Language: Levels E, M, D, and A Study Guide for the TABE Test

General Information

The TABE test levels are L, E, M, D, and A, in that order of difficulty level. The letter designations (of L, E, M, D, and/or A) in this study guide indicate at which TABE test level the skills are specifically assessed. Note that skills from previous levels may also show up at higher levels. This means that you should be sure you are fluent in all skills labeled at your testing level or below. For example, if you are studying for test level A, be sure you understand and can use all skills from levels L, E, M, and D, as well.

Since the first level, L, assesses only the earliest language skills, we focus most of our preparation on the other, more difficult levels.

Initially, you will take a **locator ** test to determine your appropriate TABE test level in Language. This short test will only take about 20 minutes.

After the locator test, no matter which TABE level you take, you will have 50 minutes to complete the TABE Language Test.

(The Level L Language Test is read out loud to students.)

Some skills on the Language test may seem to overlap with reading skills, and they do. You use many of the same skills to read as you do to write and speak, which is what this test is all about: production of language. How well can you put words and sentences together correctly?

Conventions of Standard English: Part 1

Percentage of Test Level Specifically Assessing These Skills

E	M	D	A
33.3%	33.3%	27.3%	27.3%

The requirements for this aspect of language are about the same for all test levels. Of course, the higher the test level, the more you will need to know about more complicated situations in language.

Parts of Speech

Parts of speech are the building blocks of language. Generally speaking, there are ten parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, determiners, and verbals. By putting these parts together in different orders, writers can create meaningful sentences that effectively convey information to their audience.

Nouns

Nouns are the most commonly used part of speech. They name a person (Mr. Simmons, girl, salesclerk), place (neighborhood, Cincinnati, park), thing (bird, pencil, school bus), or idea (hope, joy, grief). There are several different types of nouns, including common, proper, abstract, concrete, and collective. They are often preceded by an article like “a,” “an,” or “the.”

Abstract and Concrete Nouns

A concrete noun refers to something that can be seen, touched, or measured in some way. An abstract noun, however, refers to a concept that cannot be physically seen, touched, or measured. Here are some examples of concrete and abstract nouns:

concrete—foot, building, airplane, balloon, chef, tree, shoe, boat

abstract—peace, love, happiness, justice, wisdom, success, liberty, honesty

Collective Nouns

Nouns may be singular (shoe) or plural (shoes). A collective noun refers to multiple things as a single entity (team, class, couple). Collective nouns are considered singular and would require a singular verb in a sentence.

The herd of cattle grazed in the field. The couple was celebrating their anniversary. Our team was winning at halftime.

Pronouns

A pronoun replaces a noun and is used to minimize repetition in writing or speaking. There are several different types of pronouns, including reflexive, intensive, subject/object, and relative pronouns.

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same entity. They end in -self (singular) or -selves (plural).

I—myself

you—yourself/yourselves

we—ourselves

he/she/it—himself/herself/itself

they—themself/themselves

one—oneself

Here are some examples:

I bought my first car myself.

Put your shoes on yourselves, kiddos!

She decided to treat herself to a new purse.

Eric and I had the basketball court to ourselves.

They kept the secret between themselves for over 20 years.

Intensive Pronouns

Sometimes writers have a need to emphasize certain nouns or pronouns within a sentence. When that happens, they may use an intensive pronoun. An intensive pronoun isn’t essential to make meaning of a sentence and cannot stand on its own; it is added to emphasize the antecedent. To determine whether a pronoun is intensive or reflexive, try removing it from the sentence. If the sentence still makes sense, the pronoun is intensive. If the sentence doesn’t make sense or is incomplete, the pronoun is reflexive. Like reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns end in -self or -selves.

I myself wouldn’t bungee jump off a bridge.

She built it herself in an afternoon.

He solved the problem himself.

Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite pronoun refers to nonspecific or general people, things, or amount of something. For example, anyone, someone, none, all, no one, and everything are all indefinite pronouns.

Someone made a large donation.

Everyone was glad to see her.

