Adult ESL/ELL Intermediate Quiz: Editing For Grammar And Word Choice
10 questions · exam conditions
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Editing For Grammar And Word ChoiceQuestion 1 of 10

A student wrote the following sentence in an essay: 'The number of students who speaks English as a second language have increased significantly over the past decade.' Which revision correctly addresses the subject-verb agreement errors in this sentence?

Change 'speaks' to 'speak' and change 'have increased' to 'has increased,' because 'number' is the subject of the main clause and 'who' refers to 'students' in the relative clause
Change 'speaks' to 'speak' and leave 'have increased' as is, because both verbs must agree with the plural noun 'students,' which is the true subject of the entire sentence
Leave 'speaks' as is because it agrees with the relative pronoun 'who,' and change 'have increased' to 'has increased' so it agrees with 'who' as well
Leave both verbs as is, because 'students' is plural and controls all verbs in the sentence, making 'speaks' and 'have increased' both correct as they stand
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Adult ESL/ELL Intermediate Quiz

Adult ESL/ELL Intermediate Quiz: Editing For Grammar And Word Choice

Practice Editing For Grammar And Word Choice in Adult ESL/ELL Intermediate with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Editing For Grammar And Word Choice, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Adult ESL/ELL Intermediate.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

A student wrote the following sentence in an essay: 'The number of students who speaks English as a second language have increased significantly over the past decade.' Which revision correctly addresses the subject-verb agreement errors in this sentence?

  1. Change 'speaks' to 'speak' and change 'have increased' to 'has increased,' because 'number' is the subject of the main clause and 'who' refers to 'students' in the relative clause (correct answer)
  2. Change 'speaks' to 'speak' and leave 'have increased' as is, because both verbs must agree with the plural noun 'students,' which is the true subject of the entire sentence
  3. Leave 'speaks' as is because it agrees with the relative pronoun 'who,' and change 'have increased' to 'has increased' so it agrees with 'who' as well
  4. Leave both verbs as is, because 'students' is plural and controls all verbs in the sentence, making 'speaks' and 'have increased' both correct as they stand
Explanation: When a sentence contains both a relative clause and a main clause, you need to identify the subject of each clause separately — they can be different, and each verb must agree with its own subject. In this sentence, there are two clauses to analyze. The relative clause is "who speaks English as a second language." The pronoun who refers back to students (plural), so the verb must be speak, not speaks. Then the main clause is "The number of students... have increased." Here, the true subject is the number — a singular noun phrase — not students. Because number is singular, the correct verb is has increased, not have increased. Answer A makes both of these corrections and is right for exactly these reasons. Answer B correctly fixes speaks to speak, but it leaves have increased unchanged on the false assumption that students controls the main verb. It doesn't — students is part of a prepositional phrase (of students) modifying number, so it cannot be the main subject. Answer C incorrectly keeps speaks as-is, claiming it agrees with who — but who stands in for students (plural), so the verb still needs to be speak. Answer D is entirely wrong; leaving both verbs unchanged means keeping two agreement errors, and the reasoning that students controls all verbs in the sentence misunderstands how subjects and prepositional phrases work. A useful tip: watch for the phrase the number of [plural noun]. It always takes a singular verb. Compare: the number of students has grown vs. a number of students have arrived — the article changes everything!

Question 2

Every morning, Rosa makes herself a cup of coffee and then she sits on the porch to read the newspaper. She enjoy this quite routine before her children wake up and the house becomes loud.

Which of the following identifies and corrects ALL errors in the passage?

