Comments on: Lunchtime Quiz: the mental_floss Grammar Quiz

By: Vera Lynne

Vera Lynne — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:55:36 +0000

Unbelievable! I really thought I’d do better. I got 30 percent. Yep, I really could do with a copy of the book.

Vee

By: GeorgeH

GeorgeH — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:10:03 +0000

I got 60 percent on the quiz. I was about to say 60 percent right–but I don’t agree that all of her answers are the right ones. She quotes Bryan Garner for #7, but she doesn’t bother quoting him for #2.

By: RachelC

RachelC — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:54:12 +0000

Am I the only one who was perturbed by the repeated use of the word grammatical when the meaning was clearly grammatically correct?

Don’t ask me if a phrase is grammatical! Ask if it’s grammatically correct.

Grammatical is something of or pertaining to grammar…so to ask if a phrase is grammatical has very little meaning.

Am I wrong?

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:37:24 +0000

@John

“However” isn’t exactly a conjunction. “However” is a conjunctive adverb.

@Dan

Well said. The quiz was pretty poorly constructed, and the answers ridiculously permissive. The answer about the letter grades using apostrophes bothered me in particular because the “correct” answer contains an inconsistency, which is worse than poor grammar.

By: John

John — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:02:07 +0000

1. “However” is a conjunction, not an adverb.
2. The answer uses the term “vowel sound,” which is redundant because a vowel is a sound, not a letter (unless you’re in elementary school and learning the alphabet and spelling). Is this test for elementary school students?
9. This question is about vocabulary, not grammar. It tests not if one knows how to use language grammatically but rather if one knows the jargon (“modal auxiliary”) grammarians use.

By: dangermouse

dangermouse — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:23:19 +0000

As a journalist, I’ve had to forfeit many arguments about grammar simply because the majority of readers would not understand what I was saying if I used correct grammar. This is where the rule about confusion without an apostrophe certainly applies – particularly as some sub-editing style guides suggest every word in a headline should begin with a capital letter – ‘As’ could definitely confuse a reader. Dan, I think you should just chill… because something sounds ‘insane’ to you , it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Just like someone pronouncing historic without the ‘h’ sound is insane to me – but then, I’m English.
For the record, I got 60%.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:52:36 +0000

Thanks Dan….I wanted to say most of that, but was lazy. Thanks for doing it for me.

I’m sad I only got 20%, but I definitely think that at least part of that is because of poor test writing. I’m going with 40%.

And absolutely no offense, but some people who are amazingly good at knowing things are not so great at writing tests. I went to a public university. I know how that goes.

By: Mike D

Mike D — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:46:17 +0000

I have a question about #7:

[...]“who” in such cases takes the same form as the word it refers to. “You are the smart one,” therefore, “It is you who are the smart one.”

I can’t imagine saying “it is I who am the smart one”.

Am I wrong? Or is there more to this explanation?

By: Alice

Alice — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:23:13 +0000

As a steady reader of grammarphobia.com, I don’t think Ms Casagrande is the final authority. I don’t think anyone is!

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:11:37 +0000

Wow. The errors in this quiz were remarkable. This might be the worst MF quiz I’ve seen.

#2: “Both are acceptable (“An” is used before vowel sounds. “Historic,” however, is a gray area. Some people either don’t pronounce the h or they muffle it so much as to render it almost silent. Others say that any word that starts with h but takes its stress on the second syllable — his-TOR-ic — can and should take “an” instead of “a.” However, most stylebooks advocate “a historic.”)”

Just because some pronounce it differently does not mean they are pronouncing it correctly. Do you have a citation that says “a historic” is correct?

#6: “Correct answer:
Our coalition will work with whoever wins the election. (A lot of people who know how to use “whom” get tripped up in this situation. Yes, “whom” and “whomever” are object forms. And yes, it seems that our preposition “with” requires an object such as “whomever.”

Again, what is the citation for this? You can just as easily say that every phrase needs an object, that is, that the prepositional phrase beginning “with” must have an object, and that object must be “whomever.” Not only that, but the prep phrase takes precedence, because it appears before the subjective clause. Put it this way: If you take that clause out of the prepositional phrase, you can’t just substitute another subject: “I worked with he.” You have to use an object, ergo, “whomever” is right.

#7: It is you who are the smart one.

This is clearly insane. No one would ever say this; “who” does not replace “you,” since they’re both in the sentence. The verb isn’t determined by “you” in this case, it’s determined by “one”; it would be different if the sentence were “It is dogs who are the smart ones.”

#8: All are acceptable. (Apostrophes are best known for forming possessives and contractions. But, a lot of experts say they have another job: They can also be used whenever they’re needed to avoid confusion.

Again, this makes little sense, and this is exactly why so many people throw in apostrophes indiscriminately. Please stop spreading this myth.

“As” in the middle of a sentence is clearly NOT a word. It’s a plural. It does not get an apostrophe, and it looks silly with one.

I see the average result for this “quiz” was 27%. Did it occur to you that the reason might be that the quiz was, you know, incorrect?

(I know this sounds bitter – I am bitter! I should have done better, and I missed ones I should have gotten.)