Much fuss was made ahead of the announcement.

Carla wanted a cookie, but none were left.

Subject and Object Pronouns

As their name suggests, subject pronouns act as the “doer” in a sentence and perform action to the object pronouns that receive that action.

He threw the ball to me.

He is the subject pronoun, doing the action of throwing the ball; me is the object pronoun, receiving the action.

You told us to be here at six!

You is the subject pronoun as they did the telling; us received the information and is the object pronoun.

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns introduce dependent (or relative) clauses in a sentence. They include who, whom, whose, which, that, when, where, why, whatever, whoever, and whomever.

They called the plumber who unclogged the drain.

Wear the belt that goes with those pants.

Do you remember the time when we got stuck in the mud?

Verbs

Verbs are action words and can also denote a state of being. They are used with nouns or pronouns to indicate actions or states of being. Verbs may be past, present, or future and may be singular or plural, depending on who or what is doing them.

She ran.

They danced all night long.

Swim faster!

They loved that movie.

He will be out of the office next week.

Adjectives

Adjectives describe or modify nouns or pronouns. They help readers imagine what something looks like, tastes like, sounds like, smells like, or feels like. There are thousands of adjectives in the English language. To find the adjectives in a sentence, find out who or what the sentence is about and then ask questions like “what kind?”, “how many?”, or “what color?”. The answers to these questions are found in the adjectives. Adjectives are usually found before the noun in the sentence, but may be found anywhere in a sentence. Here are some examples:

The spookiest house on the block was the big blue house on the corner.

Giant waves crashed over the bow of the small boat as the raging storm blew through.

The brave soldier gathered his heavy pack and began the long walk back to base.

She chose the purse that was blue because that is her favorite color.

Coordinate Adjectives

Nouns may be modified or described by more than one adjective. When there are two or more adjectives modifying or describing the same noun, they are considered coordinate adjectives and are separated by commas. To test whether adjectives are coordinates, ask yourself three questions:

1. Do they apply to the same noun?

2. Can you change the order of the adjectives without disrupting the meaning of the sentence?

3. Can you add “and” between the adjectives without changing the meaning?

If you answer “yes” to all three questions, you are looking at coordinate adjectives.

The doctor is a kind, caring, gentle man.

We woke to a bright, sunny day.

Harold’s fuzzy, blue, hand-knit blanket is his favorite childhood memento.

The order of adjectives can make a difference and alter the meaning of the sentence if rearranged in some instances. These types of adjectives are called cumulative adjectives. They don’t require separation by commas, and if you try to add “and” between them, it sounds awkward. In the English language, adjectives generally come in the following order: quantity, opinion, size, age, shape, color, material, and purpose.

He owned five old tin cars.

The woman’s ancient red silk dress was on a hanger.

Adverbs

Adverbs describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They describe actions or how something is done. To find the adverbs in a sentence, ask questions like “when?”, “where?”, or “how?”. Because adverbs can modify a wider variety of word types than adjectives, it’s not as easy as just finding the verb in the sentence, though that’s a pretty good place to start. Adverbs often end in -ly, though not always, and not all words that end in -ly behave as adverbs.

The bell rang loudly, signaling it was time to go to class.

Frank, the guy in the ugly sweater, is always late.

We turned left and walked quickly to the bus stop.

Prepositions

Prepositions identify the relationships between words in a sentence. They indicate the when, where, why, or how something happens. A common mnemonic to remember what prepositions are is to “think about what a fox can do to a box.” For example, a fox can be on, under, or next to a box. These are prepositions. Prepositions should be located close to the noun or verb they are describing. There are many prepositions in the English language, and these are just a few of them at work in some sample sentences:

The party is at the hotel downtown, so we’ll get there by taxi.

The word “at” tells where the party is; “by” tells how we’ll get there.

Her phone fell behind the seat.

“Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go…” sang the choir.

He hid under the bed near the closet during the game of hide-and-go-seek.

