About This Quiz
Did you ace all of your English courses? Do you consider yourself a proud member of the grammar police? If you think you can hang with the upper echelons of the English language, take this quiz to find out how much you really know about the English language.
Many people who learn English as a second language have indicated that English is one of the more difficult languages to learn for several reasons. One of these reasons is that, in English, we place adverbs and adjectives, the words that describe and modify verbs and nouns, respectively, in front of the words they modify. In other languages, modifiers come after the words they modify. For instance, in English, we would say "the blue ball," whereas, in many other languages, they would say "the ball blue." Weird right? Well, it's weird to us, but non-native English speakers often stumble on what English speakers consider to be a simple rule. So, next time you're having a conversation with someone who is learning English as a second language, and they say something like "I bought a sweater red yesterday," remember, according to the rest of the world, we're the oddballs.
We challenge you to ace this English test for non-native speakers.
The correct sentence is, "The scary movie had no effect on me." The words "affect" and "effect" are often confused.
The word "they're" is used incorrectly in this sentence. The word "they're" is a contraction that combines the words "they" and "are," which is not correct in this sentence. The correct sentence is, "They took their dogs to the park." The word "their" is used to show possession.
The correct sentence is, "That is not Sally's house." The use of an 's indicates possession.
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The correct sentence is, "They're not going to the farm." The word "they're" is a contraction that combines the words "they" and "are."
The word "Canada" is a proper noun. A noun is a person, place, or thing. A proper noun is always capitalized.
The correct sentence is, "I would like an apple." Use the word "an" when the following word begins with a vowel.
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In the sentence, "Carl played the piano," the word piano is a noun. A noun is a person, place, or thing.
The sentence has a punctuation error. The sentence should read, "Michael can't go to his friend's house."
The correct sentence is, "I am going to the store." The words "of" and "at" are incorrect.
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This sentence has a punctuation error. The sentence should read, "She bought pears, oranges, and kiwis." Use a comma to separate items in a list.
In the sentence, "Sally went to the store, but she forgot to buy peppers," the word "but" is a conjunction. A conjunction is a word that is used to join words, phrases or clauses.
The correct word to use is "a." The sentence should read, "I got a bad grade on my math test."
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The correct sentence is, "We all went to the movies after school." The words "too" and "two" would be incorrect.
This sentence has a subject verb agreement error. In a sentence, if the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural, and vice versa. So, the correct sentence is, "Sally and Barry see the car."
In the sentence, "My dog jumped over the fence," the word "jumped" is a verb. A verb is an action word.
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The correct word to use is "does." The sentence should read, "Does she like to go fishing?"
In the sentence, "Wow, that girl can run fast," the word "wow" is an interjection. An interjection is a word used to express emotion.
This sentence contains a double negative. The sentence should read, "She doesn't have any candy."
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In the sentence, "The gray sky hovered overhead," the word "gray" is an adjective. An adjective describes or modifies a noun.
The correct word to use is "fewer." The sentence should read, "She has fewer than four dolls." Use the word "fewer" when something can be quantified.
A paragraph should have at least three sentences. Three to five sentences is recommended.
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The correct word is "bigger." The sentence should read, "Los Angeles is bigger than Cambridge."
The word "cow" does not belong. The words "boy" and "man" are related.
In the sentence, "The girl ran quickly to get out of the rain," the word "quickly" is an adverb. An adverb is a word that describes or modifies a verb.
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This sentence has a capitalization error. The word "Carrie" is a proper noun and should be capitalized.
The word "you're" belongs in this sentence. The word "you're" is a contraction that combines the words "you" and "are."
The sentence has a spelling error. Although the word "complement" is definitely a word, it means to make something better, whereas the word "compliment" means to give praise. The sentence should read, "She accepted the compliment with grace." The words compliment and complement are often confused.
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The correct word is "expensive." The sentence should read, "My car is more expensive than yours."
In the sentence, "She wanted to cook dinner by herself," the word "she" is a pronoun. A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun.
This sentence is an incomplete comparison. To correct the error, write, "Her house is bigger than any other house in the neighborhood." A comparison must compare more than one item.
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The correct word is "were." The sentence should read, "The best things about the dance were the music and the cake."
A noun is a person, place or thing. A noun is an important part of a sentence - the subject.
In the sentence, "He waited for his friends by the tree," the word "by" is a preposition. A preposition is a word that is placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase that modifies another word in the sentence.
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The word "box" doesn't belong. The words "cat" and "dog" are related.