  1. Change 'enjoy' to 'enjoys' and change 'quite' to 'quiet,' but also remove 'herself' because reflexive pronouns cannot follow the verb 'make' in standard English
  2. Change 'enjoy' to 'enjoys' and leave 'quite' as is, because 'quite' is an adjective meaning 'very' that correctly modifies the noun 'routine' in informal usage
  3. Leave 'enjoy' as is because the sentence describes a general habit, and change 'quite' to 'quiet' to fix the word-choice error between these two commonly confused words
  4. Change 'enjoy' to 'enjoys' and change 'quite' to 'quiet,' because 'enjoy' must agree with the singular subject 'She' and 'quite' is an adverb that cannot modify the noun 'routine' (correct answer)
Explanation: When editing a passage, you need to identify every error — not just one. Here, two separate problems appear: a subject-verb agreement error and a word-choice error involving commonly confused words. The subject of the second sentence is "She," which is a singular third-person pronoun. In simple present tense, singular third-person subjects require a verb ending in -s or -es, so "enjoy" must become "enjoys." Separately, "quite" and "quiet" are frequently confused because they look similar, but they mean very different things. "Quite" is an adverb meaning "fairly" or "very" — it modifies adjectives or other adverbs, not nouns. "Quiet" is an adjective meaning "calm" or "not loud," and here it correctly describes the noun "routine." The passage needs "quiet routine," not "quite routine." Answer D correctly identifies both fixes and explains the grammar rule behind each one. Answer A is wrong because it includes a false rule — reflexive pronouns like "herself" are perfectly acceptable after "make" when someone is doing something for their own benefit (e.g., "She made herself a sandwich"). That's a standard English construction, not an error. Answer B is wrong because it claims "quite" can function as an adjective modifying "routine." It cannot — "quite" is always an adverb, and leaving it in place keeps the word-choice error uncorrected. Answer C is wrong because it leaves "enjoy" unchanged. A habit or routine described in simple present tense still requires subject-verb agreement — general habits don't exempt a verb from this rule. Study tip: When a question asks you to find all errors, check each sentence for multiple issues — don't stop after finding one mistake.

Question 3

A student wrote: 'My professor suggested me to rewrite the conclusion, but I didn't had enough time before the deadline.' Which revision correctly fixes ALL grammatical errors without changing the intended meaning?

  1. Change 'suggested me to rewrite' to 'suggested to me to rewrite' and change 'didn't had' to 'didn't have,' adding an indirect object marker and fixing the auxiliary verb
  2. Change 'suggested me to rewrite' to 'suggested me rewriting' and change 'didn't had' to 'didn't have,' using a gerund after 'suggest' and fixing the auxiliary verb error
  3. Change 'suggested me to rewrite' to 'suggested that I rewrite' and change 'didn't had' to 'hadn't had,' because the past perfect is required when one past action precedes another
  4. Change 'suggested me to rewrite' to 'suggested that I rewrite' and change 'didn't had' to 'didn't have,' correcting the verb pattern after 'suggest' and the double past tense error (correct answer)
Explanation: When editing a sentence, you need to identify every error before choosing a revision — missing even one mistake means the "fix" is incomplete. This sentence contains two distinct problems: a wrong verb pattern after suggest, and a double past tense error. The verb suggest in English cannot take a direct object followed by an infinitive. You cannot say "suggested me to rewrite" — that pattern works with verbs like tell, ask, or advise, not suggest. The correct structure is the that-clause: "suggested that I rewrite." Notice that rewrite stays in its base form here, which is standard in formal English after verbs of suggestion. The second error, "didn't had," combines two past tense markers — didn't already signals the past, so the main verb must return to its base form: "didn't have." Answer D applies both corrections cleanly and preserves the original meaning, making it the right choice. Answer A changes "suggested me to rewrite" to "suggested to me to rewrite," which still isn't grammatically natural in English and doesn't fix the core structural problem with suggest. Answer B uses "suggested me rewriting" — a gerund after suggest can work (I suggest rewriting), but you still cannot place "me" as an object before it in this way. The structure remains awkward and non-standard. Answer C correctly fixes the suggest pattern, but changes "didn't have" to "hadn't had" (past perfect). Past perfect requires one past action to clearly precede another in a dependent clause — that's not established here, so the simple past is sufficient. Study tip: Memorize that suggest, recommend, and propose use a that-clause (e.g., "suggested that I..."), never a direct object + infinitive. This pattern appears frequently on grammar exams.

Question 4

A student wrote this sentence in a formal essay: 'Despite she studied all night, Maria could not remember the information during the exam.' Which revision correctly fixes the grammatical error while maintaining a formal tone?

