Grammar quiz

[Raven]

10 questions, take it and keep track of your right and wrong questions then reply to the poll above.

Do not read the thread until you've taken it, as it may contain answers. It's harder than you may think.

My mistakes:

Q2
Q3
Q4
Q9

Final score: 6/10

What is your final score and which questions did you get wrong, if any?

Edited May 15, 2013 by Raven

[Chiki]

The test is wrong. I've taken classes on syntax and you can definitely end sentences with a preposition. Only third grade teachers and such claim you can't.

[Raven]

The test is wrong. I've taken classes on syntax and you can definitely end sentences with a preposition. Only third grade teachers and such claim you can't.

Can you find a source to back that up? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I want to hear more evidence than just "I've taken classes on this."

[Chiki]

NEVER ending a sentence with a preposition is NOT that important. In fact, it has no basis in English syntax.

http://www.columbiaseminary.edu/coffeetalk/050.html

[Raven]

Well in the question's defense, it didn't say that it is definitely right or wrong, just that it's a "grammar rule" that Churchill objected to by saying what he did in the quote. So it's still a valid question.

[Yoshikage Kira]

Uh, yeah my sister has an English degree and said half those questions are either wrong, made-up rules, or gray area.

[Raven]

Uh, yeah my sister has an English degree and said half those questions are either wrong, made-up rules, or gray area.

Alright. Feel free to post examples. I'm interested.

[Fruity Insanity]

[spoiler=stuff]1. 3

2. And here I thought "may" and "might" are interchangeable. (2) -> (1)

3. Impossible, of course. Unless you're 100% sure that Hilary is a girls name in the text, which may or may not be true. (3) -> (1)

4. 3

5. 2

6. 3, although ending ending with preposition is perfectly fine...

7. 1 if I had to pick. But it makes sense to me, though...

8. 2, IIRC. "Asking" -> "-ing" -> Gerund? Yeah, I think that's it.

9. 3, duh. And if an English-speaker gets this wrong, that's something to be ashamed of.

10. 3... I think. -> (2)

...7/10

But I still think "may" and "might" are interchangeable.

And that question 3 doesn't make any sense at all.

The only question I really got wrong is Q10. Because I was guessing.

So 9/10. B)

Edited May 15, 2013 by Fruit Ninja

[Raven]

Amazing five people have done this and not one has question 3 correct yet. It is truly a shitstorm of a question.

[Freohr Datia]

Well, #10 did admit that one of its options didn't exist x3 Unless your sister was talking about the ones that they called right~

Also I can see how they would set a distinction between may and might

Edited May 15, 2013 by Freohr Datia

[Yoshikage Kira]

It DOES say in the intro 'everything that follows is debatable,' so I suppose that would be the disclaimer.

[Raven]

Congratulations to Kon, the first to get question 3 right.

Was it a lucky guess, or are you somewhat gifted when it comes to grammatical shitstorms?

[Esme]

5/10

I need to work on my grammar skills. :u

[Iridium]

Heh.

Though I got question four right, it made me want to beat someone, because that is absolutely not a rule and I have an intense dislike of people who assert otherwise.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Iridium

[Florete]

Got 6.

Probably would have gotten 2 and 3 right if I'd looked at them more closely, though 3 was rather tricky. On 2 I kind of just ignored the part after the comma, which was the relevant portion, so shame on me.

8 and 10 seem pointless to me. You don't need to know the names of these mistakes to know that they're mistakes. Those are more like vocab questions than grammar questions.

And as some people and the quiz itself said, a few are grey area debatable.

[Paulina]

Oh, wow. ^^ Top score so far.

#7 was mean. =/ Sigh. Getting #8 right was a complete guess; I didn't know the technical term "gerund."

Also, the one about the brother named Hilary felt like a cheap trick question. I managed to decipher what they were getting at, but it was too convoluted to be serviceable.

Congratulations to Kon, the first to get question 3 right.

Was it a lucky guess, or are you somewhat gifted when it comes to grammatical shitstorms?

"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."

It took me a minute, but I could see they were trying to emphasize "Benedict, my brother who doesn't," implying that the person has another brother. And then they awkwardly tacked on "and my only other sibling, Hilary." I can see how the answer is male, but yeah -- it's a ridiculous sentence.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Paulina

[Florete]

Yes, #3 is grammatically correct, but specifically written to be so while also being quite unnatural.

[Raven]

Question 10, for me, was more of an educated guess despite not knowing what any of them actually meant.

"The Queen arrived at the castle with the King by her side, in a dress adorned with hand-sewn embroidered dragons."

To me, the comma didn't feel like it was in the correct place. I then assumed that a comma is a "modifier" and that it was "misplaced" within that sentence, so I went for the appropriate answer. It was right, but I'm still not sure if that's the right method. The comma makes it seem like that it could be either the Queen or King in the dress.

Looking at it now, it seems like there should have been a comma after the word "castle." Maybe this is what it meant by "misplaced modifier."

[Baldrick]

I got 9/10.

I knew the answers to seven of them. Question 2 and 10 I guessed, 2 wrongly and 10 correctly. Question 3 stumped me, until I saw the phrase "my brother who doesn't" meant there was another brother, so the only other sibling had to be male. It's more of a logic question than grammar, though.

[Kriemhild]

8/10, though one of them was complete guesswork so 7/10 would be fairer. My mistakes were on question 6, where I honestly thought it was okay to end a sentence with a preposition, and question 8, which is about grammar terms. I got a lucky guess on question 10, which is also about grammar terms >_>

I seriously don't see the point in knowing the names of all the grammar terms as long as you can tell what's okay and what isn't.

[Naglfar]

6/10. question 3 is complete bullshit, and I got 6, 8 and 10 wrong because they're linguistics shit that I haven't taken classes for so how the fuck would I know. so my grammar's good, I'm just not an english major.

[Raven]

Same; I dropped English classes at 16. That didn't stop me from improving on it over the years. University and writing so many essays over four years really helped me out.

[Da Bear]

I didn't bother taking it and said 0/10.

[Raven]

...ok?

[Narga_Rocks]

I didn't bother taking it and said 0/10.

i understand it's fftf so you can make irrelevant posts all you want, but I'm just curious: what's the point (to you) of that post?