Spelling Test Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: February

The correct spelling is February - with an r after the b, which almost nobody pronounces. The word comes from the Latin Februa, a Roman festival of purification held in the month, and the r belongs to that root. The reason it disappears in speech is dissimilation: when two r sounds fall close together, speakers tend to drop one, which is the same process that turns library into libry and governor into govnor in rapid speech. Pronouncing it deliberately as Feb-ru-ary when writing it is the surest safeguard. The ending is -ary, matching January, and both stand apart from the -ery group of cemetery, monastery and stationery. February is also the only month whose length varies, which is a separate matter but makes the word memorable.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Bureaucracy

The correct spelling is bureaucracy. The first half is the French bureau, a writing desk and then an office; the second is the Greek -cracy, rule. So it is literally rule by the desk. The difficulty is the vowel cluster eau, which English speakers frequently reorder as eau to eou or reduce to u. Holding the word bureau in mind and simply adding -cracy avoids both errors. The plural of bureau may be bureaux or bureaus, and the person is a bureaucrat. The -cracy ending is worth knowing as a family: democracy is rule by the people, aristocracy by the best, autocracy by one, meritocracy by merit, plutocracy by the wealthy and theocracy by religious authority.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Manoeuvre

The correct British spelling is manoeuvre - with the vowel sequence oeu and the ending -re. It is a French borrowing, from manoeuvre, meaning a working by hand, built on the Latin manu operari - the same manu as in manual, manuscript and manufacture, and the same operari as in operate. The American form is maneuver, which simplifies both the vowel cluster and the ending, and that spelling is the fourth option here in a half-anglicised state. Indian examinations follow British usage. The -re ending against American -er covers a large family: centre, theatre, metre, litre, fibre and calibre. The participles keep the awkward cluster: manoeuvred, manoeuvring, and the adjective manoeuvrable.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Threshold

The correct spelling is threshold, with a single h in the middle. The word looks as though it were built from thresh and hold, which is why the doubled h is so often written, but that is a false analysis. It is an Old English compound, therscold, whose second element is now obscure and is certainly not hold. It is a good example of folk etymology - the tendency to reshape an unfamiliar word into familiar parts. The same process gave crayfish from the French crevice, which has nothing to do with fish, and sparrowgrass as a dialect form of asparagus. Related compounds that do keep both letters are withhold and bookkeeper, the latter being the only common English word with three consecutive doubled letters.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Sacrilegious

The correct spelling is sacrilegious - and the vowels are i then e, the reverse of what the word religious would suggest. That is the whole difficulty. The word looks as though it were built on religious, but it is not. It comes from the Latin sacrilegus, from sacer, sacred, and legere, to gather or steal - someone who steals sacred things. Religious comes from an entirely different root, religare, to bind. So sacri-leg-ious, keeping the leg- of legere. The same root gives collect, elect, select and lecture. This is a good example of two words that appear related and are not, like island and isle, or outrage, which has nothing to do with rage. The noun is sacrilege, where the e is plainly visible.

Answer: C

It is committee.

Two m's, two t's and two e's - the most doubled word in ordinary English. From commit, whose t doubles before the suffix.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Handkerchief

The correct spelling is handkerchief - with the d that pronunciation almost entirely swallows. The word is a transparent compound once its history is seen: hand plus kerchief, a kerchief being a cloth for covering the head, from the Old French couvrechief - literally cover-head, the same chief as in the Latin caput. So a handkerchief is a head-cloth carried in the hand. Knowing that kerchief is a word in its own right settles both the d and the ending. The -ief follows the rule i before e except after c, which also governs chief, brief, thief, grief and belief. The plural is handkerchiefs, not handkerchieves - unlike thief, which does become thieves.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Questionnaire

The correct spelling is questionnaire, with a double n. The doubling is inherited straight from French, where the word is spelt the same way and where -aire is a common noun ending. English borrowed it whole in the nineteenth century and kept both letters. Dropping one n is the usual error, because the doubling makes no difference to the pronunciation. The ending -aire rather than -air or -iere is the second trap, and the family of French borrowings that share it is worth knowing: millionaire, billionaire, doctrinaire, solitaire and concessionaire. Other French words in English that keep a doubled consonant English speakers would not supply include reconnaissance, connoisseur and personnel - the last being distinct from personal in both spelling and sense.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Millennium

The correct spelling is millennium, with a double l and a double n. The reason lies in its Latin parts: mille, a thousand, gives the double l, and annus, a year, gives the double n. Knowing the derivation makes the spelling almost impossible to get wrong. The same mille appears in million, millipede and millimetre; the same annus in annual, anniversary and biennial. The plural is millennia, following the Latin neuter, though millenniums is now also accepted. Words with two separate double letters cause trouble generally, and the family is worth listing: accommodation, possession, assassination, embarrass and committee.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Chauffeur

The correct spelling is chauffeur - the cluster au, a double f, and the French ending -eur. The word is French and means literally a stoker, from chauffer, to heat - the earliest motor cars were steam-driven, and the driver’s job included tending the fire. The same root gives chafing dish. The -eur ending marks it as one of the French agent nouns English took whole, alongside amateur, entrepreneur, connoisseur, masseur, saboteur and restaurateur. Learning the group together fixes the ending in all of them. The commonest errors either simplify the double f or anglicise the ending to -er, which would give the ordinary French verb rather than the noun. The feminine form is chauffeuse, and the word is used as a verb as well: he chauffeured them to the airport.