Spell Check #3

Identify the misspelled word in each sentence and enter its correct spelling.

Previous "Spell Check" quizzes: #1, #2.

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Last updated: April 21, 2014

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First submitted	January 2, 2014
Times taken	21,767
Average score	50.0%
Rating	3.90

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Sentence	Correction
The audacious thieves stole the President's plane right out of its hanger.	hangar
Outwardly, I am keeping a tight rein on my grief—but inside, I am balling my eyes out.	bawling
She thought it wise to test her suitor's metal before accepting his marriage proposal.	mettle
The marvelous scents wafting from the kitchen peaked my appetite to a roar.	piqued
The princess was wearing a 16-caret gold tiara with jasper and turquoise insets.	karat
The pallbearers stared fixedly ahead as the church bells toiled for the deceased.	tolled
In my opinion, this tiff of yours is much to do about nothing—just make amends and move on.	ado
Thanks to urban sprawl, tracks of formerly useless wasteland are now worth fortunes.	tracts
After the renovations, the Jones's house has a three-car garage and a private pool.	Joneses'
What would you do differently in my straights, O fount of much criticism and little aid?	straits
The Court ruled that the General, by declaring marshal law, had exceeded his authority.	martial
I chock up my success to good upbringing, determined effort, and occasional lucky breaks.	chalk
The manor house looks like a haunted castle, with Gothic battlements and a rot-iron fence.	wrought
Practical jokes are okay if not mean-spirited, but this harassment goes beyond the pail.	pale.
Our archenemy has offered an armistice; let us cease the opportunity to make lasting peace.	seize
I miss the pistachio nugget that Grandma used to make every year at Christmas time.	nougat
A "prestidigitator" is a performer who entertains with magic tricks based on slight of hand.	sleight
Stone soup tastes even better if you add onions, parsnips, and a bullion cube to the stones.	bouillon
According to sailors' lore, their sighting of seven dolphins augers well for a successful voyage.	augurs
The troupe dressed up in stereotypical Gypsy clothing and performed flamingo dances.	flamenco

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89 Comments

Level 78

Jan 7, 2014

Why isn't Joneses' spelled Jones' ?

Level 45

Jan 7, 2014

If Jones were a single person living alone, his house would be "Jones's house". But since the Joneses are multiple people, their house is "the Joneses' house". (Notice that the singular name does not take a "the", while the plural name does.)

Level 76

Mar 23, 2014

If you are showing possession then Jones's house is acceptable. But if you are just using the plural form of Jones, then Joneses would be correct. But I've never seen Joneses' used to show possession. For example you could say Presidents' terms of office if you are referring to terms served by more than one President. I would never say the Presidentses'. That's like saying the Presidentseses. BTW spell check indicated errors on both of these but not on Presidents'.

+10

Level 45

Mar 23, 2014

Shiloh376: of course you would never say «Presidentses'». «President» is singular, «Presidents» is plural, and «Presidents'» is the plural possessive.

In Jones's case, «Jones» is singular, «Joneses» is plural, and «Joneses'» is the plural possessive.

Level 59

Mar 24, 2014

A+, ThirdParty.

Level 77

Apr 26, 2015

"If Jones were a single person living alone, his house would be 'Jones's house'". No it wouldn't it would be Jones' house. You never have s apostrophe s.

Level 70

Sep 22, 2015

@WT2008: Yes, you can have s apostrophe s. That is the traditional way of forming possessives of words ending in s. There has been a trend in recent years to simplify grammar/spelling/pronunciation by allowing the last s to not be used, but it is correct to use s apostrophe s. I have over 20 years of experience as an editor, so I do know what I'm talking about.

HelenO: Joneses' is correct for the plural possessive of the name Jones. Jones's is singular possessive; Joneses is plural; Joneses' is plural possessive (& as in the example above, Joneses's is the traditional way to spell the plural possessive of the name Jones).

I agree w/irish41...ThirdParty gets an A+!

Level 75

Feb 3, 2016

The whole sentence is very misleading, it scans terribly - surely it should either be 'Since the renovations....' or '... house had a...'

