Grammar quiz set for 10yr olds, assuming you took part, how did you score?
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ucme (
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May 15th, 2013
Just a fun little test, not meant to be taken seriously. Here are the 10 questions, if you do take part, you can cheat if you want to, but really…honesty is always best.
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155 Answers
I got three of ten, that’s pretty crappy for me. :( I don’t like that quiz, ucme.
I got eight out of ten. The other two are things that trip me up regularly. Grammar is kind of my thing.
@KNOWITALL Well then I guess your username is a little inaccurate after all :)
Something’s wrong with that quiz…..
I disgree with question three.
The questioner is being deliberately obtuse. Any normal person would say “brothers”, if they intended to confer the gender of each of their siblings.
I am pedant, promising even.
5 out of 10.
Not proud.
@ucme I’m with Seek, I thought some of the answers were wrong. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
(By the way, my username has got me a lot of grief already, but it really was a tongue-in-cheek reference to my personality, not really to be take too seriously, like most people here. HA!)
I missed 2 of them. One of the two I knew I was flat out guessing, because I simply didn’t remember the definitions of each answer.
By the way, it’s ridiculous the answers don’t give the number to the correct answer so you can easily check it. While taking the test I thought it odd to number the choices 1,2,3 to begin with. Did the creator of that quiz ever take or have to grade a quiz? Odd.
Grammar guru – i also missed the brother question. There are some differences between British and American grammar but I don’t think there were any here.
Yeah, err…i’m not responsible for the fucking questions, just a bit of harmless fun, or so I thought :)
@ucme No – it’s all your fault. We will beat you with the soft cushions. It’s the Spanish Inquisition!
@janbb Ha, reminds me of the Monty Python sketch.
I also had that sibling question wrong….
But I do know the sex of the guy introducing us to his brothers and sister; her name is Winston.
Also question nine, though I answered it correctly, was poorly worded. One could be “sat” in a chair, if placed there by force. The sentence itself is only grammatically incorrect in the context of the other statements.
@janbb Gawd only knows…coincidence?
The sibling question makes me think of something my husband and I argue about. If I ask him, “do you want the chocolate chip cookie, or do you prefer the lemon one?” Sometimes he will answer, “yes.” That to me is not an effective answer. It is not a yes or no question to me, but he insists his yes is responding to the last thing offered. Meaning, yes signifies the lemon cookie.
Read this sentence carefully. “I’d like to introduce you to my sister Clara, who lives in Madrid, to Benedict, my brother who doesn’t, and to my only other sibling, Hilary.” Which of the following is correct? Funky wording.
@JLeslie…tell your husband is is being deliberately obtuse!
I got 8 out of 10 and I still don’t understand the logic behind the siblings question even after it was explained. The other one I got wrong was the use of the semi-colon.
In the link near the top it states, “everything that follows is debatable”…how true.
I’m an 8 of 10’er too; and I’ve filed an official protest regarding the siblings question ;-)
I think Gailcalled and Jeruba are silent because they wrote the quiz.
@janbb Or they scored 2 out of 10?
LOL. I am curious to know what Jeruba would say about number 3. Did anyone send the Q to her? Gailcalled will love the first question on the quiz; she has a thing about apostrophes from what I remember.
For the record, I got 8/10 & also find the sibling question annoying…oh brother!
I got 9/10 (I guessed for one question), which surprises me because I don’t think that I am great at grammar.
I graduated from a urban high school in the 90s which focused on math/science/tech. I am quite certain that these rules were not covered in my education.
I cannot tell a lie, “that” and “which” also tripped me up. Stupid, stupid distinction.
@Cupcake Most of that I learned in jr. high, so I think you probably were taught it and just don’t remember.
@janbb The mistake I see all the time everywhere is using that instead of who. I catch myself doing it sometimes.
“That” refers to a thing. “Who” refers to a person. I think. That’s the rule who I have in my head, anyway. :)~
Yes, that and who are easy, but that and which, which was the question, are hard.
“To be or not not to be?” Which is the question.
5/10.
Though I disagree with the one about sitting in the chair.
