shirts and suits.
| B. | The three shop’s supplied all Jim’s shirt’s and suit’s. |
| 5. | Do you have an ear for good grammar? If you do you’ll quickly spot the mistake. But which sentence looks and sounds right? |
| A. | The public always expects us firemen to be at the scene of a fire within minutes. |
| B. | The public always expects we firemen to be at the scene of a fire within minutes. |
| 6. | Although you may not know the difference between an adjective and an adverb you should easily pick the sentence that uses adverbs correctly. |
| A. | Bert always drove real careful, and was proud of his record. |
| B. | Bert always drove really carefully, and was proud of his record. |
| 7. | Many of us aren’t sure about using among and between. Can you pick the correct usage? |
| A. | The ice cream was shared among the three of them. |
| B. | The ice cream was shared between the three of them. |
| 8. | Something weird is happening in one of these sentences. Which one avoids a rather bizarre atmospheric condition? |
| A. | Tearing down the motorway at 80mph, the fog suddenly enveloped the car, forcing me to pull over. |
| B. | As I was tearing down the motorway at 80mph, the fog suddenly enveloped the car, forcing me to pull over. |
| 9. | If you read these sentences carefully, you’ll see that one doesn’t make sense. Which one is clear and correct? |
| A. | The judge remained both unimpressed by evidence and argument. |
| B. | The judge remained unimpressed by both evidence and argument. |
| 10. | Don’t get carried away by the racy prose; there’s a fundamental error in one of these sentences. Which is the sentence without the error? |
| A. | Then, as he lay silently beside her, she cried: A broken, hoarse cry that sprang from a buried memory of adolescence. |
| B. | Then, as he lay silently beside her, she cried: a broken, hoarse cry that sprang from a buried memory of adolescence. |
| 11. | One sentence uses a word correctly; the other abuses it. Which is correct? |
| A. | I gazed in wonder at the diamond, one of the most unique in the world. |
| B. | I gazed in wonder at the diamond, thought by many to be unique. |
| 12. | In which sentence is the question mark used correctly? |
| A. | Her mother was always asking? ‘When are you going to get married’. |
| B. | Her mother was always asking, ‘When are you going to get married?’ |
| 13. | Frank was confused in the following sentences, but do you get confused by drink, drank and drunk? Which is correct? |
| A. | It was pretty obvious that Frank had drank rather too much. |
| B. | It was pretty obvious that Frank had drunk rather too much. |
| 14. | One of these sentences contains a very common error – so common, in fact, that many now regard it as acceptable usage. But if you were a careful user of English, which sentence would you say was correct? |
| A. | The teacher asked Judy to try and do better. |
| B. | The teacher asked Judy to try to do better. |
| 15. | If you know the rule here, fine; but if not, your ear should tell you which sentence is grammatically correct. Well, which one? |
| A. | Every man, woman and child is requested to assemble in the departure lounge. |
| B. | Every man, woman and child are requested to assemble in the departure lounge. |
| 16. | Because it asks you to decide between who and whom, this question is one of the toughest in the test. But try, anyway, to pick the correct usage: |
| A. | The Foreign Secretary, whom we are pleased to see is now fully recovered, will speak tonight. |
| B. | The Foreign Secretary, who we are pleased to see is now fully recovered, will speak tonight. |
| 17. | Haven’t had much to do with gerunds? Never mind – use your ear to choose the sentence which is strictly correct. |
| A. | I hope she won’t take exception to me calling in unannounced. |
| B. | I hope she won’t take exception to my calling in unannounced. |
| 18. | These sentences are worth thinking about. Which one do you think is correct? |
| A. | A thousand visitors is not unusual on an average weekday. |
| B. | A thousand visitors are not unusual on an average weekday. |
| 19. | If you listen carefully to what is being said here, one sentence will be quite clear in its meaning while the other could confuse you. Which is the unambiguous sentence? |
| A. | After the game he talked at length to the captain and the manager. |
| B. | After the game he talked at length to the captain and manager. |
| 20. | There are some discordant notes in one of these sentences. Which one is consistent and harmonious? |
| A. | If one is to live happily among one’s neighbours, you must learn to mind your own business. |
| B. | If you are to live happily among your neighbours, you must learn to mind your own business. |
If you are interested to know where you stand in your knowledge and use of English grammar, you should have attempted to answer all 20 questions. If you’ve made a guess at some of them, don’t feel too guilty; some guesses will be right while others will be wrong.
Answers Now turn to page 20 for the answers and explanations. The correct answers to questions considered to be more difficult receive more marks than those to easier questions.
Answers to the Grammar Test
1. B is a proper sentence. A is not because it is incomplete, having no active verb, and makes no sense. See Let’s Look at Sentences, page 25.
2. B is correct. A is what is called a ‘run-on’ construction – two sentences spliced by a comma. The first sentence should have ended after sing and the second sentence begun with We. But as the two thoughts are related a better idea is to keep them in the same sentence and separated by a longer pause – a semi-colon. See The Semi-colon, page 164.
3. B is correct. Although the PM was accompanied by several aides, we don’t know whether they were entertained or not. However the sentence makes clear that President Clinton entertained the PM, singular, so the use of the singular was and not the plural were is correct. If sentence A read: ‘The Prime Minister and several aides were entertained . . . ’ the use of were would be correct. See Singular and Plural Nouns, page 66.
4. A is correct. The apostrophes in shop’s, shirt’s and suit’s serve no grammatical purpose and are redundant. The apostrophe in Jim’s is correct because it tells us that the shirts and suits are possessed by Jim.
5. A is correct. Us is the objective form of the pronoun we and is used here to include the speaker and others – other firemen. We would be correct if the sentence were written We firemen are expected by the public to be at the scene of a fire within minutes.
6. Sentence B is correct because it calls for the adverbs really carefully to describe how Bert drove. See How adverbs work, page 128.
7. You share between two, or among three or more, so A is correct.
8. The ‘something weird’ in sentence A
