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Understand this very tricky grammatical structure for GMAT Sentence Correction.<\/p>\nUnderstand this very tricky grammatical structure for GMAT Sentence Correction.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
First, give these two SC questions a try.<\/p>\n
1) Why the various Generals of the Army of the Potomac before Ulysses S. Grant were so singularly unsuccessful against Robert E Lee\u00a0are debated about in no less than\u00a0five hundred historically oriented journals.<\/p>\n
a) are debated about in no less than
\nb) are debated in no less than
\nc) is debated about in no fewer than
\nd) is debated in no fewer than
\ne) is debated in no less than<\/p>\n
2) That the Fifth Lateran Council (1512 \u2013 1517),\u00a0had it addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church rather than simply shoring up its own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, could have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation, still causes\u00a0regret among modern Western Christian thinkers.<\/p>\n
a) had it addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church rather than simply shoring up its own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, could have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation still causes<\/p>\n
b) if it addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church rather than simply shoring up their own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, could have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation still cause<\/p>\n
c) if they addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church instead of simply shoring up their own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, they might have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation still cause<\/p>\n
d) if they addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church instead of simply shoring up their own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, they could have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation, still a cause of<\/p>\n
e) if it had addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church rather than simply having shored up its own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, it might have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation, still a cause of<\/p>\n
You may well be wondering: what on earth are the subjects of these sentences?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
First, a bit of review.\u00a0 Every sentence has at least one\u00a0independent clause<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 a main noun subject plus a main verb.\u00a0 (Subject in purple, verb in green).<\/p>\n A coordinating conjunction (e.g. \"and\", \"or\", \"but\", \"yet\", etc.) can join (i.e. \"coordinate\") two different independent clauses, each with its own main subject and main verb.\u00a0 Each one is independent, and could be a stand-by-itself full sentence.\u00a0 This is grammatically legal way of having two full sentences \"glued together.\"<\/p>\n In addition to one or more independent clause, a sentence can also have a\u00a0dependent<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0subordinate clause<\/strong>.\u00a0 These typically begin with a subordinating conjunction (see the \"on a white bus\" rule in\u00a0this post<\/a>.)\u00a0\u00a0 The dependent clause has its own subject & verb inside it: it's like a mini-sentence within the sentence.\u00a0 The subordinate clause can play many roles in the sentence.\u00a0 It often acts as an\u00a0adjective<\/a>\u00a0or an\u00a0adverb<\/a>\u00a0(see those two posts for example sentences).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a complex sentence, a subordinate clause can act as an adjective or an adverb ---- or as a noun!\u00a0\u00a0 When a subordinate clause acts as a noun, it is called either a\u00a0noun clause<\/strong>\u00a0or a\u00a0substantive clause\u00a0<\/strong>(as I will call it) or a\u00a0nominal clause<\/strong>.\u00a0 A substantive clause typically begins with a relative pronoun or relative adverb --- who, what, where, when, why, how, whoever, whatever however, wherever, whether, that--- the familiar interrogative set plus a few more.\u00a0 The substantive clause acts as a noun and can take the place of any noun-role in a sentence: it can be a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, the object of a preposition, the subject of an\u00a0infinitive phrase<\/a>, etc. etc.\u00a0 This can be confusing, because the substantive clause, like any clause, has a noun & verb inside of it, but the entire clause is acting as a noun in the larger sentence. \u00a0Here's an example of a substantive clause as the subject of the sentence.\u00a0 The substantive clause is in blue.<\/p>\n That entire blue part is the subject in the main clause of the sentence.\u00a0 The main verb \"does not seem\", is singular.\u00a0 As a general guideline,\u00a0a substantive clause, regardless of content, typically counts as a singular noun, and thus takes a singular verb<\/em>. (Exceptions will be discussed below.)\u00a0 Inside the substantive clause, the clause has its own subject (\"Fred's wife\") and own verb (\"approves\").<\/p>\n A substantive clause can also act as a direct object:<\/p>\n The main clause has a subject (\"you\") and a verb (\"do \u2026 understand\"), and the direct object of that verb is the substantive clause.\u00a0 Of course, within the substantive clause is its own subject (\"Hamlet\") and verb (\"treated\").<\/p>\n Similarly, a substantive clause can be an indirect object (#7), the object of a preposition (#8), or the subject of an infinitive (#9).<\/p>\n In each of these, the entire substantive clause acts as a noun and fulfills some \"noun role\" in the main sentence; furthermore, inside each substantive clause is the clause's own subject and verb.\u00a0 (The relative pronouns \"whoever\" and \"whatever\" are the subjects of the substantive clauses in #7 and #9, respectively.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Above, I cited the rough-and-ready rule --- when a substantive clause is the subject of a sentence, it is generally construed as singular and takes a singular verb.\u00a0 It's unlikely you will see substantive clause used as subject at all on the real GMAT, and if even you do, you probably could just ignore the exception, choose the singular verb automatically, and you would be right 99% of the time.\u00a0 Yes, there is an exception I will discuss, but first of all be aware: it is exceedingly unlike that a SC question on a live GMAT would ever stray into this territory.\u00a0 For all intents and purposes, the discussion of this exception is \"grammar beyond the GMAT.\"<\/p>\n Here's the exception.