Grammatical and Lexical Items Trivia

1. What is the name given to a group of embarrassed boys?

From Quiz Group Collective Names Three

Answer: A blush

The word blush sprang into use in the English language in the 14th century and derives from the Middle English word "blusshen". It describes a physical reaction that many people experience in moments of discomfort, embarrassment or humiliation, when the blood rushes to the face and it begins to turn red. You have to smile at a group of boys together, particularly early teenagers, when they're confronted with a female who stops and says hello to them. They tend to go red as well, become uncomfortable and awkward, don't know where to look, and are altogether smile evoking - but in an affectionate way. It's those dratted hormones that plague the life out of them at times, but it all eventually settles down. In fact, you could basically describe them at that stage of their lives as being all hormones, hairy legs and Adam's apples. Then, in a flash, they're grown up. "You blink away a tear, and the boy is gone" ("River Song") and all you have left are precious memories.

From Quiz The Perplexing Semicolon

Answer: Comma

A semicolon has the top half of a colon, which appears as a dot, and the bottom half of a comma. It looks like this --> ;

From Quiz Back to 'SKOOL'/English

Answer: Joan wanted less butter on her toast

Let's get this straight - a simple rule to differentiate: if you can count it, use 'fewer', as in fewer jobs, fewer people, fewer ideas; if you can't count it, use 'less', as in less fun, less trouble, less mess. If you notice the examples, I did not use 'fewer' as an incorrect choice because it sounded silly, e.g., fewer butter, fewer incentive; so the problem is the overuse of 'less' which, in this case, seems to create more errors. If you can calculate the amount of the noun you are using, don't use less, use fewer, as in giving fewer examples.

From Quiz Spelling with Suffixes

Answer: veracity

"Veracity" is a noun because it ends in -ity. "Veracious" is the adjectival form of the word since it ends in "-ous". However, changing one letter of either word results in a different word: "voracity" means extreme appetite, and "voracious" means extremely hungry, neither of which make sense in this context.

From Quiz It's the Pain in the Neck English Teacher~

Answer: It is redundant

The independent clause is redundant. It should simply have been "I self-medicated" or, better yet, "I medicated myself." (You can't self-medicate somebody else, can you?) Now take two aspirin and avoid redundancies.

From Quiz Swing from a Dangling Participle

Answer: The clock couldn't be wondering; the speaker is!

Assuming this is not a surreal novel about an anthropomorphic clock, we have to fix this sentence! As Strunk & White put it, "A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject." Otherwise, it is misplaced or dangling! We might rephrase in one of several ways: "As I wondered irresolutely what to do next, the clock struck twelve." "Wondering irresolutely what to do next, I heard the clock strike twelve." Strunk & White give another "ludicrous" example: "Being in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy the house very cheap." Now just who or what is supposed to be dilapidated? The above selections were from the third edition, although the publisher Bartelby has the entire text of the first edition of "The Elements of Style" online. But it wouldn't hurt to purchase a copy of a later edition to keep handy when you are writing quizzes, school papers, business reports, or anything else important! LibriVox also has an audio recording available.

From Quiz Distinctive Adjectives - A Medical Twist.

Answer: Chest

"Pulmo" is a Latin word meaning lung, hence the distinctive adjective "pulmonary" pertains to the lungs. The lungs are located in the chest cavity, hence a CT of the chest can confirm the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

From Quiz Special Characters and Symbols in Writing

Answer: Paragraph

Here is a pilcrow: ¶. Other interesting symbols in printed materials include the section sign §, the asterism ⁂, the reference mark ※, and the dagger and double dagger. My browser won't display the daggers, but you can imagine the single dagger as being similar to a sans serif lowercase t, and a double dagger as the same symbol with an additional horizontal stroke.

From Quiz Everyday Basic Grammar

Answer: Adjective

Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns. They answer three questions: *How many? *What kind? *Which one? In this case, "five" is describing how many years it's been since Kate was a journalist. (Alternatively, "five" can be classified as a determiner, which is not quite an adjective and not quite a pronoun.)

From Quiz Stop!

Answer: 1400s

Punctuation, as we know it, is a relatively modern creation. Prior to the fifteenth century, there were very few punctuation marks and these were geared to how the text should be read aloud. Once the written word had become important in its own right, grammatical structure was able to develop more fully, as well as punctuation marks as we know them today.

From Quiz Grammar and the Land of Oz

Answer: an interjection

An interjection is a word which expresses strong emotion or constitutes a sound filler. Words such as "ow", "gosh", "um" and "er" are examples of interjections. Hunk wanted to show Zeke that he was angry at being hurt by Zeke's clumsiness. In this quote, "got" is a verb.

From Quiz Parts of (Hilarious) Speech

Answer: preposition

A preposition is a word that shows the relationship of a noun to another noun. A prepositional phrase is the preposition, plus the words or phrase connected to the preposition. Examples of prepositions: after, at, by, in, for, from, to, with, etc.

From Quiz So, You Want to Write a Story?

