![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/spl022371-150x150.jpg\" "\\"spl022371\\"")
First of all, try this GMAT Sentence Correction practice problem.<\/p>\nFirst of all, try this GMAT Sentence Correction practice problem.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1) Knocked from the asteroid belt, an asteroid that comes close to Earth may be captured by Earth's gravitational field, ultimately\u00a0spiraling inward and, fully consumed during its fiery descent through the atmosphere while being a \"falling star\", or is redirected\u00a0at high speeds along a new trajectory.<\/p>\n
A full explanation of this question will come at the end of this post.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An\u00a0auxiliary verb<\/strong>, sometimes called a\u00a0helping verb<\/strong>, is a verb that comes before a main \"action\" verb to indicate tense or some other verb quality.\u00a0\u00a0 Here is an assortment of different auxiliary verbs with the verb \"to sing\" (I deliberately chose a verb that would have a different spelling in the past tense vs. the past participle).\u00a0 \u00a0All auxiliary verbs are underlined.<\/p>\n 1) I sing X. (simple present tense)<\/p>\n 2) I sang X.\u00a0 (simple past tense)<\/p>\n 3) I\u00a0will\u00a0sing X.\u00a0 (simple future tense)<\/p>\n 4) I\u00a0am\u00a0singing X. (present\u00a0progressive<\/a>\u00a0tense)<\/p>\n 5) I\u00a0was\u00a0singing X. (past progressive tense)<\/p>\n 6) I\u00a0will be\u00a0singing X. (future progressive tense)<\/p>\n 7) I\u00a0have\u00a0sung X. (present\u00a0perfect<\/a>\u00a0tense)<\/p>\n 8.) I\u00a0had\u00a0sung X. (past perfect tense)<\/p>\n 9) I\u00a0will have\u00a0sung X. (future perfect tense)<\/p>\n 10) I\u00a0have been\u00a0singing X.\u00a0 (present perfect progressive tense)<\/p>\n 11) I\u00a0had been\u00a0singing X.\u00a0 (past perfect progressive tense)<\/p>\n 12) I\u00a0may\u00a0sing X. (expresses permission or hypothetical possibility)<\/p>\n 13) I\u00a0may be\u00a0singing X.\u00a0 (subjunctive mood<\/a>, present progressive tense)<\/p>\n 14) I\u00a0might have\u00a0sung.\u00a0 (subjunctive mood, present perfect tense)<\/p>\n 15) I\u00a0can\u00a0sing X. (expresses ability)<\/p>\n 16) I\u00a0could\u00a0sing X. (expresses hypothetical ability, ability under certain circumstances)<\/p>\n 17) I\u00a0could have\u00a0sung X.\u00a0 (hypothetical ability in the past)<\/p>\n 18) I\u00a0would\u00a0sing X. (subjunctive mood, future tense)<\/p>\n 19) I\u00a0would have\u00a0sung X. (subjunctive mood, past tense)<\/p>\n 20) I\u00a0should\u00a0sing X.\u00a0 (expresses strong expectations)<\/p>\n 21) I\u00a0should have\u00a0sung X.\u00a0 (strong expectations in the past)<\/p>\n 22) I\u00a0must\u00a0sing.\u00a0 (expresses necessity)<\/p>\n 23) I\u00a0must have\u00a0sung.\u00a0 (necessity in the past)<\/p>\n 24) I\u00a0do\u00a0sing X.\u00a0 (expressive affirmative emphasis)<\/p>\n 25) I\u00a0did\u00a0sing X.\u00a0 (affirmative emphasis in the past)<\/p>\n I will not guarantee that this is an exhaustively complete list, but this certainly accounts for the vast majority of auxiliary verbs you will see on the GMAT.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The\u00a0number<\/strong>\u00a0of a verb concerns whether the verb is in the\u00a0singular or plural<\/strong>.\u00a0 In practice, the number of a verb only matters in the third-person.\u00a0 Consider the present tense of the verb \"go\":<\/p>\n This is emblematic for almost all verbs in the present tense: the five cases (first & second persons singular & all three plural cases) are identical, and only the third person singular case differs.\u00a0\u00a0 The only verb in the entire English language that is not identical throughout those former five cases is the highly irregular verb \"to be\" (I\u00a0am, you are, he is, we are<\/em>, \u2026).\u00a0\u00a0 Notice that most of the topics on the GMAT Sentence Correction are academic topics, say science or business, and essentially every sentence on the Sentence Correction section will be in the third person, in which verb number matters.<\/p>\n Notice, also, that unlike virtually all ordinary verb, many auxiliary verbs (will<\/em>,\u00a0can<\/em>,\u00a0may<\/em>,\u00a0should<\/em>,\u00a0could<\/em>,\u00a0would<\/em>, etc.) are identical in all six cases and show no difference in form from third person singular to third person plural.