The Commonly Confused Words Test

[Hans Deventer]

Nice test! http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170

I did pretty well, got the following score:

You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 80% Expert.

[Barbara Moulton]

Nice test! http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170

I did pretty well, got the following score:

You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 80% Expert.

I scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert!

[Mark Doble]

Advanced

You scored 78% Beginner, 92% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 73% Expert!
You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels' questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score.

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

:basic05

[Hans Deventer]

I scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert!

Okay, now we'll take a Dutch test and add both scores :basic05

[Barbara Moulton]

Okay, now we'll take a Dutch test and add both scores :basic05

LOL...I think I know what the outcome of that will be :)

[Mark Doble]

Hans, I had many Dutch friends in High School. The only phrase I remember is,
forgive me as I still do not really know the meaning of it, "skeet the brook"

I always thought it to mean; ooopsy, I just passed gas?

Feel free to delete this post if it is not the real meaning K...

[Hans Deventer]

LOL...I think I know what the outcome of that will be :)

:basic03 Anyway, good score, Barbara! :fav18

[Barbara Moulton]

:basic03 Anyway, good score, Barbara! :fav18

Your command of the English language always amazes me Hans. If it wasn't for your name and location on the posts, I don't think anyone would guess that English is not your first language.

[Hans Deventer]

forgive me as I still do not really know the meaning of it, "skeet the brook"

I always thought it to mean; ooopsy, I just passed gas?

You're correct in the meaning, a little off in the spelling. I'm glad to hear you remembered one of the most beautiful phrases in the Dutch language, Mark! :fav09

[Mark Doble]

Is that what it really means!!?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That is sooooo cool, cause I actually learned something in High School!
And still remember it.

Actually, I am still great firends with, "those Dutch friends", they still use the phrase and we all laugh. Now I can truely laugh knowing what they are talking about. hahahahhahahahahahha

Thanks Hans:fav18

[David van Beveren]

I think I did pretty well too, but could't reach Hans' level

You scored 85% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 73% Expert!

[Hans Deventer]

Actually, I am still great firends with, "those Dutch friends", they still use the phrase and we all laugh.

We at times use a word that comes close, "broekhoest". Litteraly, it would be "pants coughing". You would pronounce it as "brookhoost", the "oo" in "hoost" is like the "oo" in "brook", but both are pronounced a little shorter in Dutch.

I think we reached a great intellectual level today, wouldn't you say? :basic05

[Charlene Clevenger]

Advanced
You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 73% Expert!

I should have done better. I was an English major at Olivet, for goodness sake! Well, that was a long time ago.:)

[Mark Doble]

I think we reached a great intellectual level today, wouldn't you say? :basic05[/QUOTE]

That is what we say every time we get together for chicken wings and, er, ah,
liquids...

[Wilson L. Deaton]

My results:
--------------------
"You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 93% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!"
-----------------------

Im farther along then I realised; Its good too no this things, Talking good grammer is importent.

Wilson

[Mark Metcalfe]

Im farther along then I realised; Its good too no this things, Talking good grammer is importent.

Wilson

Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk :p


English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 86% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 58% on Beginner
You scored higher than 37% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 62% on Advanced
You scored higher than 61% on Expert

[Gina Stevenson]

ENGLISH GENIUS!
You scored 100% Beginner
100% Intermediate
100% Advanced, and
93% Expert!

(had to retype this ... some copy/paste worked in places ... unless someone knows how to undo those blocks it came in, because it looked odd when I clicked "preview post")

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 49% on Beginner
You scored higher than 36% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 64% on Advanced
You scored higher than 79% on Expert

[Mark Metcalfe]

ENGLISH GENIUS! You scored 100% Beginner
100% Intermediate
100% Advanced, and
93% Expert!

(had to retype this ... some copy/paste worked in places ... unless someone knows how to undo those blocks it came in, because it looked odd when I clicked "preview post")

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 49% on Beginner
You scored higher than 36% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 64% on Advanced
You scored higher than 79% on Expert




Ha! I beat you by one point on the Intermediate! (Nyuk nyuk)
Good for you, Gina! I doff my fedora in humbled deference to the
superordinate maestro of English linguistic propriety.

[Gina Stevenson]

But, Mark! How could you beat me when we both got 100%, eh? (noticed all the scores were the same). ;)

Yeah, I know ... you're looking at the percentages of folks beat ... probably has something to do with the variance in the female/male grasp of the Englisih language. Afterall, I didn't fudge on my age but three years this time ... well, 3 years & 3 days (changed both of the latter numbers for web security reasons).

OOPS!! Nevermind (some of) this ... even tho' that one showed there were more males you were above than females I was above in the intermediate, there were more gals I was over than there were of males you were over in the advance ....

