Merry Christmas to all! Its a bit late in the day, but I worked. :P For all my grammar nazi friends: a Christmas quiz! I found it online, but it was a PITA because all the answers were a link to another page. QUIZ Tis (or tis?) the season: A grammar quiz There are a surprising number of pitfalls to holiday writing, even if its just invitations and corporate communications. How do you spell the name of that red plant your department is hawking for charity, for example? And does the possessive form of Claus take a second s or just an apostrophe? Learn the answers to these and other pressing writing questions in this holiday-themed quiz. 1. The name of that ubiquitous red plant is __________. a. pointsetta b. poinsetta c. poinsettia d. pointsettia 2. Were planning a special dinner and gifts for employees and their guests, so we ask that you _______ by Friday. a. RSVP b. please RSVP 3. Drat! I’m already committed to two parties that evening, so Im going to have to _________ decline your invitation. a. graciously b. gratefully 4. Be careful shopping online: According to security experts, ____ the season for identity theft. a. ’tis b. t’is 5. __________________ is promoting eBooks as “instant gifts.” a. Barnes & Noble b. Barnes and Noble 6. Were planning an ___________ celebration this year. Well be dining by candlelight - and banning iPhones at the table. a. old-fashion b. old-fashioned 7. There are a lot of holidays in December, not just ______, but also Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Lunar New Year, Santa Lucia Day and sometimes Ramadan. a. Xmas b. Christmas 8. The Scottish tradition of first-footing involves being the first person to step across a friend or neighbors _______ after midnight on January 1. a. threshold b. threshhold 9. On December 24th, a lot of children can be found gazing out windows for a glimpse of _________ sleigh. a. Santa Claus b. Santa Clauss 10. After the celebrations on ____________, January 1 seems like an excellent choice for a holiday. a. New Years Eve b. New Years Eve c. New Years Eve Answers: 1. C - It was named for American statesman Joel Roberts Poinsett, who, while serving as a diplomat to Mexico, was taken by the native, winter-blooming flower, and sent cuttings back to the US, where it soon became wildly popular. 2. A - RSVP stands for repondez s’il vous plait, which translates to please reply. So if you include please here, you’re saying “please, please reply.” Unless you’re begging, one please is probably enough. 3. B - You CAN accept or decline an invitation graciously (that is, kindly and politely), but you can NOT announce that you are being gracious, because that just isnt polite. You CAN, however, express gratitude for the invitation, even as you decline it. 4. A - ‘Tis is a contraction of it is. The rule with contractions is that we put the apostrophes where the letters are missing. Which is why the contraction for you all is NOT yall - it should be yall. Get with it, yall! Having read that, this should easy: BONUS: ______ the night before Christmas. a. Twas b. Twas c. Twas C - twas is a contraction of it was. 5. A - Barnes & Noble uses the ampersand in its name, so you should, too. BONUS - More than you ever wanted to know about ampersands. The ampersand originated as a cursive version of et, Latin for and back in the first century, but it would be another 1,500 years before the word ampersand was coined. The ampersand was once the 27th letter of the alphabet, at a time when letters which could form a word by itself (such as I or A) were written as the letter + per se, which meant by itself + the letter again. So the letter I, for example, was pronounced “I per se I” or the letter I by itself stands for the word I. The symbol for and was pronounced and per se and, which was shortened to ampersand. 6. B - To fashion is to make; fashioned means made. Old-fashioned means made in the old way. Incidentally, ALWAYS use the hyphen; when two words are combined to use as an adjective, always hyphenate. 7. Both are acceptable, because they mean the same thing, historically. While some Christians are offended by what they see as an attempt to remove Christ from Christmas, the use of X to refer to Christ goes back centuries. In Greek, the word Christ was abbreviated by its first letter Chi, which resembled an X. Its resemblence to a cross was also considered quite apropos. St. Andrews Cross is an X, as he was crucified on such a cross. 8. A - According to folklore etymology, it was originally two words, thresh hold, meaning a barrier holding in the chaff flooring. A good story, but according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, thresh originally meant to tread, so a door sill was originally something to tread on as you entered a house. 9. To create the possessive of a name ending in s, do you add an apostrophe AND another s, or just add an apostrophe and be done with it? Well... it depends which stylebook you consult. Pick one and just be consistent. BONUS - Plurals of names ending in some letters need an es to become plural - s, “x”, z, “ch”, and “sh”, for example. NEVER use an apostrophe to make such a name plural; only use apostrophes for possessives. 10. A - New Year’s Eve is a possessive form; it’s the eve of the new year. And, since it can only be the eve of one year at a time, it’s singular possessive rather than plural. Hope you all enjoyed this!
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 03:58:42 +0000
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