**All of SAT Grammar in 37 Minutes (2026) — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/sat-grammar-complete-37-minutes/

Master all SAT grammar question types in 37 minutes with clear strategies on clauses, punctuation, and verbs to boost your test confidence.

## Key Takeaways

- SAT grammar questions rely on recognizing fixed patterns, not deep grammar knowledge.
- Mastering clause types and punctuation rules significantly improves accuracy.
- Focus on identifying subjects, main verbs, and clause boundaries for punctuation.
- Avoid guessing by learning repeatable methods to spot correct answers.
- The majority of SAT grammar questions involve punctuation and verb agreement.

## What the video covers

- The SAT grammar section is designed with predictable patterns rather than complex English rules.
- There are seven main SAT grammar question types, each testing specific grammar concepts.
- Understanding independent vs dependent clauses is crucial for punctuation questions.
- Independent clauses must have a subject, a main verb (not starting with 'to', 'that', or ending in 'ing'), and no unresolved introductory words (WASABI words).
- Different punctuation marks and conjunctions are used to separate independent and dependent clauses correctly.
- Common SAT grammar questions focus heavily on punctuation and verb usage.
- The video uses Minecraft analogies to simplify grammar concepts like clauses and sentence structure.
- Strategies are provided to quickly identify the correct answers without guessing.
- Examples demonstrate how to evaluate sentence components and apply punctuation rules.
- The video is accessible even to those with little prior grammar knowledge.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction to SAT Grammar Section and Its Patterns
2. 02:12 Understanding Independent and Dependent Clauses
3. 04:24 Punctuation Rules for Separating Clauses
4. 06:26 Examples of Clause Identification and Punctuation
5. 08:36 Lists and Interjections in SAT Grammar
6. 13:08 Using Semicolons and Transitional Phrases
7. 19:46 Verb Agreement and Tense Rules
8. 22:44 Possessives and Final Tips for the SAT Grammar Section

Answers

## Questions about this video

What is the main strategy for tackling SAT grammar questions?

The main strategy is to recognize the limited number of question types and focus on identifying patterns, such as clause types and punctuation rules, rather than treating questions like traditional English grammar.

How can I tell if a clause is independent or dependent?

An independent clause has a subject, a main verb that does not start with 'to', 'that', or end in 'ing', and no unresolved introductory words (WASABI words). If any of these are missing, the clause is dependent.

What punctuation should be used between two independent clauses?

Two independent clauses can be separated by a period, a semicolon, or a comma followed by a FANBOYS conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

Here's the truth almost nobody tells you about the SAT grammar section. It's literally rigged in your favor. You just have to know what you're looking at in the first place. Most people go into SAT grammar questions treating them like

00:11

Speaker A

English class. They look at every question and think, "Does this feel right?" as if they're trying to analyze some kind of 19th-century passage. And this is why people who think they know grammar still miss these questions. Here's what's really going

00:23

Speaker A

on. The grammar section of the SAT is not a core memory test. It's a pattern game with tiny fixed moves. There are only a handful of question types on the entire section, and each one is testing one specific thing. Once you can spot

00:36

Speaker A

exactly which type of problem you're looking at, the answer is usually really, really easy to find. It's not buried in the sentence, but just in the differences between the four choices.

00:45

Speaker A

So, that's this video. By the end of this, you're going to have one repeatable way to look at every single grammar question type on the SAT so you stop guessing between two answers and just know what is automatically right.

00:56

Speaker A

We're going to be spending a bunch of time especially on those punctuation questions and the verb questions.

01:00

Speaker A

They're the ones that make up the majority of the test and that you're probably struggling on the most. It doesn't matter if you've never studied grammar in your life, you're still going to learn a ton of stuff in this video,

01:08

Speaker A

and by the time you're done, you'll probably be able to answer every single grammar question you see. So, get rid of the brain rot on your screen and lock in. There are seven different grammar question types on the SAT. You don't

01:18

Speaker A

need to memorize what each of these mean because we're going to go through each one in this video. The first big section you need to understand is boundaries.

01:25

Speaker A

These are all the grammar questions that involve punctuation to make sentences make sense. So, stuff like commas, semicolons, periods, colons, that's all covered in this. The first thing you really need to understand is this thing called an independent clause. Basically,

01:39

Speaker A

what an independent clause is is a group of words that can exist entirely on their own. It's kind of like a fully fortified fortress in Minecraft. It's completely protected from creepers, you don't need to worry about it falling

01:50

Speaker A

apart, and it just works. It's like this sentence, "The remix went viral." We don't need any other words for that sentence to work completely fine on its own. Meanwhile, a dependent clause is kind of like a Minecraft castle made of

02:02

Speaker A

sand. If you just get rid of one block, a bunch of the stuff is going to start falling apart, and it might just ruin the entire structure. It's like these words, after the remix went viral. Like, you feel like you need to have some kind

02:12

Speaker A

of finishing thing for that sentence. You need to have some kind of closing argument to make that sentence make sense. You can probably just tell that.

02:18

Speaker A

But, the truth is, many students need a real framework for evaluating this stuff. That's what I'm about to show you. There are three things that an independent clause must have. Literally, if they're missing even a single one of

02:29

Speaker A

these, it is just automatically not an independent clause. It's automatically dependent in that case. First, it must have a subject. A subject is just the thing that does the action. So, back to Minecraft again, the subject could be

02:41

Speaker A

Steve. Second, it must have a main verb. To put it simply, a main verb is the key action that the subject is performing.

