Select the word with the correct spelling to fill in the blank. Hiren loves to use ________ words while writing anything.

Correct — A. The word is colloquial, spelt c-o-l-l-o-q-u-i-a-l.

It comes from Latin colloquium, a conversation, built on loqu- meaning to speak — the same root that gives eloquent, loquacious and soliloquy. That root is spelt loqu-, so the qu stays and the i follows it.

The ending is -ial, not -al or -il, and the prefix com- assimilates to col- before an l, which is where the double l comes from. That is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  colloqual — colloqual loses the i. The adjective ending here is -ial, as in cordial and partial, so the word needs quial rather than qual.
• (c)
  colloquil — colloquil ends in -il. English builds this adjective with -ial, and -il is not a suffix that attaches to the root loqu-.
• (d)
  coloquial — coloquial carries a single l. The prefix com- becomes col- before an l-stem, so the spelling has two: col + loqu + ial.

Spelling items reward knowing where a word's parts join. Colloquial is col + loqu + ial.

col- is com-, meaning together, assimilated before an l, which is why the l doubles. loqu- is the Latin verb for speak, kept whole in eloquent, loquacious, soliloquy and ventriloquist. -ial is the adjective ending.

Once the joints are visible, each wrong option fails at one of them: one drops the i, one replaces -ial with -il, one un-doubles the l.

Key facts

• Colloquial is spelt with a double l and the ending -ial.
• The Latin root loqu- means to speak and appears in eloquent, loquacious and soliloquy.
• Colloquial means characteristic of ordinary conversation rather than formal writing.

Common traps

• Picking coloquial because the double l is not audible when the word is said aloud.
• Reading the options too fast, since each wrong spelling differs from the answer by a single letter.

No directly related past PYQ was found.