Try your luck with Richard Roth’s Hundred Most Common Errors in (American) English usage.
I got a 71/100, which should tell you something. (You do have to keep your own score.)
I learned a few things I hadn’t known before (8, 20, 32, 38, 39, 85). But the biggest problem with something like this is that language is an evolving beast — some of the “errors” stem from “proper” vs. “colloquial” English (3, 34, 36, 42, 56, 67, 83, 98 for example), and that’s always dangerous. When does something become “proper”? When enough people use it that it becomes accepted by the “experts” — which means that the “error” is repeated enough to be a “truth.”
Of course, some rules, even many rules, are necessary. Some of the distinctions and errors inhibit communication, introduce confusion, and the like. But even as much as I’m a lover of grammar, it’s something you can easily carry too far.
Still, interesting stuff.
(via GoaF)
79/100
With 39, I think many people think of the media as The Media – a singular entitly even though technically it is a plural form.
Fun.
Oh, I knew 39. Not sure why I put that one in. I think I meant 40 (pier/dock/wharf).
I actually got 39 wrong 🙂
79/100
What gets me are the questions that say that you’re right, but you’re wrong. In one context, you’re right (oddly enough, they are the contexts that we use most often), but by blah-de-blah reason, you’re wrong, so you’re wrong.
I learned a few new things, too: 7, 8, 20, 34, 41, 48.
90/100. Wotta revoltin’ development this is! I shoulda done lots better.
Most of them were ridiculously easy (especially the spelling and punctuation errors), and the ones I didn’t know immediately, I usually got right without knowing why (I just picked the one I would normally say).
At least I finally beat Dave at something!