\u00a0 Only a few auxiliary verbs (is\/are, has\/have, does\/do<\/em>) change form when number changes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When an ordinary verb is preceded by one or more auxiliary verbs,\u00a0only the first verb in the sequence would change<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0form for a change in number.\u00a0\u00a0 Only the first verb would show singular or plural, and if the first verb is an auxiliary verb that, like most auxiliary verbs, doesn't change form with number, then nothing about the verb will reflect a change in number.\u00a0 Here are some examples of singular\/plural pairs in a variety of different forms.<\/p>\n 1a) He will go.<\/p>\n 1b) They will go.<\/p>\n 2a) He can go.<\/p>\n 2b) They can go.<\/p>\n 3a) He had gone.<\/p>\n 3b) They had gone.<\/p>\n 4a) He would have gone.<\/p>\n 4b) They would have gone.<\/p>\n 5a) He will be going.<\/p>\n 5b) They will be going.<\/p>\n 6a) He does not go.<\/p>\n 6b) They do not go.<\/p>\n 7a) He has gone.<\/p>\n 7b) They have gone.<\/p>\n 8a) He is going.<\/p>\n 8b) They are going.<\/p>\n 9a) He was going.<\/p>\n 9b) They were going.<\/p>\n 10a) He has been going.<\/p>\n 10b) They have been going.<\/p>\n In examples #1-5, the leading verb was identical in both the singular and plural, so the entire verb has the same form in the singular and the plural.\u00a0 In examples #6-10, the leading verb changes with changes in number, but everything after the leading verb remains the same.<\/p>\n A technical note: in #1, #2, and #6, the verb \"go\" is not in the present tense plural form, but in something called the\u00a0infinitive form<\/strong>, the form the verb would take after the word \"to\" in an infinitive.\u00a0\u00a0The infinitive form is the main form of any verb<\/em>: all verbs are listed in the dictionary by their infinitive form.\u00a0\u00a0 For most ordinary verbs on the planet, the infinitive form is identical to the third person present plural (to do, they do<\/em>;\u00a0to have, they have<\/em>; etc.); in fact there is only one verb in the entire language which is an exception to this rule:\u00a0to be\u00a0<\/em>vs.\u00a0they are<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As well all know, parallel structure is one of the GMAT's favorite syntactical forms.\u00a0\u00a0 On any GMAT Verbal section, at least half of the Sentence Correction questions will involve some kind of parallel structure.<\/p>\n Parallel structure can make the above rules about auxiliary verbs & number harder to follow.\u00a0 For example, consider this form of a sentence<\/p>\n [singular subject] may not only have X (modifier)(subordinate clause) but also (\"do\"\/\"does\") Y.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Suppose part of the split in a GMAT Sentence Correction question is determining the number (\"do\" vs. \"does\") for that verb after the \"but also\".\u00a0\u00a0 The mistake folks will make is to look back at the singular subject and think --- well, if it's a singular subject, the verb has to be singular as well: \"does\".\u00a0 That's a mistake, because the auxiliary verb \"may\", before the \"not only\", applies to both terms --- \"may not only P but also Q\".\u00a0\u00a0 Common words outside the parallel structure apply to both terms.\u00a0 The first verb, \"have\", technically is\u00a0not\u00a0in the\u00a0plural\u00a0form but in the\u00a0infinitive\u00a0form, because it follows the auxiliary verb \"may\".\u00a0 Therefore, the second verb also must be in the infinitive form, \"do.\"\u00a0 If you notice, the practice Sentence Correction question at the head of this article has precisely this kind of split!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Having read this article and noticed this hint, go back to that sentence and give it another try before reading the solutions below.\u00a0 Here's another practice Sentence Correction question that, in testing different tenses, involves a variety of auxiliary verbs.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0https:\/\/gmat.magoosh.com\/questions\/3227<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1)\u00a0Split #1: the parallelism involving auxiliary verbs & number.