to indicate uncertainty, or to indicate/imply the presence of alternatives.

With phrases involving “the question,” whether should always be used.

Incorrect: The Schengen accord on freedom of movement for members of the European Union has had limited success, raising the question of if the bloc’s frontiers should be policed by a European border control force.

Correct: The Schengen accord on freedom of movement for members of the European Union has had limited success, raising the question of whether the bloc’s frontiers should be policed by a European border control force.

Use that when only one possibility is presented.

14.GMAT Grammar- GMAT Idioms

Fixed phrases are known as idioms. There is no logical reason why these phrases evolved the way they did. As a result, you must answer them by ear.