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The ACT® English Section: A Complete Guide

The English section is the most learnable part of the ACT®. It is almost entirely rules. Learn the rules, apply them, get the points. Most students never see this material in high school. That is the opportunity.

Fifty questions. Thirty-five minutes. Always the first section of the test. Scored 1 to 36. This guide covers what is on it, what changed in 2025, what to study, and how to study it.

What changed in 2025

The Enhanced ACT® cut the English section from 75 questions to 50 and from 45 minutes to 35. That works out to about 42 seconds per question instead of 36 — a little more room to think.

Four changes worth knowing:

Every question now has a clear question stem. You no longer have to infer what is being asked from the underlined text alone.
"Which choice is NOT acceptable?" questions are gone. Every sentence-level question asks for the best answer, not the worst.
Idiomatic expressions are no longer explicitly tested.
The content mix shifted. Rhetorical skills — purpose, organization, transitions — take a bigger share. Pure grammar takes a smaller share.

Same 1-to-36 scale. Same scoring. Same underlying concepts. The test is shorter, not easier.

How the section works

You see five short passages, each presented as a rough draft. Words, phrases, and full sentences are underlined. Each underlined portion has a question with four choices, almost always including NO CHANGE.

You are playing editor. Read the passage. Look at the underlined part in context. Pick the option that follows the rules and reads cleanly.

If you know the rule: apply it. If you do not know the rule: pick the shortest, clearest, most grammatical option. Wordiness is wrong on the ACT®.

What is actually tested

Most parents think the English section is a grammar test. It is not. It tests three things, and grammar is only one of them. The links below go to a full guide for each topic.

1. Punctuation

The easiest points on the test. Commas alone are one of the largest single sources of points on the section. Most students think a comma means a verbal pause. It does not. A comma is used for one of four specific reasons. Learn the four. Cross out commas that do not have one.

Punctuation rules on the ACT® English — semicolons, colons, dashes, end punctuation
The 4 rules for comma usage — the single highest-leverage topic on the section
Apostrophes — possessives vs. contractions, plural possessives

2. Grammar and word usage

Less material than most students fear. The rules are narrow and predictable. The same handful of constructions appear on every test.

Participles and dangling modifiers — what an introductory phrase has to modify
Who vs. whom — one rule, applied every time
Countable vs. uncountable nouns — fewer vs. less, many vs. much, number vs. amount
Prepositions — which preposition pairs with which verb
Superlatives — comparatives between two, superlatives among three or more

3. Rhetorical skills

These questions do not have a "right answer" in the grammar sense. They have a best answer based on the passage's purpose and structure. This category is now the largest share of the section, so it is worth real study time.

Kept or deleted questions — should this sentence stay in the passage?
Sentence and paragraph order — where does this sentence belong?
Main idea questions — what was this passage actually about?
Word choice — which word fits the tone and meaning of the passage?
Simplest is best — when in doubt, pick the shortest correct answer
Reading the question stem — when the question tells you the criteria, use them

Strategy on test day

I have a full article with examples: the best ACT® English strategies. The short version:

Read the question stem first. Now that every question has one, you know what to look for before you even read the underlined text.
Eliminate options that break a rule before considering ones that "sound right." Sounding right is not a rule.
The shortest grammatically correct answer is usually correct. Wordiness is wrong on the ACT®.
On vocab questions, eliminate the words you know are wrong before guessing among the ones you do not know. Process of elimination gets you to the right answer without knowing every word.

How to study

The English section rewards focused study more than any other section. The work is finite. The rules do not change.

Take a real ACT® practice test from the Red Book.
Mark every missed question and group them by topic.
Read the article above for each missed topic.
Re-do the missed questions cold. If you cannot get them right, the rule did not land. Re-read.
Take another section under timed conditions.

Most students who put in real, targeted work on the English section pick up four to six points in a month. The ceiling for improvement here is higher, with less effort, than anywhere else on the test.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the ACT® English section?

Fifty multiple-choice questions, each with four answer choices.

How long is the ACT® English section?

Thirty-five minutes. It is always the first section of the test.

Is the ACT® English section harder than it used to be?

No. There are fewer questions, more time per question, and clearer question stems. The content is the same. The new format is slightly more forgiving than the old one.

What is the biggest category of questions on the new ACT® English?

Rhetorical skills — questions about purpose, organization, word choice in context, and whether sentences should be kept or cut. Roughly 38 to 43 percent of the section.

Do students need to know obscure grammar terms?

No. Students do not need to identify a "dangling participle" by name on the test. They need to recognize when one is in front of them. The same goes for every other rule. Learn what is wrong. Skip the labels.

How much can a student improve on the English section?

More than on any other section. The English section is the most rules-based part of the ACT®. With targeted study, a four-to-six point jump in a month is realistic for most students. There is no other section where focused work pays off as quickly.

Are old practice tests still useful for the new format?

Yes for content. The same rules and concepts appear on the legacy and the Enhanced ACT®. Use old tests to study topics; just practice timing with the new format — 35 minutes for 50 questions. The Red Book published by ACT® Inc. has the most accurate practice material.

Is the ACT® English section the same on the digital and paper test?

Yes. Both versions of the Enhanced ACT® use the same 50-question, 35-minute English section with the same content. The test is not adaptive. Every student sees the same questions in the same order within a given test form.