Section 10: Questions about English language usage and other general knowledge Flashcards
Under what circumstances are nouns capitalized? Can you identify when a word has been capitalized incorrectly? You’ll need to be able to do this.
“Proper” nouns (i.e., names of people, places, and job and honorary titles) are always capitalized.
When you are writing in the first person, “I” is always capitalized.
Titles of works—books, movies, songs, plays, documents, etc. are always capitalized.
The first word of a new sentence is always capitalized.
In acronyms that are titles, every letter of the acronym is capitalized (for example: SAT, NASA, NFL, UN, NAACP, NAFTA, etc.).
When you are listing topics to follow in a paper, you don’t capitalize each one (example: “Causes of World War I include militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism.”
Course subjects like history, math, and physics are not capitalized, but if the subject is itself a proper noun, then it is capitalized, such as English or Spanish. Course titles, such as “History of the Americas” or “Conceptual Physics” are always capitalized.
What is the proper usage of the following?
their vs. there vs. they’re
their = possessive, as in “belongs to them.” It’s “their house” or it’s “their armadillo.”
there = location (opposite of here). Also an auxiliary verb for existence, as in “there are three armadillos in my backpack.”
they’re = contraction for “they are.”
What is the proper usage of the following?
to vs. too vs. two
to = preposition; used when an action is done and someone or something is the object of the action (“Give those armadillos to me!”). Also part of a future verb (“I am going to eat those yummy looking armadillos.”), and can be used for comparison (“I prefer artichokes to anchovies.”).
too = indicates excessive comparison, as in “you are too young to be eating armadillos, artichokes, or anchovies.” Also used as a synonym for “also.” “I prefer artichokes too.”
two = an integer greater than one and less than three!
affect vs. effect
affect = verb. “How will eating armadillos affect me?”
effect = noun. “What is the effect of eating armadillos?”
its vs. it’s
What is the past tense of the verb
“pay”?
paid
What is the correct way to use the word “bias” as an adjective (i.e., where something has a bias, we say it is ________)?
biased
What is the correct way to spell the word that is the opposite of the verb “win”? (the simple one-syllable word that rhymes with “choose”!)
lose
What is the past tense of the verb cost? (i.e., you are saying what the price of something used to be)
cost
What is wrong with each of these sentences?
“We have alot of homework.”
“a lot” is two words, i.e.,
“We have a lot of homework.”
“The British soldiers where advancing upon Lexington.”
“The British soldiers were advancing upon Lexington.
What is the correct way to make a word plural, and when do you use an apostrophe followed by the letter s?
Most words in English are made plural by adding the letter s. If the word ends in a y, it is usually made plural by changing the y to ie and then adding s. You do NOT make a word plural by adding an apostrophe before the s. Apostrophes are used to indicate possession.
Why are “could of”, “should of”, and “would of” non-existent phrases in the English language, never to be used and what is really meant when these are used?
The words “could’ve”, “should’ve”, and “would’ve” are contractions; that is, shortened versions of “could have”, “should have”, and “would have”. There is no “of” in any of them!
What is factually wrong with each of these sentences?
The U.S. and Russia were opponents in the Cold War.
During the Cold War, there was no nation called “Russia”. The entity called “Russia” was a state within the U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) or “Soviet Union”.
(People from the Soviet Union were referred to as “Russians”, adding to the confusion.),
Vladimir Putin is President of the Soviet Union.
After the Cold War ended, the U.S.S.R. split up into 15 separate nations, of which the largest was Russia. Vladimir Putin is President of Russia. There is no “Soviet Union” any more.