ACT English Strategies: The 10 Grammar Rules That Appear Most

ACT English is the most coachable section on the test

The ACT English section gives you 75 questions in 45 minutes — 36 seconds each. Almost every question sits in a short passage with a sentence underlined, and the test is remarkably consistent about which rules it asks. Master the 10 below and you'll recognize most of the section before you even read the choices.

The 10 rules

**1. Subject–verb agreement.** The verb must match the subject in number. Test writers hide the subject behind prepositional phrases ("a box of old magazines *was* found," not "were"). Find the true subject, ignore the filler, and match.

**2. Pronoun–antecedent agreement.** A pronoun must agree with its noun in number and gender ("each student must bring *his or her* book" in formal usage). Watch for collective nouns and indefinite pronouns like everybody, neither, and each.

**3. Pronoun case.** Use subject pronouns (I, she, they) as subjects; object pronouns (me, her, them) after prepositions and as objects. The classic trap: "between you and I" — it's "between you and me."

**4. Verb tense consistency.** The ACT hates unnecessary tense shifts. Once a passage establishes a tense, keep it unless context genuinely requires a change.

**5. Parallel structure.** Items in a list or series must match in form: "running, jumping, and swimming" not "running, jumping, and to swim." The test also loves parallel structure in "not only…but also" and "either…or" constructions.

**6. Comma rules.** Commas separate items in a series, set off introductory elements, and surround non-essential clauses. The ACT is basically allergic to commas that split a subject from its verb or glue two independent clauses together (a comma splice).

**7. Semicolons and colons.** A semicolon joins two independent clauses with no conjunction. A colon introduces a list, explanation, or quote. If the first half can stand alone as a sentence, a semicolon might work; if it can't, it's wrong.

**8. Apostrophes.** Use 's for possession and contractions; s' for plural possession. "Its" is possessive with no apostrophe; "it's" is always "it is." This distinction alone appears multiple times per test.

**9. Run-ons and comma splices.** Two independent clauses can't be joined by a comma. Fixes: a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a conjunction. The ACT will offer all three as choices — pick the one that's actually grammatical.

**10. Concision and wordiness.** When everything is grammatically correct, the ACT prefers the shortest clean option. "Due to the fact that" loses to "because"; redundancies like "absolutely essential" get cut. Wordiness is wrong even when it's correct.

Two strategies that compound the rules

The honest expectation

Nobody memorizes all 10 rules in a weekend and aces the section — but you don't need to. The ACT repeats these patterns with such regularity that focused practice on them moves scores faster than any other prep you can do in the same hours. Drill in 75-question timed blocks in the final weeks so the 36-second clock is part of your muscle memory.

How the rules show up in your score

ACT English is one-fourth of your composite score, and it's the section where raw practice produces the fastest gains for most students — the rules are finite, and the question pool is drawn from the same patterns every single test date. Everything you learn on the 10 rules above is reusable on every future test date, and none of it depends on your reading speed or background knowledge. Time spent drilling these patterns in timed 75-question blocks is reliably the highest-return prep most students can do.

**Free ACT sampler → https://www.repurposeforge.com/free-act-sampler · Full guide ($19) → https://www.repurposeforge.com/products/act-study-guide**