I too missed the sibling question; it was a bad question.
Am I alone in feeling that the correct use of the apostrophe facilitates clearer writing and thus better understanding?
@janbb I knew the right answer for the that and which question, because which would have a comma before it and that wouldn’t have a comma before it.
Not alone.
Commas do that too which is why I think the first “sister” should have had a comma after it. “I’d like to introduce you to my sister coma Clara, who lives in Madrid, to Benedict, my brother who doesn’t, and to my only other sibling, Hilary.” And Hilary is a girls name because I know her and she works at the utility office down town.
Omitted were several usage issues that, when misused, make me grind my teeth.
Using “a couple things” rather than “a couple of…” and “graduating college” rather than “graduating from college” are other things that I have a thing about.
The “that” and “which” issues are confused by usages other than restrictive vs. non-restrictive clauses
Why do I feel like singing “No, love, you’re not alone”?
Oh @galicalled, I wish you were my Grammar!
Gailcalled, you’re not alone in your feelings for the correct use of the apostrophe.
@janbb; Because you hear music and there’s no one there.
My mom always said I needed to say “I was graduated from KSU.”
I got 4 right. How embarrassing!
@gailcalled Do you have an opinion about half hour vs. half an hour? When I moved to MI a lot of people used half hour there, and I had never heard it said that way before. They said quite a few things I had not heard before, some of which I knew were incorrect, but the half hour thing might just be regional and correct either way. I never found an official answer regarding it.
“Half an hour” is the conventionally correct usage. If in doubt, say “in thirty minute.”
Special cases exist; the clock chimes only on the half hour.
9/10, grammar guru! Those questions were really tricky, though. For a couple of the questions, I only knew the answer because I could tell they were trying to trip people up. That brother question got me, as well. It may have been grammatically correct, but that sentence was so convoluted that it should have just been rewritten in the first place!
8/10! One of the questions I got wrong was just a stupid mistake, and the other one was something that I continually have trouble with. But I’m proud to say that I did answer the brother question correctly!
8/10. I was tripped up by the sibling question and the “that” versus “which” question.
Another grammar issue that I have is the use of the word “needs” followed be a verb ending in -ed. For example, “The sink needs cleaned.” No, the sink needs to be cleaned. I never encountered this until I moved to Ohio and it makes me cringe every time I hear or read it. My often asks me to proofread her documents. Until I corrected it, she never knew it was wrong. I’m not even sure it’s completely wrong; more that it’s non-standard and makes me twitch.
Of course, now I’m looking at what I wrote and am worried about excessive use of quotation marks.
Even after knowing the “correct” answer to the sibling question and reading the grammatical justification on the quiz, I still don’t get it.
For those of you who did, could you re-explain the rationale to me?
8/10 ‘bout right. I still disagree with the first question re: neighbors’ vs neighbor’s
@rojo It is right because the original statement said “man” which is a singular noun.
I think we can infer that Hilary is somewhat estranged from the family. And talk about being non-PC; they did not even consider that Hil could be transgender.
And is the Oxford comma still used in Oxford?
@janbb; In January, February and September only.
@Fly I had a feeling you’d…err, fly through it :)
@mangeons Well aren’t you the clever sibling then, good stuff :)
“I’d like to introduce you to my sister Clara, who lives in Madrid, to Benedict, my brother who doesn’t, and to my only other sibling, Hilary.”
There it is in all its painful glory.
The quiz creators explain that our lack of understanding of the placement of the serial comma has done us in. They opine that Hilary is called out as the brother because of the comma placement. They say that the comma placement tells us that Hilary is the brother who doesn’t live in Madrid and who’s the only other sibling.
And I still protest!
9 out of 10. I was surprised by the sibling one, because I thought there had been a comma after “brother”. I had to go back and look at it again to make sure. I must have mentally inserted it, since the way it is worded is so unnatural. But their explanation is technically correct.
@gailcalled the point has to do with restrictive vs. nonrestrictive phrases.
“I gave the leftovers to the dog who was hungry.”
