The December 2026 SAT grammar rules most likely to appear are the ones that filled our fall 2026 banks. Those banks hold 275 grammar questions. Of them, 54 asked you to join two complete sentences, 41 tested verb forms and tense, 35 tested subject-verb agreement, and 28 tested paired punctuation around extra information. Those four rule families cover 158 of the 275 questions, which is more than half.
Read this as a prediction from repeat history in our banks. It is not a leak and not a guarantee. The test is on Saturday, December 5, 2026, per College Board's December 5 page. In grammar, the same rules show up in every period we measured, while single questions rarely return. So this page teaches each rule with a short check and an example we wrote ourselves. You can practice in the SAT question bank hub. The December 2026 English prediction bank holds the 400 questions our model ranks highest for December.
Which December 2026 SAT grammar rules should you study first?
Start with sentence boundaries (rows 1 and 5) and verbs (rows 2 and 3). In our fall 2026 banks (August to November, 1,376 English questions), those four rows made up 149 of the 275 grammar questions.
The table ranks all 13 rule families by their fall 2026 count. It also shows our two earlier December banks and the grammar questions inside the December prediction bank.
| Rule family | Fall 2026 banks (275 grammar questions) | December 2024 and 2025 banks (132 grammar questions) | In the December prediction bank (59 grammar questions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Two complete sentences | 54 (19.6%) | 20 (15.2%) | 8 |
| 2. Verb forms and tense | 41 (14.9%) | 29 (22.0%) | 7 |
| 3. Subject-verb agreement | 35 (12.7%) | 16 (12.1%) | 6 |
| 4. Paired punctuation around extra information | 28 (10.2%) | 11 (8.3%) | 4 |
| 5. Dependent clauses and fragments | 19 (6.9%) | 2 (1.5%) | 4 |
| 6. No punctuation needed | 19 (6.9%) | 8 (6.1%) | 4 |
| 7. Modifiers | 16 (5.8%) | 5 (3.8%) | 3 |
| 8. Restrictive vs nonrestrictive | 15 (5.5%) | 7 (5.3%) | 7 |
| 9. Items in a series | 15 (5.5%) | 7 (5.3%) | 5 |
| 10. Colons and dashes before a list or explanation | 14 (5.1%) | 9 (6.8%) | 7 |
| 11. Pronouns | 9 (3.3%) | 10 (7.6%) | 1 |
| 12. Possessives and apostrophes | 9 (3.3%) | 8 (6.1%) | 3 |
| 13. Parallelism | 1 (0.4%) | 0 (0.0%) | 0 |
Three things stand out.
- Punctuation carries the most weight. Seven of the 13 families (rows 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10) are punctuation rules for SAT sentences. They made up 164 of the 275 fall questions (59.6%).
- Verbs are steady. Rows 2 and 3 together were 76 of 275 in fall 2026 (27.6%) and 45 of 132 in the earlier Decembers (34.1%).
- Pronouns and possessives ran higher in past Decembers. They were 18 of 132 questions then (13.6%) and 18 of 275 this fall (6.5%). Two December banks are a small sample, so treat this as a hint and keep both rules on your list.
How many grammar questions are on the SAT?
About 13 or 14. College Board calls grammar "Standard English Conventions" and sets it at about 26% of the Reading and Writing section in its Reading and Writing specifications. The section has 54 questions: 50 operational questions and 4 pretest questions. Our arithmetic: 26% of 50 is 13, and 26% of 54 is 14. That is also the answer to how many Standard English Conventions questions are on the SAT.
About 26% of the section. That is 13 or 14 questions.
20.0% of English questions (275 of 1,376). November 2026 alone: 22.0% (77 of 350).
You get 64 minutes for the section, split into two 32-minute modules, per College Board's SAT structure page. In our fall 2026 banks, grammar was 20.0% of all English questions (275 of 1,376). In the November 2026 bank it was 22.0% (77 of 350). Our banks pool more questions than one test form holds, so their mix does not have to match a single form. For a form-by-form count, see how many grammar questions each SAT form has.
Do SAT grammar questions repeat?
Yes, but less than any other question type. We checked every earlier grammar question against every 2026 test date. A grammar question came back on a given date 3.5% of the time (165 of 4,651 question and test-date pairs). The other three domains ran from 4.1% to 4.8%.