Level 71

Sep 21, 2016

But can't it be "the Jones's house" as a house belonging to a single person called Jones? Nothing in this sentence indicates that it belongs to the family called Jones.

Level 79

Aug 22, 2023

No, because there's a 'the' in front of it. You wouldn't use 'the' in front of the singular as ThirdParty highlighted in their original reply.

Level 74

Sep 21, 2016

The Donald is not singular then?

Level 51

Sep 23, 2016

It could also be Jones' house. English words ending in s can have the apostrophe alone to denote possession, as "in Jesus' name"

Also, marvellous has 2 ls!

Level 78

Feb 11, 2018

@sf49ers - But if it were a lone Jones living there, then it would be "Jones's house," not "the Jones's house. Unless we're talking about THE Jones...

Level 71

Feb 13, 2020

Well, not so sure about this, I am simply going to have to go away and read up on global usage of English. I wrote Jones' I can imagine this to be so common a usage as to be an acceptable alternative to Joneses' . But then there is a case for using no apostrophe at all in the case: let's imagine that it was Jones and not Suzuki who had developed a system for teaching violin, then it would be the Jones method, not the Jones' or the Joneses' method (if it had been a team of people named Jones). Thus the Jones house .

Level 79

Aug 27, 2023

I think there is indeed a case for not using an apostrophe at all. The Jones house, Smith mansion, Brady cabin, etc. People certainly use expressions like those, but the clue is clearly getting at the correct use of the possessive. It's asking for Suzuki's method, even if nobody calls it that.

Level 77

Nov 30, 2015

it wouldn't be a mistake if the actual surname is Jone?

Level 65

Dec 15, 2015

Lol, nice point. The correction would be Jones's to Jone's.

Level 77

Mar 31, 2021

No, Jone would be the singular, the Jones the plural, and the Jones's plural possessive. I was going to make that same suggestion, but scambigol beat me to it... five years earlier.

Level 63

Oct 24, 2022

And one more year later I'll point out it'd still be Jones', not Jones's. Adding the S when a word already ends in S, Z or X is incorrect and confusing.

Level 79

Aug 22, 2023

It is not incorrect. Although some people may not like it, it's certainly not wrong to use an apostrophe and an S after a word that ends in S. Have never heard that argument for X or Z. Also not sure how it's confusing at all, if anything it seems including the additional S would make things more clear, although maybe less appealing to the eye.

Level 69

Jul 18, 2016

such controversy ;_;

Level 89

Oct 25, 2018

The Jones is something Cheech and Chong had when they were out of refreshments.

+14

Level 14

Jan 27, 2014

I actually thought pistachio nuggets were a real thing. The idea of "nougat" never once dawned on me.

Level 59

Mar 24, 2014

Haha me neither!

Level 65

Mar 24, 2014

I agree, this one wasn't obvious.

Level 57

Mar 25, 2014

Same here.

Level 83

Jul 16, 2014

Ditto.

Level 68

Jan 26, 2017

Instantly obvious to me. Thanks to watching Australian MasterChef.

Level 72

Oct 7, 2019

Yea this one and rot-iron had me thinking whatever could they be looking for? in this case it dawned on me, (though still found it a little weird) but the rot-iron one, nah

Level 71

Feb 13, 2020

I've asked this before: am I the only English speaker who spells "pistacchio" in the Italian way, and gives it the correct Italian pronunciation? Oh QM I had a comment above on "Joneses'" as well incidentally, didn't flag it.

Level 59

Feb 25, 2021

me, too. It finally hit me at the end, but I had no idea that nugget was referring to nougat.

Level 67

Aug 12, 2022

The problem with this is normally in English, "nougat" is pronounced "new-gar".

Does the USA pronounce it new-gat?

Level 77

Dec 14, 2022

As an American, I have always said "new-git". I have never heard of and never would have thought it would be pronounced "new-gar".

Level 65

Feb 26, 2014

The correction of "to do" to "ado" is a usage issue NOT a spelling correction as the words "to" and "do" are obviously spelled correctly.

