Grade 6 ELA Practice Test: Commas, Parentheses and Quotation Marks
- Commas, Parentheses and Quotation Marks
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
Ten questions on punctuation for extra information, dialogue, dates and titles. Tip: if you can remove a phrase and the sentence still makes sense and keeps its meaning, that phrase is extra information and needs commas or parentheses around it.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
Which sentence uses commas correctly?
Correct answer: D
Who teaches science is extra information about Mr. Lopez, so it needs a comma on both sides. Choice B opens the pair of commas but never closes it.
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Question 2
Which sentence uses parentheses correctly?
Correct answer: B
Parentheses go around the whole piece of extra information, built in 1924. Without that phrase the sentence still makes complete sense, which is the test for parentheses.
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Question 3
Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes, borders the state of Ohio.
Why are commas used in this sentence?
Correct answer: C
The phrase one of the five Great Lakes renames Lake Erie and adds extra information, so commas set it off. There is no list; it is a single phrase.
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Question 4
Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
Correct answer: A
When a quotation comes before the speaker tag, it ends with a comma inside the quotation marks. A period would wrongly end the sentence before said Kim.
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Question 5
Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
Correct answer: B
The quoted words are the question, so the question mark goes inside the quotation marks, and a quotation begins with a capital letter. Choice D forgets the capital.
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Question 6
Which sentence punctuates both titles correctly?
Correct answer: D
A short story goes in quotation marks and the book that contains it goes in italics, both with capital letters. Choice A switches the two styles.
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Question 7
Which sentence uses commas correctly?
Correct answer: A
A comma goes between the day and the year, and another comma follows the year when the sentence continues. Choice D leaves out that second comma.
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Question 8
The recipe calls for two cups of flour (about 250 grams).
What do the parentheses do in this sentence?
Correct answer: C
The words in parentheses give the same amount in grams, which is useful but not needed for the sentence to make sense. Parentheses usually hold less important information, not the main idea.
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Question 9
Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
Correct answer: D
When one sentence is split by a speaker tag, commas go after both parts, and the second part starts with a lowercase letter because the sentence continues. Choice B wrongly capitalizes That.
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Question 10
Which sentence correctly sets off the extra information?
Correct answer: B
The phrase a golden retriever named Max describes the dog, so it needs a comma before and after it. Choices C and D use only one of the two commas.
Questions you leave blank are not counted as wrong.
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