\u00a0 Eliminating the fluff, we have \"an asteroid \u2026 may be \u2026 or (?)\"\u00a0 Singular subject, so folks will be tempted to put a singular verb, \"is\" or \"was\", after the word \"or.\"\u00a0 Both parts of the \"or\" structure are under the same hypothetical structure: the asteroid\u00a0may do\u00a0one thing\u00a0or<\/strong>\u00a0may do\u00a0the other thing.\u00a0\u00a0 The word \"may\" is not repeated, because there is no need to repeat common words in parallel structure, but following that auxiliary verb, we need the infinitive form --- not \"is\" or \"was\", but \"be.\"\u00a0 Only choices\u00a0(D)<\/strong>\u00a0&\u00a0(E)<\/strong>\u00a0are correct on this split.<\/p>\n Split #2: \"during\" vs. \"while\".\u00a0 The word \"during\" is a\u00a0preposition<\/strong>, and need be followed only by a noun as its object: \"during its fiery descent\" is a complete prepositional phrase.\u00a0\u00a0 The word \"while\" is a\u00a0subordinate conjunction<\/strong>, which must be followed by a full [noun]+[verb] clause: choices\u00a0(B)<\/strong>\u00a0&\u00a0(C)<\/strong>\u00a0use the word \"when\", but neither of these have a bonafide [noun]+[verb] structure following the word \"when\", so both of those are incorrect.<\/p>\n Split #3: look at what follows the word \"atmosphere\", the part that discusses the idea of a \"falling star\"<\/p>\n (A)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026 while being a \"falling star\"<\/p>\n (B)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026 to be a \"falling star\"<\/p>\n (C)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026 as a \"falling star\"<\/p>\n (D)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026to act like a \"falling star\"<\/p>\n (E)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026 as a \"falling star\"<\/p>\n The first phrase, \"while being\", is an atrocious abomination --- that would never be correct on the GMAT.\u00a0\u00a0(A)<\/strong>\u00a0is wrong.\u00a0 An infinitive \"to be\" could be correct, but we would need something before this either\u00a0to require the infinitive<\/a>\u00a0or at least to set up the infinitive, and nothing does this, so the\u00a0(B)<\/strong>\u00a0is wrong.\u00a0 The concise structure \"as a falling star\" is perfectly acceptable, so\u00a0(C)<\/strong>\u00a0&\u00a0(E)<\/strong>\u00a0handle this correctly.\u00a0\u00a0 Choice\u00a0(D)<\/strong>\u00a0involves\u00a0a very interesting idiom<\/a>: \"act like\" ---- idiomatically, the verb \"to act like\" means the agent consciously chooses to imitate something.\u00a0 People can \"act like\" something, and arguable even some intelligent animals can \"act like\" something, but inanimate objects can't.\u00a0 The correct idiom for inanimate objects is \"act as\", which is not option in this sentence, and would change the meaning anyway.\u00a0 The idiom \"act like\" is incorrect in this context, so\u00a0(D)<\/strong>\u00a0is wrong.<\/p>\n Split #4: participle parallelism.\u00a0 Choices\u00a0(C)<\/strong>\u00a0&\u00a0(E)<\/strong>\u00a0correctly have two participles in parallel: \"spiraling \u2026 and being fully consumed \u2026\"\u00a0 That's correct. \u00a0The other three choices put a comma after \"and\", turning \"fully consumed\" into a modifier, which creates the bizarre structure \"spiraling \u2026 and, [modifying phrase], or\" which is awkward and incorrect.<\/p>\n The only possible answer is\u00a0(E)<\/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":" First of all, try this GMAT Sentence Correction practice problem. 1) Knocked from the asteroid belt, an asteroid that comes close to Earth may be captured by Earth’s gravitational…<\/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-16455","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\/16455","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=16455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16458,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16455\/revisions\/16458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Verb Number<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/files\/2013\/01\/avan_img1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNumber and Auxiliary Verbs<\/h2>\n
A curveball: parallelism<\/h2>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
Practice question explanation<\/h2>\n