QUESTIONS ON LANGUAGE
1) Name the 3 ways in which a pronoun agrees with its antecedent.
Answer: In person, number, and gender.
2) Identify the first 4 letters of the Greek alphabet.
Answer: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.
3) Identify the last 4 letters of the Greek alphabet.
Answer: Phi, Chi, Psi, and Omega (the phrase “the alpha and omega,” meaning “everything,” “the
most important part,” or “the beginning and the end” comes from the first and last letters of the Greek
alphabet and refers to a phrase used in Revelation: 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord”).
4) Identify the 5 letters of the English alphabet considered to be vowels.
Answer: A, E, I, O, U (y is sometimes considered a vowel).
5) Identify the 3 degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs.
Answer: Positive, comparative, and superlative.
6) Name the 3 verbals in English grammar.
Answer: Gerund, infinitive, and participle.
7) What are the 3 traditional principal parts of regular and irregular verbs, and what is the 4th “principal part”
that is sometimes included?
Answer: Present (or present infinitive), past, and past participle / present participle.
8) Name the 6 verb tenses in English: 3 of them are primary or simple, and 3 of them are secondary,
compound, or perfect.
Answer: Present tense, past tense, future tense, present perfect tense, past perfect tense, and future
perfect tense.
9) Give the 4 words—masculine singular and plural and feminine singular and plural—designating a graduate
or graduates of a particular school or college.
Answer: Alumnus, alumni, alumna, alumnae, respectively.
10) What are the 3 types of participles in English?
Answer: Present participle (ending in -ing); past participle (e.g., talked); and perfect participle (having
or having been).
11) As what 3 parts of speech may infinitives be used?
Answer: As nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.
12) What are the 3 moods (modes) of modern English verbs?
Answer: Indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.
13) Name the 8 parts of speech.
Answer: Noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
14) Give the 4 kinds of sentences classified according to grammatical structure or the number of clauses they
contain.
Answer: Simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.
15) According to meaning and purpose, in what 4 ways are sentences classified?
Answer: Declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogative sentences.
16) Identify the one definite article and the 2 indefinite articles used in English.
Answer: The, a, and an.
17) For, yet, and so are sometimes considered coordinating conjunctions. Name the other 4 commonly used
coordinating conjunctions.
Answer: And, but, or, and nor.
18) Give the 4 pairs of correlative conjunctions.
Answer: Both…and; either…or; neither…nor; not only…but also (some sources accept whether…or as
a 5th pair of correlative conjunctions).
19) Identify the 7 forms of the verb to be other than the form be.
Answer: Am, is, are, was, were, being, and been.
20) Name the 8 kinds of pronouns.
Answer: Demonstrative, indefinite, intensive, interrogative, personal, reciprocal, reflexive, and relative
(some sources have only 6: demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative, personal, compound personal, and
relative).
21) Identify the 4 demonstrative pronouns.
Answer: This, that, these, and those.
22) Identify the 5 interrogative pronouns.
Answer: Who, whose, whom, which, and what.
23) Identify the 5 relative pronouns.
Answer: Who, whose, whom, which, and that.
24) Name the 3 persons of personal pronouns.
Answer: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons.
25) Identify the 4 first-person pronouns.
Answer: I, me, we, and us.
26) Identify the 7 third-person pronouns.
Answer: He, him, she, her, it, they, and them.
27) Name the 3 parts of speech an adverb modifies.
Answer: Verb, adjective, or another adverb.
28) Name the 3 cases of English nouns and pronouns.
Answer: Nominative or subjective; objective or accusative; and possessive or genitive.
29) Give the 5 parts of a business letter.
Answer: The heading; the inside address; the greeting or salutation; the body; and the complimentary
close (followed by the signature, which can be considered a 6th part).
30) What are the 3 ways to close a sentence?
Answer: With a period, with an exclamation point, or with a question mark.
31) Name the 3 R’s (three R’s), or the 3 traditional basic elements of learning.
Answer: Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic (some wit or some disgruntled educator added 3 more:
“Remedial Readin’, Remedial ‘Ritin’, and Remedial ‘Rithmetic”; in some Christian schools the spiritual
3 R’s are: repentance, regeneration or rebirth, and reconciliation; and the social 3 R’s are: respect,
responsibility, and resourcefulness).
32) Name the 3 words in the English language that end in -ceed.
Answer: Exceed, proceed, and succeed.
33) Identify the only 4 words in English ending in the letters d-o-u-s.
