Stretch Yourself!

This month’s workout, “Grammar, Part 1,” is taken from CMOS 17, paragraphs 5.1–20. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study that section of the Manual before answering the questions.

Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. (We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Note: Dictionaries and style guides sometimes disagree. These questions are designed to test knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, which prefers Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition. Other style guides may follow a different dictionary.

[Editor’s note: This quiz relies on and links to the 17th edition of CMOS.]

Chicago Style Workout 27: Grammar, Part 1

1. A common noun may become a proper noun.

a.True

b.False

2. Sometimes a proper noun may be used as if it were a common noun.

a.True

b.False

3. In English, all parts of speech have case, which denotes the relationship between a word and other words in a sentence. (Examples of case are nominative and objective.)

a.True

b.False

4. Most English nouns may refer to either sex.

a.True

b.False

5. Names of companies, institutions, and similar entities are generally treated as collective nouns—and hence plural in American English.

a.True

b.False

6. All nouns have distinct singular and plural forms.

a.True

b.False

7. A noun or pronoun that follows a be-verb and refers to the same thing as the subject is called a predicate nominative.

a.True

b.False

8. A noun serving as an object of the verb may sometimes come before the verb.

a.True

b.False

9. A noun serving as an object of the verb may also serve as subject of the following verb.

a.True

b.False

10. The genitive case has many other functions besides showing possession.

a.True

b.False

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Photo: War Game Drill on Seattle [ca. 1910–1915], from the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress on Flickr.