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English Language Trivia

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  • Which country contains the largest English-speaking population in the world?
    China
    Australia
    The United States
    India
  • A sound formed by combining two vowels in a single syllable is called a ______.
    diphthong
  • Which of the following is the longest word that appears in a play by William Shakespeare?
    incomprehensibleness
    honorificabilitudinitatibus
    sesquipedalian
    disproportionableness
  • Which of the following is generally regarded as the first genuine dictionary in English?
    An American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webst
    Glossographia by Thomas Blount
    A Table Alphabeticall by Robert Cawdrey
    Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
  • True or False? In compound nouns, the stress is usually on the second syllable
    False (it's usually on the first)
  • In approximately how many countries does the English language have official or special status?
    35
    10
    75
    50
  • True or False? From the dialects and vocabulary of Germanic peoples—Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—who settled in Britain in the 5th century
    True
  • Roughly what proportion of the world's population is competent in English?
    one in 100
    one in 10
    one in four
    one in 1000
  • Which one of the following observations applies to the word typewriter?
    It can be typed using only the top row of keys on a standard
    It's the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
    It's a palindrome
    It appeared in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English La
  • Approximately how old is the English language?
    1,100 years old
    900 years old
    1,400 years old
    1,800 years old
  • Supportive terms such as ‘oh’ and ‘really’ are examples of
    fillers
    hedging
    backchanneling
    clarifying
  • Which of the following terms refers to the substitution of a more offensive word or phrase for one considered less offensive?
    dysphemism
    euphemism
    orthophemism
    dramatism
  • What is the shortest grammatically correct sentence in English?
    Go!
  • How many diphthongs are there in English?
    6
    8
    5
    7
  • An _____ is a word derived from the proper name of a person or place.
    exonym
    eponym
    paronym
    acronym
  • What is the negative counter-part to synonymy called?
    Antonymy
  • True or False? The longest word in English is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
    True
  • Smog ← smoke + fog is an example of blending. Give another example.
    _______
  • What is the study of meaning in context?
    pragmatics
    onomastics
    phonetics
    semantics
  • What is polysemy?
    When a word form has multiple meanings that may potentially be related to one another?
  • Syntax is the study of the structure of ______.
    sentences
  • Name one process of word formation.
    compounding, affixation, blending, clipping, acronym formation
  • Now, well, you know, and like are examples of
    intensifiers
    backchanneling
    discourse markers
    slang
  • Laboratory → lab, gymnasium → gym, or influenza → flu are examples of what type of word-formation?
    affixation
    clipping
    derivation
    blending
  • Which of the following is probably the most widely used English word throughout the world?
    okay
    internet
    movie
    sex
  • Approximately how many words are added to English dictionaries each year?
    6,000
    300
    1,000
    10,000
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