Summary
Grammar can be a surprising but real source of difficulty on the LSAT, and the ability to properly analyze grammar will serve you well on the test.
It might strike you as odd that we're going to do lessons on grammar. After all, this is the LSAT, a test that assumes some college-level education. And here I am trying to teach you grammar, which sounds like an elementary school subject.
But, as it turns out, one of the main reasons students have such a hard time with the test is because of its complex grammar.
Have you ever read a sentence on the test and heard a loud whoosh sound? That's the sound of complex grammar flying over your head, taking several precious points with it.
Here, look at this sentence excerpted from PrepTest 104, Section 1, Question 17:
This is clear from the fact that unless the majority of individuals have a predictable and enduring set of aspirations, it will be impossible for a legislature to craft laws that will augment the satisfaction of the citizenry, and it should be obvious that a society is stable only if its laws tend to increase the happiness of its citizens.
Isn't that a crazy sentence? It's too long. It's packed with too much information. And importantly, this is not the kind of language we're used to dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Our typical, day-to-day grammar parsing is subconscious. We follow the rules, we parse out the different components of a sentence, we understand how each piece relates to the others, and we synthesize meaning without much effort.
Now granted, I picked a challenging sentence on purpose. Most sentences on the test aren't as complex. They won't require as much conscious effort to understand. But, many will. Many sentences will contain grammar so complex that your subconscious instincts simply fail. When that happens, you have to fall back on your explicit knowledge of grammar rules so that you can explicitly parse the sentence and extract the meaning. Otherwise, whoosh.
In this set of lessons, we'll break down English grammar for the purpose of dealing with complex sentences on the test. With all due apologies to bona fide linguists, I'm going to oversimplify the academic theory. I'm taking what I need and organizing it into the way I find most helpful to tackle this test. I'm also going to try to avoid jargon as much as possible. I can't completely avoid it but I'll try to be sparing.
LET'S REVIEW
Grammar is a bitch. Don't underestimate it.
As you go through this module, if you ever feel like you want to see how the grammar lessons apply to real LSAT problems, feel free to try a practice test, and then come back. Or, if you think the concepts are too easy/intuitive, feel free to skip ahead and come back only when you think you need to. As I mentioned in an earlier lesson, you have control over your studying journey.
Summary
We start our analysis of LSAT grammar with a quick review of two basic building blocks: nouns and verbs.
The first thing I want to check is that you know the difference between nouns and verbs. They are the most basic and the smallest grammatical units. They're the bricks. If sentences are houses, they're made of noun bricks and verb bricks.
So what are nouns? Well, as my third grade teacher, Mrs. Stoops, said, "Nouns are persons, places, or things." That's not a bad definition. It's incomplete but I can't give you a complete definition either. What I can do is add to the list for a bit more completeness. Nouns are persons, places, things, ideas, concepts, or processes. That's good enough for the test.
Examples of nouns: a cat, mountains, New York City, circulation, Joe, hypothesis, love.
What an eclectic list! Where's the common thread? Why are they grouped together as nouns? I don't know. But, they are nouns and I can recognize them as nouns when I see them in a sentence. And I'm pretty sure that you can too. Your intuitions as a speaker of English, while subject to failure elsewhere, are pretty solid here. Rely on it.
What are verbs? They are words that indicate action, more or less. Examples of verbs include pet, climb, drive, circulate, vote, think, and love.
What about be or have or own or must be or could have? Are those actions? No... but maybe they're "action-ish"? Well, whatever they are, they're verbs. And just like with nouns, we have to rely on this "I know it when I see it" approach.
LET'S REVIEW
Nouns and verbs are basic grammatical units. Rely on your intuitions to identify them.
Summary
Clauses are grammatical units made up of at least a noun and a verb.
Nouns and verbs are basic grammatical units. With those bricks, we can build a more complex grammatical unit, a "clause."
A clause consists of a noun and a verb.
Here's a simple clause:
Cats sing.
[Noun] Cats...
[Verb] ...sing.
Hey, isn't that just a sentence?
Yes, a clause can be a sentence.
So, why not just call it a sentence? You said no unnecessary jargon.
Well, yes, sometimes a clause is identical to a sentence. But not always. A sentence can consist of many clauses joined together and even nested within one another. For example:
Cats sing and dogs dance.
That's one sentence but contains two clauses joined by the word "and."
[Clause 1] Cats sing and [Clause 2] dogs dance.
LET'S REVIEW
- Noun + verb = clause
- Clause = simple sentence
- Complex sentences can contain many clauses
Summary
Clauses can be divided into a subject and a predicate.
Within any clause there must be a "subject" and a "predicate."
Sweet, more jargon.
The subject has to be a noun and the subject is the thing that the sentence is about. What's our sentence about? Cats. It's about cats.
Naturally, you'll next want to know what about cats? Are cats suitable to keep as pets? Do cats tip over trash bins? Are cats allowed to run for president? No, no, no. Cats sing. And there's the predicate, which must contain and usually starts with a verb.
[Subject] Cats...
[Predicate] ...sing.
