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60-second quiz

Over the past year, we’ve been running a series called 60-second fix in our monthly e-bulletin. Now it’s time to find out whether you’ve been paying attention. Challenge your colleagues to a quick round …

Which spellings are mainly only used in the UK, and therefore best avoided when you’re writing for an international audience?



Which of the following is usually only used in American English?




Which of the following describes a rounded board used by a painter?




Which of the following is used to express similarity?




In British English, there are two spellings of this word. Which one describes the legal sense?




Which of the following means ‘be patient with me’?




Which of the following means ‘carried’, in the past tense?




Which of the following means ‘free of charge’?






 

How did you get on? Full marks, we hope! Feel free to show off in the comments field below. Also, let us know if you have a quandary you’d like us to do a 60-second fix for in future.

And if you got any wrong and want to revisit the articles, here’s a handy index:

  • Spaces and units
  • Should have or should of
  • Affect and effect
  • Bear and bare
  • Compare to and compare with
  • Complimentary and complementary
  • Different from/to/than
  • Judgement or judgment
  • Lead and led
  • Palate, palette and pallet
  • Rein and reign
  • Spelt/spelled, learnt/learned and dreamt/dreamed
  • Stationary and stationery
  • Substitute for/with

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    Author: Cathy Relf

    Cathy is a certified word and editing expert, having worked as a sub-editor, editor and copywriter at, to name a few, the Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Which? and The Grocer.

    Comments

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    Posted by: Cathy Relf

    14 / 10 / 12

    60-second fix: lead and led

    Should you write: a) ‘Last autumn, I led the Pegasus project’, or b) ‘Last autumn, I lead the Pegasus project’? The answer is a). Led is the past tense and past participle of the verb to lead. The confusion arises for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the verb to read keeps the same spelling when […]

    Posted by: Cathy Relf

    14 / 08 / 12

    60-second fix: complimentary and complementary

    This is one of the trickiest homophones to remember, partly because the spellings are only one letter apart, and partly because there is no good reason for the difference (both stem from the Latin complere, meaning ‘to fill up’). Sadly, ours is not to reason why, but simply to learn the difference: to complement is […]

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