Word Nerd Challenge
Forget the holidays, it’s the most wonderful time of the year right now! It’s National Grammar Day! Test your nerdiness with this quiz from my hero, Grammar Girl .
Post your answers as a comment (which I am holding for moderation so there are NO cheaters) anytime before midnight on March 4. The winner(s) will receive a FABULOUS prize! I’ll post answers and explainations tomorrow. Here we go.
Let’s play Correct the Celebrity!
1. Which album title has the spelling error?
a. “Dutchess,” by Fergie
b. “Growing Pains” by Mary J. Blige
c. “Graduation” by Kanye West
d. None of the above
2. What’s wrong with this lyric by Justin Timberlake?
“When you cheated girl,
My heart bleeded girl.”
a. It’s perfect as it is. Leave Justin alone!
b. “Bleeded” is not a word. “Bled” is.
c. There should be commas before and after “girl”
d. Both b and c are correct.
3. Circle the errors Paris Hilton made blogging about her new shoe collection.
(Hint: there are at least three!)
“Don’t worry, if you arent in Orange County, you can also get the shoes at Kitson, Zappos.com,
Endless.com, Bakers, Lord & Taylor and select specialty boutiques across the counrty”
4. Correct the following movie titles:
a. How She Move
b. The Pursuit of Happyness
c. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
d. The 40 Year Old Virgin
5. Circle the error in this statement by Christina Aguilera:
Today is a very joyful and special day for Jordan and I as we welcome our first son into this world.
6. What’s wrong with this David Hasselhoff quote?
“I am also doing a heart-rendering set on my life and the mistakes I have made.”
a. There should be a comma after life.
b. “heart-rendering” doesn’t need a hyphen.
c. “heart-rendering” should be “heart-rending”
d. The sentence is fine as is.
7. One of Jessica Simpson’s boyfriends dumped her via text message. The related headline
contains an error. What is it?
Jessica Dumped in 118 Characters or Less
© 2008 SPOGG
March 4th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
DON’T CHEAT PEOPLE….
.
.
..
.
1. A
2. B
3. “Don’t worry, if you *aren’t* in Orange County, you can also get the shoes at Kitson, Zappos.com, Endless.com, Bakers, Lord & Taylor*,* and select specialty boutiques across the *country*”
4. Correct the following movie titles:
a. How She Move*s*
b. The Pursuit of *Happiness*
c. Honey, I *Shrank* the Kids
d. The *40-Year-Old* Virgin
5. Circle the error in this statement by Christina Aguilera:
Today is a very joyful and special day for Jordan and *me* as we welcome our first son into this world.
6. C
7. Jessica Dumped in 118 Characters or *Fewer*
March 4th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
1) d
2) b
3) arent, cournty, and no period at the end
4) How She Moves, The Pursuit of Happiness, and that’s it
5) Jordan and me, not Jordan and I
6) b
7) ????
March 4th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
1. a. “Dutchess,” by Fergie
2. While tempted to pick “a”, I’ll go with b. “Bleeded” is not a word. “Bled” is.
3. Circle the errors Paris Hilton made blogging about her new shoe collection.
Don’t worry PERIOD
Aren’t (currently missing an apostrophe)
Country is spelled wrong
4.
a. How She Moves
b. The Pursuit of Happiness
c. Honey, I Shrank the Kids
d. The Forty Year Old Virgin
5. Circle the error in this statement by Christina Aguilera:
Jordan and me (not I)
6. What’s wrong with this David Hasselhoff quote?
c. “heart-rendering” should be “heart-rending”
7. One of Jessica Simpson’s boyfriends dumped her via text message. The related headline contains an error. What is it?
Jessica WAS dumped
I’m sure I didn’t win b/c I ain’t no grammar expert… but this was fun irregardless.
March 4th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Okay Pam, I’m trying my best!!!
1. a
2. d
3. “Arent” is missing an apostrophe, country is spelled incorrectly and of course, the sentence should end with a period. I think there might be something weird with the commas at the beginning of the sentence, but maybe I’m overanalyzing. I personally would have written the sentence without the first comma and added a semicolon: “Don’t worry if you aren’t in Orange County; you can also get the shoes at ….. but I’m not sure if that’s just a personal preference thing or the way it actually should have been written.
4. How She Moves, The Pursuit of Happiness, Honey, I Shrank the Kids, The 40-Year-Old Virgin
5. “I” should be “me”
6. c
7. I think “Less” should be “Fewer”
Ugh, this is HARD!!! Pam, you are a WAY bigger grammar nerd than me, haha!!!
) I hope you’re doing great — I love your blog!
March 4th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
So many mistakes, so little time…
March 4th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
ok Pam, here i go with no help of any websites or friends/family of any kind…
1. (a) should be Duchess
2. (d) both b & c
3. aren’t should have apostrophe, should be comma after Lord & Taylor, country is spelled wrong. also, because i’m not familiar with the store, i don’t know if “Bakers” shold have an apostrophe or not. and i didn’t go on Google to find out, for fear of cheating
4. How She Moves (i assume), Pursuit of Happiness, Honey, I Shrank the Kids, 40-year-old Virgin
5. circle “Jordan and I” …should be “me” when she refers to herself
6. (c)
7. should be a word between “Jessica” and “Dumped”…such as “Jessica gets dumped” or “Jessica was dumped”, etc
how’d i do???
March 4th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
1. a
2. d
3.
“Worry” should be followed by a period and “if” should be capitalized.
“Aren’t” needs an apostrophe.
There should be no comma after Orange County.
Lord & Taylor should be followed by a comma.
Country is misspelled and should be followed by a period.
4.
How She Moves
The Pursuit of Happiness
Honey, I Shrank the Kids
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
5.
I should be me.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
1 – D
2 – D
3 – Here’s how I would correct this one, although it just sucks in general.
“You need not worry if you aren’t in Orange County. You can also get the shoes at Kitson, Zappos.com, Endless.com, Bakers, Lord & Taylor, and select specialty boutiques across the country.”
4. a. How She Moves
b. The Pursuit of Happiness
c. Honey, I Shrunk the Children (kids are baby goats not people)
d. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
5 Although this statement is all sorts of wrong, the “I” should “me” because it’s in the predicate of the sentence. Today is a very joyful and special day for Jordan and me as we welcome our first son into this world.
6 – C
7 – “less” should be “fewer”
March 7th, 2010 at 2:10 am
Hi, hon . . . it wouldn’t let me finish! 1) A, 2) D, 3) Don’t worry; if you aren’t . . . country, 4) How She Moves, The Pursuit of Happiness, Honey (looks okay), 40-Year-Old Virgin, 5) Jordan and me, 6) heart rending, 7) was dumped
March 29th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
So did I win???
March 30th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Nope, you lost by 1/3 of a point! But you can borrow my grammar devotional if you want!
June 7th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
so who did win?!