LET'S REVIEW
- All clauses contain a subject and a predicate
- The subject always contains a noun and is what the clause is about
- The predicate must contain and usually starts with a verb and is the thing that we want to say about the subject
Summary
In many clauses, the predicate can contain another grammatical unit: an object.
Last lesson we learned that a predicate usually starts with a verb and so you might ask, why more jargon? Why not just say it's the same thing as a verb? Well, because it can contain more than just a verb. A predicate can contain nouns too, what we might call the "object."
For example:
Cats sing lullabies.
[Subject] Cats...
[Predicate] ...sing lullabies.
"Lullabies" isn't a verb. It's a noun. It's in the predicate. It's the object.
So, while nouns must show up as the subject, nouns can show up in the predicate as the object.
The sentence is still about [subject] cats but this time, we know a bit more about what they [verb] sing. They sing [object] lullabies.
Cats sing lullabies.
[subject] [verb] [object]
[subject] [predicate]
Subject, verb, object. Or more simply, subject, predicate. From this kernel of a clause, this basic simple sentence, we will start to layer on complexities.
LET'S REVIEW
Many sentences in English take the form [subject] [verb] [object]. You can collapse the [verb] and the [object] into what we call [predicate] so that the sentence takes the form [subject] [predicate].
Summary
Modifiers are grammatical add-ons that can help us get more specific about the subject of a clause.
Modifiers. Last piece of jargon.
What are modifiers? Tell me more.
More details, more information. Just tell me more. That's what modifiers are.
Here's an example:
Fat cats sing lullabies.
Adding the modifier "fat" to the noun "cats" gives me more information, more details.
The new clause or sentence is no longer making a claim about the entire set of cats. Rather, it's making a claim about only a subset of cats. Which subset? The fat ones. It's the fat cats that sing lullabies. What about the non-fat cats, do they sing as well? The clause or sentence is silent.
In general, I want you to think of noun modification as "cutting down into the subset." I want you to imagine the unmodified version of the noun as a big set. In that set, you have tall cats, short cats, skinny cats, fat cats, just all the cats. Once modified, we've zoomed into the subset of fat cats.
Let's try a slightly more complicated modification.
Subject modification:
Fat cats trained by Parisian divas sing lullabies.
First, note that the predicate didn't change at all. It's still "...sing lullabies." But the subject changed. Its noun has been further modified.
Now, we're cutting even further down into the subset. We are talking about a subset of fat cats. Not all fat cats, no. Only the fat cats trained by Parisian divas. And what is it that we want to say about that subset of cats? They sing lullabies.
LET'S REVIEW
Nouns in the subject can be modified. Think about the modification in terms of cutting down into subsets.
Summary
Modifiers can be applied to the predicate of a clause in order to get more specific about the verb, the object, or both.
We've seen modifications to the noun in the subject.
Can we modify the verb and the object (noun) in the predicate? Yup. Let's take each in turn.
Predicate-verb modification:
Cats begrudgingly sing lullabies.
"Begrudgingly" is modifying "sing." Now, I know that the cats aren't exactly happy about singing. That's more information. More details.
Predicate-object modification:
Cats sing French lullabies.
Since we're modifying a noun, think subset. From the entire set of lullabies, we're cutting down into a specific subset. Not English, Arabic, or Korean lullabies. They sing French lullabies. More information. More details.
We can cut further down into the subset with more modifications.
Cats sing French lullabies from the Belle Époque.
Of the set of French lullabies, we now cut down into a subset of the ones from the Belle Époque. Those are the ones they sing.
Let's put all the modifications together:
Fat cats trained by Parisian divas begrudgingly sing French lullabies from the Belle Époque.
[Fat cats trained by Parisian divas] [begrudgingly sing] [French lullabies from the Belle Époque.]
[subject: modifier-noun-modifier] [predicate: modifier-verb] [predicate: modifier-object-modifier]
Now we're talking. This sentence is starting to look like the kind of complex sentence that might leave us scratching our heads on the test. But, if we stripped away all the modifiers, the initial kernel of the sentence is just "Cats sing lullabies." Subject, verb, object. Or more simply, subject, predicate.
LET'S REVIEW
Modifiers can show up in the predicate too by modifying the verb or the object. When it's the object (noun) that's being modified, think about the modification in terms of cutting down into subsets.
Summary
Here, we break apart an example of a complex sentence. By eliminating modifiers, we can simplify the sentence and make it easier to get at the underlying point that our sentence is trying to make.
Modifiers can be layered on to create complexity. Complexity can lead to confusion.
In the previous lesson, we saw the following sentence:
Fat cats trained by Parisian divas begrudgingly sing French lullabies from the Belle Époque.
There are so many modifications to distract you that you might fail to identify or remember what the subject or main verb is.
Seems unlikely, I know. But, speaking from personal experience, I'm not embarrassed to say that it happens.
