HESI A2 section
Grammar
Parts of speech, agreement, pronouns, verb forms, commonly confused words, sentence structure and punctuation.
- 55 questions (50 scored)
- 50 minutes
- 17 topics
Parts of speech & sentence parts
- The Eight Parts of SpeechThe eight parts of speech — naming the job a word does in a sentence, and choosing the right preposition, conjunction or transition word (owns word-choice items).
- Sentence Parts: Subjects, Predicates, Objects, Clauses & PhrasesThe grammar terms the section uses: subject and predicate, direct and indirect objects, predicate nominatives/adjectives, clauses and phrases.
- Adjectives, Adverbs & ComparisonsChoosing an adjective or an adverb (owns good/well, bad/badly, fewer/less), and regular and irregular comparative and superlative forms.
Agreement & verb and pronoun forms
- Subject-Verb AgreementMatching verb to subject through intervening phrases, compound and collective subjects, indefinite pronouns and inverted order.
- Pronoun Case (I/Me, Who/Whom)Subject, object and possessive pronouns, pronouns in compounds and comparisons, reflexive pronouns (owns who/whom and whose/who's).
- Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement & Clear ReferencePronouns that agree with their antecedent in number and person, and fixing vague or ambiguous pronoun reference.
- Verb Tenses & Irregular VerbsThe six tenses, keeping tense consistent, irregular past forms and participles (owns lie/lay, sit/set, rise/raise).
Word choice & usage
- Commonly Confused WordsHomophones and look-alike pairs no other topic owns, such as affect/effect, accept/except, than/then, their/there/they're, its/it's, principal/principle, lose/loose.
- Plurals, Possessives & ApostrophesAll plural formation (incl. -es, y→ies, irregulars), singular and plural possessives, joint possession, and contraction apostrophes (its/it's pairs: Confused Words).
- Spelling RulesNon-plural spelling rules: i before e, doubling the final consonant, dropping silent e, and y to i before suffixes (all plural forms: Plurals & Possessives).
- Clear, Concise & Appropriate LanguageCutting wordiness and redundancy, parallel structure, active vs passive voice (owns it), double negatives, and avoiding slang, clichés and biased language.
Sentence structure & punctuation
- Sentence Types, Fragments & Run-onsSimple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences, sentence purposes, and fixing fragments, run-ons and comma splices (owns every splice fix).
- Misplaced & Dangling ModifiersPutting a modifier next to the word it describes, and fixing an opening phrase that modifies nothing in the sentence.
- CommasCommas in a series, after introductory elements, before a conjunction, around nonessential (which) clauses (owns that/which), in dates and addresses (dialogue: Quotes).
- Semicolons, Colons & Other PunctuationSemicolons between independent clauses and in complex lists, colons before lists, and hyphens, dashes, parentheses and ellipses (splice fixes: Sentence Types).
- Quotation Marks & DialoguePunctuating dialogue and quotations: where commas and periods go, quotations inside quotations, and new speaker, new paragraph.
- CapitalizationCapitalizing proper nouns, titles, the first word of a sentence or quotation, and what stays lowercase (seasons, general terms).
Study Grammar topic by topic, then take the timed section test.
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