The next chart and table split grammar by the labels in our banks.
| Grammar label in our banks | Came back on a 2026 test date | Question and test-date pairs | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restrictive vs nonrestrictive | 14 | 177 | 7.9% |
| Modifiers | 8 | 156 | 5.1% |
| Two independent clauses | 27 | 595 | 4.5% |
| Paired commas (older label) | 15 | 374 | 4.0% |
| Introducing a list or explanation | 6 | 166 | 3.6% |
| Subject-verb agreement | 19 | 611 | 3.1% |
| Verb forms | 19 | 689 | 2.8% |
| No punctuation needed | 8 | 332 | 2.4% |
| Verb tense | 5 | 231 | 2.2% |
| Pronouns | 4 | 186 | 2.2% |
| Period or semicolon | 3 | 185 | 1.6% |
| All grammar questions | 165 | 4,651 | 3.5% |
The counts are small, so read the order loosely. Restrictive vs nonrestrictive questions came back most often. The prediction bank holds seven of them, although the family is only 15 of the 275 fall questions. Period or semicolon was the most common single label in fall 2026 (36 of 275), and it came back the least.
What changed since our November prediction
We scored the November prediction after the test. Of the 574 English questions in the November prediction bank, 52 came back as the same or a reworked question (9.1%). Another way to count: 89 of the 574 sat on a passage that came back (15.5%). November 2026 itself repeated a lot.
In our November 2026 bank, 198 of 350 English questions (56.6%) matched or reworked a question from an earlier bank. On 3 of the 19 test dates we could check (June, September and November 2026), more than half of the bank did. The full method is on our SAT predictions 2026 hub, and the earlier page is our November 2026 SAT prediction.
For December we replaced the single rule ("already repeated twice") with a model that we fit again after every test date. It scores every question in our 23 English banks (6,115 questions). It looks at how many test dates a question has appeared on, how many times this year, how long ago, how often its passage has come back, and how often its skill comes back.
A question seen on one date came back 3.5% of the time in 2026. A question seen on three dates came back 12.3% of the time. A question seen twice in the same year came back 16.5% of the time (34 of 206 pairs).
We tested the model on earlier dates, using only banks that existed before each date. Across 2026 dates, an average of 9.0% of the bank's questions came back, with a worst date of 0.5% and a best date of 19.3%. Results swing that much.
Other skills return more, and our sister pages cover them: the December 2026 SAT vocabulary prediction and the December 2026 SAT reading prediction.
The 13 rule families: the rule, the check and an example
Each section below gives the rule in one sentence, a check you can run on test day, and a wrong and right pair. We wrote every example sentence for this page. None comes from a test or a bank. The order follows the fall 2026 counts in the first table.
1. Two complete sentences (54 of 275)
- Read the words before the punctuation mark. Can they stand alone as a sentence?
- Read the words after it. Can they stand alone too?
- If both can, cross out the comma alone and the choice with no mark.
Practice question 1 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
Marisol Vega spent three summers mapping the tide pools along her town's rocky ______ notebooks now hold sketches of more than ninety species.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) coast; her
- B) coast, her
- C) coast her
- D) coast, however, her
Show answer
Answer: A. A complete sentence sits on each side of the blank, so a semicolon can join them. A comma alone cannot, and neither can no mark at all. "However" is not a joining word, so two commas around it still leave the two sentences run together.
Picking the right linking word is a separate skill, covered in our December 2026 SAT transitions and notes guide. For the comma error itself, see how to fix comma splices on the SAT.
Are periods and semicolons the same on the SAT?
Between two complete sentences, yes. A period and a semicolon do the same job there. So if two answer choices differ only in that one mark, look for another difference, because a question has one correct answer. A semicolon has one more use, which is separating list items that contain commas (see family 9). Our lesson on semicolon vs period on the SAT goes deeper.
2. Verb forms and tense (41 of 275)
- Find the subject. Does the sentence already have a main verb?
- If it does not, the blank needs a verb with a tense. If it does, the blank needs a form that is not a main verb.
- Check the time clues: dates, "since," "last year," and the tense of nearby verbs.
Practice question 2 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
The Harlow Street Theater, which closed in 1998 after its roof collapsed, ______ last month with a week of free concerts.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) reopening
- B) to reopen
- C) reopened
- D) having reopened
Show answer
Answer: C. The subject "The Harlow Street Theater" has no main verb yet, because "closed" belongs to the "which" clause. Only "reopened" is a verb with a tense. "Last month" calls for the past.
Go deeper with our SAT verb forms guide and our Digital SAT verb tense rules.
3. Subject-verb agreement (35 of 275)
- Find the verb in the blank.
- Ask "who or what does this?" to find the subject. Skip phrases that start with of, in, with or for, and skip anything between two commas.
- Match the verb to that subject.
Practice question 3 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
In the valley's oldest orchard, the rows of apple trees planted by the first farmer ______ still producing fruit each fall.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) is
- B) was
- C) has been
- D) are
Show answer
Answer: D. Ask what is still producing fruit: the rows. "Rows" is plural, so the verb is "are." The nearer nouns "trees" and "farmer" sit inside phrases you skip.
Our December 2025 hardest grammar rule guide shows how the hardest SAT grammar questions hide the subject behind a long phrase. For the full rule, read the SAT subject-verb agreement guide. For more SAT subject-verb agreement practice, work through this practice set.
