Nouns play an important role in understanding English and they constitute one of the eight parts of speech that are fundamental to reading, writing and speaking the language. As we have learnt, collective nouns are one type of noun and in the previous quiz we learnt some collective nouns that describe groups of animals. Besides animals there are also a variety of imaginary creatures, such as witches, spooks and dragons. Do we have collective nouns for such imaginary creatures? Yes! We do have collective nouns for such creatures and you will learn some of them in this quiz.
Do you recall what gremlins are? They are imaginary creatures responsible for mechanical failure in aircraft. You will be surprised to learn that the collective noun to describe a group of gremlins is DEVILRY. Another unusual collective noun is BASEMENT, which is used to describe a group of vampires.
Besides these words used for imaginary creatures we also have some unusual collective nouns for animals and other things. Does the phrase 'a PARLIAMENT of owls' ring a bell? PARLIAMENT is an unusual collective noun used to describe a group of owls. Similarly, did you know that AUTUMN and BALLET are used as collective nouns to describe particular groups? Do you know which ones? The answer is for leaves and swans respectively.
The subject of collective nouns in English is, probably, the most inventive as they are so unusual and the range of words that they cover is enormous. Every conceivable species is given a collective noun for its group. Again, as in many cases in English, a collective noun can be used for different groups of animals and also the same group of animals can have multiple collective nouns. For instance, a group of monkeys can be called a troop, a cartload, a mission, a tribe or a wilderness! In the quiz that follows, we want you to find out how many unusual collective nouns you can recollect.