Back to 'SKOOL'/English Trivia Quiz

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.

Answer: I am literally dying of shame

The adverb 'literally' means that EXACTLY what you say is true, without metaphors or analogies. People misuse the word in order to convey importance and emphasis; you are not literally dying of shame, even though it may feel like it, nor did you literally do 10,000 push-ups a day (unless you're incredibly fit!).

When the word is so often misused, it loses its literal meaning. A phrase like 'he was literally insane with jealousy' can be true if he was institutionalized, otherwise it is figurative. And unless you are Joey Chestnut at the July 4th Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, you did not literally eat 69 hot dogs in one sitting; in 2013 he literally ate 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes!

Answer: alot

'A lot' is not one word, it is two; unless you mean allot, which means 'to give or apportion a share or task', but it does not mean a great many. Since we're on the subject, many critics believe 'alright' is all wrong and should only be written as two words, i.e., all right (which is why I couldn't include it among the incorrect choices). If you are going to use 'alot' a lot, you will be misspelling it; 'a lot' is a two word phrase with the indefinite article (a) and the noun (lot). To put it into perspective, it has the same structure as 'a dog' or 'a mountain' or 'a hamburger', and you wouldn't write 'adog', 'amountain' or 'ahamburger'.

Answer: incontinent

Although this may not be a topic anyone really wants to discuss, if it comes up, 'incontinent' is the word to use. 'Incontinent' does not mean 'in country' (often referring to Vietnam), nor does it describe being 'on a continent' (like Australia). This word has also come to mean lacking self-restraint, uncontrolled or unbridled, but, if you are in a hospital and the doctor mentions 'incontinence', you may need to "depend" upon additional assistance.

While being 'incontinent' may be incongruous, it is usually not inconspicuous and it is never inconsequential.

Answer: The recession had a negative affect on the economy

To help distinguish between the two, effect is usually a noun, meaning 'produced by a cause', whereas affect is usually a verb, meaning 'to act upon or have an influence on'. In other words, when you affect something, you have an effect upon it. Unfortunately, to add to the confusion, sometimes both can apply, e.g., advertising could affect sales by causing them to increase, while advertising can also effect sales by bringing them about if there were none. OK, so now you might be more confused than ever; let me give you one more example to clarify: the drama affected me deeply; it really had an effect on me.

Answer: grammatical error

Based on a 1901 treatise called "Correct English" by J.T. Baker: a 'grammatical error' was described as a paradox and an oxymoron in that they contradict each other; words cannot be grammatical and erroneous at the same the time. Another example is 'musical discord'; for purists, if it is musical, it is not discord, and conversely, if it is discord, it is not musical. Now you might say that you see this phrase all the time, and you would be quite right, but times have changed and the 'purists' seem to have gone underground so, currently, the definition has been expanded to a second meaning, i.e., related to grammar.

Answer: This apple is bigger than that apple

To simplify the distinction, when you are comparing different things use 'than', i.e. wiser than..., greater than..., more useless than...; on the other hand,'then' means 'in addition to' or 'at a point in time'. You can use 'than' when comparing and use 'then' for all the other times.

There is a mnemonic device to help you remember the difference: compArison and thAn both have the letter 'a', while timE and thEn both use the letter 'e'. 'Then' is an adverb which, among other usages, can provide a temporal relationship between the two clauses, e.g., after you wake up late, then you could miss your bus; 'than' is comparative, e.g., my dog is smarter than your dog.

Answer: Since we had breakfast, we were filled with energy

The problem here is that while 'because' refers to causation, 'since' can refer to time OR cause. In the correct answer, 'since we had breakfast, we were filled with energy', you can't be sure whether we were filled with energy because of breakfast (causality) or just after breakfast (time); another example is "Since they spoke, she's had second thoughts" ('from the time that' or 'because'?). Since 'since' can create ambiguity, if it relates to cause rather than time, it is safer to use 'because' for clarity. (Ha!) If you understood the previous sentence, you may move on to the next question because/since you have now mastered this concept!

Answer: stationary means standing still

Have I confused you more? Here's the deal: stationary means 'not moving, staying in one place, not changing'; an example would be: although the engine was running, the car remained stationary. Stationery, on the other hand, is 'paper for writing letters' - although with computers, I'm not sure whether anyone uses stationery anymore; an example would be: she wanted pretty new stationery for the letter she was about to write to her boyfriend.

There is also a mnemonic device to help you remember, in case you are still not sure; i.e., stationary means standing (see the 'A' in standing), while stationery is to write with (see the 'E' in write). Now you've got it, right?!

Answer: apostrophe

Please tell me you got this one right...if you don't know the word, how can you know its proper usage? Using apostrophes is really much simpler than many people make it: you need an apostrophe in only two cases (as listed above), i.e., for contractions, as in 'don't forget the apostrophe' or to show possession, as in 'Tom's apostrophe means the apostrophe belongs to Tom (and I hope he knows how to use it).

Here comes the confusion...while they indicate possession for nouns (the dog's collar, apostrophes are not (or aren't) used for personal pronouns like: its, your, their, whose; and while they replace omitted letters (it's for it is), they are not generally used for plurals.