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50 free ELA trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free ELA trivia questions with answers. This is an English Language Arts round built for classrooms, review games and anyone who wants to find out how much of ninth-grade English actually stuck. The 50 questions cover the four blocks every ELA curriculum returns to: figurative language, grammar, punctuation and poetic form. There are questions on the difference between a simile and a metaphor, what an oxymoron actually is, what each of the eight parts of speech does, where the serial comma is preferred, how a Petrarchan sonnet differs from a Shakespearean one, what a kigo and a kireji do in a haiku, and why an iamb sounds like the word 'above'. Every answer was checked against a primary reference before publication, so definitions here match what a marking scheme would accept. Teachers can run it as a warm-up or a review round; students can use it to test themselves before a unit exam.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which device compares two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'?
A simile
'As brave as a lion' is the classic school example. Drop the linking word and it becomes a different device entirely.
Q 02Which device makes a direct comparison without announcing it with a linking word?
A metaphor
'The classroom was a zoo' states the comparison rather than signposting it. The version with 'like' or 'as' has a different name.
Q 03What is it called when an inanimate object is given human traits?
Personification
'The wind whispered' is the standard example. It applies to objects and non-animal organisms alike.
Q 04Which figure of speech uses deliberate exaggeration for effect?
Hyperbole
'I've told you a million times' is not a lie, it is a device. The effect can be dramatic or persuasive.
Q 05What is a two-word paradox built from opposites called?
An oxymoron
'Deafening silence' and 'bittersweet' are the standard examples. The words fight each other on purpose.
Q 06What is the repetition of the same initial consonant sound across several words called?
Alliteration
'Peter Piper picked a peck' is the schoolyard version. Advertisers use it constantly.
Q 07Which device uses words that imitate sounds?
Onomatopoeia
Buzz, hiss and clang are all examples. Comic books are built almost entirely out of it.
Q 08What is the difference between a trope and a scheme?
Tropes change meaning, schemes change word order
Tropes deviate from ordinary or literal usage. Schemes vary the usual expected sequence of words.
Q 09How many parts of speech is English traditionally said to have?
Eight or nine
The list usually runs noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Some lists add the article or determiner.
Q 10Which part of speech names a person, place, thing or idea?
A noun
They can be concrete like 'house' or abstract like 'happiness'. Proper ones take a capital letter.
Q 11Which part of speech denotes an action, occurrence or state of being?
A verb
'Walk', 'happen' and 'be' are the textbook examples. Every complete sentence needs one.
Q 12What does an adjective modify?
A noun or pronoun
'Big' and 'brave' are typical examples. Words that modify verbs have a different name.
Q 13Which part of speech can modify a verb, an adjective, a sentence or another of its own kind?
An adverb
'Very' and 'quite' are examples. Not all of them end in -ly.
Q 14Which part of speech substitutes for a noun or noun phrase?
Q 21According to Cecil Hartley's old rhyme, how long a pause does a colon require?
The time of three
A semicolon, in the same verse, is worth two. Punctuation was once taught as a system of timed pauses.
Q 22What happened to dashes and apostrophes in the typewriter era?
Widths collapsed into one
Curved quotation marks became two straight characters, and dashes became one hyphen, sometimes repeated. Word processors have been undoing it ever since.
Q 23How many lines does a sonnet traditionally have?
Fourteen
The rhyme scheme is fixed as well. Both the Italian and English versions keep the same length.
A pronoun
'Them' and 'he' stand in for names already mentioned. It stops sentences from repeating themselves.
Q 15Which part of speech relates words to each other in a phrase, like 'in' and 'of'?
A preposition
They aid syntactic context. Ending a sentence with one is a rule nobody has ever successfully enforced.
Q 16Which part of speech links words, phrases or clauses?
A conjunction
'And' and 'but' are the obvious examples. They are the joints of a sentence.
Q 17What is a word like 'Alas' or 'Huzzah' called?
An interjection
They express emotion or greeting rather than doing grammatical work. They often stand alone with punctuation.
Q 18Where were the oldest known punctuation marks found?
On the Mesha Stele
They date from the 9th century BC and consist of points between words and strokes between sections. Punctuation was not standardised until printing arrived.
Q 19What forced the standardisation of punctuation in the 14th and 15th centuries?
The rise of printing
Printers needed rules they could apply consistently. Before that, marks varied from scribe to scribe.
Q 20Where is the serial comma used far more often?
In the United States
It is also called the Oxford comma, confusingly enough. It goes before the 'and' in a list.
Q 24What are the two parts of a typical Italian sonnet called?
An octave and a sestet
The first poses a problem, the second proposes a resolution. The switch usually happens at line nine.
Q 25What is the turn in a sonnet called?
The volta
It typically starts at the ninth line. Everything before it sets a problem, everything after answers it.
Q 26What is the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet?
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
That is three alternately rhymed quatrains and a closing couplet. It became the favourite in Elizabethan times.
Q 27Which rhyme pattern did Petrarch typically use for his opening eight lines?
ABBA ABBA
The final six lines then ran CDECDE or CDCCDC. The English version rearranged the whole thing.
Q 28How many morae does a traditional Japanese haiku contain?
17
They fall into three phrases of five, seven and five. English writers usually count syllables instead.
Q 29What is a kigo in a haiku?
A word implying a season
It anchors the poem in a particular time of year. Cherry blossom, snow and cicadas all do the job.
Q 30What is a kireji?
A cutting word
It typically appears at the end of one of the three phrases. English versions often use a dash instead.