I have a couple of questions on my test that I need help with.?

Question

I used to be pretty good in English, but it has been so long since I have been in school, the memory has sorta faded!!! Please help!

1. Choose the sentence in which all pronouns are used correctly.

a. Just between you and I, I am not impressed by our new manager.
b. Be sure to divide all income from the suburban property between he and I.
c. I sat between him and her during the sales conference.
d. I hope she will keep this between she and I.

2. Select the sentence in which the verb correctly agrees with the subject.

a. A copy of Moby Disk and a magazine has disappeared from my room
b . Peggy or Phyllis drive me to Florida every winter
c. Les and Miranda is late for work today.
d. Not only the muffler but also the spark plugs need to be replaced.

I know c is not the correct answer.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

1. c. A trick to remember this is to eliminate each of the pronouns in turn, and see if the sentence sounds correct. Even though it may SOUND incorrect, what's going on there is our tendency to overcorrect our own grammar. "Between you and me" is correct, but our childhood usage of pronouns ("Mom and me went to the store") and constantly being corrected ("No, you say 'mom and I'.") causes us to correct every instance of "___ and me" to "___ and I". But the correct sing. 1st person pronoun to follow prepositions like "between" is definitely "I".

2. d. Replace the noun phrase with a pronoun to check for correctness. Examples from answers given:
a. [They] has disappeared from my room.
b. [She] drive me to Florida every winter.
c. [They] is late for work today.
d. [They] need to be replaced.
The "either/or" example in b. is a little tricky because you have two nouns, but because of the use of "or", you know to only use one, in which case, you use a singular pronoun, like "she".

Please use the information I gave you to try and answer the other questions on your own, but if you have access to the internet during a test, who's to say you won't use it, right?

---My bad! I checked out your other questions to see if I could help, and I see that you're STUDYING for a test right now, not TAKING it! Feel free to contact me personally if you have any other specific questions, and I can answer you in detail. Tests are stressful, so if I can help to alleviate any of that, I'd be glad to.

Answer 2

In terms of what Beth said above about being ethical, I agree that we should not do test answers on Yahoo Answers.

But, I disagree with her about speaking the answer. Questions like these are boobytrapped for that. What the questions wants to find out if you know the rule and if you can apply it to the question. Therefore, I will remind you of the rule in your grammar text but not give you the answer.

In number one, you need to know that I, we, you, he, she, it and they are pronouns in the subject case.

Me, us, him, her, it, you, and them are in the object case as in the receiver of the action of a verb or of a pronoun (sort of).

If you know that "between" is a preposition, then all you need to do is match up the objective case pronouns with the pronouns in the sentence. Directions say only one sentence matches correctly and the rest have the wrong pronouns.--so are wrong answers.

Warning: do not go by how it sounds but by the rule. Spoken English does not always follow the rules :- )

In number two, what you need to know is the effect of conjunctions on the singular or plural status of the sentence.

For instance if I give you four quarters or a dollar, how much money do you have? One. The effect of "or" is disjunctive which means you don't get both. It's singular.

Singular pronouns agree (go with) he, she, and it.
(Mary) She [eat,eats] a lot.
Be careful "Mary or her sisters eat a lot" is plural and
"Her sisters or Mary eats a lot" is singular because it goes by what's closer to the verb.

Answer 3

I'm sorry, I don't answer exam questions. I consider that cheating. However, there is quite an easy solution for these types of questions in general -- that is to speak them out loud. Most people SPEAK English better than they read and write it and recognize errors when the hear them.

So, to determine which of these sentences is right -- read them aloud to yourself. I bet you pick up on the errors right away! You may not grasp WHY they are wrong, but you will grasp that they ARE wrong.

Good luck.

Answer 4

1. c. Between him and her.

2. d. need to be replaced. Hope this helps.