Are your grammar skills up to par?

Test your ability to spot and correct grammatical mistakes

Few memories are as painful to adults struggling with business writing as those of studying grammar in school. If that’s true, it’s generally because our teachers had things backward.

First we’d study a rule: Subjects must agree in number with verbs. Then we’d be asked to write or correct a sentence with an impossibly complex subject: Each of the boys (Robert, James and John)—is, are—coming to the party.

Actually, our teachers might have done better to note simply that grammar is one form of logic. There’s a grammar of sorts for any logical endeavor. The grammar of music describes harmony, rhythm and so forth. The grammar of mathematics explains why two numbers added equal a certain sum.

2. Either the principal or all the faculty members is wrong.

3. None of the reports are ready to be mailed.

4. Everyone should prepare a statement of their priorities for next year before Tuesday’s meeting.

7. John does better when he works with Harry than Bob.

8. Just between you and I, this new design is a marketing nightmare.

9. None of the books in these offices address the problem of deficits.