Prepositional phrases are phrases that begin with a preposition followed by its object. They are used to add detail or description to a sentence. Here are some examples:

Asra is from Chicago.

That store at the mall is my favorite!

The dealership is running a promotion for this week only.

Allie is sitting by the window.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are joining words that connect words, phrases, or clauses to form more complex sentences. Using conjunctions can help you add sentence variety to your writing rather than depending only on short, simple sentences to convey ideas. There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating, correlative, and subordinating.

Coordinating Conjunctions

A coordinating conjunction is used to join two or more words or ideas in a sentence. The FANBOYS acronym can help you remember coordinating conjunction words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

We had cake and ice cream for dessert.

Neither the yellow shorts nor the blue shorts fit.

He failed but kept trying.

We could watch a comedy or a horror show.

When conjunctions are used to join two independent clauses, a comma must be added before the conjunction.

The weather report said it would rain, yet the sun was out all day.

Only three people competed, so it was easy to award first-, second-, and third-place prizes.

Alan was soon fired, for he failed to show up to work on time.

Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are word pairs that show the relationship between two words or phrases in a sentence. The words or phrases usually have equal weight, and the correlative conjunctions help create parallel structure in the sentence. Some of the most common correlative conjunctions are either/or, neither/nor, whether/or, both/and, and not only/but also.

She could either say yes or no.

Neither Michael nor Michelle completed the crossword puzzle.

We’ll get there late whether we take the train or the bus.

Speed skaters are both fast and strong.

Phoebe not only aced her math test but also earned an A on her history project.

Subordinating Conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction connects a subordinate, or dependent, clause with an independent clause. It can indicate cause and effect, demonstrate a relationship of time or place, make a comparison, or add to the main idea of the independent clause. For example:

The police issued the driver a ticket because he was on his phone.

Since Hector borrowed Tim’s car, he filled the gas tank before returning it.

She is a respected boss because she is fair.

He cancelled last minute, as we knew he would.

Though he said he would stay awake, Mike fell asleep as soon as the lights dimmed.

Pam gets nervous whenever her mom calls.

Interjections

Oh, wow! Interjections! This part of speech expresses emotion or feeling and is often, but not always, followed by an exclamation point. Although considered a part of speech, interjections are not actually connected to other parts of a sentence, grammatically speaking. They may be one word or phrase, and be used on their own or as part of a longer sentence.

I, um, think we are lost.

Wow! I can’t believe he ate the whole thing!

Today’s a snow day—yay!

Oh, no. Was that a stop sign?

Nah, I’m not hungry, thanks.

Phooey! I forgot my keys!

Shhh…it’s time for bed.

Determiners/Articles

Determiners precede and modify nouns to provide specific information about which one, how many, or whose.

the car

a toothbrush

my sweater

every dog

your shoes

that cat

Articles are a type of determiner that indicate whether a noun is general or specific. There are three commonly used articles: a, an, the. Specific nouns will be preceded by the, while general, nonspecific nouns require a or an to come first.

Marty ate the pepperoni pizza.

Sara ate a cheeseburger.

There was an apple sitting on the teacher’s desk.

Other types of determiners include demonstratives (this, that, these, those), numbers (first, second, one, two), possessive determiners (her, his, its, mine, our, their), and quantifiers (any, few, many, much, several, some).

This hat is Clara’s favorite.

That painting belongs in a museum!

Carol’s pumpkin won first place.

The four friends sat around the campfire.

Our backyard flooded.

His haircut looks nice.

After the storm, several volunteers showed up to help.

The restaurant has served many patrons over the years.

Verbals

Verbals are variations of parts of speech. There are three types: gerunds, participles, and infinitives. For this test, you only need to be familiar with verbals that form nouns. They are:

Gerunds

A gerund is formed by adding ing to a verb to form a noun:

Racing is his favorite sport to watch on television.

Infinitives

An infinitive is simply a verb preceded by the word to. It can be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb, but for this test, you only need to be familiar with an infinitive when used as a noun:

To win was his only goal.

Fabian’s purpose in life is to entertain.