Free ACT Punctuation practice questionsEnhanced ACT, 2026 format
Commas, apostrophes, semicolons, colons, and dashes in an underlined portion, judged by what makes the sentence most grammatically acceptable.
Answer each question, then read why the right answer is right and why the tempting one is wrong.
Question 1
English
Learning to Read the River
[1] The summer I turned sixteen, my uncle taught me to pilot a flat-bottomed boat on the lower Wabash. He did not begin with the motor. He began with the water, which he insisted I learn to read the way he had learned to read it, by looking at it for hours until the surface stopped being a surface and became a map of what lay beneath.
Which choice makes the sentence most grammatically acceptable?
Question 2
English
[3] At about 11 a.m., a section of the center span tore loose and fell into the water 60 meters below. The only casualty; a cocker spaniel named Tubby, had been left in an abandoned car by a newspaper editor who could not coax the terrified dog out. Amateur footage of the collapse, shot by a camera-shop owner, remains one of the most-watched engineering films ever made.
Which choice makes the sentence most grammatically acceptable?
Question 3
English
[4] Ruth Delacroix and her brother Paul, have run the Snoqualmie course for nineteen years. Paul carries the tube being that he is taller and can drive it through a nine-foot pack without a step stool. Ruth keeps the notebook, in which every reading since 1938 are recorded in the same three columns.
Which choice makes the sentence most grammatically acceptable?
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