02:48

Speaker A

Now, I'll give some examples of this in a second to make them make more sense, but also you should know that these main verbs can never start with the word to, they can never start with the word that,

02:56

Speaker A

and they never can end with ing. If you ever see any of these three things, you just know automatically that it is not a main verb, and you're going to have to find something else. Now, another important distinction, all I'm saying is

03:07

Speaker A

that the sentence must have at least one main verb. It can have other verbs as well that are not main verbs, but at least one has to be clearly a main verb.

03:15

Speaker A

And then finally, it can't have any wasabi word at the beginning of it. So, you can't have while, after, since, although, because, if, or just anything else that you can tell sounds kind of unresolved at the beginning of the

03:27

Speaker A

clause. Again, I'll give some examples of this in a second. If the clause has all of these three things, it is definitely an independent clause. But, if it's missing a single one, it's automatically dependent. Here's just a quick table you can use to evaluate

03:40

Speaker A

combinations of independent clauses and independent and dependent clauses. Basically, what this means is when you have two independent clauses, you can separate them with either a period, a semicolon, or a comma followed by for, and, nor, but or yet or so. Meanwhile,

03:54

Speaker A

if you have an independent clause and a dependent clause, you can only separate those with either a comma or literally nothing at all. Plus, you can use a colon, a dash, or parentheses just to separate either of the two categories.

04:06

Speaker A

The easiest way to think about this is to pretend like these are like diamond armor. Period, semicolons, and commas and FANBOYS are kind of like stronger ways of separating sentences in the same way that diamond armor is a stronger

04:18

Speaker A

form of armor. Meanwhile, commas and nothing are pretty weak ways to separate two clauses. It's like leather armor.

04:24

Speaker A

And so, if you have something that requires more protection, you must use these stronger things. Just like if you were to go to the Nether, you would have to have something like diamond armor, not just leather. Here's an example. The

04:34

Speaker A

trend looked finished by blank. The non-stop remixes proved otherwise. So, the first thing we should do on this is think is this an independent clause and is this an independent clause. So, let's look at the three different things. The

04:44

Speaker A

trend. Trend would be the subject. Looked is fine as a main verb, and there is no WASABI word at the beginning. So, therefore, this first part would be an independent clause. Then afterwards, the non-stop remixes proved otherwise. So,

04:56

Speaker A

the non-stop remixes, that would be the subject. Proved is the main verb, and again, no WASABI word. So, this would also be an independent clause over there. Now, looking at what we had before, we have to use either a period,

05:05

Speaker A

semicolon, or comma plus FANBOYS to separate them. The only one of those we actually have here would be A. We can't use B because there's no FANBOYS word.

05:13

Speaker A

It's not just a comma we're looking for, it's the entire thing. Same with these.

05:17

Speaker A

We don't have really anything here we can use. We have a FANBOYS word, but no comma. Let's look at this question from Annika. Let us skip the first sentence and start with the second one. They may examine digital reconstructions of

05:26

Speaker A

collapsed blank, participate in a hands-on pottery workshop modeled after ancient techniques. So, this first part here, they may examine digital reconstructions, they would definitely be the subject. Examine would be the main verb, and again, no WASABI word.

05:39

Speaker A

So, that would be an independent clause before. What about after? Participate in the hands-on pottery workshop. You can probably see here there is no subject.

05:45

Speaker A

We don't know what is doing the participation. So, therefore, this automatically would have to be a dependent clause. To separate independent clause and dependent clause, it can be either a comma, nothing. Out of these choices, really the only one

05:56

Speaker A

that we could actually use would have to be nothing, because that's all we really got. This would be independent clause, this would be independent clause, and this would also be independent clause.

06:03

Speaker A

Here's another one. Because many aquatic insects navigate by moonlight, bright water from streetlights can lure them away from breeding marshes, reducing pollination for local blank. A small hood over each lamp keeps most of the light aimed at

06:16

Speaker A

the water. Just to keep it simple, I'll just tell you straight away, this first part would have to be an independent clause, and the second part would also have to be an independent clause. If you're not sure why that is, just check

06:26

Speaker A

it out and you'll see it matches the three rules. So, we know it's got to be either A or it can be C. It definitely cannot be B and definitely cannot be D.

06:33

Speaker A

Between A and C, which one would have to work? Well, it may look really hard here, but it actually must definitely be C, because think about it. If we have the word by here, that would actually be a wasabi word. So, if we have by there,

06:44

Speaker A

it changes this into becoming a dependent clause instead. So, hopefully that makes sense. You can see here, if it then is a dependent clause, we can't be using a semicolon. So, like it kind of contradicts itself if we were to

06:53

Speaker A

choose A for the right answer. Okay, but none of this really matters if you don't know what the different punctuation marks mean in the first place. There are several different punctuation marks you'll see on the SAT, and to be honest,

07:03

Speaker A

you do really need to know what each one means. But thankfully, most of them are pretty simple. The most easy ones to decipher are periods and semicolons, because both of these just fully split two complete thoughts or independent

07:14

Speaker A

clauses. I've already gone over this in the section before, but here's some examples. You're watching this video right now, that means you're not watching Brain Rot. These are both be independent clauses. Same with these two here. I'm just using a semicolon instead

07:25

Speaker A

of a period. Doesn't really matter whether you use a period or a semicolon. The only thing you should know is that if you use a period, there must always be a capitalized word right after it. It has to have capital T rather than

07:35

Speaker A

lowercase. Colons are a little bit more complicated. Basically, when you have a colon used, the left side must promise something, and then the right side of it must deliver or explain that thing. This video has three things: informative,

07:47

Speaker A

educational, and skibbidy. It says that there are three things, it gives a promise in the first half, and then it explains what those three different things actually are. So, we can use a colon to separate the two. It's like if

07:57

Speaker A

I told you I'm going to give you a diamond sword. The left half would be me promising you that I'm about to give you one. The right half would be you actually getting the diamond sword.

