The majority of our grammar skills come to us when we are in grade school (or grammar school). In high school, we don't really get grammar lessons, as the curriculum is centered around writing five-paragraph essays and answering questions that prove we read a book.
After high school, our grammar skills fall dramatically. Everything we learned at a young age falls by the wayside as we succumb to the grammar social media allows... which is pretty much anything. There aren't a lot of grammar nerds left to call out poor grammar skills anymore, as we are now called "trolls" for trying to teach people the difference between "your" and "you're." The bite back on those who attempt to teach people the fundamentals of the English language on social media has led to the grammar police throwing up their hands and saying: "Okay, be wrong, but don't get mad when people don't understand you."
If you miss the good old days of people at least ATTEMPTING to form a complete sentence that has things like punctuation and subject-verb agreement, you should know that you're not alone. However, the question is: can you walk with the big dogs in the grammar circuit? Take this quiz and find out if you have better grammar skills than a 5th grader.
Which of these sentences means "he did a good job"?
He did good.
He do well.
He do good.
He did well.
If you say, "He did good," It means he did good the way that Superman does good. If you want to say that he did a good job, you'd say "He did well."
Which of these sentences is an example of a comma splice?
Therefore, we must remain vigilant.
There are seven animals, three of the animals are dogs.
A comma splice is when the writer uses a comma between two complete sentences or thoughts. The correct punctuation marks for these are either a period or a semi-colon.
Their, there, and they're are all examples of what?
Homonyms
Homophones
Homophones are words that sound the same, but they are spelled differently and all of them have different meanings. With the exception of "your" and "you're," "there," "their," and "they're" are the most misused words on social media.
Can you identify what is wrong with this sentence? "She never had nothing bad to say about anyone."
There is nothing wrong with this sentence.
The pronoun doesn't have an antecedent.
The verb should be in past tense.
It has a double negative.
In the English language, the double negative is considered incorrect. While other languages allow multiple negatives in a single sentence, in English, they cancel each other out. This sentence should read "She never had anything bad to say about anyone."
A subject pronoun can be used as the subject of a sentence. In this case, "me" cannot be used as a subject. The proper form of a first-person subject pronoun is "I."
What is the correct form of the adjective in this sentence: "The _______ files were kept in a vault."
Most secret
Just like verbs, adjectives can take on several different forms. By adding more or most to an adjective, you are further enhancing the noun, and making it more specific.
They don't use -d or -ed in their past tense forms.
Irregular verbs are exceptions to the rules when it comes to forming tense. They don't take on the -d or -ed in the past tense. Irregular verbs include "to find" and "to think."
The antecedent of a pronoun is the noun that said pronoun replaces. When you use pronouns, it's important that the antecedent is clear to the audience.
The majority of our grammar skills come to us when we are in grade school (or grammar school). In high school, we don't really get grammar lessons, as the curriculum is centered around writing five-paragraph essays and answering questions that prove we read a book.
After high school, our grammar skills fall dramatically. Everything we learned at a young age falls by the wayside as we succumb to the grammar social media allows... which is pretty much anything. There aren't a lot of grammar nerds left to call out poor grammar skills anymore, as we are now called "trolls" for trying to teach people the difference between "your" and "you're." The bite back on those who attempt to teach people the fundamentals of the English language on social media has led to the grammar police throwing up their hands and saying: "Okay, be wrong, but don't get mad when people don't understand you."
If you miss the good old days of people at least ATTEMPTING to form a complete sentence that has things like punctuation and subject-verb agreement, you should know that you're not alone. However, the question is: can you walk with the big dogs in the grammar circuit? Take this quiz and find out if you have better grammar skills than a 5th grader.
