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Grammar and punctuation test.



soistes

Well-known member
Sep 12, 2012
2,643
Brighton
14/14 but, like some others on here, I was taught this stuff at primary school.

Frankly, however, it's not clear that you need to know the grammatical terminology (which some of the answers require) in order to speak and write clearly and correctly.

It's more important, in my view, that people have an intuitive understanding of when to use their, they're, there etc., in order to avoid the solecisms with which NSC is routinely littered.

Only a minority of the test questions focused on these kinds of 'practical' grammar issues, so I'm not sure how indicative a test it really is.
 




Barrow Boy

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 2, 2007
5,783
GOSBTS
Having left school at 15 without a single qualification, I'm quite chuffed with a score of 11/14.
 




CheeseRolls

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 27, 2009
5,966
Shoreham Beach
13/14 and another who didn't cover grammar in any detail in school. More than a few calculated guesses in there/their/they're though and I would like to have seen a to question in there too. That one drives me nuts.
 






Horton's halftime iceberg

Blooming Marvellous
Jan 9, 2005
16,484
Brighton
I will be honest and state if I did it I would have to guess every answer so without trying I would have scored 0/14. I present to groups in companies all the time and my fear is always having a spelling/grammer fanatic in the group as I have to write on flip charts/ white boards. I have methods to cope like using other words, getting other people to write where possible and making my writing squiggly.

I do not have the same problems that our 1st team coach Charlie Oatway had, but I could relate to the bits in his book about how he coped in public i.e personalised autographs etc etc. I would love to have a brillinat command of written English, and adore etymology but in my mid forties and running my own business I think my avoidance tactics will continue.

gerund! And part of my responsibilities are improving letter writing, now where do i find the companies spelling nazi...:dunce:
 


mejonaNO12 aka riskit

Well-known member
Dec 4, 2003
21,501
England
As with others 13 out of 14. I got the prepositional phrase one completly wrong as that was a guess.

I would say about NONE of it was from anything learnt at school. Most of it was just reading the question and possible answers a few times and making an educated choice.
 


Acker79

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 15, 2008
31,874
Brighton
13/14. No idea what a gerund is despite having read How to be Topp.

I'm in that same boat as the others who were never taught a lot of those terms. I guessed at that one thinking it read like g-end, and the only option with a g was -ing.
 








Ninja Elephant

Doctor Elephant
Feb 16, 2009
18,855
I got 8/14. Doesn't bother me though, a lot of those questions were utterly unnecessary. A gerund? Behave, completely irrelevant.

Practical ability is better than theoretical. :thumbsup:
 




Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,379
13/14. No idea what a gerund is despite having read How to be Topp.
The real skill is knowing the difference between a gerund and a present participle. In the sentence "I am living in Brighton" 'living' is a present participle. In the sentence "Summertime, and the living is easy" it's a gerund.

At least that was my understanding, but being a mere 12 I'll let one of the 14/14 people correct me!
 


Barrow Boy

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 2, 2007
5,783
GOSBTS
As with others 13 out of 14. I got the prepositional phrase one completly wrong as that was a guess.

I would say about NONE of it was from anything learnt at school. Most of it was just reading the question and possible answers a few times and making an educated choice.


In my defence, this was exactly what I did.
 








skipper734

Registered ruffian
Aug 9, 2008
9,189
Curdridge
[/B]

In my defence, this was exactly what I did.

That's wrong as well. How can you have made " an educated guess". That's an oxymoron Shirley. :lolol:

Happy Birthday.
 


hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,355
Chandlers Ford
13. All but the gerund one.

But like others, I don't see that this is a 'grammar and punctuation' test at all. More a test of your knowledge of grammatical terms. It's possible to have the skills to use all of the relevant rules perfectly well, without actually knowing what they are called.
 






KZNSeagull

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
19,827
Wolsingham, County Durham
12 for me. My son has been doing grammatical terminology recently - Grade 7 and 8 (ages 12 and 13). I have to say that it does not serve a huge purpose, but am surprised that the Brits are not teaching it. Yesterday, his homework question was "what is the difference between jargon, slang and neologisms".
 


D

Deleted member 22389

Guest
I got 8/14. Doesn't bother me though, a lot of those questions were utterly unnecessary. A gerund? Behave, completely irrelevant.

Practical ability is better than theoretical. :thumbsup:

Trouble with this country, too many pen pushers and not enough Engineers with common sense.
 


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