Spelling Test Questions and Answers

Answer: A

It is efficient.

Two f's, from the Latin ex and facere, to make. The other three misspell treatment, betterment and employed.

Answer: A

It is foreign.

The g is silent and was added by scribes on the model of reign and sovereign; the word itself comes from the Latin foris, out of doors.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Restaurant

The correct spelling is restaurant - note the order au, and the middle syllable that is barely pronounced in English. The word is French and comes from restaurer, to restore - a restaurant being originally a restorative broth, and only later the place that served it. Seeing restaur- from restore settles the vowels: restaur-ant. The common errors both involve moving letters rather than losing them: restaraunt transposes the au, and resturant drops the a altogether, following the compressed English pronunciation. The person who keeps one is a restaurateur - and note that there is no n in that word, which catches out even careful writers. Other French borrowings that give similar trouble are liaison, bouquet, rendezvous and entrepreneur.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Entrepreneur

The correct spelling is entrepreneur, and the syllables run en-tre-pre-neur. It is a French borrowing, from entreprendre, to undertake - the same word that gives English enterprise. The trap is that enterprise has enter- while entrepreneur has entre-, and the familiar English word pulls the spelling the wrong way. The second common error transposes the ending to -nuer. The -eur ending is a French agent suffix, and the family it belongs to is worth knowing: chauffeur, connoisseur, amateur, masseur and restaurateur. The feminine form is entrepreneuse, and the abstract noun is entrepreneurship. Other French borrowings that keep an unanglicised spelling and give the same trouble include liaison, bureaucracy, questionnaire and rendezvous.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Nuisance

The correct spelling is nuisance - the vowels run u-i-a, and the ending is -ance. The word came into English from the Old French nuisance, from nuire, to harm, and ultimately the Latin nocere - the same root as innocuous, noxious and innocent, which means literally not harming. The ui sequence is the feature most often transposed, since English rarely uses it. It appears in fruit, juice, bruise, cruise, suit and pursuit - a small enough group to hold in mind. The choice of -ance over -ence has no rule behind it here and must be memorised, alongside maintenance, acquaintance, perseverance, appearance and resistance. In law a nuisance is a specific wrong, which is why the word appears in legal as well as ordinary English.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Colleague

The correct spelling is colleague - a double l and the ending -eague. Both features come from French. The ending -ague belongs to a small family of French borrowings: league, plague, vague, fatigue and intrigue all end with a silent ue after the g, which is there to keep the g hard. The double l comes from the Latin collega, built on com-, with, and legare, to depute - someone deputed alongside you. The word is worth keeping apart from college, which has a single e and a different ending, and from collegiate, which comes from the same root but follows the college pattern. The abstract noun is collegiality.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Privilege

The correct spelling is privilege - no d, and every vowel an e or an i in the order i-i-e. The intrusive d comes from confusion with knowledge, acknowledge and ledge, but this word has no connection with any of them. It derives from the Latin privilegium, from privus, private, and lex, law - a law affecting a single individual. Seeing lege from lex at the end fixes the spelling: privi-lege. The same leg- root gives legal, legislate and legitimate; the same priv- gives private, deprive and privacy. The related forms are privileged and underprivileged, both keeping the same letters.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Weird

The correct spelling is weird, with ei - and it is the classic exception to the rule i before e except after c, since there is no c anywhere near it. The usual mnemonic is that weird is weird enough to break the rule. The word is Old English in origin, from wyrd, meaning fate or destiny - which is the sense in which Shakespeare’s weird sisters in Macbeth are named, since they deal in fate rather than in oddity. The modern meaning of strange developed from that. The full set of common exceptions to the rule is worth memorising: weird, seize, leisure, foreign, neighbour, height, weight, their, either, neither, protein, caffeine and species. Wired is a different word altogether, the past tense of wire.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Mischievous

The correct spelling is mischievous - three syllables, with no i after the v. The error mischievious is exceptionally common and is driven by pronunciation: many speakers say the word with four syllables, stressing the second, which supplies an i the spelling does not contain. The standard pronunciation stresses the first syllable and has only three. It is built on mischief, which follows the rule i before e except after c, and the adjective simply changes -ief to -iev and adds -ous. Its close companion in error is grievous, which is likewise not grievious for the same reason. Learning the two together settles both. Compare the words that genuinely take -ious: various, curious, envious, obvious. There the i is heard, and that is the test.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Bouquet

The correct spelling is bouquet, keeping the French ou and the silent t. It comes from the French for a little wood or thicket, a diminutive of bois, and English took it whole in the eighteenth century without anglicising the spelling. The final t is not pronounced, which is why it is so often dropped in writing. A whole family of French borrowings ends in a silent -et or -ot and gives the same trouble: ballet, buffet, chalet, gourmet, sachet, ricochet, depot and debut. The word has a second sense worth knowing, since it appears in comprehension passages: the characteristic smell of a wine. Other French borrowings that keep an unexpected spelling include liaison, rendezvous, connoisseur and questionnaire.