Test your knowledge of some of the tricky pairs and groups of words that we’ve covered in previous lessons with this short quiz. For each sentence, choose the correct word or words from those in brackets. Answers and explanations can be found at the end of the quiz.

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1. [What / which] should I do to celebrate Independence Day?

2. You should still be able to get a ticket to the July 4^th [Only a few / quite a few] tickets were available when I bought mine yesterday.

3. The project we just finished was [especially / special]

4. Attending [an alive / a live] sporting event is a totally different experience than watching a game on television.

5. June [already / yet / still] hasn’t seen Wonder Woman.

6. Ricardo will be [coming / going] to visit us in Atlanta next month.

7. The charity event [raised / rose] over $100,000 to combat childhood obesity.

8. We haven’t seen Ricardo [during / while / for / since] almost two years.

9. She always sits [close / near] to the window.

10. Emily is [fairly / pretty] certain it will take at least a week to implement all of the changes that the client requested.

Answers and explanations:

1. Answer: what

Explanation: What is used to ask for general information while which is used to show that there is a choice.

2. Answer: quite a few

Explanation: Quite a few means “many,” and only a few means “not many.” Because the speaker indicates that tickets should still be available, we can assume that there are quite a few left.

3. Answer: especially

Explanation: The adverb especially means “more than.” Special is an adjective meaning “unusual or unordinary.” Because the speaker is describing the difficulty of completing the project, we need an adverb to help express this idea.

4. Answer: live

Explanation: Live is used to refer to an event that people watch as it is happening. In addition, live can go before a noun (“sporting event”) but alive cannot.

5. Answer: still

Explanation: Still conveys the idea of “up to and continuing through a particular time.” As of the time of writing this blog, June has not seen the movie. Already and yet mean “by or before now.”

6. Answer: coming

Explanation: Come expresses movement towards the speaker while go expresses movement away from the speaker. The speakers reside in Atlanta, so Ricardo is coming to visit them.

7. Answer: raised

Explanation: We need a transitive verb, such as raised, to take the object “over $100,000.” Rose, a form of rise, is intransitive and cannot take an object.

8. Answer: for

Explanation: For is used to express an amount of time (“two years”). Since is used with a specific point in time (“since 2015”). During and while both mean “through a period of time.”

9. Answer: close

Explanation: While close and near both indicate proximity, only close can be followed by “to.”

10. Answer: fairly

Explanation: Fairly and pretty can both mean “not completely.” However, pretty should not be used in business writing. Because the speaker is discussing changes requested by a client, we can assume the sentence is from a piece of business correspondence.