Answer: Tremendous, stupendous, horrendous, and hazardous.
34) Which 3 letters are often used to designate the basic facts or principles of a given subject?
Answer: ABC (as in the ABC of).
35) Which 3 English words ending in -vore designate “a person or animal who eats any type of food,” “a person
or animal who eats flesh,” and “a person or animal who eats grass or other plants”?
Answer: Omnivore, carnivore, and herbivore.
36) Which 3 words are included in the phrase used pejoratively or ironically to describe a hero of romantic
fiction?
Answer: Tall, dark, and handsome.
37) Which 3 names are included in the figurative phrase meaning “everyone and anyone” or “people in
general”?
Answer: (Every) Tom, Dick, and Harry.
38) Which 3 colors are used to designate someone who is a very patriotic American as in to bleed _____, or
what are the 3 colors of the American flag?
Answer: Red, white, and blue.
39) Which 3 words borrowed from Winston Churchill’s statement about fighting Hitler during WWII are used to
mean “personal sacrifice as the only resource available to achieve a goal”?
Answer: Blood, sweat, (and) tears.
40) Which 3 words are used in the expression to describe someone as being “not excited,” or “in full control of
emotions”?
Answer: Cool, calm, and collected.
41) Which 3 words referring to the 3 basic parts of a gun make up the expression meaning “completely”?
Answer: Lock, stock, and barrel.
42) Which 3 words complete the following phrase conveying the idea that if the outward appearance and
behavior of someone or something is rather obvious, then one obviously knows
what it is: “If it ____ like a duck, _____ like a duck, and _____ like a duck, it’s a duck?
Answer: “looks,” “walks,” and “quacks.”
43) Which 3 words complete the phrase “No _____, _____, or _____,” meaning “to take an action without
asking questions or making objections?
Answer: “ifs, ands, or buts.”
44) Which 3 words referring to fishing equipment make up a phrase meaning “completely” or “in every way”?
Answer: Hook, line, and sinker.
45) According to Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac, what 3 benefits accrue to a man when he is
“early to bed and early to rise”?
Answer: He is healthy, wealthy, and wise.
46) Which 3 words, originally used to describe a valid legal document, designate that it needed a signature and
a wax seal, and it had to be taken to the new owner?
Answer: Signed, sealed, and delivered.
47) Which expression using the word truth 3 times means “to be completely and totally honest”?
Answer: To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
48) Which 3-word expression including the word beg means “to obtain something in any way possible”?
Answer: Beg, borrow, or steal.
49) Identify the 3-part command used to prepare runners to start a foot race.
Answer: On your mark, get set, go (accept ready, set, go).
50) Which 3-word term did Senator Joseph McCarthy coin for those he claimed were “dedicated and
committed” members of a foreign subversive group within the U.S. State Department?
Answer: Card-carrying Communists.
51) Complete the 3-part phrase “no _____, no _____, no _____,” borrowed from the reporting of a baseball
game and today designating either “a complete failure,” “something uneventful,” or “something perfect.”
Answer: No hits, no runs, no errors.
52) Complete each of the following 3-part phrases.
1) “Don’t fold, spindle, or _____”
2) “White tie, top hat, and _____”
3) “Race, creed, or _____”
4) “Deaf, dumb, and _____”
5) “Men, women, and _____” or “Every man, woman, and _____”
6) “Game, set, and _____”
7) “Hatched, matched, and _____”
8) “Here, there, and _____”
9) “Animal, vegetable, or _____”
10) “Up, up and _____”
11) “Stop, look, and _____”
12) “Wine, women, and _____”
13) “Love, honor, and _____”
14) “Ready, willing, and _____”
15) “Win some, lose some, some _____”
16) “Hop, skip, and a _____”
17) “Shake, rattle, and _____”
18) “Win, lose, or _____”
19) “Me, myself, and _____”
20) “God, motherhood, and _____” or “Baseball, mom, and _____”
21) “Win, place, or _____”
22) “First, last, and _____”
Answer: 1) “mutilate,” 2) “tails,” 3) “color” (or “national origin”), 4) “blind,” 5) “children” or “child,” 6)
“match,” 7) “dispatched,” 8) “everywhere,” 9) “mineral,” 10) “away,” 11) “listen,” 12) “song,” 13)
“obey,” 14) “able,” 15) “rained out” (or “end in a tie”), 16) “jump,” 17) “roll,” 18) “draw,” 19) “I,” 20)
“apple pie,” 21) “show,” 22) “always.”