Tips For Toefl Grammar

Tips for the Toefl Exam q q

q qListening Comprehension qStructure and Written Expression qReading Comprehension. q 

General TOEFL strategies Use your time wisely. Get familiar with the instructions before taking

the TOEFL so that you will not have to waste time reading them. If you do not know the answer to a question, guess. There is no penalty for guessing. Unmarked answers will be counted as wrong. Mark your answer sheet very carefully. Do not write in your test booklet. 

Grammar structure strategies Tips for the TOEFL exam

Structure and Written Expressions Time: 25 minutes 40 questions in two subsections Structure (15 questions). You choose

gramatically correct sentence completions for sentences with missing parts. Written Expressions (25 questions). You choose the incorrect segments in complete sentences. 

P R E S E N T PA R T IC IP LE S A p re se n t p a rticip le is th e - in g fo rm o f a ve rb . T h e p re se n t p a rticip le ca n b e ( 1 ) p a rt o f th e ve rb o r ( 2 ) a n d a d je ctive . It is p a rt o f th e ve rb w h e n it is a cco m p a n ie d b y so m e fo rm o f th e ve rb b e . e . g . T h e w o m a n w a s in trig u in g a g a in st h e r h u sb a n d It is a n a d je ctive w h e n it is n o t a cco m p a n ie d b y so m e fo rm o f th e ve rb b e . e . g . th e in trig u in g w o m a n w a s a m iste ry.

PA S T PA R T IC IP LE A p a st p a rticip le o fte n e n d s in –e d b u t th e re a re a lso m a n y irre g u la r p a st p a rticip le s. ( p la ye d , ta u g h t) T h e –e d fo rm o f th e ve rb ca n b e ( 1 ) th e sim p le p a st, ( 2 ) th e p a st p a rticip le o f a ve rb , o r ( 3 ) a n a d je ctive . e . g . th e fin ish e d ta sk is o n th e d e sk .

COORDINATE CONNECTORS Many sentences have more than one clause (group of words containing subject and verb). One way to connect two clauses is to use: AND, BUT, OR, or SO between the sentences.

When you analize a sentence, first identify the verb, if there is no verb in the main sentence, you have to choose the answer that contains the correct form of the verb needed. Once you identify the verb, ask a wh...question of the verb. This will locate the subject

Subject-verb agreement.- the subject must agree with the verb of a sentence in two ways: in number (singular vs. plural) or in person ( first, second or third person). Be aware that some times there are prepositional phrases (distractors) .  Pronoun-noun agreement.- a pronoun needs to agree with the noun in term of number and gender.  Parallelism principle requieres that expressions of similar content and function should be similar. Comparison.- make sure to things always.

compare the same

Be sure that the sentence has a subject and a verb Be careful of objects of prepositions because they can be mistaken for the subject of the sentence. The object of the preposition is a noun or a pronoun that comes after a preposition such as: in, at, on, of, to, by, behind, etc, to form a prepositional phrase. Be careful of appositives. An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and has the same meaning. Appositives can be left out the phrase and it still makes sense.

Be careful of present participles: they can either be as part of the verb or an adjective Be careful

of past participles

Use coordinate connectors correctly: and, but, so, or, yet Parallel structure

Invert the subject and verb with question words Invert the subject and verb with negatives Subject verb agreement Subject    

verb agreement