English and Language Usage on TEAS

By VeriScorePrep Team · 4 min

TEAS English and Language Usage tests grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, vocabulary in context, and spelling. The rules are finite and learnable.

Key rules

• Subject-verb agreement: verb must match the subject in number; watch for prepositional phrases that intervene ("the list of items is").
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement: pronouns match number and gender of the antecedent; watch for ambiguous pronoun reference.
• Comma usage: serial (with or without Oxford — be consistent), introductory clauses, non-restrictive clauses.
• Apostrophes: possession (singular + 's, plural ending in s + '); not for possessive pronouns (its, theirs).
• Commonly confused words: their/there/they're, your/you're, affect/effect, lie/lay, fewer/less.
• Sentence fragments and run-ons: independent clauses need separators (period, semicolon, conjunction).

Pacing

• This section is the fastest of TEAS — most items take <30s.
• Don't over-analyze; if you know the rule, commit and move.
• For vocabulary in context, use the surrounding sentence, not your default definition.

Pitfalls

• Trusting your "ear" when the standard rule differs — formal English differs from spoken English in some constructions.
• Over-thinking sentence structure items where the answer is mechanically obvious.

Practice

Drill English items as warm-up sets before TEAS Math/Science — they're quick and they clear the grammar cobwebs.