The Grammar Whiz Quiz

Accept is the correct form here. The Latin root word here, “cept,” means “taken,” and the prefiix “ac-” means to or towards. So, the hope that a frat will “accept” you is the hope that they’ll take you in. Since “ex-” means out, If they “except” you, they’d literally be taking you out of the list. Fingers crossed!

Surely your colleague will appreciate this lesson in proper use of transition. “Nevertheless” is used to demonstrate a contrast with what came before. It’s just like the more common “however,” but it creates a more formal tone.

According to Miriam Webster, a “lot” literally can mean a quanity used to measure, a portion of land, or an “object used in determining a question by chance.” So, it makes sense that these homonyms are easily confused—they have related meanings. Since, “allot” can mean to portion out—a task both related to portions and to chance.

Even though the passive construction here is totally unecessary, the best choice given is “there.” There is used to show location; whereas the other options show possession (their) and what they are doing. Of course, all the writers are squirming with all the other ways this sentence could be made tighter. Sorry.

Bane of grammar whizzes everywhere, good and well are so often confused and mangled, yet they’re so simple to differentiate. Good is an adjective; it describes nouns. Well is an adverb; it describes verbs. Talking about an action or feeling? Use well! Talking about a noun? Use good! Talking about a steak? Use caution.

That’s right. It’s time people knew that hippopotami as a collective have a perfectly apt name. The opportunity to use this term doesn’t come up often; so you’d better seize it when it comes. “It’s” of course uses an apostrophe to show a contraction for “it is” and not to show possession, like other sensible words.

Any good grammar whiz enjoys a subject-verb agreement mistake, especially when it’s made tricky by a singular collective noun that describes a group, as in a band of gorillas. Since the word “band” is singular and is the noun, the helping verb “was” takes the singular form.

“Between you and me” is the correct phrase here. Since the pronoun here is the object of a preposition, it needs to be objective (me), rather than subjective (I). It really helps to have the real grammatical reason when correcting someone; so be sure to remember this rule.

Intransitive verbs are those that do not require an object. They do not do something to something else; they do something complete in itself, as in, “The woman roared.” Roared doesn’t need an object, as does a verb like “throw.” You need to throw something; you don’t roar something.

A gerund always ends with -ing, as do present participles of verbs. A gerund, though, acts as a noun, whereas present participles modify nouns or complete progressive verbs.

This sentence is plauged by the other bane of grammar whizzes, the passive voice. The passive voice should be avoided because it deflects the action of a sentence away from the one doing the action. It makes the action seem accidental, even it wasn’t. In this case, Bernie dropped the plate on purpose, and the sentence should show that.

Direct objects answer the questions “who?” or “what?” following a verb. In this case, the fever of stingrays stung who? The boy, that’s who. Did you know you would learn so much about animal groups in this grammar quiz?

In text speak and social media use, this rule has gone way out the window. When addressing someone, it’s grammatically correct to place a comma between the statement and the person’s name. This seems arbitrary, but it comes in handy when you need to differentiate what you mean from other options, as in the “Let’s eat Granpa” example.

If you’re a negative person, you love two negative indepdent clauses strung together with the uncommon conjunction nor. It can also, as you well know, be used in along with neither, in the high-toned “neither/nor” construction that grammar whizzes love to employ. This aversion to spinach and arugula is the foundation of the next fad diet.

As everyone needs to know for daily life, this sentence is compound-complex. A compound-complex sentence can be identified by having more than one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. A prickle of porcupines can be identified at a distance.

Please do correct anyone who calls a hyphen a dash. It is just wrong, and should be punished. It probably is, in some countries. The dash is properly used to show that more information or clarfication follows.

A colon is the correct way to introduce a list after a complete sentence. If a list is not preceded by a complete sentence, a colon is not needed. It won’t make you look smarter, more put-together, or better educated to use one.

Contrary to student practice, there is a reason for using the semicolon to connect sentences. It’s not like seasoning, to be sprinkled here and there. The purpose of a semicolon when connecting sentences is to show that the two ideas are closely connected, so closely connected that they form one sentence instead of two.

If you were to answer this correctly, you would likely be familiar with the subjunctive. Many people don’t learn about the subjunctive tense until they take a foreign language in college and have their minds blown with the grammatical complexity of language operating in the hypothetical, only to find out that it exists in English too.

Of course we do use the ellipsis to indicate that, you know ... But we also know that the formal significance of the three ominous dots is that something has been left out.

The raging debate over the usefulness of the Oxford comma continues. Should we use the final comma in a series before the conjunction, or is it redundant? The classic grammar example here is the “A panda walks into a bar eats shoots and leaves” quandary. How do you punctuate this?

Nope, no punctuation here, though so many adults will insert a comma here because they learned that commas should be placed wherever there is a pause. No, that’s not how you decide. There are rules here. Am I the only one who cares about the rules? And yes, wake is the correct term for vultures feeding.

This tricky rule separates grammar whizzes from non-whizzes. The incorrect choice here is the one that does not hyphenate 17th century when it comes before England. The reason that this is incorrect is because the two words 17th and century are forming an adjective phrase that modifies the noun, England. When you write “England in the 17th century” on the other hand, “17th” modifies “century”, so they are not joined as a compound noun.

Did we get you on this one? The most common (but still misused) use of a semi-colon is to separate independent clauses when there is not a coordinating conjunction. But semicolons can be used to differentiate between items within a list. For example, “he lived in El Paso, TX; St. Louis, MO; and Louisville, KY.”

So few people use this rule that it’s becoming less common. Few refers to quantity and less refers to size. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Jane and Roger form a compound subject here, so the subject is plural and needs a plural verb to agree with it. Now if they could just agree on the paint color.

When you have an infinitive, like ‘to fall,’ you should not insert anything in between the ‘to’ and the verb. This splits the infinitive, creating a rift in the order of the universe. Please stop before it’s too late.

This sentence has a classic parallel structure ailment. When listing items, each verb in a list should be in the same form. This shows that all the items in the list carry equal weight. Also, Evan is disgusting and needs to learn how not to disrupt a meeting with his foul eating habits.

The progressive tense shows continuing action, and it can be found by it’s tell-tale -ing ending on the verb. Quite a different ending than the bumper sticker....although, that’s still happening, so maybe not.

If only our perfect actions in the past received their own grammatical term. Alas, no. The past perfect tense refers to an action completed before something else. It seems uselessly specific, until you really need it.

“The” is the only definite article in the English language. It shows that the thing being referred to is the only one. This is the one thing you should remember about this quiz.

The indirect object indicates who or what has received the action of a verb. It answers the questions “to what” or “to whom.” In this case, the child received the fright (the direct object) given by the leopards. Why the conspiracy? There must be something going on with those leopards that we don’t know about.

The past progressive tense is formed by using the past tense of a “to be” helping verb (was/were) connected with a verb ending in -ing. Hybrid cars are the future, ok?

As all grammar whizzes know, an appositive is a noun or noun phrase that clarifies another noun. Here, the appositve clarifies who the new president is. Can you work this word into a sentence at your next social gathering?

A dangling modifier, as you know, is a modifier that is placed too far away from the thing it modifies. The distanced placement creates ambiguity in meaning, sometimes delightfully. But, unless you’re writing poetry, ambiguity is not really what you’re working for. And yes, a kettle is the correct term for a group of vultures in flight.