“I gave the leftovers to the dog, who was hungry.”
See the difference?
@picante: I agree. it’s still bizarrely illogical.
@submariner; your example is clear. The question is duplicitous.
Does the first one imply that the hambone was hungry?
In the first example, there are several dogs, only one of whom (which?) was hungry.
in the second, there is only one dog, and he was hankering for a big Mac.
I see, I see! OK. Thanks.
Well, by that standard then, saying ”“I’d like to introduce you to my sister Clara, who lives in Madrid, to Benedict, my brother who doesn’t, and to my only other sibling, Hilary.” Implies that Hilary was that person’s other sister, right?
oooh I think I get it. By saying “my brother who doesn’t [live in Madrid]” rather than “my brother, who doesn’t”, it means that there must be another brother who does. And if Hilary is the only other sibling, then Hilary must be male, and also living in Madrid.
Sherlock Holmes would have got it right, I’m sure.
^^^Brilliant. Thank-you.
Curiously, in the US, we’d say, “Sherlock would have gotten it right.”
I see @downtide. That test must have been written by @JLeslie‘s husband. WAY too obscure and OBTUSE!!!
I heavily disagree with the answer to question one solely being “Whose cats are using our neighbour’s garden?” Since there’s no context, “neighbours’” may also be correct as it was never specified whether there was only one neighbour or more.
@downtide I still think it is contrasting Clara who lives in Madrid with her brother who doesn’t and not saying anything about Hilary.
@Seiryuu As I said above, since it says the neighbor is a man, neighbor’s should be singular.
Call myself a writer? Hurumph !!! I got only 6.
My brother Hilary would be very disappointed in me.
The sibling question hinges on a restrictive clause marked by the absence of a comma.
“My neighbors next door have a pool.” Plural neighbors.
“We swam in the neighbors’ pool.” <<<<That implies plural possessive neighbors. Right?
Wait “The man next door has a garden that is being overrun with cats,” could still imply that there is more than one neighbor, but only the man ‘has’ the garden.
@janbb Cheers pet, I thought so too, certain to get the juices flowing here given the grammatical nature of our wee lil home on the interwebz.
Apparently it’s not mobile-friendly, because I see no quiz.
Edit: Got it. 8/10. I missed the question about the gerund (because who the fuck cares what it’s called?) and the that/which question.
Well now that it’s all quitened down somewhat, i’ll take time out to thank everyone for answering, particularly those who actually took the test & gave their score…bravo peeps :-)
9/10
I too got the sibling question wrong!
Nine. And I agree with @Seek_Kolinahr about Q3.
Never mind all the chatter explaining it, that question is not clear.
4–7: Promising pedant (7) I like that..yeah.
Who’d a thunk @ucme. You just never know.
@gailcalled My grandmother would cringe at using the word got in any form to begin with. I try my best not to use it.
I got rhythm.”
The Brits use “Sherlock Holmes would have got it right…” as an alternative acceptable use, noted by @downtide.”
@morphail The “I was sat in the chair” seems so obviously wrong at first, but if you’re speaking from the perspective of a toddler being placed in a chair, it would be fine.
@gailcalled I didn’t say it wasn’t acceptable, just that my grandmother did convince me it is a catch all lazy word. I use it myself as I said, but I think of it like the word “thing.”
We got a new car. We bought a new car.
SH would have got it right. I would say gotten. Anyway, to me a better choice: SH would have guessed/ascertained/surmised the right answer.
I got sick. I caught a cold.
Seems like there is usually a better verb to describe what happend.
8/10. And it had me running to look up a “fallen subjunctive”. Tricky Brits.
9/10 – missed the rather tricky sibling question. Of course the quiz scoring takes a “prescriptive” viewpoint rather than “descriptive,” though linguists seem mostly to be the latter, who identify & catalog usages as common or uncommon, maybe standard or substandard, but not necessarily correct or incorrect. I’m not sure exactly where the lines are drawn.
@DominicX Yes. And to someone from Yorkshire it wouldn’t seem obviously wrong, but it would have different meaning. In Yorkshire dialect “I was sat” means “I was sitting”. So Yorkshire English is “incorrect grammar’.
