{"id":7851,"date":"2013-08-20T15:22:06","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T15:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/testpreparations.com\/help\/?p=3493"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:26:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:26:58","slug":"recognizing-nonstandard-english-usage-on-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/recognizing-nonstandard-english-usage-on-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing Nonstandard English Usage on Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview:\u00a0 What Is Nonstandard English?<\/strong>
\nNonstandard English usage encompasses topics such as\u00a0 double negatives, nonstandard use of contractions, less acceptable phrases, and commonly confused words.\u00a0 These are all traps for the unwary on standardized tests and formal writing.<\/p>\n

Double Negatives<\/strong>
\nWhile other languages such as Spanish and French form negatives with double negatives, English does not.\u00a0 Some double negatives are obvious, such as in the song by the Rolling Stones, “I don’t get no satisfaction.”\u00a0 The two negatives cancel each other out and change the meaning.\u00a0 In other words, Mick Jagger is actually satisfied with his lot.\u00a0 Words such as but<\/strong> (as a negative), barely<\/strong>, scarcely<\/strong>, or hardly<\/strong> are also negative, so using them with\u00a0 another negative will be a double negative.\u00a0 (“I didn’t hardly sleep last night” should be replaced with “I hardly slept last night” for proper usage.<\/p>\n

Nonstandard Use of Contractions<\/strong>
\nThe most common example is the word ain’t<\/strong>.\u00a0 (Even the spell-checker on the word processor flags it to replace with isn’t<\/strong>, am not<\/strong>, or aren’t<\/strong>).\u00a0 The word is not standard English usage at this time.\u00a0 Although the word don’t<\/strong> is used in standard English with first and second person pronouns, it is not standard with third person nouns or pronouns.\u00a0 (“Jim doesn’t have a car” rather than “Jim don’t have a car”.<\/p>\n

Less Acceptable Phrases<\/strong>
\nThere are many examples of phrases that are nonstandard.\u00a0 For example, being as<\/strong> and being that<\/strong> can both be replaced by because or since.\u00a0 Kind of<\/strong> and sort of<\/strong> can be replaced with rather<\/strong> or somewhat<\/strong>.\u00a0 The phrase different from<\/strong> is preferred to different than<\/strong>.\u00a0 A phrase such as “the fact that” is redundant.\u00a0 (It is also a common phrase that gets caught before a rewrite.)<\/p>\n

Commonly Confused Words<\/strong>
\nThe word accept<\/strong> is a verb meaning “to receive.”\u00a0 The word except<\/strong> is a preposition meaning “other than”.\u00a0 Similarly, the word affect<\/strong> is a synonym for influence<\/strong>, but effect<\/strong> is a synonym for result.\u00a0 \u00a0The word their<\/strong> is possessive, there<\/strong> refers to place, and they’re<\/strong> is a contraction of they are<\/strong>.\u00a0 Too<\/strong>, to<\/strong>, and two<\/strong> are homonyms that are frequently confused.<\/p>\n

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Test Prep Academy<\/span> is the premier test prep and private tutoring company for college-bound students. Our highly qualified test prep tutors deliver one-on-one personalized instruction that fit our student\u2019s busy schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overview:\u00a0 What Is Nonstandard English? Nonstandard English usage encompasses topics such as\u00a0 double negatives, nonstandard use of contractions, less acceptable phrases, and commonly confused words.\u00a0 These are all traps for the unwary on standardized tests and formal writing. Double Negatives While other languages such as Spanish and French form negatives with double negatives, English does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2841,3019,3020,3017,2851],"tags":[3051,395,3080,3219],"class_list":["post-7851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-act","category-comprehension-and-grammar","category-essay-and-writing","category-review","category-sat","tag-commonly-confused-words","tag-contractions","tag-double-negatives","tag-nonstandard-english"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}