Oxbridge Linguistics Interview Questions

The best way to prepare for your Oxbridge Linguistics interview is through mock interviews. As well as giving you general interview experience, they focus your mind on the types of questions asked at an Oxford or Cambridge Linguistics interview, teaching you to think in the manner required for the real thing.

Below, we have collected a series of questions of the type you will be asked in your Oxbridge Linguistics interview. Use them to learn what's expected of you, plan out answers on your own, or give them to a teacher, friend, or family member, and ask them to conduct a mock interview with you.

Note: If you are doing mock interviews with us, we recommend waiting until afterwards to look through these questions, so that you aren't asked questions you have already prepared for (as you won't have that opportunity for the real thing!). If you haven't booked any mock interviews yet, you can do so here.

Linguistics Interview Questions

1. What is the difference between the use of the direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish and English?

2. What is meant by subject and object?

3. This bench is long: what does this mean?

4. Why do some languages have genders when others don’t?

5. What is language?

6. Do you think teaching a child their first language is the same as teaching someone a second language?

7. Can you discuss the ambiguities in this sentence ‘I bumped into a woman carrying flowers’?

8. Do you think teaching a child their first language is the same as teaching someone a second language?

9. How can language be scientific?

10. How does language change over time, and what impact does this have on our society?

11. What role does language have to play in reducing equality?

12. Should we abolish the apostrophe?

13. Can you only truly understand a text in its original language?

14. Which part of linguistics interest you the most?

And that's all of them! Hopefully, you now have a sense of the types of questions you may be asked. To be even better prepared, try answering these and other questions with our tutors - you can book your mock interviews here.