I’m actually surprised so many people missed the sibling question. I might not have noticed the consequence of the comma if it weren’t in a grammar quiz, but since I knew I had to examine the meaning of each answer, it stood out.
The ones I always find hard are the “put the label on the error in this sentence” questions. I find it easy to identify the problem, but I can’t remember back to my high school English classes to remember what the problem is called.
That’s exactly it, @glacial: those were not offered as models of expression or samples of typical speech but as items in a quiz. The fact that we know we’re taking a quiz is the key here.
The sibling question wouldn’t even work in speech; it has to be written in order for the comma to matter.
I got 7/10.
But I read one of the questions as “Which is correct?” and not “Which is not correct?” and answered too soon :(
9/10 for me. Damn that Hilary. That was a poorly worded sentence, IMHO.
@WillWorkForChocolate That was one that I got wrong as well. I don’t even quite understand the grammatical aspect of that one.
@downtide gave us this elegant little explanation somewhere up there ^^^. It bears repeating.
“Oooh, I think I get it. By saying “my brother who doesn’t [live in Madrid]” rather than “my brother, who doesn’t”, it means that there must be another brother who does. And if Hilary is the only other sibling, then Hilary must be male, and also living in Madrid.
@gailcalled I guess I can understand that explanation, but the sentence is still worded poorly. Weirdly. Strangely. Whatever. :)
@gailcalled Doesn’t that mean that they are addressing Hilary twice, as a brother who doesn’t and his/her only other sibling?
Am I expected to be able to know if the speaker is a male or female as well here? ~
80%. I always confuse “might” and “may,” and the Hilary sentence made my eyes hurt.
Funny how folks got their knickers in a twist, I think @Jeruba has it nailed when she says the key is it’s a test, it’s meant to be tricky/obtuse. It’s similar with maths problems in primary school, “If little Johnny has 10 apples in one hand & 8 in the other, what has he got?” Err…fucking big hands!?!
The premise of these tests are that they’re inherently designed to trip you up, yeah that’s right…annoy the hell outta ya!
Still, lots of you did very well & can expect a glowing report home to your parents =0}
Tests are not supposed to be tricky. Some teachers think it’s cute to try and trick a student.
I get that it’s a test, but the purpose of grammar is to give our language a standard in order to ease understanding. Throwing technicalities in a sentence that could mean one thing or another when spoken, and only one thing when written in one certain way, and then daring someone to misread it is simply trickery.
The question, when answered incorrectly, does not give a lesson as to how this particular rule of grammar can be used to ease understanding. It simply angers the person who didn’t guess the right letter, and heightens the conviction that grammar is pointless to learn. That is precisely the opposite of what needs to happen.
We all agree that the test was rigged, too clever, too arch and too arcane.
For example, here’s what the OED site says about may vs. might.
“In practice, this distinction is rarely made today and the two words are generally interchangeable:”
However, further on in the same citation, it is suggested that there is a difference between may have and might have.
“Might have” implying competence or ability, “may have” implying permission, of course.
@Seek_Kolinahr No, I think the difference is that “might have” refers to a past hypothetical or highly unlikely situation, and “may have” does not. For instance this example from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage:
At first it was believed that the boy may have survived in a pocket of air, but when divers reached him yesterday it became obvious that he drowned soon after the trawler went over
Apparently the “may have” leads you to believe at first that the boy survived.
I don’t believe it implies likeliness at all, but the aspect of possibility.
It was possible for the boy to have survived: ”might have”
The boy could possibly be alive: ”may have”
We’re both right. ^_^
^^^ Or, your’re both wrong. I’ll ask Milo.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage page 627. The version on Google Books is no longer searchable or I would link to it.
If Milo says I’m wrong I’ll sic the glow-in-the-dark cat on him.
“Of course, there are no official rules for English, everything that follows is debatable.”
An acknowledgement worth repeating.
6/10
I am disappointed in myself.
The sibling question confused me too.
