Everyday Basic Grammar Trivia Quiz

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.)

Answer: Adverb

"Very" is an adverb. Adverbs are just like adjectives, except they describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs instead of nouns. In this case, "very" is describing the verb "tired."

Answer: Conjunction

Conjunctions link two clauses together. One clause was "Joanne wanted to go on the ride." The other clause was "She was just too scared."
The word "but" linked the two phrases together to make one fluid sentence.

The most common conjunctions are:
*But
*And
*Or

Answer: me

A lot of people have problems with this rule, but it's really pretty simple. "I" is a subject pronoun, which means that it's the subject of the sentence and comes at the beginning. "Me" is an object pronoun, which means that it's the object of the sentence and comes at the end.

Another way I tell my students to figure it out is to eliminate the extra word or words. For example, if I got rid of the words "Tom and," the sentence would simply read, "It was a very difficult evening for _____. If I say "I" it just doesn't sound right. "It was a very difficult evening for me." Sounds much better, right?

We'll try a few more in the next two questions!

Answer: I

The pronoun is now at the beginning of the sentence and is a subject pronoun, so it should be "I." Also, listen to the difference if you eliminate "Lauren and." (I have to change "are" to "am" because there are no longer two people going, so the subject and verb wouldn't agree.)

"I am going to Kristen's graduation party on Thursday."

"Me am going to Kristen's graduation party on Thursday."

The first one sounds a lot better, right?

Answer: me

Once again, the pronoun is an object pronoun. Let's use the trick to get rid of the extra words.

"Joanne made cookies for I." (That sounds weird.)

"Joanne made cookies for me." (That sounds right.)

See? It's a piece of cake!

Answer: is

The word "is" the linking verb (you may know it as one of the forms below); it simply links the words "dog" to the adjective "happy." These words are known to some as linking verbs (to others, auxiliary verbs, verbal auxiliaries or helping verbs) because it doesn't express any action. It merely links the sentence together. You can't touch it, smell it, hear it, or do it. Similar verbs include: is, are, was, were, has, become and seem.

The words "jump" and "run" are action verbs because they are describing what the dog is doing. You can't "are." You can jump and run.

Answer: pours

The reason the word "pours" is an action verb is because it's describing what the rain is doing. Action verbs (otherwise known as dynamic verbs) are also known to some as "doing verbs" because they describe what someone or something is doing.

Answer: family's

The answer is "family's" because it is showing ownership. Whose condo is it? My family's condo. Families' would imply that at least two families owned the condo. Families is simply a plural of the word family.

Answer: for

Prepositions are mainly used to show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and the rest of the sentence. Without them, it would be pretty hard to understand most sentences. Some of the most common prepositions are:
*by
*at
*to
*on (as in, "She is sitting on the pier.")
*of
*for
*in

There are many, many more prepositions, though!

Answer: You're

"Your" is a possessive word. This word would describe what belongs to you, such as your house, your opinion, your fiance, your mortgage, etc. "You're" is a contraction, which combines the words "you are." Example: You're (you are) using the wrong word!

Answer: pony

"Pony" is the correct answer because a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. "My" is a possessive pronoun, "extremely" is an adverb, and "antsy" is an adjective.

Answer: Mr. Vallimont

All proper nouns are capitalized. They are used with:
*People's names
*People's titles
*The titles of books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television shows, etc.
*Names of the week or month
*Holidays
*Names of cities, counties, states, countries, continents, rivers, lakes, oceans, etc.
*Names of parks, streets, buildings, etc.

Answer: who's

The word "who's" is incorrect, because it's a contraction. It means "who is." The proper word to use would be "whose."

Proper uses of whose:
*Whose paper was left on the counter?
*I don't even want to know whose car that is!

Proper uses of who's:
*Who's back there?
*I wonder who's coming to the show tonight.

Answer: nephews

The word "nephews" is incorrect in this sentence because it needs an apostrophe to show ownership. (We're back to the possessive parts of speech.) Whose gift is it going to be? The nephew's.