Foreign words and phrases quiz

English uses many words and phrases taken from other languages. Many of these are common in literature and everyday speech, which means that understanding them is necessary for understanding what you read.

In today’s quiz, you need to fill in the blanks with the most appropriate foreign word/phrase.

Name and Employee ID

1. He is not a dishonest salesman; his offer is ________.

Bona fide

Bon vivant

Bon retour

bona fide [Latin]—authentic, genuine, in good faith

2. The result of the elections was, ________, simply a public verdict on the government’s complacency during the riots.

Ipso facto

Habeas corpus

De facto

de facto [Latin]—in reality, actually

3. The board meeting was a ________; the members stormed out 10 minutes into the affair, and three independent directors resigned.

Flambé

Fiasco

Façade

fiasco [Italian]—total failure

4. An Air France flight ________ from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared from radar somewhere above the Atlantic.

En route

En avant

On root

en route [French]—on the way

5. The statement was interesting ________; it did not make much sense in context, however.

A propos

Per se

Vis-a-vis

per se [Latin]—in itself

6. The point of having her elected was for the reigning party to perpetuate the ________.

Sotto voce

Status quo

Caveat emptor

status quo [Latin]—the existing state of things

His role ________ the recent match was that of a game-changer.

Viz.

Et al.

Vis-a-vis

vis-à-vis [French]—in relation to

8. As our firm’s trusted accountant, he has ________ to make monetary decisions for us.

Carte blanche

Billet

Sine qua non

carte blanche [French]—complete freedom to act as one wishes

9. Property investment comes with the inherent risk of ________, therefore it is important to learn as much as possible about the property prior to purchase.

Fait accompli

Caveat emptor

In situ

caveat emptor [Latin]—the buyer is responsible for checking the quality of goods before purchasing them

10. Cathy committed a huge ________ when she wrote an angry e-mail to her manager but hit the “reply all” option.

Déjá vu

Inter alia

Faux pas

faux pas [French]—an embarrassing blunder

11. The judge said, ________, the original contract did not appear to be valid.

Inter alia

Intestate

A propos

inter alia [Latin]—among other things

12. According to the defendant’s lawyers, there’s no reason that an old law is, ________, irrelevant or inapplicable.

Ipso facto

De facto

De jure

ipso facto [Latin]—by that very act or fact

13. Like the best restructurers, Hanson approaches each unit with a ________ that it has perfected through repetition.

Locus standi

Modus operandi

Verbatim

modus operandi [Latin]—a way of doing something

14. Developing talent is business's most important task—the ________ of competition in a knowledge economy.

Sine qua non

Sine die

Mutatis mutandis

sine qua non [Latin]—absolutely essential

15. Some managers allow dysfunctional, time-wasting behavior to go unchecked at meetings because they imagine it is the ________.

Quorum

Exempli gratia

Vox populi

vox populi [Latin]—public opinion

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