Welcome to your English grammar, speed test.

Are you preparing for an English language test? If so, most of you will know many of the pitfalls of English grammar, but the question is .......how fast are you ???

If you are a new learner take your time to think about your answers but if you are a more advanced learner  you can give yourself an extra challenge by setting a  time limit. Start by allowing yourself 2 minutes to answer these 15 questions (that's 8 seconds per question which is the usual amount of time you should allow yourself in language tests such as the TOEIC® and TOEFL®) and then try again getting faster and faster. 

Before you start, have you every wondered about the origin of the word "grammar"?

The word grammar is derived from Greek γραμματικὴ τέχνη (grammatikē technē), which means "art of letters", from γράμμα (gramma), "letter", itself from γράφειν(graphein), "to draw, to write".

You can see the influence of this in words such as telegram, diagram, hologram and many, many more.

The first English grammar book was published in 1586 by the printer William Bollokar who wanted to show that the English language was just as structured, therefore just as important, as Latin, the main scholarly language of the time. The 18th century saw the publication of many grammar guides, in particular Samuel Johnson's A dictionary of the English Language which had a section devoted to English grammar. 

However, the standard for all modern grammar books is A Dictionary of Modern English Usage written by Henry Fowler in 1926 and it has become so influential that it is known simply as "Fowler's".  The success of this book was Fowler's direct, vigorous writing style and his opinions in which he firmly advised against convoluted sentence construction, the use of foreign words and phrases, and the use of archaisms. He opposed pedantry, ridiculed artificial grammar rules and encouraged natural English usage. He set the standard for where to place a preposition in a sentence, where the word "only" should be placed  and the rules distinguishing between which and that.

So are you ready ......GO !!!!