English & Grammar - ACT
Select a topic to practice. Each topic contains exams organized by difficulty level: easy, medium, and hard.
The ACT English section measures your understanding of standard written English. You will read five passages, each accompanied by 15 multiple-choice questions, for a total of 75 questions in 45 minutes. The passages cover a range of topics and writing styles, from personal narratives to informational essays.
Questions fall into two broad categories: Usage and Mechanics (grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure) and Rhetorical Skills (strategy, organization, and style). Rather than testing your ability to recite grammar rules, the ACT English section asks you to identify the most effective and correct version of a sentence within the context of a passage.
What topics are covered?
The ACT English section tests three main areas:
1. Grammar and Usage
Subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, pronoun case, verb tense and form, adjective and adverb usage, idiomatic expressions, and comparative/superlative forms. These questions make up a significant portion of the test and reward a solid understanding of fundamental grammar rules.
2. Punctuation
Commas, semicolons, colons, apostrophes, dashes, and end-of-sentence punctuation. You will need to know when punctuation is required, when it is optional, and when it creates an error. Many questions test comma usage in particular — including restrictive vs. non-restrictive clauses and items in a series.
3. Sentence Structure and Rhetorical Strategy
Sentence fragments, run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, parallel structure, transitions, paragraph organization, adding or deleting sentences, author's purpose, tone, and conciseness. These questions require you to think about how a passage is constructed and whether changes improve clarity, flow, or effectiveness.
How to practice?
Start with the Easy sets to build confidence with foundational grammar and punctuation rules. Once you can consistently score well at that level, move to Medium for more nuanced questions involving rhetorical choices and subtle errors. Finally, tackle the Hard sets, which feature ambiguous cases, advanced rhetoric, and passage-level reasoning.
For each question, read the full sentence (and surrounding sentences when provided) before looking at the answer choices. Eliminate options that introduce new errors, and remember: on the ACT, the most concise correct answer is often the best choice. Use the hack explanations provided with each question to learn time-saving strategies you can apply on test day.
ACT English: What You Need to Know
The ACT English section has 75 questions in 45 minutes organized around five prose passages. Questions cover two broad categories: Usage and Mechanics (punctuation, grammar and usage, sentence structure) and Rhetorical Skills (strategy, organization, style). Punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure together account for roughly 53% of all questions—making them the highest-value areas to master.
How to Prepare for the ACT English
Focus first on punctuation and sentence structure, which together represent the highest frequency question types. Learn the specific comma, semicolon, and apostrophe rules the ACT tests repeatedly—they are rule-based and completely learnable. AI tutor Dani explains the grammar rule behind every wrong answer so you understand the principle, not just the answer. Students who understand the rules outperform students who rely on "how it sounds" every time.