For the benefit of our readers, we'd organised an online English quiz with Andrew Brown, programme director, Kings Learning to help you improve your English skills.
For those who missed the session, we reproduce the quiz here.
Pick the correct option for each of these questions and check your final score at the end of the slideshow.
Are you ready for the quiz?
Question 1. Which sentence is best? A. Can I know the problem? B. Can you tell to me what is the problem? C. Can you tell me what the problem is? D. Can you know me the problem?
Please click NEXT to continue...
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is C. Can you tell me what the problem is?
Correct!
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 2. Which sentence is best? A. I did not got that. B. I did not get that. C. I did not getting that. D. I did not got this.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is B. I did not get that. Did (not) verb for past perfect. This actually can mean either that I did not understand that or that I did not receive that (parcel?).
Correct! Did (not) verb for past perfect. This actually can mean either that I did not understand that or that I did not receive that (parcel?).
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 3: Which sentence is best? A. My team members will mind that. B. My team members will have a problem with that. C. My team members will mind their businesses. D. My team members will mind with that.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is B. My team members will have a problem with that. We do say that someone will mind doing something, but normally only in the negative (they won’t mind that). We do say that someone minds their business, but not businesses (well, unless they are a person with several businesses, and they are looking after them all, but that’s quite a different meaning!)
Correct! We do say that someone will mind doing something, but normally only in the negative (they won’t mind that). We do say that someone minds their business, but not businesses (well, unless they are a person with several businesses, and they are looking after them all, but that’s quite a different meaning!)
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 4. Which sentence is best? A. She said that she will come on time. B. She was saying she will come on time. C. She was saying she comes on time. D. She said she will coming on time.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is A. She said that she will come on time. We don’t use –ing anything like as much as Indian speakers of English think we do! Here, the simple past said for an action in the past, will do fine.
Correct! We don’t use –ing anything like as much as Indian speakers of English think we do! Here, the simple past said for an action in the past, will do fine.
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 5. Which sentence is best? A. I have many works to do. B. I have a lot of work to do. C. I have a lot of works to do. D. I have many work to do.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is B. I have a lot of work to do. Work is uncountable (we don’t have 2 works, though we can have 2 jobs because job is countable). Because it is uncountable we use a lot to refer to the fact that there is a large amount of it, but that we can’t put a number on it. Something we could count, like cousins would be fine (I have many challenges).
Correct! Work is uncountable (we don’t have 2 works, though we can have 2 jobs because job is countable). Because it is uncountable we use a lot to refer to the fact that there is a large amount of it, but that we can’t put a number on it. Something we could count, like cousins would be fine (I have many challenges).
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 6. Which sentence is best? A. We reached to that place. B. We reaching that place. C. We reached that place. D. We reached to place.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is C. We reached that place. Some people might be happier if we also changed that to the, or some other determiner, so we would have we reached the place, and it’s true this is a more natural sentence (though there are situations in which we reached that place would be acceptable). I left that in there because I think *we reached to that place is a more common Indian error!
Correct! Some people might be happier if we also changed that to the, or some other determiner, so we would have we reached the place, and it’s true this is a more natural sentence (though there are situations in which we reached that place would be acceptable). I left that in there because I think *we reached to that place is a more common Indian error!
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 7. Which sentence is best? A. Something and all, he was telling me. B. A lot of things, he was telling me. C. He said a lot of things to me. D. Something and all, he said to me.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is C. He said a lot of things to me. We don’t say *something and all. This is an Indian expression. And, again, the simple past will do fine: said.
Correct! We don’t say *something and all. This is an Indian expression. And, again, the simple past will do fine: said.
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 8. Which sentence is best? A. Today morning , I got late to work. B. Today morning I was late to work. C. This morning, I got late to work. D. I got to work late this morning.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is D. I got to work late this morning. We say today but not *today morning. Instead, we say this morning. And we put got to work all together, as a compound verb, and then we acknowledge that we were late for work.
Correct! We say today but not *today morning. Instead, we say this morning. And we put got to work all together, as a compound verb, and then we acknowledge that we were late for work.
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 9. Which sentence is best? A. He is very much positive in his approach. B. He is very positive in his approach. C. He is too much positive in his approach. D. He is too very positive in his approach.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is B. He is very positive in his approach. We don’t need very and much, just ‘very positive’. Theoretically, we could say that he is too positive in his approach, if his positivity was starting to annoy us, for example (we all want people to be human, and to have occasional moments where they aren’t just bouncing around the place being fun all the time!), but it would be an unusual thing to say.
Correct! We don’t need very and much, just ‘very positive’. Theoretically, we could say that he is too positive in his approach, if his positivity was starting to annoy us, for example (we all want people to be human, and to have occasional moments where they aren’t just bouncing around the place being fun all the time!), but it would be an unusual thing to say.
Please click NEXT to continue....
English Quiz: Can you choose the right sentence?
Last updated on: June 27, 2014 23:50 IST
Question 10. Which sentence is best? A. We are from Bangalore itself. B. We are coming from Bangalore. C. We are coming from Bangalore itself. D. We are from Bangalore.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is D. We are from Bangalore. We don’t need to use itself after the name of a place. And we are from indicates that this is our place of origin, probably where we live or were born. We could also say we come from Bangalore, and then we are saying that this is where we come from at the moment. Not a big difference, but a subtlety which people might like.
Correct! We don’t need to use itself after the name of a place. And we are from indicates that this is our place of origin, probably where we live or were born. We could also say we come from Bangalore, and then we are saying that this is where we come from at the moment. Not a big difference, but a subtlety which people might like.