  1. Change 'Despite she studied' to 'Despite the fact she studied,' adding 'the fact' to make the clause grammatically acceptable after 'despite'
  2. Change 'Despite she studied' to 'Despite studied all night,' removing the subject pronoun so the verb can directly follow 'despite'
  3. Change 'Despite she studied' to 'Although she studied,' because 'despite' must be followed by a noun phrase or gerund, not a subject-verb clause (correct answer)
  4. Change 'Despite she studied' to 'Despite of studying,' adding the preposition 'of' to complete the prepositional phrase begun by 'despite'
Explanation: When you see a question about connecting two ideas — one contrasting or conceding with the other — you need to think carefully about what grammatical structure each connecting word requires. This is exactly what's being tested here. The key rule is that "despite" is a preposition, not a conjunction. That means it must be followed by a noun phrase or gerund (an -ing verb acting as a noun), never by a full subject-verb clause. So saying "despite she studied" is grammatically incorrect because "she studied" is a clause, not a noun phrase. The natural fix is to swap "despite" for the subordinating conjunction "although," which is specifically designed to introduce a subject-verb clause. "Although she studied all night" is grammatically perfect and maintains the formal tone required. That makes C the correct answer. Looking at the wrong choices: A suggests "despite the fact she studied," but this still doesn't fully work — proper usage requires "despite the fact that she studied," and even then, many style guides discourage this wordy construction in formal writing. It doesn't cleanly solve the problem. B proposes removing the subject to get "despite studied all night," but a bare verb cannot follow a preposition — you'd need the gerund form: "despite studying all night." This option is simply ungrammatical. D suggests "despite of studying," which is a common error influenced by phrases like "because of," but "despite" never takes "of" — this construction doesn't exist in standard English. A handy tip: remember "despite" = noun/gerund (e.g., despite the rain, despite studying), while "although/even though" = full clause (e.g., although it rained). Keeping this distinction clear will help you on many grammar questions.

Question 5

Learning a new language requires patients and dedication. Many students give up to soon because they except their progress to be faster. However, with consistent practice, improvement is inevitable.

This paragraph contains three word-choice errors involving commonly confused words. Which answer correctly identifies and replaces all three?

  1. Change 'patients' to 'patience,' change 'give up to soon' to 'give up too soon,' and change 'except' to 'accept,' confusing two verbs that both relate to receiving or excluding something
  2. Change 'patients' to 'patience,' change 'to' to 'too,' and change 'except' to 'expect,' correcting three homophone or near-homophone errors that affect meaning (correct answer)
  3. Change 'patients' to 'patience,' change 'to' to 'too,' and change 'except' to 'accept,' because 'accept' means to receive something, which fits the idea of receiving faster progress
  4. Leave 'patients' as is because it can mean those who are patient, change 'to' to 'too,' and change 'except' to 'expect,' since 'expect' means to anticipate something
Explanation: When a passage contains multiple word-choice errors, your job is to identify each error and replace it with the word that fits the sentence's meaning — not just something that sounds similar. In this passage, "patients" refers to people in medical care, but the sentence needs "patience," meaning the ability to wait calmly. The phrase "give up to soon" misuses "to" (a preposition or infinitive marker) where "too" (meaning "excessively" or "also") is required. Finally, "except" means to exclude, but the sentence is saying students anticipate faster progress — so "expect" is the correct replacement. All three are classic homophone or near-homophone traps, where words sound alike but carry completely different meanings. Answer B correctly identifies and fixes all three errors. Answer A gets "patients" and "to/too" right but replaces "except" with "accept," meaning to receive something willingly. "Accept their progress to be faster" doesn't make logical sense in context — students aren't receiving progress, they're anticipating it. Answer C makes the same "accept" mistake as A. The explanation even tries to justify it by saying accepting means "receiving faster progress," but that misreads the sentence's logic entirely. Answer D suggests leaving "patients" unchanged because it could refer to patient people. While creative, this reasoning doesn't hold — the sentence is about learning a language, and "patients" in that context is simply wrong without a supporting medical context. A useful study tip: when you spot a suspicious word, ask yourself what does this sentence actually mean? Then test each similar-sounding word to see which one fits that meaning precisely.

Question 6

At the meeting yesterday, the manager told the employees that they must to finish the report by Friday. She also reminded us that whoever submits their work late will loose points from their final evaluation score.

A colleague asks you to proofread this workplace memo. Which revision correctly fixes ALL errors in the passage?

  1. Remove 'to' after 'must' to form the correct modal verb phrase, and change 'whoever' to 'whomever' because it is the object of the verb 'submits' in the subordinate clause
  2. Remove 'to' after 'must' to form the correct modal verb phrase, and change 'loose' to 'lose' to correct the commonly confused word-choice error (correct answer)
  3. Leave 'must to finish' as is because 'must to' is an acceptable formal variant, and change 'loose' to 'lose' to correct the word-choice error between the adjective and the verb
  4. Remove 'to' after 'must,' change 'loose' to 'lose,' and change 'whoever' to 'whomever' to correct the modal verb, the word-choice error, and the pronoun case error simultaneously
Explanation: When proofreading workplace writing, your job is to identify every real error — and just as importantly, avoid "correcting" things that aren't actually wrong. This question tests three separate grammar concepts at once: modal verbs, commonly confused words, and pronoun case. Let's start with the clear errors. "Must to finish" is grammatically incorrect. Modal verbs like must, can, should, and will are always followed directly by the base form of a verb — never by to. The correct form is simply "must finish." The second error is "loose" used where lose is needed. Loose is an adjective meaning not tight; lose is a verb meaning to fail to keep something. These are frequently confused, and swapping them is a classic word-choice error. That makes B the correct answer — it fixes both real errors cleanly. A is wrong because it claims "whoever" should be changed to "whomever." This is actually a trap. Whoever is the subject of the verb submits in the clause "whoever submits their work late," so the subject case (whoever) is correct. Changing it to whomever would introduce a new error. C is wrong for two reasons: "must to" is never acceptable in standard English, and leaving it unchanged means a real error goes unfixed. D makes the same mistake as A — it "corrects" whoever to whomever unnecessarily. Even though it fixes the other two real errors, adding a false correction means it does not fix all errors accurately. A good proofreader fixes real mistakes without manufacturing new ones — always verify that a proposed change is actually necessary before making it.