08:06

Speaker A

Here's an example: She brought three things, a pen, a notebook, and a plan. Promise and then explanation. But look at this one. Skibbidy is life. The left side is not a complete thought, it doesn't really give a full promise on

08:19

Speaker A

the left side. So, therefore we cannot use a colon to separate these two. Historians agree that printer Elizabeth Lover shaped early American blank.

08:26

Speaker A

Within a year of arriving, she built the first printing press in the colonies. Let's look at this the same way we did before with independent and dependent clauses. So, historians agree, subject, main verb, and no us-abi, so that must

08:36

Speaker A

be an independent clause. If we look at this one though, we have within a year of arriving, and then she built the first printing press in the colonies.

08:42

Speaker A

This part is technically a dependent clause, and then the part after it would be an independent clause. This may look confusing, but it's actually pretty easy to evaluate. Whenever you have both a dependent clause and an independent clause on the same side of the blank,

08:56

Speaker A

you just treat the entire thing as one big independent clause. So, we would basically have two independent clauses here, even though it doesn't look like it. Okay, so there are two independent clauses, it cannot be A, and it

09:05

Speaker A

definitely cannot be B. We're stuck between C and D. one question we have to ask ourselves here is is the part on the right explaining or delivering on what was said on the left? Well, it really is, because it's saying here that this

09:17

Speaker A

person shaped American publishing, and then basically explains how she did it. It explains how she built the very first printing press in the colonies. That's how she shaped American publishing. So, therefore a colon would completely fine for this one. A semicolon could be okay,

09:30

Speaker A

but if you're between a semicolon and a regular colon, you should always think, is there an elaboration or explanation?

09:35

Speaker A

If there is, it just always has to be the colon one. Okay, what about this one? According to acoustics researcher Lena Wu, voices can seem louder near the back wall of some theaters. In this blank because sound waves reflect off

09:47

Speaker A

the hard surface and combine with the direct sound. Using the rule I just said about having a dependent clause and independent clause, this part before would just be an independent clause.

09:54

Speaker A

Then the part afterward would have to be a dependent clause because we have because at the beginning of it. In case you're wondering why that is, because isn't in the wasabi word list, but it basically just works as a wasabi word in

10:06

Speaker A

and of itself. That list of wasabi words wasn't fully comprehensive. Okay, so independent clause and dependent clause, so it cannot be C for the answer. So, which one of these three things could it be? Could it be a colon? Well, no,

10:17

Speaker A

because there's not really a full promise given right before the blank. It says this occurs and then we're kind of left hanging because we don't know why it occurs. We have to read the rest to see it. So, there's not really really a

10:27

Speaker A

full promise given in that first part. So, we can't use a colon. Instead, we just have to go for D. If you're wondering why it can't be A, it's because when you're between a comma and nothing, you typically go for nothing

10:39

Speaker A

when the word after it is because or if the word after it is that. That's just a good rule of thumb you can also remember. Now, onto the big punctuation, commas. There are many different places you can use commas, but thankfully most

10:51

Speaker A

of them aren't too interesting. First is lists. This happens when you're literally giving a list of different things. So, I've made several videos on Desmos, grammar, and passage questions.

11:01

Speaker A

There are three different things here, Desmos, grammar, and then passage questions, so we can use commas to separate each thing in the list. Second thing is an introductory phrase. This is basically the equivalent of when you have a dependent clause and then it

11:13

Speaker A

finishes off with an independent clause. So, like this. After I ran out of video ideas, I decided to do grammar again.

11:19

Speaker A

This was a dependent clause in the first part and then independent clause in the second part. Then finally, you can use a comma to join two thoughts, but this is only if you have a FANBOYS word with it.

11:29

Speaker A

It's the kind of like I explained over here, comma plus FANBOYS can separate an independent clause and another independent clause. You're watching this video right now, and that means you're not watching Brain Rot. Commas are kind of like the wood planks of SAT grammar.

11:42

Speaker A

They can basically be put everywhere, and they have a lot of different purposes. But, one more thing I just want to mention, you see here that we have a comma after each individual thing in this list. But, what if one of those

11:52

Speaker A

items of the list already had a comma within it? Then, it's kind of like you have to upgrade the thing on the outside. This is kind of like in Minecraft, if you have a wood door to your house, but then a bunch of zombies

12:04

Speaker A

start trying to break in. You basically then have to replace the wood door with an iron door just to add some extra protection. So, when a list already has a comma in it, just bump up the dividers to semicolons. We visited Rome, Italy,

12:15

Speaker A

Barcelona, Spain, and Athens, Greece. I didn't really include this as a rule because I don't think it's too important. You probably already know this. But, when you have a city and then a country, you should put a comma

12:23

Speaker A

between those, as well. You probably won't see that on the SAT, but it's a common thing. So, therefore, in order to separate each of these three things, we have to use a semicolon, not just a regular comma. Now, you can always know

12:33

Speaker A

that this is the case whenever you see a semicolon followed by the word and. This is just like the telltale sign. If you see this exact thing, there's literally no other situation in all of English that this would appear other than a

