Schoolhouse Language Center Teacher Proficiency Test
Print out the 48 question Teacher Proficiency Test below, and take the test.  When you are done, go to the Answer Key to see how you did.  Fewer than five incorrect answers is a passing score.  

1. We use the article an before a word that
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2. Transform the sentence "He is teaching English" into simple present tense.
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3. When do we use the simple present tense?
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4. Transform the sentence "She plays the piano" into a present progressive tense question.
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5. When do we use the present progressive tense?
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6. Why is the sentence, "I goed to work yesterday" incorrect?
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7. Give an example of an irregular plural noun. ___________________ 

8. Transform the sentence "I did not eat breakfast" into a simple past tense affirmative statement.
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9. Transform the sentence "I play tennis" into the present perfect tense.
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10. When do we use the present perfect tense (give two answers)
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11. The word won't is a ___________________ of the words ________ and ____________ .

12. What is the name of the mark between the 'n' and the 't' in the word "don't" ? _____________________

For numbers 13 and 14, give two ways to transform "I teach English" into a future tense statement.

13. _____________________________________________

14. _____________________________________________



For numbers 15 - 23, write the nine parts of speech.

15. _______________
16. _______________
17. _______________
18. _______________
19. _______________
20. _______________
21. _______________
22. _______________
23. _______________ 

24. What kind of pronoun is "him"? ________________

25. What kind of pronoun is "she"? ________________

26. What kind of pronoun is "hers"? ________________

27. What part of speech is the word "my"? _________________

28. What do you call a word part added to the beginning of a word, 
i.e. "re-"? ________________

29. What do you call a word part added to the end of a word, i.e. 
"-ful"? _______________


For questions 30 to 36, refer to the following sentence:
The tall boy on the rock quickly threw Mary a life jacket.

30. What is the grammatical function of "a life jacket"? ____________

31. What is the grammatical function of "Mary"? ______________

32. What is the grammatical function of "the tall boy"? _____________

33. What is the grammatical function of "on the rock"? ________________

34. What part of speech is "tall"? ____________

35. What part of speech is "quickly"? ____________

36. Rewrite the sentence in past progressive tense. _____________________________________________________________

37. How do you make an adverb out of an adjective like "quiet"? 
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38. What is the definite article? _____________

39. The past participle is used in what tenses?__________________

40. Give four examples of irregular past participles. ______________
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41. In the question, "Do you want to eat pizza"?, what would you call the word "do" ? _____________

42. Re-write the sentence, "I hate horror movies" to include an infinitive.
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43. What is the subject of the sentence, "Watching horror movies is 
something I hate", and what is the grammatical name for the subject? 
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44. Why is the sentence "I plan teaching English" grammatically incorrect?
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For numbers 45 and 46, write the two kinds of nouns made from verbs and give an example of each. 
45. _________________________________

46. _________________________________

47. Give an example of a regular superlative adjective.
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48. Transform the two sentences "The girl has a glass. It is empty. " into one sentence that contains an adjective clause.
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