*****

BTW, just had to peek afterwards at the answers, because I was puzzled as to why the 93% ... somehow forgot that it's not an option of using "hanged" or "hung" when someone's had a rope around their neck ... it's only "hanged," so I got that one wrong. gs

PS ** forgot to tell Wilson I liked his "example" of how to use reeally good grammar! HA!

[Lindsey Grant]

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 53% Expert!

There are a few on the Expert that I remember from school...but I forgot which one was right! :)

[Gina Stevenson]

Verrry good, Lindsey. ;)

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 53% Expert!

There are a few on the Expert that I remember from school...but I forgot which one was right! :)

[Stan Hall]

Well my result was
"You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!"

[Betty Bolerjack]

English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner
100% Intermediate
100% Advanced
and 93% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!
For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 53% on Beginner
You scored higher than 32% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 59% on Advanced
You scored higher than 81% on Expert


Hey, Gina! We not only scored the same. we missed the exact same one! LOL I got "hung" up on "hanged!" LOL I couldn't decide which was right and finally decided they both were. I knew that "hanged" was frequently used about hanging someone, but wasn't really sure that it was the correct usage since there are several of those on the test that are used incorrectly all the time. Drives me nuts! The incorrect usage of effect and affect is one of my pet peeves. :fav15 Anyway, I finally decided to mark that both were correct. Actually, my first inclination, though, was to go with "hanged". Should have gone with it, huh? Oh, well.

BTW, Gina, guess what I got for Valentine's Day! I guess I "spoke" too soon! LOL

[Betty Bolerjack]

Well my result was
"You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!"

Hmmm... I was relieved when Gina posted her score so I wasn't the first one to post the highest score! LOL I post mine only to discover you have beat us both! Good job, Stan!:fav18

[Gina Stevenson]

100% on "Expert!" So, you even "hanged!" 'em right! ;)

Well my result was
"You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!"

[Gina Stevenson]

Yes, I tho't people had misused "hanged" & "hung" so much, that it was finally decided that both would be acceptable (sort of like when I heard the other day from this friend at ESL that they saw "nucular" in the dictionary as an alternative pronunciation for "nuclear" ... funny!).

As for Valentine's Day ... Betty, you don't think Mark would read your post about flowers and your flower shop, do you :basic05 ?? He did post about the nursery "deposit" made by your puppy, so could be, eh? Flowers are nice, anyway ... even if they were read about. :)



Hey, Gina! We not only scored the same. we missed the exact same one! LOL I got "hung" up on "hanged!" LOL I couldn't decide which was right and finally decided they both were. I knew that "hanged" was frequently used about hanging someone, but wasn't really sure that it was the correct usage since there are several of those on the test that are used incorrectly all the time. Drives me nuts! The incorrect usage of effect and affect is one of my pet peeves. :fav15 Anyway, I finally decided to mark that both were correct. Actually, my first inclination, though, was to go with "hanged". Should have gone with it, huh? Oh, well.

BTW, Gina, guess what I got for Valentine's Day! I guess I "spoke" too soon! LOL

[Gina Stevenson]

Yes, I've seen tests that have wrong answer keys, as well. However, since this test's question was this:

35. She complains to __________ she can find.
( ) whoever
( ) whomever
( ) Either a or b
( ) Neither a nor b

Breaking it down according to the blue book of grammar example,

him + he = whoever (objective pronoun + subjective pronoun)
him + him = whomever (objective pronoun + objective pronoun}


it seems it would come out like this:

"She complains to them," and "(She/When she/Where she) can find them," both objective pronouns, no matter how the second sentence is written.

Trying to make sense out of this particular compound sentence in simple-sentence format (in more than one way for the second one), as they did in the blue book, it still comes out with two "thems" rather than one "them" and one "they."

So, this seems one to have the answer to the quandary about compound sentences using whoever/whomever ending up in the "whom ever" camp, due to those two objective pronouns that result even with various formulations of the sentences. [edit: in other words, in this particular case, their answer key was right re question #35]

These tests are fun, BTW, aren't they? ;)

I believe the person who created the test has one error--the whoever/whomever question 35.

I've taken more than one grammar/punctuation test that had an error in the answer key.

The following website has an explanation for the whoever/whomever quandary:

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoever.asp

I would e-mail the individual who created the test, but I did not see the e-mail address.

If you got that question wrong, perhaps you really got it right :)

I would love to take a Dutch test like this one, even not knowing Dutch. It would be fun to guess!


Wanda Van Winkle

(If I'm wrong about this one, I should make an apology to all of those English students I taught the last three semesters.)

