To & -ING - how verb tense affects sentence structure on the SAT 

You’re welcome! And I don’t know how to get more views and subscribers either, but just tell your friends to watch me too!

Haha glad I could help! Definitely watch the longer strategy videos if you haven’t yet: ru-vid.com/group/PLlvPF6rDVN_tZC7TZtEwOUuYWQ9ZfJKeF

Honestly, verb rules in English are complicated and hard to explain. But yes, generally we want to put the second verb in the “to” form, like I just did in this sentence (want to put). Sometimes there will be other words in between the two verbs, but if they are working together, they still use the “infinitive” as it’s called. The SAT will ask you to follow this rule occasionally (I just did it again with ask... to follow), but there are many other reasons that we won’t want the “to” form. My hope is that once you know that they aren’t testing Verb Agreement (singular vs. plural), you’ll be able to just follow your instincts to the right answer, but pay attention to punctuation because it can affect it sometimes.

In both sets of examples you gave, the -ing would be wrong. We use the -ing when the word is more of an action and the -ed when the word is more of a description. For your first example, “crafted” is best because it’s a description of whatever beautiful object the sentence is about. “Crafting” makes it sound like the object is doing the crafting. You could say, “Crafting with the pattern, the artist made a beautiful scarf.” In your second example, I can’t think of a change that would make “decorating” work. The clause is describing the pen, so there’s no real action that the pen could take. Also, it feels weird to say “decorated by patterns” because it makes it sound like the patterns did the decorating. We’d say “decorated with patterns” instead. These kinds of little wording differences are frustrating because they’re not really things we can memorize. They come from experience with the language. Over time, we get a feeling for which words go with others. That’s why the to&ing rule often comes down to trusting our instincts. I don’t think getting deep into participles and whatnot makes it easier to find correct answers. It’s mostly about hearing the right phrase. Though, some of the hardest to&ing questions end up being about punctuation, which we can usually notice when two answer choices sound correct for these questions. It might be that one (usually the -ing) would be correct if there were a comma.

@@SetteleTutoring Oh so it has nothing to do with past/ present tense of the rest of the passage? Or does it sometimes determined by passive or active?

It really depends on the context. This is why I don’t like getting into specific grammar tenses in my videos. It’s too complicated and messy. Compare: He painted the door. He will close the painted door. Is “painted” in the past tense in the second sentence? Not really. It’s now an adjective describing the door. The sentence is in the future tense. Plus, tenses shift all the time within even just one sentence: He painted the door, so I will close it when it’s dry. I don’t think this is a rule where you will ever find an “always do X” kind of plan. The point of to&ing is that we know it’s not about singular/plural, and the verbs are changing their FORMS, not just their tense. It’s not usually about when the verb takes place. It’s about the structure of the sentence. In some cases, the tense might matter, but it’s just as often about comma placement. Once we know we’re dealing with the to&ing rule, we can let our ear help us. What sounds good? Where do sentences and clauses begin and end? There’s too much variety in English to say it should always be one form or another.

@@SetteleTutoring Sorry, I think I didn't express well; I meant -ed and -ing in the phrase after comma, such as the the structure of this one: He has a pretty pen, decorated by patterns. (how do we know decorated or decorating) I know you have mentioned that decorated is more description and decorating is more of an action. However, does it sometimes relate to the tense of the passage or the passive/active of the word before comma; in this case, the word would be "pen". Thank you for your patient!

@@xjessie0069 I think the simple answer is: no, the -ed and -ing you are asking about are not tenses. They are structural forms of the verb. They affect the meaning of the sentence, not the time it takes place. The examples you’re giving aren’t helping, so maybe give me one when you encounter it in a practice question. First, we would say, “He has a pretty pen, decorated WITH patterns” because “by” makes it sound like the patterns are doing the decorating, which isn’t logical. And using -ing in that case makes no sense at all: “He has a pretty pen, decorating with patterns.” That has no coherent meaning. Still, I don’t think that the differences you’re focused on will matter on the SAT. The test just doesn’t ask this kind of stuff anymore. Or maybe I’m not noticing when they’re testing this because my instinct for the right word is so good. Again, if you find an example on a practice test, let me know and it’ll be easier to explain.

I probably won’t be able to make it in time for the March SAT. But if you follow the process I showed for getting rid of the more obvious extra parts, like other sentences and comma clauses, you should be left with such a small remaining sentence that the prepositional phrases won’t really get in the way. The prepositions mostly matter for the Verb Agreement rule, but the answer choices usually help us find the subject better than the prepositional phrases would.

Yes! There’s a high probability it will be on the test.

Sorry this got blocked for some reason. If you’ve done all the Bluebook app practice tests, then you can now use the SAT’s Question Bank without worrying about spoiling anything: satsuitequestionbank.collegeboard.org/

It’s not separate, but there are lots of punctuation videos in this playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLlvPF6rDVN_sI7_GMkQzL6I4W8is0pCte

Thank you so much!