Chicago Style Workout 76: Good Grammar?

Cartoon depicting a TV game show set with three contestants and one moderator.

Standard or Non-?

When it comes to putting words together, the difference between correct and incorrect—or standard and nonstandard—can be subtle. For this month’s workout, we dip back into chapter 5, which covers grammar.

Can you tell good grammar from less than good? Take the quiz to find out—and to hone your skills.

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

Note: Style guides sometimes disagree. Except for a few details that can be verified in standard dictionaries and encyclopedias and other readily available sources, the answers in this quiz rely on the information in The Chicago Manual of Style.

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

Chicago Style Workout 76: Good Grammar?

1. The test would be simple for you or I.
2. I’ll talk to whoever will listen.
3. If Napoleon was in fact poisoned with arsenic, historians will need to reevaluate his associates.
4. The bride as well as her bridesmaids were dressed in mauve.
5. My painting your fence depends on your paying me first.
6. I looked for my lost keys in the sock drawer, the laundry hamper, the bathroom, and under the bed.
7. Our guests not only ate all the turkey and dressing but both pumpkin pies as well.
8. You need to take your car to the mechanic.
9. Some countries are endemic for malaria.
10. Don’t assume yours is the predominant point of view.

 

TV quiz show cartoon by ONYXprj / Adobe Stock.

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