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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 1, Problem 3. Is that comma being used correctly?
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ACT English 4.3 Grammar and Usage 278 Views
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Description:
ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 4, Problem 3. Which choice contains the correct pronoun for this sentence?
Transcript
- 00:04
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by baby blankets. If you think those blankets
- 00:09
are cute now, just wait until they grow up.
- 00:12
How would you correct the following sentence, if it needs correcting at all?
- 00:15
The nursing staff welcomed me, thanked me for volunteering, and asked me to start folding
- 00:21
baby blankets and placing it in the appropriate drawer.
Full Transcript
- 00:33
Looks like we're going to have more fun identifying subjects and objects with this question.
- 00:37
Hey, don't judge the things that bring us joy.
- 00:41
In the last clause, the speaker is the subject, because he or she is the one doing something.
- 00:46
The verbs are "folding" and "placing" because that's what the speaker is doing.
- 00:50
And the "baby blankets" take the object position because they're the things getting folded
- 00:55
and placed.
- 00:56
This makes "it" the object pronoun, since it's standing in for baby blankets.
- 01:02
Unfortunately, "it" is doing a very bad job of being an object pronoun.
- 01:06
"Baby blankets" is plural, so the pronoun ought to be as well.
- 01:10
"It" is singular, therefore we can cross off choice (A), which is under the mistaken impression
- 01:15
that the original sentence is OK.
- 01:18
Knowing that the correct answer has to be an object makes choice (D) easy to eliminate as well.
- 01:23
"They" is a subject pronoun, and no matter how hard it tries it'll never pass for an
- 01:27
object. Choice (B) doesn't make the cut either.
- 01:30
"These" is usually used to distinguish between two nearby objects.
- 01:34
It's true that the speaker must've been near the blankets at some point, since he or she
- 01:38
folded them--unless the speaker has telekinetic powers.
- 01:44
However, the speaker is talking about his or her big baby blanket adventure in the past
- 01:49
tense, so we can assume that the speaker's not up to his of her elbows in them currently.
- 01:54
Choice (C) nails it, because "them" is plural and an object pronoun.
- 01:59
Painful admission: our Mom made us throw away our baby blanket. And we still resent her for it.
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