Question 7

My sister and I goes to the community center every Tuesday. We take an English class there, and the teacher always give us helpful feedback on our writing. Last week, she told us that we need to practice more careful.

Which of the following corrects ALL the grammar errors in the passage above?

  1. Change 'goes' to 'go,' change 'give' to 'gives,' and change 'careful' to 'carefully' (correct answer)
  2. Change 'goes' to 'go,' change 'give' to 'gives,' and leave 'careful' as is because it modifies the noun 'practice'
  3. Change 'goes' to 'go,' leave 'give' as is because 'the teacher' is singular, and change 'careful' to 'carefully'
  4. Leave 'goes' as is because 'My sister and I' can take a singular verb, change 'give' to 'gives,' and change 'careful' to 'carefully'
Explanation: When a question asks you to find all grammar errors in a passage, slow down and check each verb and modifier carefully — missing even one error means the answer is wrong. This passage has three errors. First, "My sister and I" is a plural subject (two people), so it needs the plural verb "go," not "goes." Second, "the teacher" is a singular subject, so the verb must be "gives," not "give" — always match the verb to its own subject, not to a nearby word like "us." Third, "careful" is an adjective, but here it describes how they practice — it modifies the verb "practice," which means you need the adverb form: "carefully." Answer A corrects all three errors — changing "goes" to "go," "give" to "gives," and "careful" to "carefully" — making it the right choice. Answer B gets the first two fixes right but claims "careful" modifies the noun "practice." That's the trap: "practice" is being used as a verb here ("we need to practice"), not a noun. Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, so "carefully" is required. Answer C correctly fixes "goes" and "careful" but leaves "give" unchanged, claiming "the teacher" is singular — which is true, but that's exactly why "give" must change to "gives." The singular subject needs the singular verb form. Answer D incorrectly leaves "goes" unchanged, claiming "My sister and I" can take a singular verb. It cannot — two subjects joined by "and" always form a plural. A quick tip: when checking subject-verb agreement, find the true subject of each verb separately, and ignore any phrases in between.

Question 8

When I first moved to this country, everything was very differently for me. I had to learn not only a new language, but also new customs. Adapting was hard, but eventually I become more comfortable with my new life.

Which sentence in the passage contains a word-choice error that changes the intended meaning, and what is the correct revision?

  1. The first sentence contains an error; 'differently' should be changed to 'different' because it follows the linking verb 'was' and describes the subject 'everything' (correct answer)
  2. The second sentence contains an error; 'not only' should be changed to 'both' to form a correct parallel structure with 'but also'
  3. The third sentence contains an error; 'become' should be changed to 'became' because only a verb tense error is present, not a word-choice error involving two different words
  4. The first sentence contains an error; 'very' should be removed because adverbs cannot appear before adjectives in English
Explanation: When a sentence uses a linking verb like is, was, seems, or feels, the word that follows it describes the subject — which means you need an adjective, not an adverb. Adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Keeping this distinction clear is exactly what this question tests. In the first sentence, "everything was very differently," the verb was is a linking verb connecting everything to its description. Since everything is a noun (the subject), you need the adjective different — not the adverb differently. Saying "everything was differently" is like saying "the soup tastes badly" instead of "the soup tastes bad." Answer A correctly identifies this as a word-choice error, because differently and different are two distinct words with different grammatical roles — swapping them changes the grammatical meaning entirely. Answer B is tempting if you know grammar rules, but "not only...but also" is actually a correct correlative conjunction pair — no error exists there. Answer C correctly spots that become should be became, but then mislabels it: a verb tense error IS a word-choice error when two different word forms are involved (become vs. became). However, the question asks which sentence changes the intended meaning most — and the adverb/adjective confusion in sentence one is the clearest example of that. Answer D is simply false; adverbs can and regularly do appear before adjectives in English (e.g., "very happy"). Your study tip: whenever you see a linking verb, pause and ask yourself — does the word after it describe a noun or modify a verb? If it describes a noun, you need an adjective.