12:45

Speaker A

complex list. Now, if you use ChatGPT a lot, you're probably familiar with dashes. It's something like this, and you may think it's just some random thing that only ChatGPT uses, but actually it's like a very common thing in English. What dashes typically do is

12:57

Speaker A

set off an interruption. I'm going to say this again in the nonessential phrases part of this, but here's a little preview of it, basically. It could look something like this. My dog, the one that hates baths, leapt straight

13:08

Speaker A

into the lake. We have to have a dash both before the one that hates baths, and also after it. So, this whole part here is just kind of like an interjection you're just throwing in that sentence, and so you can use dashes

13:19

Speaker A

around it. Unfortunately, that's not really the only place you can use dashes, though. Dashes, less commonly, can also just act exactly the same as a colon. So, you probably already remember how I said colons you have a promise on

13:29

Speaker A

one side and then explanation on the other side. So, you can just do that exact same thing with a dash. I have three things, a YouTube channel, a brain rot intensive humor, and no dignity.

13:38

Speaker A

Promise on the left, explanation on the right. All right, so what about this monstrosity? Sometimes you can have these weird sentences where you have however and a semicolon and it just gets really, really confusing. You just need to understand this one core rule with

13:52

Speaker A

how this stuff works. Basically, when you have this exact situation with however and a semicolon as well, ask yourself, does the first sentence contradict with the first part of the second sentence? So, you can see an example here where it does. We have this

14:05

Speaker A

first sentence, internet culture has been around for decades, and then it contradicts with the idea that skibidi rizz is different. When I say contradiction, I mean contradiction in the meaning of it. This first part is saying that internet culture has been

14:15

Speaker A

common, it's been regular, people know what to expect. And then skibidi rizz is like a huge, crazy thing that changes how everybody's viewing it. Since these contradict, you put however and then you put the semicolon after the word

14:26

Speaker A

however. But, if it's the other scenario where basically the second half of the second sentence contradicts with the first half of the second sentence, then you put comma before the word however.

14:35

Speaker A

So, let's look at this one. Internet culture has been around for decades, ever since the dawn of the computer, the World Wide Web has spread throughout the world. However, skibidi rizz is far more destructive. So, we're saying here that

14:44

Speaker A

it spread throughout the world, again people think it's a common thing. But, then we say this thing here at the end of the second sentence that skibidi rizz is way more destructive than they what they saw before. Since they're saying

14:53

Speaker A

that, you have to use semicolon and then the word however and then another comma.

14:58

Speaker A

It's kind of like this, if you have the first sentence and then the second sentence split into two parts, if B contradicts with A, then you put the semicolon after the word however. But, if C contradicts with B, then you put

15:10

Speaker A

the semicolon before the however. I know this doesn't really make much sense, let me give you an example. The trend looked dead by summer. However, the remixes never actually stopped. We don't have a first sentence here, so by default, we

15:22

Speaker A

basically have the second scenario. We have B contradicting with C. Therefore, we have to put the semicolon before the word however, like in B. What about this one? Classic demonstrations of intentional blindness ask participants to count passes in a video, directing

15:36

Speaker A

their attention to a single target. However, they may not notice a person wearing bright costumes strolls across the scene. Similar to the other one, we only have one sentence here, so basically it's automatically like B is contradicting with C. So, therefore, we

15:46

Speaker A

have to put the semicolon before the word however, like in A. I should mention in this one though, that technically the other choices just could not work automatically because in this one we have no comma after the word

15:55

Speaker A

however, and this one just doesn't have a semicolon. You must always have a comma after the word however, or before it if there's a semicolon after it.

16:02

Speaker A

Parentheses almost never show up on the SAT, but if they do, here's how they work. It's pretty much the exact same as the dashes I said before, except you can only use them to separate non-essential information. So, you can't just use one

16:15

Speaker A

parenthesis and then not have another one. You always have to use two at once, both before and after the non-essential information. When you use parentheses, it feels like it's a little bit less of an abrupt interruption than if you were

16:26

Speaker A

to use something like commas or a dash. To check if parentheses work, all you have to do is think to yourself, if you remove the part within the parentheses, will it still make sense? If it does, then [music] they work. The world

16:36

Speaker A

record, set live on a random Tuesday, still hasn't been beaten. So, yeah, we have a parenthesis, we have to have another one regardless, so we know for sure has to be A. But, we can also think to ourselves, set live on random Tuesday

16:46

Speaker A

stream, if we remove that, the sentence just says, "The world record still hasn't been beaten." That still makes sense. Now, onto non-essential information. You can sometimes see sentences where basically you just have some pieces to it that is not necessary

16:58

Speaker A

for the sentence to make sense and to grammatically work. Like, look at this one, The SAT Gamified, everybody's favorite SAT YouTuber, just dropped a new video. We can just get rid of this part saying everybody's favorite SAT YouTuber and it still makes sense, The

17:10

Speaker A

SAT Gamified just dropped a new video. Look at this one, Non-essential information, one of the hardest parts of the SAT grammar section is known to trick everyone. Non-essential information is known to trick everyone.

17:22

Speaker A

But the key thing you have to ask yourself with this is will it actually logically make sense without the word there? Like can you understand what they're talking about without those words included? So look at this sentence, "The man whose car was stolen

17:34

Speaker A

was found outside Waffle House last week." You may tell me that whose car was stolen must be non-essential information. But let's read the sentence without that. "The man was found outside Waffle House last week." Does that make sense? Not really because we don't

17:46

Speaker A

really know which man it is. It's like if I told you, "The Minecraft house is right next to the swamp biome." You don't know which Minecraft house I'm talking about, so this doesn't really make that much sense. Therefore, it's

17:58

Speaker A

not non-essential information because you do need it to make the sentence actually work. You need to keep it in there and you can't separate it by commas. "My brother lives in Japan is visiting next week." We can use comma

18:10

Speaker A

and then who because if we get rid of who lives in Japan, assuming you only have one brother, it still makes sense to say my brother is visiting next week.