4. Paired punctuation around extra information (28 of 275)
- Lift the extra phrase out. Does the sentence still work?
- If it does, the marks on both sides must match.
- Never pair a comma with a dash. Two dashes work the same way as two commas.
Practice question 4 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
The city's first bike-share ______ now has a station in every neighborhood.
See which question types are costing you points
Start with a free mock, free drills, or preview sample questions before using all 47 question banks.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) program, launched with only forty bicycles
- B) program, launched with only forty bicycles,
- C) program launched with only forty bicycles,
- D) program (launched with only forty bicycles,
Show answer
Answer: B. Lift out "launched with only forty bicycles" and the sentence still works, so the phrase needs a matching mark on each side. Only choice B has two commas. The other choices open the pair without closing it, close it without opening it, or mix two different marks.
In fall 2026, 22 of these 28 questions carried our paired commas label and 6 carried the paired dashes label. See our Digital SAT dash rule lesson.
5. Dependent clauses and fragments (19 of 275)
- Spot the starter word.
- Do not put a period or a semicolon between that clause and the main sentence.
- Check that the main sentence has its own subject and verb.
Practice question 5 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
Because the school garden gets full sun only in the ______ plant lettuce along the shaded fence instead.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) morning. Students
- B) morning; students
- C) morning, students
- D) morning students
Show answer
Answer: C. The words from "Because" to "morning" cannot stand alone, so a period or a semicolon after them leaves a fragment. A comma attaches the opening clause to the main sentence. With no mark, the two parts run together.
This family was 7 of the 77 grammar questions in our November 2026 bank. More examples are in SAT comma splices and sentence fragments explained.
6. No punctuation needed (19 of 275)
- Find the subject and the verb. Nothing goes between them except a matching pair around extra information.
- For each mark in a choice, name the rule that calls for it.
- If you cannot name a rule, choose no mark.
Practice question 6 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
The mural on the library's north ______ a river that once ran through the center of town.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) wall, shows
- B) wall shows
- C) wall: shows
- D) wall shows,
Show answer
Answer: B. The subject is "the mural," the verb is "shows," and the object is "a river." No rule calls for a mark between a subject and its verb or between a verb and its object, so the answer has none.
More on this in when no punctuation is correct.
7. Modifiers (16 of 275). What is a dangling modifier?
- Read the opening phrase and ask "who or what is doing this?"
- The first noun after the comma must be the answer.
- Watch for a possessive in that spot. "Jamal's backpack" is a backpack, not Jamal.
Practice question 7 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
Trained as a chemist before she ever picked up a camera, ______
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) Dana Whitlow's photographs often show crystals forming on glass.
- B) crystals forming on glass often appear in Dana Whitlow's photographs.
- C) Dana Whitlow often photographs crystals forming on glass.
- D) the photographs of Dana Whitlow often show crystals forming on glass.
Show answer
Answer: C. Ask who was trained as a chemist: Dana Whitlow. Her name must come right after the comma. The other choices put photographs or crystals in that spot.
In fall 2026, 11 of the 16 modifier questions carried our dangling modifier label. Practice it with dangling modifiers on the SAT.
8. Restrictive vs nonrestrictive (15 of 275)
- Remove the phrase or name.
- Do you still know which person or thing the sentence means? If you do, it is extra, so use two commas.
- If you do not, it is needed, so use no commas.
With no earlier sentence to say which painter is meant, "the painter" could be anyone, so the name is needed.
Practice question 8 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
In 2021, ______ published a field guide to the mosses of the northern lakes.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) botanist, Priya Nandakumar
- B) botanist, Priya Nandakumar,
- C) botanist Priya Nandakumar,
- D) botanist Priya Nandakumar
Show answer
Answer: D. Remove the name and the sentence has no clear subject left ("In 2021, botanist published"), so the name is needed and takes no commas. A comma after the name would also split the subject from its verb "published."
This family had the highest return rate in the repeat table. See essential vs non-essential appositives.
9. Items in a series (15 of 275)
- Count the items.
- Look inside each item for a comma.
- Check that the same mark sits between every pair of items.
See semicolons in a complex list.
10. Colons and dashes before a list or explanation (14 of 275)
- Cover everything after the colon. Is what remains a complete sentence?
- If it is not, the colon is wrong. That rules out a colon after "such as," "including," or a verb like "are."
- What follows the colon can be a list, a phrase or a full sentence.
Practice question 9 (written for this page, in the style of this question type)
The trail guide lists three things every hiker should ______ a paper map, extra water, and a whistle.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
- A) carry:
- B) carry;
- C) carry,
- D) carry
Show answer
Answer: A. Cover the list. "The trail guide lists three things every hiker should carry" is a complete sentence, and the words after it name the three things, so a colon fits. A semicolon needs a complete sentence after it too, and the list is not one.
