![\"GMAT](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2020\/02\/mprep-blogimages-wave1-48-e1582925278852.png\")
<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nBefore we talk about grammar, let\u2019s talk about music.\u00a0 Trust me. I\u2019ll bring it back.<\/span><\/p>\n When I turned 30, I started taking piano lessons.\u00a0 Beyond a vague recollection of butchering \u201cHot Cross Buns\u201d on a plastic recorder in third grade, I\u2019d never had any musical training whatsoever.\u00a0 I quickly discovered that music isn\u2019t just about pressing buttons at the right time to make the notes come out; it\u2019s also about learning to listen for rhythms, harmonies, and intervals between notes.\u00a0 When you learn to notice these things, you start hearing them everywhere and wondering how you ever missed them. Better yet, you start to notice your own musical successes and mistakes before someone else points them out to you.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But here\u2019s the challenge: how do you listen for a note out of place if you never had 4\/4 time signature ingrained in your skull to begin with?\u00a0 My piano teacher will tell you that it\u2019s simple \u2013 that you need to start with a metronome and listen to it tick so closely that its relentless tick follows you around even when you sleep.\u00a0 Okay, okay, he didn\u2019t say it quite like that, but still\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s bring it back to the test at hand.\u00a0 In any GMAT course I\u2019ve taught, it\u2019s only a matter of time before I have students say something like: \u201cThat choice doesn\u2019t sound right,\u201d or \u201cI like the way that one feels.\u201d Such students are using their \u201cear\u201d the same way a musician does, instinctively sensing when something is off or not.\u00a0 This comes up throughout the test, but I sense it most acutely when we work on sentence correction questions (the ones where you fix the badly written sentences).<\/span><\/p>\n If there were such a thing as a \u201cgrammar metronome\u201d it would be an incredibly helpful tool for spotting these missed beats.\u00a0 But English isn\u2019t so regular. And you often can\u2019t get by just by picking whichever choice \u201csounds best.\u201d When the questions get tougher, all the sentences might sound terrible.\u00a0 Worse yet, the shortest, snappiest choice might be the most egregiously wrong. Therein lies the challenge: how do we train our ears to spot the mistakes that come up time and time again on the GMAT?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the remainder of this blog entry, we will work to develop that \u201cgrammar metronome\u201d by examining five grammar rules that none of us follow anyway \u2013 at least in conversational English.\u00a0 Unless you spend all day hanging out with that annoying guy who refuses to end a sentence in a preposition, you likely hear these rules violated just about as often as you hear them followed.\u00a0 In fact, each of the bold statements below contains a mistake. Try to spot them before I point them out to you.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve already committed one grave error. Unless you\u2019re deep into your GMAT studies, I bet you missed it. \u00a0 In the sentence above, examine the word \u201cwhich.\u201d What does it refer to? The word \u201cwhich\u201d is a pronoun. It needs to refer to a thing \u2013 a noun.\u00a0 I challenge you to find that noun in the sentence above.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not \u201cI.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not \u201cword.\u201d\u00a0 Neither of those on its own would lead me to believe that you too are a grammar-rule-flouter.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bigger idea, my misuse of the word, that makes me think you break the rule as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To fix this one, give \u201cwhich\u201d something to refer to or eliminate it entirely:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI often misuse this word, leading me to think that you might too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI often misuse this word, which you probably misuse too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Found it?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That first phrase \u2013 \u201calmost unnoticeable\u201d is a description \u2013 an \u201copening modifier\u201d in GMAT lingo.\u00a0 What is it describing?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Presumably, I meant it to describe the mistake. It\u2019s the mistake that\u2019s unnoticeable.\u00a0 That said, the placement of the phrase is important. Unfortunately, it\u2019s closest to the word \u201cI.\u201d \u00a0 If \u201cI\u201d were unnoticeable, I\u2019d make a great cat burglar. This sentence isn\u2019t about me sneaking about through the night thieving valuables, though.\u00a0 It\u2019s about a mistake that\u2019s hard to notice.<\/span><\/p>\n To fix this one, place the noun to be modified right next to the opening modifier:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAlmost unnoticeable, this mistake crops up often in conversation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n How\u2019s that ear training going?\u00a0 Did you take a second to look for this one before I point it out to you?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBeing\u201d is a problematic word on the GMAT.\u00a0 Whenever I see it, my ears perk up in anticipation of something awry.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s necessarily a mistake, it just cues me to look for one.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the problem with \u201cbeing\u201d in this instance. It\u2019s unnecessary. If a word does not contribute to the sentence in any way, get rid of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the olden days, some instructors supposedly told their students to hunt for any instance of the word \u201cbeing\u201d and cross out any answer choice that used it.