![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160320164739im_/http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_full/public/blogs/trumpdonald_020416getty.jpg?itok=853E_gsK)
Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
Donald TrumpTrump on Romney faith remark: It was a joke Sanders: 'We think that the path forward is a pretty good path' Trump: Campaign aide accused in altercations is 'spirited' MORE is leading in the polls but losing at grammar, according to a new study.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160320164739im_/http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_100/public/trump1.jpg?itok=LtJHG83M)
The study, by the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, scored Trump’s grammar at a fifth-grade level. The rest of the candidates’ grammar was scored between sixth- and eighth-grade levels.
ADVERTISEMENT
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160320164739im_/http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_100/public/ted_cruz.jpg?itok=kBLmGr4o)
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160320164739im_/http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_100/public/marco_rubio.jpg?itok=1FvslMzt)
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160320164739im_/http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_100/public/hillary_clinton.jpg?itok=u8SO5Trl)
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160320164739im_/http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_100/public/bernie_sanders.jpg?itok=ulFyGZYc)
All candidates performed better when graded on their vocabulary skills.
Sanders scored highest in vocab, ranking at the 11th-grade level in the speech he made announcing his candidacy.
Trump and Clinton both scored at the eighth-grade level for vocab in the speeches announcing their candidacies. Cruz’s inaugural speech was at the ninth-grade level.
“This analysis shows the changes that candidates make in the level of their speech according to the type of speech. It also reflects each candidate’s combination of personal delivery style and their analysis of the level of the audience they want to address,” the study’s authors wrote.