Sentences and conventions

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Sentences and conventions. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Sentences and conventions

English Language Arts 8 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Use the space to note the evidence or reasoning that decided it.

Read: “The power went out at seven. Dad lit a row of candles on the table, and we play cards until midnight.” Which word should change to keep the verb tense consistent?
1. a) No word needs to change.
2. b) lit, which should be lights
3. c) play, which should be played
4. d) went, which should be goes
Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
1. a) This summer we visited; Regina, Saskatchewan, Brandon, Manitoba and Kenora, Ontario.
2. b) This summer we visited Regina; Saskatchewan, Brandon; Manitoba, and Kenora; Ontario.
3. c) This summer we visited Regina, Saskatchewan; Brandon, Manitoba; and Kenora, Ontario.
4. d) This summer we visited Regina, Saskatchewan, Brandon, Manitoba, and Kenora, Ontario.
A student is writing about the last day of school. Which of these is a complex sentence?
1. a) When the bell rang, the students rushed to the doors.
2. b) The students rushed to the doors at the sound of the bell.
3. c) The students heard the bell and rushed to the doors.
4. d) The bell rang, and the students rushed to the doors.
Combine these into one complex sentence that shows cause and effect: “The highway was icy. The bus was forty minutes late.”
1. a) Because the bus was forty minutes late, the highway was icy.
2. b) The highway was icy, the bus was forty minutes late.
3. c) Because the highway was icy, the bus was forty minutes late.
4. d) The highway was icy, and the bus was forty minutes late.
Read: “Our town's museum changed ___ summer hours, so check the website before you go.” Which word fits the blank?
1. a) its
2. b) their
3. c) there
4. d) it's
Read: “When hikers reach the top of the ridge, you can see three lakes.” Which revision is correct?
1. a) When you reach the top of the ridge, hikers can see three lakes.
2. b) When hikers reach the top of the ridge, we can see three lakes.
3. c) When hikers reach the top of the ridge, he can see three lakes.
4. d) When hikers reach the top of the ridge, they can see three lakes.
Which sentence uses parentheses correctly?
1. a) We drove to Drumheller to see the dinosaur museum, (about 90 minutes from Calgary).
2. b) We drove to Drumheller to see the dinosaur museum. (about 90 minutes from Calgary)
3. c) We drove to Drumheller to see the dinosaur museum (about 90 minutes from Calgary.)
4. d) We drove to Drumheller to see the dinosaur museum (about 90 minutes from Calgary).
Which sentence has a verb tense error?
1. a) Ms. Tran told us that the Earth orbits the Sun.
2. b) I have lived in Lethbridge since I was six.
3. c) Tomorrow we will leave before the sun comes up.
4. d) Yesterday Omar finishes his essay and handed it in.
A writer wants a list in the middle of a sentence to stand out. Which sentence punctuates it correctly?
1. a) Everything we needed, tent, stove, sleeping bags, fit in the canoe.
2. b) Everything we needed — tent, stove, sleeping bags, fit in the canoe.
3. c) Everything we needed — tent — stove — sleeping bags fit in the canoe.
4. d) Everything we needed — tent, stove, sleeping bags — fit in the canoe.
Which sentence uses hyphens correctly?
1. a) My cousin is fourteen-years-old.
2. b) My cousin is a fourteen-year old goalie.
3. c) My cousin is a fourteen-year-old goalie.
4. d) My cousin is a fourteen year-old goalie.

Answer key · Sentences and conventions

English Language Arts 8 · maddyhelps.com

c) play, which should be played — The passage tells what already happened, so each verb stays in the past: went, lit, played. Changing “went” or “lit” to the present would still leave the passage mixing tenses, because the other past-tense verb would still be there.
c) This summer we visited Regina, Saskatchewan; Brandon, Manitoba; and Kenora, Ontario. — When the items in a list already contain commas, semicolons separate the items so the reader can tell where each one ends. With commas only, the sentence could be a list of six places; most students believe semicolons never go in lists, but this is the one place they are needed.
a) When the bell rang, the students rushed to the doors. — A complex sentence joins an independent clause to a dependent one, and “When the bell rang” cannot stand alone. The sentence with “and” joins two clauses that could each stand alone, so it is compound, and one subject with two verbs is still a simple sentence.
c) Because the highway was icy, the bus was forty minutes late. — “Because” turns the first idea into a dependent clause and shows it caused the second. Joining with “and” is correct, but it makes a compound sentence and leaves the reader to guess the link; putting “because” on the other clause says the late bus made the road icy.
a) its — The pronoun stands for “museum,” which is one thing, so it takes the singular “its.” “Their” is the common slip when a place is full of people, and “it's” always means “it is,” which does not fit the sentence.
d) When hikers reach the top of the ridge, they can see three lakes. — The sentence is about “hikers,” so the pronoun that refers to them must be plural and in the third person: “they.” Jumping to “you” or “we” partway through is a shift in person, and “he” is singular, which does not match “hikers.”
d) We drove to Drumheller to see the dinosaur museum (about 90 minutes from Calgary). — When the words in parentheses belong to the sentence, the sentence's period goes after the closing parenthesis. Putting the period inside, or before the opening parenthesis, cuts the extra detail off from the sentence it belongs to, and no comma goes before an opening parenthesis.
d) Yesterday Omar finishes his essay and handed it in. — “Yesterday” puts the essay in the past, so “finishes” should be “finished” to match “handed.” The other sentences mix tenses correctly: a fact that is always true stays in the present, “have lived” reaches from the past up to now, and after “before” English uses the present to talk about the future.
d) Everything we needed — tent, stove, sleeping bags — fit in the canoe. — Dashes that interrupt a sentence come in pairs, one before the list and one after, like brackets. Leaving off the closing dash is the usual slip, and commas alone blur the list into the sentence, because the list has commas of its own.
c) My cousin is a fourteen-year-old goalie. — When a group of words works as one adjective before a noun, it is hyphenated all the way through: a fourteen-year-old goalie. After the verb, as in “My cousin is fourteen years old,” the words do not sit in front of a noun, so they take no hyphens.