5 Things to Know for the ACT English Section

Introduction

The ACT English section is the first thing you'll face on test day: 75 questions in 45 minutes. That sounds intense, but most of the questions are quicker than you'd expect once you know what to look for. This guide covers the section's structure, the skills it tests, sample questions, and practical strategies to help you work efficiently.

Note: The ACT English section tests grammar and writing skills, NOT reading comprehension. That's the ACT Reading section (Section 3).

ACT English Section Structure & Timing

Here's how this section is set up, how the timing works, and what types of questions show up.

• You have 45 minutes to answer 75 multiple-choice questions. That's 36 seconds per question on average, but many grammar questions take far less time, which frees up time for harder ones.
• The section contains 5 passages. Each passage has 15 questions tied to it.
• As you read each passage, you'll see underlined portions in the text. These correspond to questions that ask you to fix or improve that underlined section.
• One answer choice will always be "NO CHANGE", meaning the original text is already correct. Don't be afraid to pick it when the underlined portion has no errors.
• Grammar questions ask you to correct punctuation, verb tense, subject-verb agreement, and similar issues within the underlined portion.
• Writing and style questions ask you to rewrite a sentence to achieve a specific purpose described in the question prompt.
• Whole-passage or whole-paragraph questions do NOT have an underlined portion. Instead, they ask you to reorder sentences, add or delete content, or evaluate the passage's overall structure and logic.

ACT English: What Do I Need To Know?

The questions break down into three skill categories. Knowing the weight of each helps you prioritize your study time.

Production of Writing (29-32%)

This category tests whether you can recognize and create writing that's coherent and purposeful.

• Topic Development: Can you identify the author's purpose? Can you tell whether a sentence or detail actually supports that purpose? Questions might ask you to choose the best addition to a paragraph or decide whether a sentence should be kept or deleted.
• Organization, Unity, and Cohesion: Can you reorder sentences so a paragraph flows logically? Can you pick the right transition between ideas? These questions test your sense of how writing fits together.

Knowledge of Language (15-17%)

This is the smallest category. It tests your ability to choose precise, appropriate language based on the passage's context and tone. Think word choice, conciseness, and avoiding redundancy. If two words mean similar things, you need to pick the one that fits the tone and meaning of the surrounding text.

Conventions of Standard English (52-55%)

This is the biggest category, making up over half the section. It's pure grammar mechanics.

• Sentence Structure & Formation: Recognizing and fixing run-on sentences, fragments, misplaced clauses, and parallel structure issues.
• Punctuation: Correcting errors with commas, apostrophes, colons, semicolons, and dashes. Know the rules for each, especially comma rules (they show up constantly).
• Usage: Fixing subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, verb tense consistency, commonly confused words (affect/effect, their/they're/there), and misplaced modifiers.

ACT English: Sample Questions

These questions come from the official ACT Study Guide 2023-2024. Click the link to follow along.

Image Courtesy of Official ACT Study Guide 2023-2024

This is a word choice question. The sentence describes seven different arrangements of lines that can be made. Your job is to figure out which word conveys that meaning.

Try plugging each option into the sentence:

• "Susceptible" means vulnerable to something. Doesn't fit.
• "Responsible" implies accountability. Doesn't fit.
• "Capable" could work in some contexts, but "capable arrangements" isn't natural here.
• "Possible" means the arrangements can exist. That matches the intended meaning.

The answer is C.

Now a different type:

Image Courtesy of Official ACT Study Guide 2023-2024

This is a topic development question. The prompt tells you the author's goal: to show that the narrator found the woman's comment peculiar or unusual. You need to pick the sentence that conveys that reaction.

Only choice B expresses a sense of surprise or confusion from the narrator. The other options don't capture that "this struck me as odd" feeling. Even if B doesn't sound perfectly smooth, it's the only one that matches the stated purpose, making it the correct answer.

ACT English: Tips & Tricks

Tip #1: Have a question-order strategy

You don't have to answer questions in order. Consider tackling straightforward grammar questions first (comma placement, apostrophes, subject-verb agreement). If you know the rules, these take under 30 seconds each. Save the longer style and organization questions for after you've banked that time. Since grammar questions (Conventions of Standard English) make up over half the section, this approach lets you knock out the majority of questions quickly.

Tip #2: Know your grammar rules cold

Punctuation rules, conjunction usage, subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, and verb tense consistency appear over and over. These questions are straightforward if you've memorized the rules, and nearly impossible to guess on if you haven't. Beyond formal study, regular reading helps build intuition for how correct sentences sound and flow.

Here are the highest-priority rules to review:

• Comma rules (introductory phrases, separating independent clauses with a conjunction, nonessential information)
• Semicolon vs. comma vs. period
• Apostrophe rules (possession vs. contraction vs. plural)
• Subject-verb agreement, especially when the subject and verb are far apart

Tip #3: Don't read the entire passage first

For most questions, you only need local context: the sentence containing the underlined portion, plus the sentence before and after it. Reading the full passage before answering wastes valuable time.

The exception: questions that ask about the passage or paragraph as a whole (these won't have an underlined portion). For those, you'll need a broader understanding of the passage's structure and main idea. By the time you reach these questions, you'll have read most of the passage through answering the other questions anyway.

Tip #4: Plug your answer back into the sentence

After choosing an answer, mentally read the full sentence with your choice substituted in. Does it sound grammatically correct? Does it flow with the sentences around it? Does it accomplish what the question asks? This quick check catches errors you might miss by looking at answer choices in isolation.

Tip #5: Pay attention to tone and context

You don't need to read the whole passage to pick up on tone, but you do need to notice it. Is the passage formal or conversational? Is it written in past or present tense? Knowing this helps you answer questions about verb tense consistency, appropriate word choice, and how people or things should be referred to throughout the passage. A formal, academic passage won't suddenly use slang, and a past-tense narrative shouldn't randomly shift to present tense.

ACT General Tips & Tricks

These strategies apply across all sections of the ACT.

• Use Process of Elimination (POE): When you're unsure, start by crossing out answers you know are wrong. Narrowing from four choices to two dramatically improves your odds. This is especially useful on English questions where two answers look similar but one has a subtle grammar error.
• Skip and come back: Every question is worth the same number of points. If a question is eating up your time, mark it, move on, and return to it later. Getting stuck on one hard question and missing three easy ones at the end is a bad trade.
• Never leave a question blank: There's no penalty for wrong answers on the ACT. A blank answer is guaranteed zero points. A guess gives you a 25% chance (four answer choices, not five). Always fill in something.
• Practice with real ACT tests: Reading study guides builds your knowledge, but timed practice tests build your speed and stamina. Official practice tests from the ACT website are the best resource because they match the real exam's difficulty and format.

Conclusion

The ACT English section moves fast, but the questions themselves aren't designed to trick you. Most of them test a handful of grammar rules and your ability to recognize clear, purposeful writing. Learn those rules, practice under timed conditions, and use the strategies above to work efficiently. That combination is what turns 75 questions in 45 minutes from overwhelming into manageable.