\u00a0 If the substantive clause begins with a relative pronoun ----\u00a0who, whom, what, where, whoever, whomever, whatever, wherever<\/em>\u00a0--- then whether the clause is singular or plural depends on whether the relative pronoun itself is understood as singular or plural.<\/p>\n 10) What annoys me\u00a0is\u00a0all the noise during the movie.<\/p>\n 11) What annoy me\u00a0are\u00a0all the people who talk during the movie.<\/p>\n In #10, the relative pronoun is understood as singular, and thus the entire substantive clause is construed as singular: that's why both verbs (\"annoys\", \"is\") are singular.\u00a0 In #11, the relative pronoun is understood as plural, and thus the entire substantive clause is construed as plural: that's why both verbs (\"annoy\", \"are\") are plural.<\/p>\n 12) Whoever broke into your house in broad daylight ____ incredibly brazen.<\/p>\n Should this question have the singular \"was\" or the plural \"were\"?\u00a0 That depends on whether we think one person or multiple people participated in this daylight break-in.\u00a0 There absolutely no clue in the sentence that would help us to determine this (hence, this absolutely could not be a GMAT SC question!)\u00a0 We would have to know or infer from context in order to determine the correct verb to use.<\/p>\n Once again, this exception, while fascinating in and of itself, is far beyond anything you are even remotely likely to see on the GMAT.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You don't need to remember the terminology, such as \"substantive clause\", but you do need to recognize the grammar and sort it out on GMAT Sentence Correction.\u00a0 Having read this article, take another look at those two practice questions before reading the solutions below.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1) The entire first part of the sentence \"Why the various \u2026. against Robert E. Lee\" is a giant substantive clause.\u00a0 This clause is the subject of the sentence, and as such, requires a singular verb\u00a0 ---- \"is\" instead of \"are.\"\u00a0 (A) & (B) are out right away.\u00a0 The phrase \"debated about\" is awkward and not idiomatic, so (C) is wrong.\u00a0 This comes down to\u00a0a \"less\" vs. \"fewer\" distinction<\/a>\u00a0---- one of my favorites!\u00a0 We are talking about \"historically oriented journals\", and journals are discrete countable items. One can count how many journals one is reading, or how many feature this ongoing Civil War debate.\u00a0 We would say \"how\u00a0many\u00a0journals\" --- using \"how much\" instead of \"how many\" would clearly be wrong.\u00a0 For countable nouns, \u00a0nouns for which we would ask \"how many?\" instead of \"how much?\", we have to use \"fewer.\"\u00a0 The phrase \"no fewer than five hundred historically oriented journals\" is perfectly correct, and the phrase\u00a0 \"no less than five hundred historically oriented journals\", while it may\u00a0sound<\/em>\u00a0correct, is dead wrong.\u00a0\u00a0 The answer must be\u00a0(D)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0 This is a complicated sentence! There are at least three different layers of grammar of which to keep track here.\u00a0 First of all, there is a gargantuan substantive clause, \"That the Fifth Lateran Council \u2026 the Protestant Reformation\": this is the subject of the whole sentence, and requires singular verb, the main verb of the entire sentence.<\/p>\n Within this monstrosity of a substantive clause, there's a main subject of the clause (\"the Fifth Lateran Council\"), a main verb of the clause (\"could have avoided\"), and two subordinate clauses nested within it.<\/p>\n The first subordinate clause nested inside the substantive clause is the large \u00a0hypothetical<\/a>\u00a0clause (\"had it addressed \u2026. Western Europe\").\u00a0 The second subordinate clause is a relatively short\u00a0adjectival clause<\/a>\u00a0(\"that led to the Protestant Reformation\"), a\u00a0restrictive clause<\/a>, modifying the noun \"events.\"<\/p>\n First of all, in the overall sentence, the enormous substantive clause is the subject and requires singular verb.\u00a0 Only (A) has the singular verb \"causes\" ---- (B) & (C) have the plural verb \"cause\", and in (D) & (E) there's actually no verb at all in the main sentence.<\/p>\n Furthermore, within the hypothetical clause beginning with \"had\" or \"if\", the subject is a pronoun.\u00a0 The antecedent of the pronoun is \"the Fifth Lateral Council\", which is singular.\u00a0 This needs to take singular pronouns: it and its.\u00a0 This is a mistake the GMAT loves --- using plural pronouns (\"they\", \"their\") for a singular collective noun.\u00a0 Yes, there were many people participating in the Fifth Lateral Council, but the entity itself, the Fifth Lateral Council, was a singular event.\u00a0 GMAT loves to bait test-takers with this mistake.\u00a0 (B) & (C) & (D) make this mistake.<\/p>\n Also, within the epic substantive clause, the main subject of the clause is \"the Fifth Lateral Council\", followed by a long \"if\" clause, followed by the main verb of the clause.\u00a0 Answer choices (C) & (D) & (E) all make another classic GMAT mistake, a pattern of the form:<\/p>\n The main subject of the clause (\"the Fifth Lateral Council\") is directly the subject of the main verb of the clause (\"could have avoided\") --- we don't need the extra pronoun (\"they\" or \"it\") in front of that verb.\u00a0 The GMAT loves to stick a large modifying clause between the subject and the verb because, with so many words intervening, people not reading carefully will not see the connection between the subject and the verb, and will mistakenly think the verb needs a pronoun subject directly in front of it.\u00a0 Beware of this common GMAT SC mistake.<\/p>\n For a variety of reason, (B) & (C) & (D) & (E) are all wrong.\u00a0 Answer =\u00a0(A)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This post was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at Magoosh<\/a>, and originally posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Understand this very tricky grammatical structure for GMAT Sentence Correction. Practice Question First, give these two SC questions a try. 1) Why the various Generals of the Army of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,783,243,719,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-magoosh-blog","category-blog","category-sentence-correction-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14786"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14884,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14786\/revisions\/14884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/files\/2012\/10\/sc_img1.png\" "\\"sc_img1\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSubstantive Clauses<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSubstantive clauses and subject-verb agreement<\/h2>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
Practice question explanations<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n