two more quizzes done!

Having gotten through quizzes for verbs and verb tenses, I am now turning my attention to—gasp—grammatical mood. The first two quizzes of a six-unit section are now done: Mood, Part 1 and Mood, Part 2. Below are sample questions, one from each quiz.

From Grammatical Mood, Part 1:

Question 5

The five grammatical moods are:

indicative, interrogative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional.declarative, illustrative, demonstrative, palliative, and modal.indicative, interrogative, ordinative, subjunctive, and conditioned.declarative, interrogatory, imperative, subjunctual, and conditional.

REASONING: The relevant lesson (which is for paying subscribers—Grammatical Mood: Intro + Indicative Mood) starts with an overview of the five main grammatical moods, so at this point, you either know them or you don't.

1st possible answer: Yes. These are the five moods. Note that conditional is both a tense and a mood. As a tense, it's the would tense, often referring to a hypothetical, unreal, or imagined future: I would tap dat ass. As a mood, it refers to if-then sentences (NB: The subordinating conjunction doesn't have to be just if—it can also be when, as in When the wolves howl, my scrote howls in response.), i.e., sentences that show how effect Y proceeds from cause X.

2nd possible answer: No. The word modal has appeared in my lessons in the context of modal auxiliaries. The word palliative is used in the field of medicine to refer to the easing of pain and suffering, usually via drugs. So palliative has no place in a grammar lesson. If you thought illustrative was a mood, then you really weren't paying attention. And demonstrative adjectives appear in the adjectives unit (Adjectives, Part 5).

3rd possible answer: No. While indicative and subjunctive are indeed moods, there's no such thing as an ordinative mood, and conditioned is just wrong: There's a conditional mood. This answer is designed to see if you're a random-guessing moron.

4th possible answer: No. We use declarative in contradistinction to interrogative, but declarative isn't a mood the way indicative is. The other words are all bullshit terms except, of course, for conditional. If this answer seduced you, I hope you feel great shame.

From Grammatical Mood, Part 2:

Question 2

The question “How long are you planning to hack up centipedes?”...

...becomes a Wh- question when you remove the “How long.”...is considered a Wh- question....is a type of choice/option/alternative question....becomes a yes/no question when you remove the “How long.”

REASONING: This unit explicitly discusses how Wh- questions (which include How... questions) are basically yes/no questions with a Wh- element tacked on. Example: For a question like Why did you do that?, if I strip off the Why, I'm left with the yes/no question Did you do that?

1st possible answer: No. If you remove the How long, you're left with Are you planning to hack up centipedes?, which is a yes/no question. See more below.

2nd possible answer: Yes. As explained above (see the brief parenthetical in the REASONING section). How... questions (i.e., questions beginning with How, How much, How long, How many, How often, etc.) are basically Wh- questions. Think of it this way: The word How contains both a "w" and an "h." (Being a Yank, I say an "h" because I don't pronounce H as "haitch" the way some people in the British Isles do.)

3rd possible answer: No. An example of a choice/oprion/alternative question would be Eddie Izzard's Cake or death? That not the type of question shown.

4th possible answer: Yes. As explained above. How long are you planning to hack up centipedes? becomes Are you planning to hack up centipedes?—a yes/no question—once you remove the How long.