Free Spelling and Usage Errors MCQs with Answers

1. Choose the correctly spelled word.

• A. occurence
• B. occurrence
• C. ocurrence
• D. occurrance

Explanation: Occurrence doubles both the c and the r and ends in ence, which is why it is misspelt so often. The doubling follows from the stress falling on the second syllable when the suffix is added, the same rule that gives referred and preferred. Reading the word syllable by syllable helps.

2. Choose the correct word: The medicine had a strong ____ on the patient.

• A. affect
• B. effect
• C. affects
• D. efect

Explanation: Effect is the noun meaning result, while affect is the verb meaning to influence, so the medicine affected the patient and had an effect on him. The rare noun affect is a psychological term for emotional expression and can be ignored here. Substituting the word result mentally settles most cases.

3. Choose the correct word: The hospital accepted all patients ____ those with contagious diseases.

• A. accept
• B. except
• C. expect
• D. aspect

Explanation: Except means excluding, while accept means to receive willingly, and the sentence needs the sense of leaving a group out. Expect means to anticipate and aspect means a feature or side of something. These four are confused because they sound similar in rapid speech.

4. Choose the correct word: There were ____ complications than expected.

• A. less
• B. fewer
• C. lesser
• D. little

Explanation: Fewer is used with countable nouns such as complications, while less is used with uncountable ones such as time, money or water. The distinction is widely ignored in speech but is marked in tests. Lesser means smaller in importance and is not a quantity word at all.

5. Choose the correct word: The two departments agreed to divide the funds ____ themselves.

• A. between
• B. among
• C. amongst all
• D. within

Explanation: Between is used for two parties and among for three or more, and here there are exactly two departments. Had there been five departments, among would be correct. The rule is sometimes relaxed when relationships between several pairs are meant, but tests apply the simple version.

6. Choose the correct word: The doctor's advice had a positive ____ on his recovery.

• A. affect
• B. effect
• C. affection
• D. effective

Explanation: A noun is needed after the article a and the adjective positive, and effect is the noun meaning result. Affect is the verb, affection means fondness and effective is an adjective. Identifying which part of speech the slot requires narrows the options before meaning is even considered.

7. The manager accepted the cashier's _______ for coming late.

• A. expalanation
• B. explaination
• C. explnasion
• D. explanation

Explanation: The correct spelling is explanation, which drops the i of explain, and that dropped letter is exactly what the second option restores wrongly. The other two options transpose letters. Building the word from explain plus ation and then removing the i is the reliable check.

8. Identify the sentence with no spelling error:

• A. Imtiaz invited me on a dinner party at restaurant.
• B. Imtiaz invited me on a diner party at restaurant.
• C. Imtiaz invited me on a dinner party at resturant.
• D. Imtiaz invited me on a dinnar party at restaurent.

Explanation: Only the first option spells both dinner and restaurant correctly. A diner is a person eating or a small roadside cafe, so the second option changes the meaning as well as the spelling, and restaurant keeps its silent a in the middle, which is where the other two go wrong. Note that the sentence would normally read to a dinner party at a restaurant, but the question is testing spelling alone.

9. which only one word is correctly spelt

• A. promiscous
• B. promiscuous
• C. promiscuuous
• D. promisscuous

Explanation: “Promiscuous” is the correct spelling, meaning indiscriminate or involving many casual sexual relationships. The extra or misplaced letters in the other options are spelling errors.

10. Choose the correctly written spelling from the following options?

• A. Recrudescence.
• B. Recrudascence
• C. Recrudescance
• D. Recrudescince

Explanation: The correct spelling is “recrudescence,” meaning the return or revival of something after a period of decline. The word contains “-esc-,” not “-asc-” or “-escance.”