GCSE English LanguageReading
26 questions on connotation and tone. Pick your answer, then tap to see if you were right and why. Every question comes from the Show Working English Language bank, and every line quoted from a book is checked word for word against a public-domain copy.
Connotations are the ideas a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning. Tone is the attitude a writer’s choices create: admiring, critical, nostalgic, sarcastic. The questions on writers’ viewpoints and perspectives depend on both.
01 / Quiz yourselfTry it, then tap to check
Choose your answer before you open it. Then read why, so it sticks.
01 / Connotation and tone
Answer: D denotation
Denotation is what a word literally means: “home” denotes the place where you live. Connotations are what the word suggests: “home” also brings to mind warmth, safety and family.
02 / Connotation and tone
Answer: D Warmth, safety and belonging
The two words share a denotation, but “home” carries connotations of comfort and the people you love. A writer who chooses “home” over “house” is asking the reader to feel something, not just picture a building.
03 / Connotation and tone
Answer: D slender
They share a denotation, but “slender” suggests grace and good health. “Skinny”, “scrawny” and “bony” suggest someone underfed or unattractive, so a writer picks the word that matches the impression they want to give.
04 / Connotation and tone
Answer: B determined
All four describe someone who will not change course. “Determined” has positive connotations of courage and effort; the others suggest someone awkward who refuses to listen.
05 / Connotation and toneOur own example
The crowd swarmed towards the gates.
Answer: B It is huge, fast and a little threatening
“Swarm” is what bees and insects do. Its connotations of a huge, buzzing mass moving together make the crowd seem hard to control, perhaps even dangerous.
06 / Connotation and toneOur own example
A figure lurked at the end of the alley.
Answer: D Hidden danger
“Lurked” denotes waiting out of sight, but its connotations are sinister: we expect someone who lurks to be up to no good. “Stood” would tell us where the figure was; “lurked” makes us nervous.
07 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“his lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely”
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Answer: B He is like a wild, dangerous animal
The denotation is a type of tooth, but “canine” also connotes dogs and wolves. Together with “long, sharp”, it hints that the Count is a predator, a clue to what he really is.
08 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow.”
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Answer: D Age, decay and time standing still
White connotes a fresh, hopeful bride. Paper, cloth and teeth turn yellow with age, so “faded and yellow” connotes decay: Miss Havisham’s life stopped on her wedding day and everything has rotted since.
09 / Connotation and tone
Answer: B cosy
All four suggest a small space, but only “cosy” has warm, comfortable connotations. “Cramped”, “poky” and “squashed” make the same room sound uncomfortable.
10 / Connotation and tone
Answer: D childish
Both come from “child”, but “childlike” connotes innocence and wonder, while “childish” connotes silly, immature behaviour. One small change of ending turns praise into criticism.
11 / Connotation and tone
Answer: C It makes the small size sound like a good thing
“Compact” and “tiny” have almost the same denotation, but “compact” suggests neat and well designed. Advertisers choose words for their positive connotations.
12 / Connotation and toneOur own example
The waves clawed at the rocks.
Answer: A It is fierce, like an attacking animal
“Clawed” connotes a wild animal tearing at its prey. The sea is not just hitting the rocks: it seems savage and hungry, which sets a threatening mood.
13 / Connotation and tone
Answer: A great value
Each phrase can describe something that costs little, but “cheap and nasty”, “second-rate” and “tatty” suggest poor quality. “Great value” suggests a smart buy, so it is the one a shop would choose.
14 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Answer: A Ironic
It is not a truth everyone accepts. Really it is families with daughters who want rich single men. Austen says the opposite of what is true, so her tone is ironic and gently mocking.
15 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough.”
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Answer: C Sarcastic
His words sound like praise, but he means the opposite: please stop. Saying something kind to mock or criticise is sarcasm, and the novel tells us Mary was embarrassed.
16 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen”
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Answer: B Admiring
The superlative “the most perfect” and “that the world has seen” show deep respect for Holmes’s mind. Calling him a “machine” praises how exact his thinking is.
17 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Answer: A Angry and defiant
Jane challenges Rochester with a question, listing the things others look down on in her, then denies that they make her less of a person. The tone is angry and defiant: she demands to be treated as his equal.
18 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!”
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Answer: B Alarmed
The exclamation mark and the blunt words “prison” and “prisoner” show sudden fear. Harker has realised he cannot leave, and his tone is alarmed.
19 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope, so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart”
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Answer: A Critical
The list of things the court “exhausts” and the emotive “breaks the heart” show that Dickens thinks the court ruins the people who go to it. His attitude is critical.
20 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the greater number of female follies proceed”
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Answer: A Strongly critical
“Tyranny” connotes cruel, unfair power, and “I firmly believe” shows she is certain. She blames men for women’s faults, so her attitude to men’s treatment of women is strongly critical.
21 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men”
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
Answer: A Mocking
Dickens calls the board wise while showing that its decisions starve children. He praises them only to make them look foolish and cruel, so his tone is mocking.
22 / Connotation and toneA line from a book
“You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Answer: D Certain and forceful
Words like “only”, “nothing else” and “ever” leave no room for doubt. The speaker sounds certain and forceful, and calling children “reasoning animals” shows how cold his view of them is.
23 / Connotation and toneOur own example
I still remember those endless summers at my grandad’s farm, when the days were long and nothing ever seemed to go wrong.
Answer: D Nostalgic
The writer looks back fondly on a happy time that has gone. Phrases like “I still remember” and “nothing ever seemed to go wrong” create a nostalgic tone: warm, with a touch of longing.
24 / Connotation and toneOur own example
Oh, wonderful. The bus is late again, and now it has started to rain. What a perfect day.
Answer: C Sarcastic
“Wonderful” and “perfect” clash with a late bus and rain, so the writer means the opposite of what they say. Using praise to show annoyance is sarcasm.
25 / Connotation and tone
Answer: D The town’s old market square is a real gem.
“A real gem” connotes something rare and precious, so it shows admiration. “Has a market square” is neutral fact, “a grim, grey slab” is critical and “few visitors bother” is dismissive.
26 / Connotation and tone
Answer: B Tone is the writer’s attitude; mood is the feeling the reader gets
Tone is how the writer sounds (sarcastic, admiring, critical). Mood is the atmosphere the reader feels (tense, gloomy, calm). The two are linked, but in an exam answer name the right one.
02 / Where marks slipOne thing to watch
Calling a tone “positive” or “negative” and stopping. Name it precisely, then point to the words that create it.
03 / In the appComing to Show Working
In the app, Connotation and tone gives you ten questions at a time, picked from all 27, with the reason after every answer. English Language is built, but it isn’t on phones yet: it will arrive in an update.
Coming soon to the App StoreOur own questions, written for every board. Lines from books are from authors who died long enough ago that their words are free to quote. Show Working is independent and not affiliated with any exam board.
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