Picky, Picky Trivia Quiz

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.

Answer: 3

I can't afford to listen to the radio WHILE writing this quiz. (The radio is not going to write it for me.) To have an editor accept one's quiz, one must avoid grammatical errors. (Avoiding passive constructions can also reduce your liability for misplaced modifiers.) Having misplaced three modifiers, Uglybird is able to have his quiz accepted only because the editor accepts that he did it on purpose.

Answer: "Toward" is American usage while "towards" is British.

One could maintain that an American writing "towards" and a Brit writing "toward" are both guilty of an error of grammatical usage. I would prefer to hold the permissive position that both are acceptable.

Answer: Hopefully

Basically, some picky grammarians single out "hopefully" as the dreaded "misplaced modal auxiliary". Luckily, other useful adverbs, such as the ones that have begun the last two sentences, are not proscribed. Clearly, this is inconsistent. (In "The Mother Tongue", Bill Bryson points out that some self-appointed grammarians object to words that are hybrids of Greek and Latin roots.

He goes on to point out that "grammarian" is composed of a combination of Greek and Latin roots.)

Answer: Use of a preposition with a word that does not take one.

According to the "Princeton Review Grammar Smart" (pg. 94), certain words that do not take prepositions are frequently misused. The verb "continue", which is a transitive verb that takes a direct object, is one of the examples cited. The above sentence should read, "I'm going to continue this quiz." Two caveats are in order. First "continue with" is a very common construction, and to take issue with it is a very picky grammatical point indeed. Secondly, prepositional phrases that use "with" can be properly used with continue. For instance, "I am going to continue the quiz with a question on nouns," is proper usage.

Therefore, "I am going to continue with a question." would also be proper. Notice that "I am going to continue the question" does not have the same meaning as "I am going to continue with a question". "I am going to continue with the question" would again be improper since "the question" is properly a direct object of the transitive verb "continue".

Other examples cited of words improperly paired with prepositions include "equally as" and "fell off of".

Answer: To gratuitously split an infinitive is assiduously to be avoided.

Both publications express a strong preference for the un-split infinitive. However, both would find a split infinitive preferable to awkward wording such as "to split gratuitously". Both also would allow infinitive splitting in the interest of clarity or emphasis. The two reasons Bill Bryson gives for not splitting infinitives in his book "The Mother Tongue" may be more to the point.

"1. Because you feel that the rules of English ought to conform to the grammatical precepts of a language (Latin) that died a thousand years ago.

2. Because you wish to cling to a pointless affectation of usage that is without the support of any recognized authority of the last 200 years, even at the cost of composing sentences that are ambiguous, inelegant and patently contorted."

Answer: Dangling participle

"Planning carefully" is a participle and does not modify a particular noun. Dangling participles seem easy to create accidentally, but I experienced difficulty creating one on purpose.

Answer: "React" is an intransitive verb.

Apparently the use of "react" as a transitive verb in chemical discourse has become common enough to warrant an exception to its usual status as an intransitive verb. "Dictionary.com" lists a separate definition for a transitive verb "react" for "chemical" use.

Answer: S

Moving the "s" at the end of want and placing it after the apostrophe following "it'" would correct both errors. Fear of ridicule is said to be a reason that many avoid writing. Maybe this is not always a bad thing.

Answer: The amiable couple had an amicable divorce.

It is held that amiable is best used to refer to people and amicable to relationships or events. Would you consider insisting on this distinction to amount to carping or quibbling? I think that "carp" places more emphasis on the offensive tone of the faultfinder while "quibble" accents the triviality of the complaint. Therefore, I think that the nitpicker who insists on the distinction between amicable and amiable is quibbling if polite but carping if pompous.

"Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression." -- Bronson Alcott