Advanced Grammar: grammar knowledge quiz	

Below you will find 20 grammar questions. Some relate to basic grammar, others to more complex topics. Try to answer the questions with your partner(s) and note the grammar topic in the column on the left.
		Grammar topic	
e.g.	Red wine, that is made in France, is more expensive than similar wine from South America.
Something needs to be removed from this sentence to make it correct.
What is it and why?
Answer: The commas. This is a defining relative clause.	relative clauses	
1	Feeling rather tired, she slipped away from the party early.
This is an example of a gerund / participle clause / past perfect		
2	The company have risen their prices by 10% over the past year.
Correct the sentence and explain why it is wrong.		
3	What I liked most about her talk was the way she gave examples from her experience.
This is an example of a ____________ sentence		
4	If she saw your note, she’ll be here shortly.
Does this sentence need correcting?  What grammar point is it?		
5	Don’t give him your passport unless he tells you to.
Something is ‘missing’ here. What is it? What do we call this?		
6	Not nearly as many people have mobile phones now as they did five years ago.
Is this statement true or false? How could you say it in a more simple way?		
7	Give me a hand with these boxes, won’t you?
Correct this sentence and explain the error.		
8	There were ten students, three of who had never studied English before.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.		
9	I’d like to go / to have gone / to had gone but I had to work late. 
Choose the correct form and explain your choice.		
10	She’s joined the company since she left school.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.		
11	When we had dinner the chairman made a long speech.
There is a word missing here. What is it?		
12	My brother is still at school.
My brother is still at the school.
What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?		
13	She was studying in Australia for ten years before she came here.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.		
14	We suggested them to visit the night market before they left.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.		
15	She will always make a cup of tea before breakfast.
She will keep parking her car in front of the gate.
She will almost certainly win the competition.
All these sentences contain ‘will’. Which one(s) refer to the future?
What is the function of ‘will’ in the other(s)?		
16	If we told lies, we were punished.
If I told him the truth, he’d be really upset.
If I’d told her the answer, she’d have understood.
Which of these refer(s) to the past? What about the others?		
17	Quite a few people were interested in the trip so we decided to
cancel it / go ahead with it.		
18	Look at the size of those footprints! The animal that made those 
should have / could have / must have/ can have been enormous. 		
19	Although it was freezing cold we decided to take a walk around the town.
Rewrite this beginning,  Despite…
		
20	He was wearing a scruffy old blue cardigan that he’d bought in a sale years ago.
The underlined part is an example of a noun clause / adjective clause / noun phrase / prepositional phrase		

Answers	

		Grammar topic	
e.g.	Red wine, that is made in France, is more expensive than similar wine from South America.
Something needs to be removed from this sentence to make it correct.
What is it and why?
Answer: The commas. This is a defining relative clause.	relative clauses	
1	Feeling rather tired, she slipped away from the party early.
This is an example of a gerund / participle clause / past perfect	participle clauses	
2	The company have raised their prices by 10% over the past year.
Correct the sentence and explain why it is wrong.	transitive and intransitive verbs	
3	What I liked most about her talk was the way she gave examples from her experience.
This is an example of a cleft sentence	emphasis using cleft sentences	
4	If she saw your note, she’ll be here shortly.
Does this sentence need correcting?  No. What grammar point is it?	conditionals	
5	Don’t give him your passport unless he tells you to.
Something is ‘missing’ here. What is it?  give him your passport / give it to him. What do we call this? Ellipsis	ellipsis	
6	Not nearly as many people have mobile phones now as they did five years ago.
Is this statement true or false? How could you say it in a more simple way? Far more people have mobile phones now than they did five years ago.	comparison	
7	Give me a hand with these boxes, won’t you?
Correct this sentence and explain the error.
Give me a hand with these boxes, will you / would you?
In certain cases (suggestions; some requests) positive statements are followed by a positive tag.	question tags	
8	There were ten students, three of whom had never studied English before.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.
This kind of non-defining relative clause where the pronoun (who) is modified by a quantifier (some, all, many, a number) needs the formal, ‘whom’ when referring to people.
	non-defining relative clauses	
9	I’d like to go / to have gone / to had gone but I had to work late. 
Choose the correct form and explain your choice.
This sentence refers to something that did not happen in the past. 
A perfect infinitive is needed.	infinitives	
10	She’s worked for the company since she left school.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.
This sentence uses the present perfect to show a state or action that continues up until now. The action ‘join’ is in the past and complete, so it cannot be used to make the present perfect here.
The situation that continues up until now is ‘work for the company’.
	present perfect with for and since	
11	When we had had dinner the chairman made a long speech.
There is a word missing here. What is it?
After ‘when’ and ‘as soon as’ past perfect is used when there is a longer action and we wish to make it clear that it is complete before the next action begins. When there is a short action, the past simple is sufficient.
cf. When I got home, I made a cup of tea 
‘Got home’ is a short action so we don’t need the past perfect to make it clear that it is complete before you made a cup of tea.	Narrative tenses and time linkers	
12	My brother is still at school. My brother is a student
My brother is still at the school. My brother is in the school building now.
What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?

With places such as schools, hospitals, universities, prisons and churches, the noun without an article refers to an institution with a particular function, not a specific building; when there is a definite article, we mean the specific building.
	articles	
13	She studied in Australia for ten years before she came here.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.
The action ‘study’ is complete and it is mentioned in chronological order. The use of the conjunction ‘before’ makes it doubly clear that ‘study in Australia’ is before ‘came here’. We do not need a past perfect.	narrative tenses	
14	We suggested that they visit the night market before they left.
Correct this sentence and explain the error.
The verb ‘suggest’ does not take a direct object in the form of a person.	verb patterns	
15	She will always make a cup of tea before breakfast. Personal habit
She will keep parking her car in front of the gate. Expresses annoyance or irritation at present behaviour
She will almost certainly win the competition. Future
All these sentences contain ‘will’. Which one(s) refer to the future?
What is the function of ‘will’ in the other(s)?	uses of will	
16	If we told lies, we were punished. Past (zero conditional)
If I told him the truth, he’d be really upset. Second conditional – an unreal or imaginary situation in the present
If I’d told her the answer, she’d have understood. Past (third conditional)
Which of these refer(s) to the past? What about the others?	conditionals	
17	Quite a few people were interested in the trip so we decided to
cancel it / go ahead with it.  ‘Quite a few’ means a reasonable number, not a very small number	quantifiers	
18	Look at the size of those footprints! The animal that made those 
should have / could have / must have/ can have been enormous. 	modal verbs of deduction	
19	Although it was freezing cold we decided to take a walk around the town.
Rewrite this beginning, Despite the freezing cold we decided to take a walk around the town.
	linkers	
20	He was wearing a scruffy old blue cardigan that he’d bought in a sale years ago.
The underlined part is an example of a noun clause / adjective clause / noun phrase / prepositional phrase	noun phrases