We built up to that somewhat complex sentence brick by brick and so I doubt you'll find it difficult to answer the question, "Who sings lullabies?" Is it Parisian divas? Obviously not. But, imagine if you were hit with the full weight of that sentence without warning. You might be just a tiny bit confused and perhaps a synapse might misfire and you might fail to identify the subject as "cats." Don't you think it's possible that you might think the sentence is about Parisian divas and what kind of lullabies they sing? After all, modifiers can consist of nouns and verbs too and the noun (divas) is the closest noun in proximity to the verb (sing). It does say "...Parisian divas begrudgingly sing French lullabies..."
The chances of that confusion (and other related confusions) occurring directly correlate with the number and complexity of the modifiers. They also correlate with how abstract the subject and predicate are. They also inversely correlate with how much time you spend parsing the sentence out. In other words, you're more likely to fail to understand a sentence if the sentence has an abstract subject or predicate, contains many complex modifiers, and imposes a strict time constraint on you.
Look at this sentence:
New developments in satellite hardware and artificial intelligence imaging software helped archeologists discover tombs of pharaohs once thought to be mythical.
Quick, what's the unmodified subject?
Archeologists!
Nope.
Oh, I meant hardware and software!
Haha, you're funny!
Yes, I'm funny like a clown... The unmodified subject is "developments."
Yup!
Now we have to examine the modifiers. The many, many modifiers.
We'll start with the modifiers in the subject. What kind of developments, like all of them? No, the new developments (think subset). In what? New developments in downtown Brooklyn? No. New developments in satellite hardware and AI imaging software (again subset). Now we've got the full subject, which you can think of as a noun phrase.
Next, the predicate. Here, you always start with the verb. In other words, what is it that we want to say about the subject? The verb is "helped." Our subject helped... who? It helped archeologists, the object. Okay, it helped archeologists... in what way? It helped them to discover tombs. What kind of tombs? Tombs of pharaohs (subset). What kind of pharaohs? The ones that we used to think weren't real (subset). That's the full predicate.
So there's the full sentence with all of its modifiers unpacked, one by one. Can you strip all the modifications away and see the kernel of the sentence? What is the "Cats sing lullabies" version of this sentence?
Developments helped archeologists.
[subject] [verb] [object]
Nearly every lesson in the remainder of this class will try to help you pack and unpack a sentence. Build up and strip away its modifiers. Hide and reveal the kernel of subject and predicate. Because that's the key to overcoming complex grammar on this test.
LET'S REVIEW
Modifiers create complexity. Complexity leads to confusion. Strip away all the modifiers to see the kernel of a sentence.
1. First ask what is the subject? What is the sentence about?
2. Then ask about the predicate: Where is the verb? What is the subject doing?
Summary
Modifiers are a trade-off. They add potentially useful details at the expense of hiding the underlying sentence structure. Here, we examine a complex sentence with and without its modifiers in order to get the best of both worlds.
There are a variety of ways that nouns and verbs can be modified. Adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, relative restrictive clauses, etc., etc., are all different kinds of modifications. But, I said no more jargon, so don't worry about those terms.
Just remember the functional principle that makes something a modifier: tell me more, more information, more details.
Fat cats trained by Parisian divas begrudgingly sing French lullabies from the Belle Époque.
All the modifiers in that sentence obey the functional principle of providing more information.
Let's look at another sentence with some more modifiers:
The attempts of opposition leaders to sabotage the vote on the healthcare reform bill will backfire after the story is published.
I want you to have the ability to see through all the modifications to the kernel of a simple subject and predicate. What is the "Cats sing lullabies" version of the sentence above?
First, what's the subject-noun? What is this sentence about? It's not "leaders" or the "vote" or the "bill" even though those are nouns. It's "attempts."
Attempts. Okay. Whose attempts? Opposition leaders [modifier]. What are they attempting? To sabotage the vote [modifier]. The vote on what? The healthcare reform bill [modifier]. Great, the subject is fully fleshed out.
Second, the predicate-verb. What about the attempts? They "will backfire." When? After the story is published [modifier]. The predicate is fully fleshed out.
Stripped of all its modifications, the sentence reduces to "The attempts will backfire." So much substantive information lost! So much structural clarity gained! At its core, the sentence is saying that the attempts will backfire. Everything else is just details packed away in boxes labeled "modifiers." Whose attempts? Open a box and find out. Attempts to do what? Open another box and find out.
The attempts of opposition leaders to sabotage the vote on the healthcare reform bill will backfire after the story is published.
[subject-noun] The attempts
[modifying "attempts"] of opposition leaders
[modifying "attempts"] to sabotage the vote
[modifying "vote"] on the bill
[modifying "bill"] healthcare reform
[predicate-verb] will backfire
[modifying "will backfire"] after the story is published.
LET'S REVIEW
There are a variety of modifiers but they are all united by the functional principle of providing more information on the nouns and verbs they modify. Usually, asking questions like who, what, where, when, why, and how can help you identify a modifier.
Packing the modifiers away can reveal the subject-predicate structure of the sentence, though at the cost of substantive information.
Instructions:
Identify the subject, predicate, and modifiers for the following sentences.
Look through the details, the complications to the core kernel of subject-noun and predicate-verb.
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4
Question 5