Standard English Question Types

In order to identify what type of Standard English question you are looking at, you want to start by looking at the answer choices, and asking yourself what the main difference is between them. This will help you identify what concepts they are likely testing, and how to approach the question.

While we already gave a summary of the Standard English question types in the Standard English > Overview page, we'll re-list them here, and then will go into more detail below on how to recognize them. The differences between answer choices will fall under one of the following categories:

• Different Pronouns
  • The answer choices are mostly the same, but they each use a different pronoun.
  • There may also be a verb that differs between answer choices to match the pronoun.
• Apostrophe Placement
  • These answer choices will differ in terms of where they do or don't place apostrophes.
  • They may also differ in plurality and using pronouns vs contractions.
• Questions vs Statements
  • Usually, two answer choices will end with question marks, and the other two will end with periods.
• Different Subjects
  • In these you will notice longer answer choices, where the order of the words is very different from one choice to another, and many have different subjects (the noun performing the main verb).
  • These are testing the concept of misplaced modifiers.
• Punctuation
  • The answer choices are mostly the same, but they use different punctuation, or have the punctuation in different places.
  • You may notice additional minor differences like an extra word being present in some answer choices.
• Verb Form
  • The answer choices all use different forms of the same verb, but otherwise are mostly the same.

Pronouns are more generic words that replace specific nouns. They include words like "he", "she", "it", "they", "we", "you", and "I", "who", etc. Sometimes questions that fall under this category will have answer choices that all consist of a single pronoun, but sometimes there might be a little more to the answer choices, like a verb that comes after the pronoun. If each answer choice has a different pronoun, then we will consider it a "pronoun" question, not a "verb form" question, even if the verb might change between some choices. You also might notice sometimes that some answer choices have apostrophes, because they are using the contraction form of pronouns; these should not be mistaken for an "apostrophe" question. Below is an example of a "pronoun" question:

Apostrophe questions will differ in terms of where they do or don't place apostrophes. They may also differ in using the plural vs singular form of a noun or pronoun, and using contractions vs not. Most of the time, there will be two words in the answer choices that differ in terms of apostrophe placement. Below is an example of an apostrophe question:

These questions will usually have two answer choices that end with question marks, and the other two answer choices will end with periods. They are testing you on whether the sentence should be a statement or a question, and how it should be phrased to align with whether it is a statement or a question. Below is an example of one of these questions:

The answer choices on these questions will be longer than on other Standard English questions, and the order of the words will be very different from one choice to another. Specifically, there will be different subjects (the noun performing the main verb) across the answer choices. In these questions, the blank typically comes directly after a non-essential clause ending with a comma at the beginning of the sentence. They are testing you on the concept of misplaced modifiers. Below is an example of one of these questions:

The answer choices on these questions will be mostly the same, but will differ in terms of where and how they use various forms of punctuation (commas, semicolons, colons, periods, emdashes, etc). There may also be some minor differences in wording. Below is an example of one of these questions:

The answer choices on these questions will be mostly the same, but will differ in terms of the verb form used. These might be testing you on subject-verb agreement, or using the proper verb tense, or picking the form that serves as the right part of speech. Below is an example of one of these questions: