Year-End Quiz 2018
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Year-End Quiz 2018
Another year of grammatical exploration has concluded with linguistic miles behind us. What we’ve learned and discussed with you along the way has been illuminating, and we are grateful for the thought and insight it has inspired.
We hope you gathered even more sharpened tools for communicating in concise and eloquent English. A year-end review is always a great way to revisit and further retain what we’ve examined.
The 2018 master quiz consists of twenty-five sentences addressing subjects from many of this year’s GrammarBook articles. Choose your answers and then check them against our answer key that follows the quiz.
Each answer also includes the title and date of the article that focused on the topic. Because some answers require particular knowledge from months past, please feel free to refer to their associated article if you wish to refresh your memory.
Best of luck to you as you write your way into 2019!
Jumbo Pop Quiz: 2018 in Twenty-five Questions
1. When I was in high school, I [would / used to] lift weights in the gym almost every day.
2. When I was a kid, I [would / used to] feel like every day was a new adventure.
3. Juan received the highest score on the test [since / because] he studied the most.
4. [Since / Because] Rich was the most qualified, he was offered the promotion first.
5. She is perhaps the most [well spoken / well-spoken] project manager to have ever led the initiative.
6. Considering the event is informal, I’d say Milan is notably [well dressed / well-dressed]. (Answer is based on Chicago Manual of Style usage.)
7. “Every one of y’all (insert [sic] / don’t insert [sic]) should do a little more homework before you go makin’ accusations like that,” the site supervisor said.
8. [New Year’s day / New Year’s Day] is on January 1.
9. The weather isn’t good today, so I will wait until tomorrow to go jogging. (In this sentence the word so is [an adverb / a conjunction].)
10. The team is so big and strong that most others don’t want to play against them. (In this sentence the word so is [an adverb / an adjective].)
11. Let’s meet for lunch at [noon / 12:00 noon].
12. The meeting will be held at [7:00 p.m. / 7:00 p.m. in the evening].
13. The [silver-medal-winning / silver medal–winning] athlete gracefully shook the gold winner’s hand after the award ceremony.
14. Jake has a [small town / small-town] personality.
15. Do you see the [pretty, tall Kenyan / tall, pretty Kenyan] lady standing by the fountain?
16. Please set that [square, wooden / wooden, square] box on the floor.
17. The panel has reviewed [each / each and every] point in the proposal.
18. Most people prefer warm or mild days over freezing weather. (In this sentence most is an [adjective / adverb].)
19. I’ll meet you in my office upstairs. (In this sentence upstairs is an [adjective / adverb].)
20. She is the quickest thinker we’ve met so far. (In this sentence quick is an example of a [free morpheme / bound morpheme].)
21. Theressa is unbound to the limits of traditional thinking. (In this sentence un- is an example of a [free morpheme / bound morpheme].)
22. When I watch comedies, I laugh. (This sentence is an example of the [Zero Conditional / Type 3 Conditional].)
23. If you don’t act soon, someone else will get that open position at the company. (This sentence is an example of the [Mixed Conditional / Type 1 Conditional].)
24. We estimate the project will take [12–14 / from 12–14] weeks to complete.
25. If I have to choose between the donuts and the cupcakes, I’d rather have [these / these ones].
Jumbo Pop Quiz Answers
1. When I was in high school, I [would / used to] lift weights in the gym almost every day. Would vs. Used To 1-24
2. When I was a kid, I [would / used to] feel like every day was a new adventure. Would vs. Used To 1-24
3. Juan received the highest score on the test [since / because] he studied the most. Tackling More Tricky Word Choices: As, Because, and Since 2-21
4. [Since / Because] Rich was the most qualified, he was offered the promotion first. Tackling More Tricky Word Choices: As, Because, and Since 2-21
5. She is perhaps the most [well spoken / well-spoken] project manager to have ever led the initiative. Are We Hyphenating Well? 4-4
6. Considering the event is informal, I’d say Milan is notably [well dressed / well-dressed]. Are We Hyphenating Well? 4-4 (Chicago Manual of Style usage)
7. “Every one of y’all (insert [sic] / don’t insert [sic]) should do a little more homework before you go makin’ accusations like that,” the site supervisor said. Figuring Out the Trick Behind [sic] 5-30
8. [New Year’s day / New Year’s Day] is on January 1. Giving Special Days Their Grammatical Due 6-27
9. The weather isn’t good today, so I will wait until tomorrow to go jogging. (In this sentence the word so is [an adverb / a conjunction].) So Tell Me—When Is It Correct to Use So 7-25
10. The team is so big and strong that most others don’t want to play against them. (In this sentence the word so is [an adverb / an adjective].) So Tell Me—When Is It Correct to Use So 7-25
11. Let’s meet for lunch at [noon / 12:00 noon]. In the Zone: It’s About Time 8-8
12. The meeting will be held at [7:00 p.m. / 7:00 p.m. in the evening]. In the Zone: It’s About Time 8-8
13. The [silver-medal-winning / silver medal–winning] athlete gracefully shook the gold winner’s hand after the award ceremony. Punctuating Compounds That Precede 8-22