Our two-minute lesson covers the colon rule.
When to use a colon vs semicolon on the SAT?
Use a semicolon when a complete sentence sits on both sides. Use a colon when a complete sentence comes before it and the words after it list or explain what that sentence announced. A colon does not need a complete sentence after it. A semicolon does. Test both sides with the cover-up check in colon vs semicolon: test the rule, not your ear.
Complete sentence before it. Complete sentence after it.
Complete sentence before it. A list, a phrase or a sentence after it.
11. Pronouns (9 of 275)
- Find the noun the pronoun points back to.
- Decide if that noun is singular or plural.
- Match the pronoun to it.
Pronouns were 10 of 132 grammar questions in our earlier December banks, a larger share than this fall. Review them with our SAT pronoun agreement guide.
12. Possessives and apostrophes (9 of 275)
- Does the noun own the word after it? If it does not, use no apostrophe.
- Count the owners. One owner takes 's. Plural owners that end in s take s'.
- For its and it's, read the sentence with "it is." If that fails, use "its."
See our Digital SAT apostrophe rules.
13. Parallelism (1 of 275)
- Find the list or the pair. Look for and, or, than.
- Name the form of the items already written.
- Match the blank to that form.
This label is rare in our banks: 1 of 275 grammar questions in fall 2026 and 6 of 1,300 across all 23 banks. Learn the rule, then spend your time higher up the table.
When is the December SAT in 2026?
The December SAT is on Saturday, December 5, 2026. The regular deadline to register is November 20, 2026. Late registration closes November 24, 2026, and College Board says extra fees may apply. Both dates come from College Board's December 5 page. Our December 2026 SAT dates guide covers the deadlines and score release.
When do December SAT scores come out?
Scores for the December 5 test come out on December 18, 2026, per College Board's score release dates.
SAT grammar practice plan for the 25 days before December 5
You have 25 days from November 10 to December 5. Spend them in the order of the table, and split your time with Math.
For Math, our December 2026 SAT math prediction lists the skills and formulas to study first, and the December 2026 Math prediction bank holds 200 questions. The earlier November and December 2026 SAT math guide and the November 2026 Math question bank are live now.
For what students said after the last test, read our November 2026 SAT grammar and transitions recap. To drill one skill at a time, use the skill drill finder.
How we built this page
Every Test Advantage number on this page comes from our own question banks on thetestadvantage.com, measured from the live database on November 10, 2026: 23 English banks holding 6,115 questions, March 2024 to November 2026. "Fall 2026" means our August, September, October and November 2026 banks. "Earlier Decembers" means our December 2024 and December 2025 banks. We grouped the grammar labels in our banks into 13 rule families, so family counts are sums of label counts. The model test used only banks that existed before each test date. We show no test content on this page. Every example sentence and all nine practice questions were written for it. The test date, deadlines, score date, timing and domain share come from College Board pages fetched November 10, 2026. This is a prediction for study planning. It is not a leak and not a guarantee. Verified 2026-11-10.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which December 2026 SAT grammar rules should you study first?
Start with sentence boundaries and verbs. In our fall 2026 banks, 54 of 275 grammar questions asked you to join two complete sentences, 41 tested verb forms and tense, 35 tested subject-verb agreement and 28 tested paired punctuation. This is a prediction from repeat history in our banks, not a leak or a guarantee.
How many grammar questions are on the SAT?
About 13 or 14. College Board sets Standard English Conventions at about 26% of the Reading and Writing section, which has 54 questions (50 operational and 4 pretest). In our fall 2026 banks, grammar was 20.0% of English questions (275 of 1,376).
Do SAT grammar questions repeat?
Less than other question types. In 2026, an earlier grammar question came back on a given test date 3.5% of the time in our banks (165 of 4,651 question and test-date pairs), against 4.1% to 4.8% for the other three domains. The rules return, but the sentences are usually new.
Are periods and semicolons the same on the SAT?
Between two complete sentences, yes. Both marks join two complete sentences correctly, so two answer choices that differ only by a period versus a semicolon point to some other difference. A semicolon also separates list items that contain commas.
When to use a colon vs semicolon on the SAT?
Use a semicolon when a complete sentence sits on both sides. Use a colon when a complete sentence comes before it and the words after it list or explain what that sentence announced. A colon does not need a complete sentence after it.
What is a dangling modifier?
A dangling modifier is a describing phrase at the start of a sentence whose target is missing from the spot right after the comma. Fix it by making the first noun after the comma the person or thing the phrase describes.
When is the December SAT in 2026?
Saturday, December 5, 2026. College Board lists a registration deadline of November 20, 2026, a late registration deadline of November 24, 2026, and a score release date of December 18, 2026.