18:16

Speaker A

We don't need the lives in Japan part to know who we're talking about probably.

18:20

Speaker A

"The chef's signature stew which simmers with smoked paprika takes less than an hour to make." This one would also be non-essential information with A because we can get rid of which simmers with smoked paprika and we can just say "The

18:31

Speaker A

chef's signature stew takes less than an hour to make." Signature means only one, so therefore by extension there must only be one stew. There's no confusion what we're talking about here. With non-essential information, you may kind of recognize this by now, but basically

18:44

Speaker A

the same phrase can be either essential or extra. It all depends on the context.

18:50

Speaker A

You have to think yourself, do you know what the thing is saying without that information in it? If you need the information, then of course it is essential. If you don't need the information, then it's non-essential. So let's say you only have one brother.

19:03

Speaker A

It's just you and one other brother. "My brother who lives in Japan called." We don't need this part who lives in Japan because you only have one brother. If you just say "My brother called," we already know exactly who you're talking

19:14

Speaker A

about. There's no ambiguity there cuz there's only one person. But if you have several brothers, then if you say, "My brother who lives in Japan called," you have to have the who lives in Japan because you don't know if it's brother

19:25

Speaker A

one, if it's brother two, if it's brother three, and they may all have different places they live. Just keep that in mind. Real quick on question marks, there are different problems on the SAT where they're actually including a question. Something like, "Where did

19:37

Speaker A

the trend go?" You know if it is a question because it begins with one of these common question words. Now, if you're an English speaker, I'm pretty sure you just know what I mean when I say question words. I mean stuff like

19:47

Speaker A

where, who, what, how. And the thing you have to know is when it uses a question word, you have to use a question mark at the end of the sentence. If it doesn't use a question word at the beginning

19:56

Speaker A

though, you just use a regular period, nothing else. So, "Where is the train station?" We begin the sentence with where, therefore it is a question mark sentence. This one though, "She wondered where the train station was." No question word at the beginning, so we

20:09

Speaker A

can just use a regular period for that one. Everyone kept asking why the remix blew up so fast. No question word at the beginning, so we just use a period, so B would be the right answer. Real quick,

20:18

Speaker A

if you want to see a useful flowchart showing you how to evaluate these rules and how to tell what punctuation to use based on whether it's independent or dependent, [music] I actually have it included in Mission 1400 plus which can

20:29

Speaker A

join for free with a 7-day trial below. Check it out if you want to, it'll be in a post in the community there. You also get this overview that explains how to know when to use each of the different

20:39

Speaker A

things. Now, onto part two, form, structure, and sense. This is basically everything other than punctuation in the grammar section. And of course, first we have verbs. In case you failed fifth grade English, what a verb is is anything that's an action. So, something

20:53

Speaker A

like runs, talks, shakes, rolls, all of these would definitely be verbs. Now, you probably just use verbs regularly on a daily basis, but what you might not know is that there are some very clear rules in how you use verbs and how they

21:05

Speaker A

work. Whenever you see a verb question, you're basically just trying to find the category for it. Are the verbs differentiating based off count? Are they differentiating based off time? Or are they differentiating based off of one being a main verb and one not being?

21:18

Speaker A

You can tell this based off the choices. You'll see here differentiations, whether it's singular or plural, whether it's present, past, or future tense, and whether it's main verb versus not main verb. Let me explain what each of these

21:28

Speaker A

mean. You have to always consider for verbs, is it a singular or plural verb?

21:32

Speaker A

If you have a singular subject, you must use a singular verb. Like if I said the doctor walks, [music] doctor is singular and walks would also be singular. But if I said the doctors walk, doctors and walk would both be plural. Now for

21:44

Speaker A

nouns, whenever you add S to it, that makes it more than one. So if I said friend, that's only one friend. If I said friends, that's two or more friends. It's now plural here. For verbs, it works the exact opposite. If

21:55

Speaker A

you add an S to it, it makes it only one. So walk would actually be a plural verb and walks would be the singular verb. Is, has, and was are all only one because they each end with S. Meanwhile,

22:06

Speaker A

or, have, and were are all many because they don't have S at the end. You can also use the odd one out rule sometimes on these. Like if you notice that you have four choices and three of them are

22:14

Speaker A

singular, it's almost always going to be the case that the plural one just must be the right answer because the SAT cannot have multiple right answers.

22:20

Speaker A

Also, it's worth mentioning that you should only be looking at the first verb for these. So like for these examples here, you would only really be looking at is, was, are, and have for these choices. You would not be looking at

22:30

Speaker A

having for these first three because you just think about what the first one is.

22:33

Speaker A

So these two would be singular and these two would be plural because the S is in them. Also, it's worth mentioning that the count of the verbs depends on the true subject given. You often are going to see something like of, where it's

22:43

Speaker A

going to say like stream of clips. When it says that, you choose the one that's before the word of for the plural or singular. So stream, that is a singular noun, so therefore you're going to need to find a singular verb. In the contrary

22:56

Speaker A

way, and makes it where it is automatically plural. If I say Jack and Jill, that would be a plural subject because there are two things there joined by the word and. Now, what gets more confusing is when you have neither

23:06

Speaker A

nor. When you have neither nor, like neither him nor his friend, you choose the one that's after the word nor. So, in that example I just gave, his friend would be the subject for that sentence.