Question 9

The new policy will effect all employees who work overtime. Workers should of received a notice in the mail explaining the changes. Anyone with questions are welcome to contact the HR department directly.

This workplace memo contains three errors. Which answer correctly identifies and fixes all three?

  1. Leave 'effect' as is because it is a verb meaning 'to bring about change,' change 'should of' to 'should have,' and change 'are welcome' to 'is welcome'
  2. Change 'effect' to 'affect,' change 'should of' to 'should have,' and leave 'are welcome' as is because 'questions' makes the subject plural in meaning
  3. Change 'effect' to 'affect,' change 'should of' to 'should have,' and change 'are welcome' to 'is welcome' to correct the verb form, the modal verb phrase, and the subject-verb agreement (correct answer)
  4. Change 'effect' to 'affect,' leave 'should of' as is because it reflects natural spoken English, and change 'are welcome' to 'is welcome'
Explanation: When a workplace document contains multiple grammar errors, your job is to identify each one independently — don't let fixing one distract you from examining the others carefully. The passage has three distinct problems. First, "effect" is used incorrectly here. As a verb, effect means "to bring about" (as in "to effect change"), but that's rare. The far more common verb is affect, meaning "to impact or influence." Since the sentence means the policy will influence employees, "affect" is correct. Second, "should of" is never grammatically correct — it's a spelling mistake caused by how "should have" sounds in casual speech. The contraction "should've" sounds like "should of," but the correct written form is always "should have." Third, "anyone with questions are welcome" has a subject-verb agreement error. The subject is "anyone," which is an indefinite pronoun that always takes a singular verb, making "is welcome" the correct form. Answer C correctly identifies and fixes all three issues — the verb choice (affect), the modal phrase (should have), and the subject-verb agreement (is welcome) — making it the right answer. Answer A wrongly keeps "effect" as a verb in this context. While "to effect change" exists, it doesn't fit the sentence's meaning, and the fix isn't applied to "should of." Answer B correctly fixes two errors but leaves "are welcome" unchanged, incorrectly reasoning that "questions" makes the subject plural — it doesn't, because "anyone" is the subject. Answer D correctly changes "effect" and "are welcome" but wrongly accepts "should of" as valid just because it reflects spoken English — spoken habits don't make written errors acceptable. Tip: Memorize this trio: affect (verb) vs. effect (noun), "should have" never "should of," and indefinite pronouns like anyone/everyone/nobody always take singular verbs.

Question 10

Dear Hiring Manager, I am writing to apply for the cashier position at your store. I have worked in customer service since three years, and I am very good in working with people. I believe I would be a great addition to your team.

A student is editing this cover letter and finds two word-choice errors involving prepositions. Which revision correctly fixes BOTH errors?

  1. Change 'since three years' to 'for three years' and change 'good in working' to 'good at working' (correct answer)
  2. Change 'since three years' to 'for three years' and change 'good in working' to 'good with working'
  3. Change 'since three years' to 'during three years' and change 'good in working' to 'good at working'
  4. Change 'since three years' to 'from three years' and change 'good in working' to 'good at working'
Explanation: Prepositions are small words, but they must be paired correctly with certain time expressions and adjectives — this question tests two of those fixed pairings at once. For time expressions, English uses "for" with a length of time (a duration) and "since" with a specific point in time when something started. "Three years" is a duration, not a starting point, so "since three years" is incorrect. The correct fix is "for three years" — meaning the experience lasted that long. Think: for + a span, since + a moment ("since 2020," "since Tuesday"). For the adjective "good," English uses the fixed phrase "good at" when describing a skill or activity. This is simply a collocational rule — certain adjectives lock onto certain prepositions. "Good in" and "good with" are both common learner errors, but neither is standard when followed by a gerund (an -ing verb acting as a noun) like "working." That makes A the correct answer — it fixes both errors accurately. B is wrong because "good with working" is not a standard English phrase; "with" is used for tools or people (e.g., "good with computers"), not for activities. C is wrong because "during three years" implies a specific known period, not a general duration, and it sounds unnatural in this context. D is wrong because "from three years" is not grammatically correct for expressing duration in English at all. A helpful tip: memorize these as fixed phrases — "for + duration," "since + point in time," and "good at + skill/activity." These combinations appear frequently in grammar and editing questions.