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Pedants' corner

How good is your grammar?

(32 Posts)
Greenfinch Fri 10-Nov-17 10:00:54

Have you done the quiz?
I will boastfully say that I got all 16 questions correct. DH got 15 but DS in his forties scored only 7.He is highly intelligent and has a well paid job but it just reflects the era of his education.No formal grammar was taught in his school.He wishes it had been.

JackyB Sat 11-Nov-17 11:47:54

It looks as though I did confuse things with the cat's whiskers. I hadn't realised that green meant "this is the right answer" and red meant "this was your answer but it is wrong" - so double misunderstanding, first the question, then the correction. I shall now put on the dunce's cap and sit in the corner for the rest of the thread.

Jalima1108 Sat 11-Nov-17 11:57:58

grin

Rapped over the knuckles with a ruler by GNHQ JackyB!

Wrapped over the knuckles with a ruler
Rapped over the knuckles with a ruler
Rapt over the knuckles with a ruler

grandtanteJE65 Mon 13-Nov-17 13:01:06

We were supposed to pick the right answer there. I fell into the trap too.

grandtanteJE65 Mon 13-Nov-17 13:06:09

Actually, you and annodomini are right. The conditional "should have" in the firstclause should be followed by the past tense "were" in the second clause. To be fussy, as both are main clauses there should be a comma between the clauses or the word "that"

NanKate Mon 13-Nov-17 13:51:09

I too go 100% but must admit I looked up what a gerund was, so I really should have only got 99%.

Having said that my maths is rubbish so perhaps 99% is wrong hmm. Over to you.

Witzend Mon 13-Nov-17 14:23:24

15/16, but then I had done exactly what I used to impress on my kids NOT to do in exams and tests - failed to read a question properly! *
In impatient haste as usual, when asked to pick the Right one, I picked the Wrong one. Or the other way around. An easy one, too. Probably because of so much foreign lingo study I did know what a gerund was.

*Talking of doing what you'd always been on at kids NOT to do, I used to urge mine NOT to leave homework, essays, etc. till the last minute.
So there was much hilarity from dds when I was doing an OU course and had failed to read the deadline info properly. Hence realising in a panic, at about 5 pm, that I only had until midnight to get an essay - for which I had done NOTHING - not just written, but also delivered to N London - and we were in SW London.
Cue dd in the car with me in her pyjamas at 11 something pm, still chortling at mum messing up, while directing me courtesy of the A to Z.
Nowadays it's all submitted online, but dds still laugh about that.