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American Quick Spell-Check Trivia Quiz

American usage as described in the more authoritative dictionaries is followed throughout this quiz.

A multiple-choice quiz by flem-ish. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
flem-ish

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
70,436

Updated
Apr 07 24

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
7381

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. American Usage. Which of these compounds does NOT use hyphens correctly? Hint

one-eyed monster

black-eye bean

black-kidney bean

black-eyed bean

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Question 2 of 10

2. American Usage. In which of these combinations should you NOT use a hyphen? Hint

A father-son conversation

a secretary-treasurer

Anglo-Saxon literature

The Chief Executive-Officer

3. American usage tends to have -ize in a number of words which in British have -ise. Yet some verbs that are or can be written with -ise in BE do not get -ize in AE.
Which of these four is such a case? Hint

to penalise

to excise

to civilise

to apologise

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Question 4 of 10

4. American Usage. Most derivations from verbs ending in -sist, -xist take an -ence rather than an -ance ending. Which of these is an exception (and therefore spelled incorrectly here)? Hint

persistence

consistence

subsistence

resistence

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Question 5 of 10

5. American Usage. It's not always easy to know when a verb takes -ible rather than -able. How many of these four should correctly take -ible: laudable; corruptable; exhaustable; deductable? Hint

none

two

three

one

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Question 6 of 10

6. American Usage. How many of these words are correctly spelled: reparable; preferrable; admissable; detectible? Hint

none

four

two

three

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Question 7 of 10

7. American Usage. - Which of these is the only correct spelling? Hint

to analise

to analize

to analyse

to analyze

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Question 8 of 10

8. American Usage. Which of these spellings does not occur at all in correct American orthography? Hint

liquefy

purefy

putrefy

rarefy

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Question 9 of 10

9. American Usage. Which of these is an incorrect spelling? Hint

to organize

to amortize

to chastize

to pulverize

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Question 10 of 10

10. American Usage. Words like priest, field, achieve illustrate the rule that 'When sounded as a long e, we write i before e'. But there is a general exception or secondary rule. We write ei after ___________ ? Hint

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. American Usage. Which of these compounds does NOT use hyphens correctly?

Answer: black-kidney bean

The link is not between black and kidney. Normally when adjective + noun, noun + noun and number + noun combine with -ed into a compound adjective, a hyphen is strictly necessary. Noun + noun combinations occur with *and* without hyphen. Apart from black-eye bean, black eye bean does occur.

2. American Usage. In which of these combinations should you NOT use a hyphen?

Answer: The Chief Executive-Officer

You should hyphenate between two nouns that refer to two different functions of the same person: secretary-treasurer; also between two adjectives of nationality that have merged into one compound adjective: Anglo-Saxon; also when two nouns are used as one compound adjective: father-son. But when a substantive is preceded by an adjective (Executive Officer) no hyphen should intervene.

Answer: to excise

Civilize; penalize; apologize; idolize etc. are normal spellings in AE. Comprise, advise, devise, improvise, revise and supervise do not get -ize endings either.

4. American Usage. Most derivations from verbs ending in -sist, -xist take an -ence rather than an -ance ending. Which of these is an exception (and therefore spelled incorrectly here)?

Answer: resistence

No rational explanation for this! It is resistance, not resistence.

5. American Usage. It's not always easy to know when a verb takes -ible rather than -able. How many of these four should correctly take -ible: laudable; corruptable; exhaustable; deductable?

Answer: three

It's corruptible; deductible; exhaustible. Laudable takes -able.

6. American Usage. How many of these words are correctly spelled: reparable; preferrable; admissable; detectible?

Answer: two

Though normally verbs that can combine with -ion into an existing substantive, take -ible, some don't. Examples that follow the rule: deduct(ion); corrupt(ion); exhaust(ion) yield deductible, corruptible and exhaustible. But though 'to detect' produces 'detection' we mostly spell detectable. Yet detectible is given as a correct alternative by a number of dictionaries.

Another case where both derivations coexist: correctable and correctible. Preferrable should be "preferable", "admissable" should be "admissible". "Reparable" is a correct alternative for "repairable".

7. American Usage. - Which of these is the only correct spelling?

Answer: to analyze

Apart from analyze there is also paralyze.

8. American Usage. Which of these spellings does not occur at all in correct American orthography?

Answer: purefy

The ending -ify is much more frequent than -efy. But there are a few cases in -efy: putrefy, liquefy, rarefy and also stupefy.
The on-line dictionaries also mention putrify, liquify, rarify and stupify as acceptable spellings.

9. American Usage. Which of these is an incorrect spelling?

Answer: to chastize

In American usage the spelling should be chastise. See "Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary", "American Heritage", "Cambridge Dictionary of American English", or "Encarta North American Edition".

Answer: c

The secondary rule is illustrated by ceiling, deceit, deceitful. Yet there are exceptions to that secondary rule. A few examples: It would be rather WEIRD if NEITHER of them SEIZED the opportunity for EITHER extra LEISURE time or extra money. As to the BIE/BEI possibility, there is no general principle that the combination is always BEI. Next to BEIGE, BEIGNET there are BIER, BIERKELLER, BIELD (dialectic), BIENNIAL (more than one syllable). However, this does not apply to combinations of e-i in which those letters refer to different syllables (such as DEITY).

As both, once sacred, rules have proved to be far from perfect, teaching them now seems to have been abandoned.

Source: Author flem-ish

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