Answer: Hero and villain

The protagonist of a story is the main character. He/she is often referred to as the hero, although anti-heroes are becoming more and more popular. An anti-hero is a main character who, although fighting for good, isn't necessarily the most virtuous and moralistic of people, with a prime example being James Bond. In other cases, the main character of the story is actually the villain of the piece. The antagonist of the story is the opposing force to the main character, most commonly a villain. Most stories revolve around a conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist.

From Quiz The Accent on Diacritics

Answer: Tilde

The tilde symbol comes from the Spanish via the Latin word 'titulus', denoting an official title. It puts a 'y' sound in the word. Hence, 'año' is pronounced 'AN-yo' and 'sueño' is pronounced 'SWEN-yo'.

From Quiz PAPA VINC: Nouns

Answer: all choices

Yes, ideas, qualities, and concepts are considered nouns. Those things, those ideas, qualities, and concepts like beauty, truth, honesty, and perfection exist, yet even though we cannot physically touch them (although our mind does) they are real, and are considered nouns.

From Quiz Some Features of Grammar

Answer: Authority and tradition

This heavy reliance on authority and the refusal to pay attention to linguistics and scholarship would be almost inconceivable in other subjects taught in school. It is also helps to explain why so much traditional grammar is unsound.

From Quiz PAPA VINC: Pronouns

Answer: nouns & noun & the noun

Pronouns replace nouns in the sentence to help make the sentence flow better. For example, "The runner injured the runner's knee when the runner fell on the track." That's awkward sounding. Let's use some pronouns: "The runner injured her knee when she fell on the track." Pronouns can also replace other pronouns in a sentence, but they primarily replace nouns.

From Quiz Things To Do With Words

Answer: Kenning

The notion of "kenning" may have derived from the practice in Old Norse and Old English poetry of using figurative language for more prosaic words. Dictionary.com gives the example of using the phrase "storm of swords" in place of the word "battle". The English word "kenning" is derived from the Old English word "cennan" and ultimately from the Indo-European root "gno" from which "ken", "know" and "cunning" were also derived.

From Quiz Pronoun Usage!

Answer: her

This sentence needs an objective pronoun. "Herself" is a reflexive pronoun. Therefore, the correct choice is "her."

From Quiz Picky, Picky

Answer: A preposition may be placed at the end of a sentence if placing it in front of its object sounds "unpleasantly awkward".

"From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put." - Winston Churchill "A Short Introduction to English Grammar", written by Robert Lowth and published in 1762, was influential in the stigmatization of the sentence-ending preposition. Mr. Lowth, a clergyman and not an academician, influenced language use and helped define what was proper English in both America and his native England. His stranglehold on prepositional propriety has weakened. Ultimately I believe that standards of grammar must be based either on what pleases the usually self-proclaimed and finicky experts or on what pleases the typical reader/listener and author.

From Quiz Anatomy of a Sentence

Answer: cat

"The" is an article. "Ran" is a verb. "Cat" is the noun. A noun is a person, place, or thing.

From Quiz Know Your Phrases and Clauses

Answer: when he spilled the tray

"When he spilled the tray" is an adverb clause because it has a finite verb (spilled). It also begins with a subordinating conjunction (when). The others were prepositional phrases. Phrases have no finite verbs. "As if nothing had happened" is also an adverb clause. It has a finite verb (had happened) and begins with a subordinating conjunction (as if).

From Quiz Sentence Structure Challenge

Answer: Complex

Don't forget about the subordinate clause "who have rebuilt . . . " modifying the subject of the independent clause "Cleveland Indians." Subordinate + Independent = Complex.

From Quiz Common Errors in Usage Part IV

Answer: longue

"Chaise longue" is a French term literally meaning "long chair", which describes the piece of furniture exactly. Whatever you do, don't pronounce "longue" like "lounge". You are much closer if you try to pronounce it like the English "long".

From Quiz Me, Myself, and I

Answer: me

"Me" is the object of the preposition "by" and should be in the objective case.

From Quiz Lay/Lie

Answer: Lie

Lie is the singular imperative form of "to lie". "Lay" requires a direct object.

From Quiz What's Your "Grammar Correctness Quotient?" I

Answer: Everybody danced with their own partner.

According to American usage, the collective noun "everybody" is singular; therefore, modifying pronouns must also be singular. The sentence should read: "Everybody danced with his (her) own partner." British English rules are a bit more flexible.

From Quiz Literary Signs and Symbols 3

Answer: Ampersand

The etymology here is interesting. As I mentioned in my first quiz of this sort (plug plug!) the ampersand (&) was originally called the Tironian sign. However, as a result of the constant repetition of 'and per se and (and by itself and)' by school children at the end of the alphabet in their reading books, the phrase was eventually condensed into a single word and became 'ampersand'!

From Quiz Literary Signs and Symbols 2

Answer: Breve

It may not be surprising to find that the word 'breve' comes from the Latin 'Brevis' for brief. Some of the names of these symbols actually make sense!

From Quiz Verb Vs. Noun

Answer: fly & Fly & flies & Flies

This is the example I used when telling my wife about my idea for my first quiz. She was unimpressed.

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