Also don’t forget that this is a British English test, so what is considered correct or acceptable in the US or other countries could still be marked wrong, even though it is correct in your country.
9/10. I missed the stupid brother question, too.
I see what the questioners did with the sibling one, but doesn’t the lack of a comma after “sister” equally imply that the speaker could have multiple sisters?
I thought that too, @wildpotato. It seemed inconsistent to me too.
I still don’t get that question.
@morphail: Lovely bit of detective work. Thank you.
This stylish little exegesis makes me feel better and I hope everyone else.
Nope – still doesn’t make sense to me – with or without the comma. I still think the statement distinguishes between a sister who lives in NYC, a brother who doesn’t and an indeterminate sibling with the bizarre Limey name of Hilary. Sue me for being obtuse!
“I’d like to introduce you to my sister Clara, who lives in Madrid, to Benedict, my brother who doesn’t, and to my only other sibling, Hilary.”
Here’ how I parse it: It’s a list of 3 people the speaker is introducing. “My sister Clara, who lives in Madrid” uses a comma to introduce an independent clause that gives additional information about Clara. “my brother who doesn’t” lacks such a comma. This implies that “who doesn’t” helps distinguish this brother from other brother(s). Which brother? The one who doesn’t live in Madrid. But Hilary is the “only other sibling” so he must be the other brother. The one who lives in Madrid. It’s reminiscent of the distinction between that (not preceded by a comma) and which (preceded by a comma). There’s a term of grammar for this but I don’t remember what it is.
I think Hilary needs to get up and drop its pants so we can settle this once and for all!
Clara, Benedict, Hilary and I had a meeting. We are unanimous in our belief that the contrived sentence that introduces them is torturous, even in Madrid, nonsensical, to the point of being a hot mess, and my only other sibling, Pat.
Followup question: Who is @picante addressing in the above statement?
A) Clara
B) Clara and Benedict
C) The Reader
D) There is not enough information to make a determination.
@picante Pat, the bunny, eats, shoots and leaves?
@Seek_Kolinahr That was a trick question, naughty girl. The correct answer is:
E) @picante was addressing his invisible friend, which is crazy, and constitutes immediate incarceration in the frizzer. With Hilary. In Madrid.
I was actually addressing my only other sibling, the highly annoying Pat, for whom no amount of commas will allow you to determine its sex.
I gratefully acknowledge @WillWorkForChocolate‘s creativity in answering with a choice that didn’t exist.
I shall leave for the frizzer in Madrid immediately. Yes, I’ve eaten, shot and left.
“I’m Larry. This is my brother Daryl and this is my other brother Daryl.” Now that sentence is clear!
Would someone please go help your uncle jack off the horse?
The importance of English grammar, punctuation and capitalization.
Damn it! I spit rum and coke all over my keyboard @rojo!
I quit taking the test when the “right” statement was missing a period at the end. I chose the only statement that had a period at the end…and it said I was “wrong”. This test is screwed up.
I assumed that a sentence lacking a period at the end would be more “wrong” than one with a period and a questionable placement of a comma. Golly. That showed me up!
My daughter has a T-shirt that says:
Let’s eat Grandpa!
Let’s eat, Grandpa!
Punctuation saves lives.
^^^ Funny. Mine says:
Let’s eat grandma.
Let’s eat, grandma.
Commas save lives.
I wore mine recenty to a group class on knee surgery (thinking to add a note of levity) and had to explain it to several people.
There is a German dish that translates to “dead grandma”.
Coincidentally, I saw a shirt at a thrift store today that said:
“Let’s eat grandpa!
Let’s eat, grandpa!
Commas save lives.”
This thread was the first thing I thought of.
(@gailcalled)
In the early days of fluther, Andrew’s mom send me a beloved t-shirt that read, “I am the grammarian about whom your mother warned you.” I used to wear it to doctors’ appointments to break the ice. My PCP and my oncologist wanted to buy one for their respective wives, both writers.
Sadly it is just a rag now.
^^ Thank you. I was looking to jazz up my spring wardrobe. Now to find matching pajama bottoms and flip flops.
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