\u00a0 I really doubt anyone gave such overreaching advice, but whatever the case, don\u2019t go to this extreme. There are plenty of instances in which the GMAT question-writers use this word correctly.\u00a0 Like a note out of key or played on an off-beat, it might just be part of the music. The problem is when it\u2019s unnecessary.<\/span><\/p>\n The sentence works just fine without \u201cbeing,\u201d so cut it out:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA common error, this one might slip past you too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As the sentence states, this one has to do with a botched comparison.\u00a0 If you need a hint, think about this popular (and correctly written) phrase:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDo as I say, not as I do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Do you notice the difference between that phrase and the one in the bold sentence above it?\u00a0 I used the word \u201clike\u201d instead of the word \u201cas.\u201d This rule is simple: \u201clike\u201d compares two things, \u201cas\u201d compares two actions.<\/span><\/p>\n To fix this sentence, then, we have a couple of options:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDo as I do, and you\u2019ll be butchering your comparisons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWrite sentences like this one, and you\u2019ll be butchering your comparisons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The sentence itself is another good hint here.\u00a0 Do you spot an adjective that should be an adverb? Both words are modifiers \u2013 they describe something else in the sentence.\u00a0 Adjectives describe nouns. Adverbs describe verbs and some other stuff. In this sentence, the adjective \u201cinterchangeable\u201d should be an adverb. \u201cInterchangeably\u201d describes the way we use the words, not the words themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This error might seem simple enough here, but there are numerous examples in English where adjectives and adverbs are so similar that they do in fact seem to be interchangeable:<\/span><\/p>\n Bad & Badly<\/span><\/p>\n Interchangeable & Interchangeably<\/span><\/p>\n Slower & More slowly<\/span><\/p>\n Such words are often mistakenly swapped in conversational English.\u00a0 In the GMAT, they come up often in comparison questions too.<\/span><\/p>\n To fix this one, you\u2019ve again got a couple of options:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAdjectives and adverbs sometimes have similar forms that we use interchangeably.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAdjectives and adverbs sometimes have seemingly interchangeable forms that we use mistakenly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Knowing your grammar is a crucial piece of GMAT mastery.\u00a0 No, you won\u2019t ever have to conjugate a verb, identify a gerund, or label the independent and dependent clauses in a sentence. Regardless, you do need to know the rules well enough to spot the good grammar and cross out the bad.\u00a0 When you\u2019re writing emails, surfing your news feed, or chatting with your friends, take a moment to notice the grammar. If you start spotting these mistakes \u201cin the wild,\u201d so to speak, your ears will learn to perk up whenever you see them.\u00a0 If you train your ears, you\u2019ll spot them quickly on the GMAT, where seconds are precious and you want every point you can get.\\<\/span><\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0<\/strong>“I’m Bad at Grammar” and Other Lies You Tell Yourself<\/a><\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Tom Anderson<\/i><\/b><\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY.<\/i><\/b> He has a B.A. in English and an M.S. in education. Tom started his teaching career as a\u00a0 New York City Teaching Fellow and is currently a Math for America Fellow. Outside of teaching the GRE and the GMAT, he is an avid runner who once (very unexpectedly) won a marathon. <\/span><\/i>Check our Tom\u2019s upcoming GRE prep offerings here.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Music and the GMAT Before we talk about grammar, let\u2019s talk about music.\u00a0 Trust me. I\u2019ll bring it back. When I turned 30, I started taking piano lessons.\u00a0 Beyond a vague recollection of butchering \u201cHot Cross Buns\u201d on a plastic recorder in third grade, I\u2019d never had any musical training whatsoever.\u00a0 I quickly discovered that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52871],"tags":[233,267,57650],"yst_prominent_words":[57646,57647,57645,57638,57636,57635,57649,57648,53635,57538,57637,53681,57618,57639,57640,57631,57630,55504,53674,56611],"class_list":["post-18680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat-strategies","tag-gmat","tag-gmat-grammar","tag-gmat-grammar-mistakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18683,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18680\/revisions\/18683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18680"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Common GMAT Grammar Mistake #1: I often misuse this word, which leads me to believe that you might too.<\/b><\/h4>\n
Common GMAT Grammar Mistake #2: Almost unnoticeable, I hear this mistake made all the time in conversation.<\/b><\/h4>\n
Common GMAT Grammar Mistake #3: Being a common error, this one might slip past you too.<\/b><\/h4>\n
Common GMAT Grammar Mistake #4: Do like I do, and you\u2019ll be butchering your comparisons.<\/b><\/h4>\n
Common GMAT Grammar Mistake #5: Adjectives and adverbs sometimes have similar forms that we use interchangeable.<\/b><\/h4>\n
Retrain your Ear<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n![\"tom](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2020\/01\/tom-anderson-gre-hacks.png\")
<\/p>\n