Level 41

Mar 6, 2014

Yeah I noticed that too. It's not really a spell check quiz as much as it is proper word usage. Most of the 'misspelled' words are just homophones of the correct word.

Level 91

Mar 21, 2014

Not necessarily homophones, just instances where people will tend not to notice their mistaken usages as a result of the error not being caught by spellcheck.

Level 72

Oct 7, 2019

so all the other words in this quiz are spelled incorrectly??really? huh, I was sure that was how you wrote hanger and metal (etc), guess you learn things everyday..

Level 92

Feb 26, 2014

I was about to call shenanigans on seize... until I realized I'd misspelled the spelling correction as sieze. Seriously, whatever happened to i before e?

+11

Level 71

Feb 26, 2014

"i" before "e"...unless you seize the opportunity to run a feisty heist on your weird beige foreign neighbor.

Level 65

Mar 1, 2014

Good job, Einstein!

Level 91

Mar 21, 2014

Your neighbor is actually covered by the exception noted in the rule (when sounded like A, as in neighbor and weigh). However, if your neighbor happens to be Deirdra, Keira, or Neil, be sure to measure their height, protein level, and caffeine level. And watch out for the rottweiller, who has a counterfeit seismograph and practices atheism, but only in foreign countries, where the sovereign has reinstituted his own deity, following the general zeitgeist.

Level 45

Aug 6, 2014

tschutzer, I love it. Thanks for making me laugh.

Level 89

Sep 24, 2018

Time to rein you in.

Level 75

Oct 26, 2021

In your example tschutzer "countries" follows the i before e rule - it's not completely useless :p

Level 70

Jul 8, 2016

It's "i" before "e" except after "c," or when sounding like "ay" as in Neighbor and Weigh. ...and on weekends, and holidays, and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong, no matter WHAT you say.

Level 56

Mar 23, 2014

Thanks I enjoyed this!

Level 32

Mar 23, 2014

I would love to watch Gypsies perform flamingo dances.

Level 74

Sep 21, 2016

I would also love to see flamingos performing Romani dances.

Level 20

Mar 26, 2014

You have bastardized the English language!!

Level 74

Nov 17, 2014

No fair putting in a question that requires an apostrophe, because JetPunk ignores apostrophes (and hyphens and a whole host of other necessary punctuation).

Level 79

Jun 3, 2021

The apostrophe doesn't matter for the answer, what you need to get is the plural of Jones: Joneses.

Level 45

Apr 1, 2016

I'm saving that line about much criticism and little aid for a special occasion.

Level 33

May 2, 2016

I love these quizzes and I've taken all three now. My only suggestion would be to add more time. I don't even get to the last four or five sentences before time runs out.

Level 72

Oct 7, 2019

this one does seem to be a lot shorter in time than the other ones

Level 44

Jul 8, 2016

It might be because I'm not a native English speaker but for me the difficult part in some of these sentences isn't identifying the wrong word or spelling the right word correctly but simply figuring out what the hell the sentence was supposed to be in the first place. Like how does someone get from "nougat" to "nugget" and what does "suitor's mettle" even mean??

Level 82

Jul 13, 2016

I was kinda just assuming that a pistachio nugget was some American thing I've not encountered, so that sentence completely mystified me. As others have said, it's a rather large leap from nugget nougat, though perhaps the pistachios should have given it away.

Level 72

Oct 7, 2019

yup it becomes more like what else starts with an n and is edible

Level 76

Sep 21, 2016

Enjoyed the witty strap-line!

Level 74

Sep 21, 2016

Boullion, boulion, boullon, bah! I never could spell that word.

Level 56

Sep 21, 2016

I find it slightly unfair as to me rot and wrought don't really sound the same and nougat and nugget sound nothing alike, so it's difficult to guess what you were going for. Also, the "to do/ado" one wasn't a spelling mistake, it was just a word that fit better.

Level 39

Sep 21, 2016

This was one of the more interesting spelling quizzes I've done for a while. Nice work!

Level 43

Sep 21, 2016

Enjoyed the quiz. I would vote for another minute... If others aren't in agreement with me, maybe I just gotta start reading faster!

