Answer to yesterdays Grammar Challenge (#27) A. The presentation peaked his interest. B. The presentation peeked his interest. C. The presentation piqued his interest. D. The presentation perked his interest. ***** Depending on how you interpreted the question, the answer is either C or A, C and D. The only clearly wrong answer is B. The common idiom is C: piqued ones interest. If you assumed the question was asking about the familiar expression, C is the correct answer. Pique can mean to irritate or make angry, but in the sense of piquing ones interest, it means to stimulate or arouse. It comes from the French PIQUER, meaning to poke or prick. But theres no grammatical or logical reason ones interest cant be peaked or perked. The verb peak can mean to reach a highest point or maximum. That makes sense in the context of this sentence. And perked means to thrust up or raise quickly. If used figuratively, ones interest might be described as perked. So, its not wrong to write about peaked or perked interest. In fact, I would assume many people who use the spoken expression are thinking peaked rather than piqued when they say it. But if you dont want to appear ignorant of popular idioms, I suggest sticking with piqued when paired with interest.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:03:13 +0000
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