15 Quirky Questions (and Answers) About the English Language

Do you consider yourself an expert in the  English language? Wondering how much you still need to learn? Take a few minutes to test your knowledge of English with these 15 questions. The answer key is below. Quiz 1. Roughly what proportion of the worlds population is fluent or competent in English?(a) one person in 1,000(b) one in a 100(c) one in 10(d) one in four 2. Which country contains the largest English-speaking population in the world?(a) England(b) United States(c) China(d) India(e) Australia 3. In approximately how many countries does the English language have official or special status?(a) 10(b) 15(c) 35(d) 50(e) 75 4. Which of the following is probably the most widely used English word throughout the world?(a) dollar(b) okay(c) Internet(d) sex(e) movie 5. According to rhetorician I.A. Richards, a proponent of the simplified language known as Basic English, Even with so small a word list and so simple a structure it is possible to say in Basic English anything needed for the general purpose of everyday existence. How many words are in the lexicon of Basic English?(a) 450(b) 850(c) 1,450(d) 2,450(e) 4,550 6. The English language is conventionally divided into three historical periods. In which of these periods did William Shakespeare write his plays?(a) Old English(b) Middle English(c) Modern English 7. Which of the following is the longest word that appears in a play by William Shakespeare?(a) honorificabilitudinitatibus(b) sesquipedalian(c) antidisestablishmentarianism(d) disproportionableness(e) incomprehensibleness 8. An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name. An eponym is a word derived from the proper name of a person or place. What term is used for a word thats derived from the same root as another word?(a) retronym(b) oronym(c) paronym(d) exonym 9. Which one of the following words is an example of an isogram?(a) destruction(b) racecar(c) sesquipedalian(d) buffet(e) palindrome 10. Which one of the following observations applies to the word typewriter?(a) Its the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.(b) Its a palindrome.(c) It appeared in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language—several decades before the invention of the first typing machine.(d) Its the only word in English that doesnt rhyme with any other word.(e) It can be typed using only the top row of keys on a standard keyboard. 11. Which of the following is generally regarded as the first genuine dictionary in English?(a) The Elementarie by Richard Mulcaster(b) A Table Alphabeticall by Robert Cawdrey(c) Glossographia by Thomas Blount(d) Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson(e) An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster 12. Which of the following was Noah Websters best-selling book or pamphlet?(a) A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (popularly known as the Blue-Backed Speller)(b) Compendious Dictionary of the English Language(c) a booklet on global warming titled Are Our Winters Getting Warmer?(d) An American Dictionary of the English Language(e) a revision of the King James Bible 13. The sentence Natasha is a friend of Joans and a client of Marlowes contains two examples of which grammatical structure?(a) double comparative(b) double entendre(c) double genitive(d) double negativee) double superlative 14. What was novelist David Foster Wallaces name for a really extreme usage fanatic—someone who knows what dysphemism means and doesnt mind letting you know it?(a) grammaticaster(b) purist(c) SNOOT(d) language maven(e) prescriptivist 15. Which of the following terms refers to the substitution of a more offensive word or phrase for one considered less offensive?(a) dysphemism(b) euphemism(c) dramatism(d) orthophemism(e) neologism Answers 1. (d) According to David Crystal in  English as a Global Language  (2003), [A]bout a quarter of the worlds population is already fluent or competent in English, and this figure is steadily growing—in the early 2000s that  means  around 1.5 billion people. 2. (d) English is spoken by upwards of 350 million people in urban areas of India. 3. (e) The director of editorial projects for the  Oxford English Dictionary, Penny Silva, says that English has official or special status in at least 75 countries (with a combined population of two billion people). 4. (b) According to linguist Tom McArthur in  The Oxford Guide to World English, The form  OK  or  okay  is probably the most intensively and widely used (and borrowed) word in the history of the language. 5. (b) The list of 850 core words introduced in C.K. Ogdens 1930 book,  Basic English: A General Introduction With Rules and Grammar, is still used today by some teachers of English as a second language. 6. (c) The period of Modern English extends from the 1500s to the present day. Shakespeare wrote his plays between 1590 and 1613. 7. (a)  Honorificabilitudinitatibus  (27 letters) shows up in a speech by Costard in Shakespeares comedy,  Loves Labours Lost. O, they have  livd  long on the  almsbasket  of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word, for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus. Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon. 8. (c) A word derived from the same root as another word is a  paronym  (similar to the rhetorical figure of  polyptoton). 9. (e) The word  palindrome  (which refers to a word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward) is an  isogram—that is, a word in which no letters are repeated. 10. (e) It can be typed using only the top row of keys on a standard keyboard. 11. (b) Published in 1604, Robert Cawdreys  A Table Alphabeticall contained roughly 2,500 words, each matched with a synonym or brief definition. 12. (a) Originally published in 1783, Websters Blue-Backed Speller went on to sell nearly 100 million copies over the next century. 13. (c) Both a friend of Joans and a client of Marlowes are double genitives. 14. (c) In his review article Authority and American Usage, Wallace wrote, There are lots of  epithets  for people like this—Grammar Nazis, Usage Nerds, Syntax Snobs, the Grammar Battalion, the Language Police. The term I was raised with is SNOOT. 15. (a) See:  How to Flatter an Audience With Euphemisms, Dysphemisms, and  Distinction.