Level 48

Oct 12, 2018

i am with you... working out what the hell he is saying takes time

Level 57

Sep 22, 2016

Marvellous has 2 L's

Level 67

Sep 23, 2016

Agreed. Double l in marvellous in the UK - perhaps select a synonym if you wish to remain UK/US spelling neutral.

Level 56

Sep 28, 2016

Much to do about nothing is not a misspelling, it's a misquote. Both "to" and "do" are spelled correctly.

Level 58

Oct 23, 2016

Like others, not at all happy about the Jones question. We have friends called Jones - we just call them the Jones. We wouldn't dream of saying the Joneses.

Level 68

Jan 26, 2017

You're not from NZ then. Here just about everyone uses nicknames and changes words. Mr Jones would be Jonesey.

Level 89

Sep 24, 2018

The Joneseys's

Level 79

Aug 22, 2023

Regardless of what you call your friends, the plural is Joneses

Level 66

Nov 9, 2017

I don't think it would improve the taste, but stone soup would sure become a lot more expensive if you added bullion to it!

Level 34

Jun 26, 2018

...what is stone soup?...

Level 89

Sep 24, 2018

It's something you can find in Mountain View, California, USA right by the giant Google logo.

Level 15

Jan 14, 2018

3:19 to spare GG

Level 62

Jul 5, 2018

i am way too dumb for this

Level 78

Nov 25, 2018

As a native speaker of English (as distinct from American, which seems at times to be a different language) I spotted two spelling mistakes in the fourth question. Marvellous is not spelled with a single "l". Also, to weigh in rather late on the Jones debate - the answer is Jones' (usually pronounced "joaneses") - I'd have definitely been marked down by my English teacher had I suggested Joneses', which you'd have to pronounce "joanseses"!

Level 41

Jan 3, 2019

When a word ends in 's', an apostrophe without an extra 's' is generally used just with mythological or archaic names, like Jesus' or Zeus', and sometimes not even then.

Level 59

Feb 25, 2021

I'm an American and I agree on Jones'. I have always heard that either Joneses or Jones' is acceptable when referring to possessive.

Marvelous, however, does have one l - here in the states, anyway.

Level 79

Aug 27, 2023

The answer is not Jones' as discussed at length above, and it's not really a debate, it's confusion about how the correct answer is correct. You have to make the family name plural even though it ends in an 's' as a singular. "Keeping up with the Joneses," not "with the Jones," just like it would be incorrect (and make no sense) to say "with the Smith." You have to make the name plural, "with the Smiths." The pronunciation is indeed clunky, but I doubt most people would say the final 's,' Shame your teacher would've marked you down, because it's the right answer!

Level 57

Mar 27, 2019

Jones is a name not a word.

Level 79

Aug 22, 2023

seems like all names are all also words, being proper nouns

Level 72

Oct 7, 2019

Some where so far off that I didnt have an inkling what could be meant. Well mainly with rot-iron, I would be amazed if anyone EVER made that mistake. I get that you want to put "existing" words in there that sound similar, so you wont put in wraught or something. But this one is too farfetched imo. They have to stay atleast somewhat realistic.

Level 79

Aug 22, 2023

Why is that such a hard mistake to fathom? Rot and wrought are pronounced very similarly if not identically, and if you'd never seen the word written before I've no clue why that's such an odd mistake.

Level 67

Jul 11, 2024

Only in North America - the 'o' sound is far shorter in "rot", while "wrought" is more like "roar-t"

Level 68

Mar 31, 2021

Grate quiz, well done.

Level 64

Mar 31, 2021

Wow, I had no idea they weren't bullion cubes! I always thought they were analogous to gold bullion because they are homogenous chunks of stuff stored away in bulk for long periods of time. But apparently not. Although they are both derived from the Old French word for "boil."

Level 78

Apr 22, 2021

Might be a good idea to get rid of "Gypsies" since it's generally considered an ethnic slur these days. Romani?

Level 64

May 29, 2021

Piqued my appetite to a roar????? That's just incredibly unidiomatic English

Level 79

Aug 27, 2023

So is "incredibly unidiomatic"

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