Flashcard-style notes for the ATI TEAS 7 English and Language Usage section. The rule set is small and repeats, so this is the section where focused review lifts your score fastest. Original Aspire material - updated July 2026.
| Term | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Subject-verb agreement | What is the basic rule? | A singular subject takes a singular verb. Ignore phrases between them: 'The list of items IS on the desk' - the subject is list, not items. |
| Compound subjects | How do compound subjects work? | Two subjects joined by 'and' take a plural verb. With 'or' or 'nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject. |
| Indefinite pronouns | Are words like everyone singular or plural? | Everyone, everybody, each, either and neither are singular: 'Everyone HAS a book.' |
| Subject pronouns | When do you use I, he, she, we, they? | When the pronoun is the subject. Test by removing the other person: 'She and I finished' - you would say 'I finished', not 'me finished'. |
| Object pronouns | When do you use me, him, her, us, them? | When the pronoun receives the action or follows a preposition: 'between you and me', 'gave it to him'. |
| Pronoun agreement | What must a pronoun agree with? | Its antecedent in number and gender. A singular antecedent needs a singular pronoun. |
| Vague pronoun | What is a vague pronoun reference? | A pronoun with no clear antecedent - 'Maria told Ana that she was late.' Who is she? Rewrite to remove the ambiguity. |
| Verb tense consistency | What is the rule? | Keep tense consistent within a sentence unless the timeframe genuinely changes. 'She opened the door and walked inside' - both past. |
| Irregular verbs | Which irregular verbs are commonly tested? | go/went/gone, see/saw/seen, write/wrote/written, lie/lay/lain, lay/laid/laid, rise/rose/risen. |
| Lie vs lay | What is the difference? | Lie means to recline and takes no object: 'I lie down.' Lay means to place something and takes an object: 'I lay the book down.' |
| Active voice | What is active voice? | The subject performs the action: 'Maria baked the cake.' Passive: 'The cake was baked by Maria.' Active is usually preferred. |
| Comma in a series | How do you punctuate a list? | Separate three or more items with commas: 'bread, milk, and eggs.' The final comma before 'and' is the Oxford comma. |
| Comma with conjunction | When do you use a comma before and, but, or so? | When it joins two independent clauses: 'It rained, so we stayed inside.' |
| Introductory comma | When do you use a comma at the start? | After an introductory word, phrase or clause: 'Because it rained, we stayed inside.' |
| Comma splice | What is a comma splice? | Two complete sentences joined by only a comma: 'It rained, we stayed inside.' Fix with a period, semicolon, or comma plus conjunction. |
| Run-on sentence | What is a run-on? | Two independent clauses joined with no punctuation or conjunction. Fix the same way as a comma splice. |
| Fragment | What is a sentence fragment? | A group of words missing a subject, a verb, or a complete thought: 'Because she was late.' |
| Semicolon | When do you use a semicolon? | To join two closely related independent clauses without a conjunction, or to separate list items that already contain commas. |
| Colon | When do you use a colon? | To introduce a list, explanation or quotation after a complete sentence: 'Bring three items: a pen, paper, and ID.' |
| Apostrophe - singular | How do you show singular possession? | Add apostrophe plus s: 'the child's toy', 'the nurse's badge'. |
| Apostrophe - plural | How do you show plural possession? | For regular plurals ending in s, add just an apostrophe: 'the students' books'. For irregular plurals, add apostrophe s: 'the children's toys'. |
| Its vs it's | What is the difference? | 'Its' is possessive: 'the dog wagged its tail.' 'It's' is a contraction of it is or it has. |
| Their/there/they're | How do you tell them apart? | Their is possessive, there is a place or 'there is', they're means they are. |
| Your vs you're | What is the difference? | Your is possessive; you're means you are. |
| To/too/two | How do you use these? | To is a preposition or infinitive marker, too means also or excessively, two is the number. |
| Affect vs effect | What is the difference? | Affect is usually a verb meaning to influence. Effect is usually a noun meaning the result. |
| Accept vs except | What is the difference? | Accept means to receive. Except means excluding. |
| Than vs then | What is the difference? | Than is used for comparison. Then refers to time or sequence. |
| Fewer vs less | When do you use each? | Fewer for countable nouns (fewer cars). Less for uncountable amounts (less water, less time). |
| Comparative and superlative | How do you form them? | Comparative compares two (easier, more difficult). Superlative compares three or more (easiest, most difficult). Never combine: 'more easier' is wrong. |
| Adjective vs adverb | How do you tell them apart? | Adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs and often end in -ly. 'She sang beautifully' - beautifully is an adverb. |
| Good vs well | What is the difference? | Good is an adjective; well is an adverb (or an adjective about health). 'She sings well', not 'sings good'. |
| Misplaced modifier | What is a misplaced modifier? | A describing phrase sitting next to the wrong word: 'Running down the street, the backpack fell.' Put the modifier beside what it describes. |
| Parallel structure | What is parallel structure? | Items in a list share the same grammatical form: 'reading, writing, and studying', not 'reading, writing, and to study'. |
| Capitalization | What gets capitalized? | Proper nouns, the first word of a sentence, titles before names, days, months, and languages. Seasons and general directions do not. |
| Quotation marks | How do you punctuate quotations? | In American usage, commas and periods go inside the closing quotation mark. |
| Spelling - ie/ei | What is the rule? | I before e except after c, or when sounding like ay as in neighbor and weigh. Exceptions include weird, seize and their. |
| Commonly misspelled | Which words are most often tested? | accommodate, definitely, separate, occurrence, necessary, receive, embarrass, privilege, recommend. |
| Prefixes | Which prefixes should you know? | un-, in-, im-, dis- mean not. re- again, pre- before, post- after, sub- under, hyper- over, hypo- under. |
| Suffixes | What do medical suffixes mean? | -itis inflammation, -ology study of, -osis abnormal condition, -ectomy surgical removal, -emia blood condition. |
| Context clues | How do you work out an unfamiliar word? | Use the surrounding sentence - definitions, examples, or contrast words - and check the word's prefix and root. |
| Formal register | What is register? | The level of formality. Academic writing avoids slang, contractions and second person; the TEAS tests whether a sentence suits its audience. |
| Timing | How much time do you get per English question? | 37 questions in 37 minutes - exactly one minute each, the tightest section. The rules are finite, so drilling them pays off fastest. |
How to use these notes
- Cover the Answer column and say it from memory before checking - retrieval beats re-reading.
- Mark what you miss and revisit only those cards the next day.
- Once the terms feel solid, switch to timed practice questions.
Next step: apply these with the TEAS English practice tests - most questions repeat a handful of error patterns.