23:15

Speaker A

And remember the non-essential information stuff as well. If you have anything that's non-essential information, that wouldn't automatically not be the subject. So, just keep that in mind as well. The endless stream of fan edits and reaction clips blank a

23:27

Speaker A

person's whole evening. So, what would be the subject here? We have of, so go to the thing before, stream. This would be a singular subject, therefore we have to choose a singular verb, so one that ends in s. Out of these, the only one we

23:37

Speaker A

could choose would be B. Let's look at this one. The pattern of cracks visible only under raking light and known to very cross kilns blank conservators to determine whether the bowl. Pattern of cracks. Pattern would be singular, so we

23:48

Speaker A

have to choose a singular verb. Even though it doesn't sound right, you probably would think it's a plural verb, it has to be singular because that's how it works. Out of these, the only one that's singular would be B cuz that's

23:56

Speaker A

the only one that ends in s. Okay, let's look at this one now. The collodion mixture and then we have some non-essential information here. So, we get rid of the non-essential information and then we see the collodion mixture

24:05

Speaker A

dries rapidly and once it blank become receptive to the silver nitrate. So, think again, the subject we have here is mixture. That's a singular subject, it's only one thing. So, we again have to choose a singular verb. Out of these,

24:18

Speaker A

the only one that's definitely singular would definitely be D cuz that's the only one that ends in s. The second thing you can use as a category for verbs is the time when the verb took place. Basically, in case you didn't

24:29

Speaker A

know, every verb has to have a tense for it. This means when the verb happened.

24:34

Speaker A

If I said something like walk, that verb must be happening right now, in the present. But if I said walked instead, that means it's a verb that happened in the past. It happened sometime before right now. So, these are the four main

24:46

Speaker A

types of tenses you'll see on the SAT, had, past, present and will. Past is something that happened obviously in the past, something before now. Present is something happening right now and then will is something happening in the future. Had is over here because this is

24:58

Speaker A

something that's happening essentially past past. If I said something with had in it, that means that there's something that already happened in the past and had happened even before that thing.

25:07

Speaker A

I'll give an example of this in a second, but just think of it like that.

25:10

Speaker A

Like you have something that happened maybe 5 minutes ago, and then you have something that happened like 10 minutes ago. Real quick, those are the main categories. If you want a full list of all the like subcategories of these

25:20

Speaker A

different verbs, you probably don't need to know this for the SAT, but it might make a couple questions a little bit easier. I have this again in Mission 400 Plus. You can check the link in the description. Here's some examples. By

25:28

Speaker A

the time the lecture started, my attention span blank already been fried by an hour of scrolling. So, we're saying here started. That has ED at the end, so it must be a past tense verb.

25:37

Speaker A

But, it's saying here that the lecture started and even before that happens, your attention span had already been cooked. So, maybe that lecture started like 5 minutes ago, and your attention span had been cooked like 1 hour ago or

25:47

Speaker A

something like that. This is a [music] case where you would have to use had for that exact reason. We have a past tense thing and something even further back.

25:55

Speaker A

Look at this one now. Nearly 2 years after its telescopes record data from the galaxy M87, the Event Horizon Telescope blank the first image of a black hole shadow in mouse and a quiet combining vast quantities of observations into a single [music]

26:08

Speaker A

coherent picture. So, is there something that's happening before something else? Not really. So, we would not have to use had for this one. Instead, we would just use a regular past verb like this one here. You would not have to use has

26:19

Speaker A

released because like I show over here, that would basically fall into the present perfect. He has studied since June. That means something that happens in the past and it now continues on until right now and it's still is

26:30

Speaker A

happening right now. This would not be that because it says that it already happened before happened 2019 and it doesn't look like it's happening still right now. The last category is main verbs. Main verbs are basically the engine for the sentence. We talked about

26:42

Speaker A

this a bit before in the independent dependent clause thing, but this also matters a lot for these. So, as a reminder, a main verb is basically the main action that the subject is doing in the sentence. If it's not a clear action

26:53

Speaker A

the subject is doing, it is not a main verb. It also has to not end in ing and it cannot begin with two or that. If those happen, it's automatically not a main verb for sure. So, you basically

27:03

Speaker A

look in the sentence, does it already have an engine? Does it already have a main verb? If it does, then you're looking for a non-main verb for the choice. But, if there is no main verb yet, then you should find that main

27:14

Speaker A

verb. You should have find the engine. In this example, to survive a boring class, students with serious brain rot blank a state of pure autopilot. If we look at this here, to survive, that has two at the beginning, so it's

27:25

Speaker A

automatically not a main verb. So, therefore, there's no main verb in the sentence, so we have to choose a main verb for the answer. This one has ing, this one has two, this one has ing here, and remember we only look at the first

27:36

Speaker A

verb. So, therefore, we have to go for D for the answer. That's the only main verb of the choices. Second example here, the Amazon River blank more water than the next seven largest rivers combined, supports an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. We

27:50

Speaker A

see here supports. That would be a main verb because we have the Amazon River supports. It's connected to the subject.