[Lindsey Grant]

Nooo 'Whomever' is objective, so it's 'to whomever,' 'for whomever'...'Whoever' is Nominative, so it's 'whoever is latest' and such. You can't use a nominative case pronoun in an object of the preposition, direct object, indirect object, or an appositive to either of those--that's the objective case job.
Nominative case is for subjects, predicate nominatives, and appositives to either of those.

Ok, ok, so we just had this unit in grammar...that's why I know all of this...

:D

[Wanda Van Winkle]

Lindsey,

I was looking at the answer key--not the original test.

The site has a different question on the answer key. We were both right.

On the test, the question was listed as follows:

"35. She complains to __________ she can find.
whoever
whomever
Either a or b
Neither a nor b"

As you can see, this sentence would have made the word the object for both ends of the sentence: she complains to whomever and she can find whomever. So your answer is right!

On the answer key, which is where I was checking for mistakes, the question is listed as follows:

"35. She complains to __________ will listen.
a. whoever
b. whomever
c. Either a or b
d. Neither a nor b
The correct answer is whomever."

As you see, after to, it must be whoever as part of the noun clause whoever will listen.

I'll repost my original link to the explanation here because I think it explains it well.

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoever.asp

Unfortunately, I do not know how to recover my deleted post to which Gina responded.

I will try to find a way to contact the author of the site to let him/her know that the test and answer key have two different questions. I assume that person changed the test without changing the answer key. :-)

Thanks for your help!!!:fav18

Maybe I didn't make a bunch of mistakes on student papers, after all! ha Still, I probably should avoid grading papers at midnight...

[Betty Bolerjack]

As for Valentine's Day ... Betty, you don't think Mark would read your post about flowers and your flower shop, do you :basic05 ?? He did post about the nursery "deposit" made by your puppy, so could be, eh? Flowers are nice, anyway ... even if they were read about.

Nope! We were in chat when I told you about that so he didn't see it. I did ask him if you had e-mailed him, though. :basic05 He said he had been thinking about it for several weeks. :fav16 I did have to arrange them myself. Told him it brought back memories! :fav14


Note: We're limited to 4 smilies in a post??? What kind of place is this, anyway? LOL

[Gina Stevenson]

You're right. After I logged off, and was on my way to bed -- well, already there before going to sleep -- I remembered we were in "chat" and it wasn't any post for him to see (unless he'd actually logged into chat right after we left, so it hadn't disappeared yet ... think it only lasts a few minutes with this chatroom). BUT, since he was already thinking for weeks about it ... YEEEAAA, MARK!! :basic05

As for the smilies, I noticed that, too, earlier when adding too many. Now, since your quote has three, I'm now limited to one, unless I eliminate some of yours before putting mine here.

Nope! We were in chat when I told you about that so he didn't see it. I did ask him if you had e-mailed him, though. :basic05 He said he had been thinking about it for several weeks. :fav16 I did have to arrange them myself. Told him it brought back memories! :fav14


Note: We're limited to 4 smilies in a post??? What kind of place is this, anyway? LOL

[Betty Bolerjack]

As for the smilies, I noticed that, too, earlier when adding too many. Now, since your quote has three, I'm now limited to one, unless I eliminate some of yours before putting mine here.

Which was what I did with one of yours so I could post mine! :fav17

[Gina Stevenson]

Oh! Sorry ... I looked at the key long enough before seeing the post about who/whomever, that I didn't realize they were different. They probably did change the test (as you suggested) after hearing from some other grammarian who wrote to them and, as you also said, they then apparently forgot to change the key to match the test. ;)


Lindsey,

I was looking at the answer key--not the original test.

The site has a different question on the answer key. We were both right.

[Wanda Van Winkle]

... as you also said, they then apparently forgot to change the key to match the test. ;)

Unfortunately, it happens to the best of us. One professor I know gives extra credit to students who find errors on her handouts, including tests. We're all human.

The only reason I really paid attention to that particular question is that I remember specifically on the test that I put whomever. But when I looked at the question, it listened whomever as correct, when it obviously was not correct.

I should have checked back with the test itself before posting. I didn't accept the answers, after all, so why should I accept that both the test and key had the same question? Details, details.

[Gina Stevenson]

Yes ... humans ... all of us ... some just need to acknowledge it (another subject, so we won't even go there ;)). That's a good policy the professor has of rewarding students who help them out in their own humanness. 'Bet you're thinking of -- or already have -- adopting that policy yourself. ;)

Unfortunately, it happens to the best of us. One professor I know gives extra credit to students who find errors on her handouts, including tests. We're all human.

The only reason I really paid attention to that particular question is that I remember specifically on the test that I put whomever. But when I looked at the question, it listened whomever as correct, when it obviously was not correct.

I should have checked back with the test itself before posting. I didn't accept the answers, after all, so why should I accept that both the test and key had the same question? Details, details.