ACT English — idiom and precise word choice

Some ACT English questions cannot be solved by a rule, because the right answer depends on the conventions of a particular word. One complies with a rule, not to it; one is capable of doing something but able to do it; a list of parts follows "consists of," while an abstract essence follows "consists in." These are idioms, and the only way through them is to know them, which is why a short list practiced properly is worth more than a long one skimmed.

This material's twelve original sentences split into three groups. Four test idiomatic prepositions: comply with, capable of, responsible for and consists of. Six test pairs of words that sound or look alike but mean different things: than and then, principal and principle, accept and except, complement and compliment, imminent and eminent, and imply and infer, where the difference is who does the reasoning. Two test precision: "estimate" as the exact word for an economist's figure where "guess" is too loose, and "lay" as the correct past tense of "lie," a sentence that is already right and where NO CHANGE is the answer.

Each explanation gives the meaning of the correct word and of every wrong option, so that the question teaches four words rather than one. The distractors are real words chosen because they are genuinely confused, not nonsense. On the real test the sentences sit inside longer passages with a portion underlined; here each question prints its own sentence with the portion in square brackets, and NO CHANGE is one of the four choices, as it is on the test.

The flashcards are built for fast review: one idiom or one confusable pair per card, with a short definition on the back.

The material offers a multiple-choice quiz and a deck of flashcards. Precise word choice belongs to Knowledge of Language, and idiom and confused words to Conventions of Standard English, two of the three reporting categories of the English section. Zestly is an independent study tool; this practice material is not produced, affiliated with or endorsed by ACT, Inc., which owns the ACT.

• Use standard idiomatic prepositions after verbs and adjectives such as comply, capable, responsible and consist
• Distinguish commonly confused words: than/then, principal/principle, accept/except, complement/compliment, imminent/eminent
• Distinguish imply from infer and lie from lay
• Choose the most precise word for the context
• Recognize a correctly used word and choose NO CHANGE

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the reporting categories in ACT's public description of the English section of the enhanced ACT (Knowledge of Language; Conventions of Standard English). Every sentence, essay, option and explanation is original; nothing is reproduced from any ACT publication or released test.