English and Language Usage Topics for the ATI TEAS Version 7

1. Conventions of Standard English (Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar)

Spelling

· Commonly misspelled words (e.g., accommodate, separate, definitely)

· Homophones (e.g., their/there/they’re, to/too/two, its/it’s, affect/effect)

· Irregular plurals (e.g., children, criteria, phenomena)

· Prefixes and suffixes that affect spelling

Punctuation

· End punctuation (period, question mark, exclamation point)

· Commas (series, compound sentences, introductory elements, nonessential clauses)

· Apostrophes (possessives vs. contractions)

· Semicolons (connecting related independent clauses)

· Colons (introducing lists, explanations, or quotations)

· Quotation marks (dialogue, titles of short works, scare quotes)

· Parentheses and dashes (additional or interrupting information)

Grammar & Usage

· Parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections)

· Subject-verb agreement (singular/plural, collective nouns, indefinite pronouns)

· Pronoun-antecedent agreement (person, number, gender)

· Verb tenses (past, present, future; simple, perfect, progressive)

· Irregular verbs (e.g., begin/began/begun)

· Comparative & superlative adjectives (good/better/best)

· Active vs. passive voice

· Modifiers (placement of adjectives, adverbs, dangling/misplaced modifiers)

· Parallel structure (consistent forms in lists or comparisons)

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2. Knowledge of Language (Style, Tone, Clarity)

· Formal vs. informal register (appropriate word choice for audience/purpose)

· Concise phrasing (avoiding redundancy and wordiness)

· Precise vocabulary (choosing the best word for meaning)

· Consistent point of view (first, second, third person)

· Logical sentence flow (transitions, clarity, cohesion)

· Correcting ambiguous or awkward sentence structures

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3. Vocabulary Acquisition & Use (Context & Word Meanings)

· Context clues (defining unknown words from surrounding text)

· Connotation vs. denotation (emotional vs. literal meaning)

· Root words, prefixes, and suffixes (e.g., pre-, -ology, anti-)

· Synonyms and antonyms

· Common academic/professional vocabulary (TEAS Level)

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4. Sentence Structure & Composition

Sentence Types

· Simple, compound, complex, compound-complex

· Declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory

Clauses & Phrases

· Independent vs. dependent clauses

· Noun, adjective, and adverb clauses

· Participial, gerund, and infinitive phrases

Common Errors

· Run-on sentences

· Comma splices

· Sentence fragments

· Faulty parallelism

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5. The Writing Process & Text Structure (Less common but possible)

· Topic sentences and supporting details

· Transition words (however, therefore, consequently)

· Basic paragraph structure (introduction, body, conclusion)

· Recognizing irrelevant or unsupported sentences in a passage

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Sample Question Types on TEAS 7

· Which sentence uses correct punctuation?

· Which word is misspelled?

· Choose the correct verb form to complete the sentence.

· Which sentence is grammatically correct?

· Which word best fits the meaning of the sentence?

· Which sentence is redundant?

· Select the correctly spelled word.

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Recommended Focus Areas (High Yield)

Topic	Example
Subject-verb agreement	The group of students is ready.
Pronoun-antecedent agreement	Each student must bring his or her book.
Homophones	Their car is over there.
Comma usage	After dinner, we went for a walk.
Apostrophe placement	The dog’s leash (singular) vs. The dogs’ leashes (plural)
Active vs. passive voice	The chef cooked dinner. (Active) vs. Dinner was cooked by the chef. (Passive)
Verb tense consistency	She walked to the store and bought milk.
Misplaced modifiers	He almost drove his car for six hours. → He drove his car for almost six hours.