Ninth grade language arts
Here is a list of language arts skills students learn in ninth grade! These skills are organized into categories, and you can move your mouse over any skill name to preview the skill. To start practicing, just click on any link. IXL will track your score, and the questions will automatically increase in difficulty as you improve!
Sentence structure
- A.1 Is the sentence declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory?
- A.2 Identify sentence fragments
- A.3 Identify run-on sentences
- A.4 Choose punctuation to avoid fragments and run-ons
- A.5 Is it a phrase or a clause?
- A.6 Identify prepositional phrases
- A.7 Identify appositives and appositive phrases
- A.8 Identify dependent and independent clauses
- A.9 Is the sentence simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex?
- A.10 Combine sentences using relative clauses
Nouns
Pronouns
- C.1 Identify and correct errors with subject and object pronouns
- C.2 Subject and object pronouns review
- C.3 Pronouns after "than" and "as"
- C.4 Identify and correct pronoun errors with "who"
- C.5 Use relative pronouns: who and whom
- C.6 Use relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, and that
- C.7 Identify vague pronoun references
- C.8 Identify all of the possible antecedents
- C.9 Correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person
Verbs and verbals
- D.1 Identify transitive and intransitive verbs
- D.2 Identify linking verbs, predicate adjectives, and predicate nouns
- D.3 Identify and correct errors with subject-verb agreement
- D.4 Identify and correct errors with indefinite pronoun-verb agreement
- D.5 Identify and correct verb agreement with compound subjects
- D.6 Identify and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense
- D.7 Form the progressive verb tenses
- D.8 Form the perfect verb tenses
- D.9 Identify active and passive voice
- D.10 Rewrite the sentence in active voice
- D.11 Identify participles and what they modify
- D.12 Identify gerunds and their functions
- D.13 Identify infinitives and infinitive phrases
Punctuation, capitalization, and formatting
- F.1 Commas with direct addresses, introductory words, interjections, interrupters, and antithetical phrases
- F.2 Commas with series, dates, and places
- F.3 Commas with compound and complex sentences
- F.4 Commas with coordinate adjectives
- F.5 Commas: review
- F.6 What does the punctuation suggest?
- F.7 Commas with nonrestrictive elements
- F.8 Use semicolons and commas to separate clauses
- F.9 Use semicolons, colons, and commas with lists
- F.10 Semicolons, colons, and commas review
- F.11 Use dashes
- F.12 Use hyphens in compound adjectives
- F.13 Decide whether ellipses are used appropriately
- F.14 Correct capitalization errors
- F.15 Capitalizing titles
- F.16 Formatting titles
- F.17 Formatting and capitalizing titles: review
- F.18 Formatting quotations and dialogue
Prefixes and suffixes
Etymologies and foreign expressions
- H.1 Sort words by shared Greek or Latin roots
- H.2 Use Greek and Latin roots as clues to the meanings of words
- H.3 Use words as clues to the meanings of Greek and Latin roots
- H.4 Determine the meanings of Greek and Latin roots
- H.5 Determine the meanings of words with Greek and Latin roots
- H.6 Use etymologies to determine the meanings of words
- H.7 Use context as a clue to the meanings of foreign expressions
- H.8 Use the correct foreign expression
Reference skills
Word choice and usage
Context clues
Writing clear and concise sentences
- L.1 Transitions with conjunctive adverbs
- L.2 Avoid double, illogical, and unclear comparisons
- L.3 Use the correct pair of correlative conjunctions
- L.4 Identify sentences with parallel structure
- L.5 Use parallel structure
- L.6 Remove redundant words or phrases
- L.7 Misplaced modifiers with pictures
- L.8 Select the misplaced or dangling modifier
- L.9 Are the modifiers used correctly?
Common errors
- M.1 Use the correct homophone
- M.2 Identify and correct errors with homophones
- M.3 Use the correct frequently confused word
- M.4 Identify and correct errors with frequently confused words
- M.5 Identify and correct errors with frequently confused pronouns and contractions
- M.6 Correct errors with commonly misspelled words
- M.7 Correct errors with signs
- M.8 Correct errors in everyday use
Research writing
- N.1 Order topics from broadest to narrowest
- N.2 Organize information by main idea
- N.3 Choose the topic sentence that best captures the main idea
- N.4 Recognize the parts of a Works Cited entry (MLA 7th edition)
- N.5 Understand a Works Cited entry (MLA 7th edition)
- N.6 Recognize the parts of a Works Cited entry (MLA 8th edition)
- N.7 Use in-text citations with MLA formatting
- N.8 Identify plagiarism
- N.9 Suggest appropriate revisions
Writing arguments
- O.1 Distinguish facts from opinions
- O.2 Identify thesis statements
- O.3 Choose evidence to support a claim
- O.4 Identify supporting evidence in a text
- O.5 Choose the most appropriate counterclaim for a given claim
- O.6 Choose the analysis that logically connects the evidence to the claim
- O.7 Transition logically between claims, evidence, analysis, and counterclaims
- O.8 Classify logical fallacies
Rhetorical analysis
- P.1 Which text is most formal?
- P.2 Compare passages for subjective and objective tone
- P.3 Identify audience and purpose
- P.4 Identify appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in advertisements
- P.5 Use appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in persuasive writing
- P.6 Analyze rhetorical strategies in historical texts: set 1
- P.7 Analyze rhetorical strategies in historical texts: set 2
Literary devices
- Q.1 Identify the narrative point of view
- Q.2 Compare passages for tone
- Q.3 Use personification
- Q.4 Interpret the meaning of allusions
- Q.5 Identify the source of allusions
- Q.6 Interpret figures of speech
- Q.7 Classify figures of speech: euphemism, hyperbole, oxymoron, paradox
- Q.8 Classify figures of speech: review
- Q.9 Identify elements of poetry
Reading comprehension and analysis
- R.1 Determine the main idea
- R.2 Match the quotations with their themes
- R.3 Analyze short stories: set 1
- R.4 Analyze short stories: set 2
- R.5 Analyze the development of informational passages: set 1
- R.6 Analyze the development of informational passages: set 2
- R.7 Trace an argument: set 1
- R.8 Trace an argument: set 2