27:55

Speaker A

So, we need to find a non-main verb for the choice. Out of these, the only one that would not be a main verb would actually be carrying. Has the ing, which is how we know, so we can go in and put

28:04

Speaker A

it in there. Also, I should just mention this sentence, combined would not be a main verb. I know it doesn't have two that in front of it and doesn't end in ing, but still would not just because it's not the main action that the Amazon

28:15

Speaker A

River is doing. The Amazon River supports something. We're not saying that the Amazon River is being combined with something. Okay, just for a quick recap, so we went over these three different things: main verb, count, and time. Basically, you should just use

28:27

Speaker A

these three different categories to tell what the right answer is. Most verb questions will just go off of one of these. So, for example, some of the choices might have S and some of them might not, therefore it's a count

28:36

Speaker A

choice. Some of them might clearly be basing off of time, so some might be in the past tense, present tense, future tense. Some of them might clearly be main verbs, and other ones are clearly regular verbs. You just kind of have to

28:45

Speaker A

tell which one it seems like it is, and then just go for that. Sometimes it will involve more than one, like it could be a main verb plus also it can involve the counts. If that is the case, then you

28:56

Speaker A

can utilize both methods and just eliminate which ones definitely cannot work. Let's look at this one. The collection of vintage cartridges my uncle hoards worth a small fortune now.

29:05

Speaker A

So we have collection here that is singular, so it cannot be are. That would be a plural verb. Also we have some that are main verbs here and non-main verbs. But if we look at the sentence here, there are no main verbs

29:15

Speaker A

yet, so we have to choose a main verb for the answer. Worth, in case you did not know, is not a verb because you can't worth something, so that would not be included. Therefore, can't be being, it can't be to be, so it has to be is.

29:27

Speaker A

That's the only main verb. Long before streaming took over, my dad blank every album on cassette. So singular verb here again, so it cannot be collect. And then is there a main verb already listed here? Yeah, no, there's not. So we have

29:39

Speaker A

to choose a main verb here again. So can't be A, but we also have had collected and collects. It's saying here something that happened in the past. It says long before streaming took over, and streaming took over would be

29:50

Speaker A

something already in the past. So this is one of the had cases, so we choose had collected. Collects cannot work because this would be a present tense thing. We're not saying that he is still collecting every album on cassette. One

30:00

Speaker A

more, a stack of unopened board games blank in the closet since the pandemic started. So stack again singular, can't be plural, so can't be D. Main verb stuff here, no main verbs listed yet, so we have to choose a main verb, so can't

30:12

Speaker A

be A. Now between has sat and have sat. I didn't eliminate this one before, but have sat would be plural as well, so therefore we know it has to be C.

30:20

Speaker A

Finally onto some other stuff here, modifier questions. Many students struggle with these the first time they see it, but it's actually like very, very simple. When you have a modifier question, it's going to have these really, really long answer choices like

30:30

Speaker A

these. And what you do is you just look at what is here in the sentence already, and you just try to make sure that the first thing in the blank [music] exactly matches what they're talking about in the sentence. So it says here,

30:40

Speaker A

while studying the behavior of octopuses in the wild, you have to think yourself, what is the thing that is studying that?

30:45

Speaker A

Well, it is the people who are doing the studying. So, I guess for this example, it would be the biologist. And so, we have to make sure that we find a choice that begins with biologist or whatever kind of biologist they are. Looking at

30:55

Speaker A

this one, the camouflage techniques. So, the techniques are not the thing that is studying the behavior. Techniques are just techniques. They can't actually do any studying. Therefore, A cannot be the right answer. It was. Okay, it is not a

31:06

Speaker A

thing like that's not a person, so that cannot be studying the behavior of octopuses in the wild. C, the marine biologist. Okay, yes, that could be a thing that is studying the behavior of octopuses. A biologist is a person and a

31:17

Speaker A

person can do study. So, C would be the right answer and yeah, D would be wrong for the same reasons as before. Free, fast, and available 24/7, blank can still produce confidently wrong information. So, you got to think

31:27

Speaker A

yourself, what is free, fast, and available 24/7? Teachers could sound right, but you can probably tell here they are not free, fast, or available 24/7. So, therefore, that cannot be right. Students also are not free, fast, or available 24/7. AI chatbots though

31:40

Speaker A

are in fact free, fast, and available 24/7. Concerns also are not. So, C would have to be the answer. And this is just how you do every single modifiers question, so pretty easy. There are a couple of other things you should know

31:49

Speaker A

about modifier questions though. The first thing is if we have an apostrophe S right after the blank, you look at the thing after that word to see whether it is the thing that's being described.

31:58

Speaker A

Let's look at this example. Commissioned by the Farm Security Administration, blank captured the resilience. So, we're basically saying here there is some person who is commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. The Farm Security Administration went up to this

32:09

Speaker A

person and told them, "You should do this thing for us." Okay, displaced farm workers. We're talking about Dorothea Lange here, so those people probably were not the people who were commissioned by the administration. It's probably Dorothea Lange herself. So,

32:20

Speaker A

that can't be it. Her photographs. Okay, photographs are not something that can be commissioned. It's not like the Farm Security Administration just went up to a stack of photographs and already yelling at them or something like that.

32:29

Speaker A

Lange's photographs. Okay, so as we see here, since we have apostrophe S, it is basically saying photographs as the noun here. So, therefore, this would fall into the same trap as B, so it can't be C. Finally though, D, Lange. Okay, Lange

32:41

Speaker A

is the person who is commissioned by the Farm Security Administration. That would be right. Also, there are some questions where we have to look at the end of the choice as well. You'll notice this because there are just multiple choices

32:50

Speaker A

that could automatically work, and you have to look at more details than just that. After screening the footage. Okay, so we're talking about some people who watched a set of footage. Volunteers, yep, those people could watch footage.

