Independent Clause and Error Diction Error
Faulty Idioms
People don’t worry overtheir futures; they worry about their futures. One thing is not different thananother thing; one thing is different fromanother thing. Connor does not excel withlacrosse; he excels in lacrosse. After waiting on line, visitors do not walk in the museum, they walk into the museum. Jenna has a sweet tooth; she doesn’t have a preoccupation ondark chocolate, she has a preoccupation withdark chocolate.
You might think that beingraised in an English-speaking home would suffice to prepare one to use idioms correctly in speaking and in writing. However, idiom errors are so rampant (television is a predominant culprit), and faulty English assaults the ear so frequently that even the best students can stumble into the idiom trap.
The 2400 Club counters this problem by actively studying correct usage. One of the best ways is to learn common verb-preposition pairs, which are tested frequently in the grammar and usage portions of the writing section of the SAT. When working on the identifying sentence errors section, pay close attention to prepositions that are underlined. The wrong preposition in a phrase produces an idiom error. As you know, prepositions are rather small words that show direction, location, or association: to, toward, above, behind, onto, near, under, over, on, in, by, about, up, of, for, with,and many more.
Sharpening Skills—Preposition Pairs
Study the abridged list below of common verb-preposition pairs. Train your ear to hear which prepositions commonly follow which verbs.
Know these verb-preposition pairs: accuse of consist of hide from agree to/with/on contribute to hope for apologize for cover with insist on/upon apply to/for decide on/upon participate in approve of depend on/upon prevent from believe in dream about/of protect from care about/for escape from recover from compare to/with excuse for release from complain about forget about succeed in confide in free from wait for/on
People don’t worry overtheir futures; they worry about their futures. One thing is not different thananother thing; one thing is different fromanother thing. Connor does not excel withlacrosse; he excels in lacrosse. After waiting on line, visitors do not walk in the museum, they walk into the museum. Jenna has a sweet tooth; she doesn’t have a preoccupation ondark chocolate, she has a preoccupation withdark chocolate.
You might think that beingraised in an English-speaking home would suffice to prepare one to use idioms correctly in speaking and in writing. However, idiom errors are so rampant (television is a predominant culprit), and faulty English assaults the ear so frequently that even the best students can stumble into the idiom trap.
The 2400 Club counters this problem by actively studying correct usage. One of the best ways is to learn common verb-preposition pairs, which are tested frequently in the grammar and usage portions of the writing section of the SAT. When working on the identifying sentence errors section, pay close attention to prepositions that are underlined. The wrong preposition in a phrase produces an idiom error. As you know, prepositions are rather small words that show direction, location, or association: to, toward, above, behind, onto, near, under, over, on, in, by, about, up, of, for, with,and many more.
Sharpening Skills—Preposition Pairs
Study the abridged list below of common verb-preposition pairs. Train your ear to hear which prepositions commonly follow which verbs.
Know these verb-preposition pairs: accuse of consist of hide from agree to/with/on contribute to hope for apologize for cover with insist on/upon apply to/for decide on/upon participate in approve of depend on/upon prevent from believe in dream about/of protect from care about/for escape from recover from compare to/with excuse for release from complain about forget about succeed in confide in free from wait for/on