14. Jake has a [small town / small-town] personality. Punctuating Compounds That Precede 8-22
15. Do you see the [pretty, tall Kenyan / tall, pretty Kenyan] lady standing by the fountain? Arranging Multiple Adjectives 9-5
16. Please set that [square, wooden / wooden, square] box on the floor. Arranging Multiple Adjectives 9-5
17. The panel has reviewed [each / each and every] point in the proposal. Still on the Stakeout for Worn-Out Words and Phrases 9-19
18. Most people prefer warm or mild days over freezing weather. (In this sentence most is an [adjective / adverb].) Can the Versatile Adverb Modify a Noun? 10-3
19. I’ll meet you in my office upstairs. (In this sentence upstairs is an [adjective / adverb].) Can the Versatile Adverb Modify a Noun? 10-3
20. She is the quickest thinker we’ve met so far. (In this sentence quick is an example of a [free morpheme / bound morpheme].) Making Sense of Morphemes 10-17
21. Theressa is unbound to the limits of traditional thinking. (In this sentence un- is an example of a [free morpheme / bound morpheme].) Making Sense of Morphemes 10-17
22. When I watch comedies, I laugh. (This sentence is an example of the [Zero Conditional / Type 3 Conditional].) Clarifying the Conditional Tense 10-31
23. If you don’t act soon, someone else will get that open position at the company. (This sentence is an example of the [Mixed Conditional / Type 1 Conditional].) Clarifying the Conditional Tense 10-31
24. We estimate the project will take [12–14 / from 12–14] weeks to complete. Staying on Target with Ranges 12-5
25. If I have to choose between the donuts and the cupcakes, I’d rather have [these / these ones]. More Mulling Over Miscellany 12-19
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
I have some reading to do!
I must have missed the lesson about morphemes and don’t remember learning about them in either public school or college. Other than those examples, I only missed four questions.
That’s a good score on this difficult quiz. Congratulations.
Morphemes – I not only missed that lesson, I never heard of them! Oooops – I have to check that out! Other than that I only missed 2 – and I think it was a fairly tough quiz.
For number 15, how did you determine the adjective order from the referenced article? Since (3) size (tall) is assigned a higher preference than (4) condition/quality (pretty), I would have guessed the reverse order: “the tall, pretty Kenyan woman.” Thanks.
The word pretty is listed under “2 opinion,” not “4 condition or quality.”
I think that, in this case, the correct answer is in our ear, not our grammar book. “pretty tall” and “pretty, tall” cannot be distinguished in the ear, but mean very different things … so, our ear feels better with “tall, pretty” which is unambiguous.
The table for ordering adjectives found in our post Arranging Multiple Adjectives resulted from researching many authoritative sources in order to provide us with some guidance in this gray area. And it is just that—guidance. There really is no “correct answer” as such. Grammatically, the tall, pretty Kenyan woman and the pretty, tall Kenyan woman are each acceptable. And if we wanted to emphasize a different meaning verbally, we would likely say the Kenyan woman is pretty tall.
For question 13 (“The [silver-medal-winning / silver medal–winning] athlete gracefully shook the gold winner’s hand after the award ceremony.”), the correct answer should be silver-medal-winning” instead of “silver medal–winning”, because if we do not hyphenate silver and medal, that means the athlete is made of silver! What do you think?
If we hyphenate all of “silver medal winning,” we convey that each word depends on the other for meaning and clarity. In other words, we say through punctuation that “silver” and “medal” cannot stand apart from “winning”; they must all be joined to be understood. That is not the case, however, because a silver medal is an object that can stand alone as a noun phrase.
What did the athlete win? A silver medal (an independent unit that needs no further punctuation). To communicate this independence within a compound modifier, we insert the en dash to connect the noun phrase with the other word it is modifying (“winning,” in order to say “winning of a silver medal”). Once joined according to its units, that modifying package then describes the noun (“athlete”).
WOW! That was a great one! Thanks for the challenge . . . and no, I did not get 100%! I am reviewing now.
Thank you so much!
Getting a perfect mark on this quiz would have been very difficult indeed. We are very pleased to hear that you enjoyed the challenge.
I must have fallen asleep when the morphemes were handed out!
You must have stumbled across a couple if you were asleep for the whole week of October 16-23!
It seems that “If I would have known about it, I would have gone,” “If they would have remembered the oars, we could have gone out in the boat,” or “If he wouldn’t have had all that candy, he wouldn’t have been sick” etc. has become standard usage. What has happened to the pluperfect of the “if” clause?
As we mention in Clarifying the Conditional Tense, the conditional tense is grammatically complex. Your sentences are each Type 3 Conditionals, and could be correctly written using the past perfect (also called the pluperfect) in the if clause as:
If I had known about it, I would have gone.
If they had remembered the oars, we could (or would) have gone out.
If he had not eaten all that candy, he would not have been sick.