Grammar Flashcards

Which sentence correctly uses a restrictive relative clause without commas?

Answer: The officer who passed the DLAB was assigned to language school.

A restrictive relative clause identifies which officer and requires no commas; 'who' is correct for people.

What is a 'dangling modifier'?

Answer: A modifier that logically refers to a word not present or not the intended subject

A dangling modifier is an introductory phrase whose implied subject does not match the grammatical subject of the main clause.

In the passive construction 'The cipher was decoded by analysts,' what is the grammatical subject?

Answer: the cipher

In a passive sentence, the grammatical subject ('the cipher') receives the action rather than performing it.

Which option correctly identifies the case of the pronoun in 'Between you and me, the mission is risky'?

Answer: Objective case — object of the preposition 'between'

Prepositions take objects in the objective case; therefore 'me' (not 'I') is correct after 'between.'

What does 'aspect' refer to in grammar?

Answer: How a verb's action is distributed in time (e.g., ongoing vs. completed)

Grammatical aspect indicates whether an action is ongoing (progressive), completed (perfective), or habitual, independent of tense.

Identify the appositive in: 'My supervisor, a decorated veteran, leads the unit.'

Answer: a decorated veteran

'A decorated veteran' is an appositive — a noun phrase set off by commas that renames or describes 'my supervisor.'

Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?

Answer: She nearly drove her car into the barrier.

'Nearly' is misplaced — it modifies 'drove' rather than 'into the barrier,' implying she almost drove (but did not) rather than almost hitting the barrier.