We Put Together 30 UK English Grammar Questions – Anything Above 25 Is Impressive

Which is unlikely in the world, but still legitimate in grammar.

Fenchurch

Fenchurch

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I thought the exact same thing when I got to that question!

I used to teach ESL, and the grammar does indeed differ for British and American examination boards. Although I do not think that applied to any of the questions here. Most differences (it seemed to me) involve phrasal verbs and prepositions. I did dislike going directly from a British exam class lesson directly to an American one though.

In the north of England, some of these would be "were".

I was confused by that too. Apart from using a few different words for things (trunk/boot etc) and a few simpler, more phonetical spellings (color/colour etc), I wasn't aware the actual grammar was much different.

Well in Canada, the Oxford comma is not used and would have been marked as an error.

Oxford commas can be unnecessary but they never make the grammar incorrect.

I got 25 wrong for that reason. If you are going to use an Oxford comma, it's not on a shopping list, it's to demonstrate that items are not related.

Thank you.

Oxford comma - those from Cambridge don't bother.

LakotaWolf (she/her)

LakotaWolf (she/her)

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A fronted adverbial is very specific, though, to be fair. It's when the adverb is moved to the beginning of the sentence instead of immediately following the verb ("The door opened slowly" is a sentence in regular form; "Slowly, the door opened" is the same sentence in fronted adverbial form.) It's not a sin to NOT put a comma after the fronted adverb, but it IS generally accepted as proper grammatical/technical form. I was an English major and got my degree in English/Creative Writing, so maybe I remember this stuff more clearly than others, but it's something we were taught. For clarity and technicality's sake, one should put a comma after a fronted adverbial. Otherwise, the sentence can look like a run-on sentence - "Before dawn Kohl jumped on Lakota's kidneys to wake her up" vs. "Before dawn, Kohl jumped on Lakota's kidneys to wake her up." It's a fiddly thing, but it's legitimate and is actually grammatically/technically correct to have a comma after a fronted adverb.

My English teacher (admittedly back in the 70s) used to encourage us to think of saying a sentence aloud. You will find you naturally pause in places. Those are the places for your commas. For #8, that worked for me.

If it's a rule it's obscure but not any more contorted than many other rules of grammar. I'd argue that it's much more of a style choice than an obscure rule.

Emilu

Emilu

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Yeah, I got that one wrong as well... for the same reason as you. It needs no effing comma.