33:00

Speaker A

Volunteers again, those people could watch footage. So, it can't be C or D. How do we decide between A and B? Well, we have to look at the end of the choice now, and think about the other rules

33:09

Speaker A

we've already discussed earlier on in this video. We have here prompting the curator to contract a regional museum.

33:14

Speaker A

This thing here would be a dependent clause. Meanwhile, the choice here would be an independent clause. So, we know that it can either use a comma or nothing, but as I mentioned earlier in this video, you would only use nothing

33:24

Speaker A

if it says that or because as the first word. Since it doesn't have either those, we know it has to be a comma, so therefore A must be the right answer.

33:32

Speaker A

Rewatch the earlier part of this video if you're confused on that at all. Next onto pronouns. A pronoun is basically just like a smaller noun as meant to take the place of a bigger noun. You have to make sure however that the

33:43

Speaker A

pronoun matches the noun it was based off of in both number and case. Number just means whether it's singular or plural. So, if you have only one thing, like if we said John, we could use a pronoun like it, he, or she. Well, I

33:54

Speaker A

guess not she for John, but that's fine. So, one can use one of these. If it's many, like if I said friends, you can only use they or them. So, those kinds of pronouns. You also have to make sure

34:02

Speaker A

that's matching in terms of the case. So, if I said a sentence like he is fighting him, he would be the thing that is doing the action, so we can use he just normally. But then I said him at

34:11

Speaker A

the end because that is the person who's receiving the fighting. So, receiving you have to use stuff like him or them.

34:16

Speaker A

If you look at this sentence here, they are talking about looping Subway Surfers clips. One frustrated teacher wrote an email to the principal saying she considered blank distracting and completely unnecessary. So, first of all, we have clips here, so that would

34:27

Speaker A

be a plural thing, so it has to be something like they or them. But then for the case, it is receiving the action. They are saying that she considered that thing, whatever. So, since they're receiving, we have to go

34:37

Speaker A

for them specifically, not they. When a certain form of online brain rot takes over a platform, blank usually consists of a few creators posting non-stop.

34:45

Speaker A

Brain rot would be singular and it's doing the action in this case because it's consisting of something, so we would go for it in this case. Okay, now on to possession. What possession basically means is when something [music]

34:57

Speaker A

owns something else. So, if you have a diamond pickaxe in Minecraft, you own that diamond pickaxe. It is yours. You show this by using S and apostrophes.

35:07

Speaker A

Now, there's a big distinction you have to understand. If there's only one person that is owning something, you always do the apostrophe and then the S.

35:15

Speaker A

So, I could say here John's or I could say Lucas's. This still works even though we have S at the end just because it is only one person. You still have to put apostrophe S. But, if there are many

35:23

Speaker A

owners like this here, the villagers, there's are multiple people, you have to say S and then apostrophe. So, that's always how it's going to work. S and then apostrophe. The only distinction between that is if it is one group.

35:34

Speaker A

This, if it has one group, it basically is the same as if it was just one owner, so you go back to the apostrophe S thing. So, people's, the teams, that kind of stuff. So, in this one here, the

35:42

Speaker A

two geologist research conducted independently in opposite sides of the country arrived at conclusions. So, there are two different people, so basically many, so we have to do something with S and then apostrophe.

35:52

Speaker A

So, we would have to go basically for this, S and then apostrophe. During study hall, three of my blank phones lit up with the exact same notification.

36:01

Speaker A

Since there are three, we have to again use S and then apostrophe, so we go for B for the right answer here. Now, real quick, it really doesn't matter how well you understand all the stuff here. If you don't actually have practice using

36:11

Speaker A

it. For example, if you just watched a ton of Minecraft Let's Play videos like a million times, you still probably would not be that good at Minecraft just because you only are watching videos.

36:20

Speaker A

You're not actually doing anything with what you're watching. And so, for that reason, you have to actually have some practice with problems in these different grammar rules I've explained in this video. I really want to recommend you this website called Onoco.

36:31

Speaker A

Onoco is a company that's been sponsoring us for a pretty long amount of time at this point. And the reason why is because they are such a good SAT practice problem software. They have over 28,000 practice questions, over 200

36:42

Speaker A

practice tests, and they were actually known for being significantly more realistic than most practice problem software. They also have a 4.8 out of five rating on Trustpilot, and they've been used by over 21,000 students so far. The reason why I specifically want

36:54

Speaker A

to talk about them right now is because they just unlocked a new guarantee. Basically, their platform is actually going to show you what score they predict you to get based off of the practice questions you've completed so far. And if you actually do not get what

37:06

Speaker A

they're predicting you to get on the SAT, at least they will actually give you a full refund on the money you've paid on their platform. Now, don't get me wrong, you do have to actually put in the work. They're not just going to give

37:15

Speaker A

it to you a refund automatically if you just use it for like five days and then don't study at all besides that, but they will offer this to you if you don't reach the goal that they say you're

37:22

Speaker A

going to get to. If you check the link in the description, you can use my code to use Onoco for yourself and access this exact guarantee. Would really recommend using it heading into your next SAT, and it's just an awesome

37:32

Speaker A

platform. That is it for me. I will see you guys in the next video. Let's lock in for this SAT, guys.

37:37

Speaker A

Desmos and launch, [music and singing] that's me. Type the equations in the inner section, make it complete.

37:42

Speaker A

Quadratic [music and singing] come at me, I factor it or vertex it. I'll plug in the answer choices until I finally write it.

Topics: SAT grammar SAT test prep grammar rules independent clause dependent clause punctuation verb agreement SAT strategies test taking tips The SAT Gamified

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