Sentence Correction: Ignoring the Filler between the Subject and Verb
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I love burgers. But while the cheese, lettuce, tomato, and other toppings can be delicious, the real measure – the core – of a good burger is the beef (or vegetarian substitute!) patty.
A good sentence is similar; no matter how complicated or sophisticated the modifiers and clauses, the sentence doesn’t work unless the core structure – the subject and verb – is intact. Remember, in order to even be a sentence, every independent clause must contain a main subject-main verb pair, and each pair must agree in number. The GMAT will try to disguise errors in the core structure by using intervening phrases and clauses to separate the main subject from the main verb. It’s your job as a good test-taker to ignore this “filler” to identify errors in the subject and verb.
Intervening phrases and clauses fall into several general categories:
1. Prepositional phrases
The deck of cards are sitting on the table.
No noun inside a prepositional phrase can be the main subject of an independent clause. “Cards” is a noun inside the prepositional phrase “of cards,” so it can’t be the subject. If we ignore that filler, we see that the subject is the singular “deck,” and the plural verb “are” does not agree. We found an error!
2. Adjective clauses
The dolls that were sitting on the shelf have been sold.
Any clause that begins with a relative pronoun (who, whose, whom, that, which) cannot contain the main subject or main verb. At first glance, we see the singular noun “shelf” next to the plural verb “have been sold,” a construction that might seem to be an agreement error. However, if we ignore the adjective clause “that were sitting on the shelf,” we see that the subject is actually the plural noun “dolls,” so the sentence is correct.
3. Participial phrases
The buildings believed to be the oldest in town is collapsing.
The buildings standing beside the bank use the most electricity in the city.
Participial phrases can be among the trickiest elements to recognize as filler, because test-takers will often mistake participles (like “believed” and “standing”) for verbs. However, participles are adjectives, so a participial phrase can never contain the main subject or main verb. Knowing this allows us to see that the first sentence above has an error (“buildings…is”) and that the second sentence is correct (“buildings…use”).
The GMAT loves to fill sentences with lots of fancy toppings, but learning to ignore these to find the real “meat” of a sentence will help you quickly identify and eliminate errors in the core structure.
