What this skill covers
This is the ACT's largest English category, covering subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, verb tense consistency, and punctuation (commas, apostrophes, semicolons) used correctly.
A reliable check for agreement questions: cross out any prepositional phrase between the subject and the verb (like "of the students") — what's left is the true subject the verb must agree with.
Worked examples
Example 1
Which choice is correct? "Each of the students have submitted their assignment."
A. Each of the students has submitted the assignment.
B. Each of the students have submitted the assignment.
C. Each of the students having submitted the assignment.
D. Each of the students were submitting the assignment.
Why: "Each" is singular no matter how many students follow it, so "has" is required, not "have".
Example 2
Choose the correctly punctuated sentence.
A. The report, which took three weeks to finish, impressed the board.
B. The report which took three weeks to finish, impressed the board.
C. The report, which took three weeks to finish impressed the board.
D. The report which took three weeks to finish impressed, the board.
Why: A nonessential clause ("which took three weeks to finish") needs a comma on both sides, matching how it is set off in the sentence.
How to practice this on TSI Practice Prep
Open ACT Practice to answer original ACT questions on aCT Conventions of Standard English, get an explanation for every choice, and see this skill tracked separately in your progress and mistake review.
Practice score estimates are learning indicators, not official scores or admission guarantees.
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