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SAT

Unit 11: Lesson 3

Writing: Grammar
Test prep
SAT
SAT strategy archive: Reading and Writing
Writing: Grammar
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Writing: Shift in verb tense and mood — Example

Google Classroom
Watch Sal work through a basic shift in verb, tense, and mood question from the SAT Writing and Language Test.

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  • blobby green style avatar for user Joy Lee
    Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Joy Lee's post “suggest that the explanat...”
    suggest that the explanation also mentions that since something is being recommended, the form should have been: '...suggests that...should try' but that 'should' is omitted as it's redundant.
    (28 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Anh Doan
    Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Anh Doan's post “"suggests" isn't it more ...”
    "suggests" isn't it more like predicting? So why "will try" doesn't work?
    (15 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user 102300
    Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to 102300's post “why the examples are simp...”
    why the examples are simple but the ones on the practices are difficult i understand the concept but the words are to difficult.
    (5 votes)
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  • spunky sam blue style avatar for user kraftycub07
    Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to kraftycub07's post “I believe the answer shou...”
    I believe the answer should be,"should try". This is because the server is putting forth a personal opinion, and all of the answer choices imply an imperative sentence.
    (4 votes)
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  • aqualine tree style avatar for user Oscar Ramirez
    Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to Oscar Ramirez's post “Don't you think the examp...”
    Don't you think the examples are too basic?
    (3 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Emma
    Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Emma's post “I don't understand why tr...”
    I don't understand why tried is incorrenct.
    (1 vote)
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  • blobby purple style avatar for user andrews
    Posted 2 years ago. Direct link to andrews's post “If there was a should try...”
    If there was a should try answer would that technically be grammatically correct?
    (2 votes)
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  • female robot amelia style avatar for user pinksis
    Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to pinksis's post “I would have picked shoul...”
    I would have picked should try though it wasn't in the category for choosing.:(
    (2 votes)
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  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user PearlofArms
    Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to PearlofArms's post “Both "try" and "will try"...”
    Both "try" and "will try" are acceptable answers to this question depending on context. The question was written with the answer of try in mind, but depending on how the reader interprets the purpose of the sentence either answer could be reasonably expected. In terms of making a fair test there are problems with both using the word "server" and the SAT's execution of this question type.
    (2 votes)
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  • leaf green style avatar for user Paul B.Gashe
    Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Paul B.Gashe's post “What is the verb, subject...”
    What is the verb, subject and object on the Question?
    (1 vote)
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Video transcript

- [Instructor] The server suggests that all guests would try the homemade chocolate fudge cake. Now when I first read this, and I have the word would here, when I see the server suggested all guests would try the homemade chocolate fudge cake, I'm expecting a, well, under what conditions would they try? So I'm expecting to see something would try the homemade chocolate fudge cake if such and such happened. But that's not what they're telling us. What we're really saying is that the server suggests that guests try the homemade chocolate fudge cake. So I definitely don't wanna keep it the way it is. If we said tried than that would be the past tense. The server suggests that all guests tried the homemade chocolate fudge cake. Now that would imply that the server's suggesting that in the past all of the guests had tried the homemade chocolate fudge cake, but that's not the intent of this sentence. He's, the server's suggesting that people try the homemade chocolate fudge cake, so I'm gonna get rid of that one. And I keep saying it, and we see that that's choice three. The server suggests that all guests try the homemade chocolate fudge cake. This is exactly what we want. The server is making a suggestion, it's not a conditional, it's not something in the past. And then we can rule out this last one, will try. This is kinda the server, if we replaced will try, this would be the server predicting something about the future which isn't the intent of this sentence. The server suggests that all guests will try the homemade chocolate fudge cake. So I think this one is off to. So definitely like that choice.