MCQ
Vocabulary and Word Formation MCQ - Practice Questions with Answers
Solve 9 Vocabulary and Word Formation questions for RAS/RPSC preparation.
Practice questions
Q1Assertion (A): A Class V teacher who keeps a word wall and adds 5–7 new theme-based words every week, with picture cards and short example sentences, will see better long-term recall than a teacher who only dictates word lists for memorisation. Reason (R): A bare list dictated for memorisation is the most effective way of teaching primary English vocabulary because it removes all context and forces the brain to encode each word in isolation. Choose the correct option.
Word walls with theme-based words, picture cards, and short example sentences anchor each new word in a meaningful context — exactly what NCF 2005 and NCERT primary English recommend, and what classroom research on Classes I–V shows produces stronger retention. So A is true. R is false because it claims the opposite — that bare dictated lists with no context are most effective. Decontextualised rote lists are the weakest route for primary vocabulary, since young learners need pictorial and situational anchors. So A is true, R is false, and the correct option is C.
Q2Assertion (A): When a Class IV teacher introduces the prefix "un-" through a word wall and demonstrates how "happy" becomes "unhappy", learners can decode many new words such as "unkind" or "unlock" without rote memorisation. Reason (R): Awareness of common prefixes and suffixes builds morphological knowledge, which is a key route to vocabulary growth in primary English. Choose the correct option.
Once a learner sees that adding "un-" can reverse the meaning of a base word like "happy" to form "unhappy", the same idea helps with words such as "unkind", "unlock", "unable" and "untie". This is the value of morphological knowledge: the child does not memorise every new word in isolation, but uses familiar word parts to work out meaning. Therefore A is true, R is true, and R correctly explains A.
Q3Match each base word in List-I with the new word it forms when the suffix "-ful" is added in List-II. List-I (Base word): (P) help (Q) care (R) hope (S) play List-II (Word with -ful): (1) playful (2) helpful (3) hopeful (4) careful Choose the correct match.
The suffix "-ful" is added to a base word to form an adjective meaning "full of" or "having the quality of". So "help" + "-ful" = "helpful" (P-2), "care" + "-ful" = "careful" (Q-4), "hope" + "-ful" = "hopeful" (R-3), and "play" + "-ful" = "playful" (S-1). The correct match is therefore P-2, Q-4, R-3, S-1, which is option B.
Q4Look at the following list of words used in primary English vocabulary work: "unhappy", "sunflower", "playful", "big", "raincoat", "helpful", "toothbrush". How many of these are compound words?
A compound word is formed when two free-standing English words combine: "sunflower" (sun + flower), "raincoat" (rain + coat), and "toothbrush" (tooth + brush) are all compound words — three in total. "unhappy" is built with the prefix "un-" + the base "happy", so it is a prefixed word, not a compound. "playful" and "helpful" use the suffix "-ful", which is a bound morpheme, not an independent word. "big" is a base word with no formation. So the count of compound words is exactly three, which matches option C.
Q5Which of the following pairs is INCORRECTLY matched as synonyms in primary-level English?
Synonyms are words with the same or very similar meaning. "big" and "large" share size meaning; "happy" and "joyful" share emotion meaning; "small" and "tiny" share size meaning, with "tiny" intensifying the smallness. "fast" and "slow", however, are opposites — they are antonyms, not synonyms. NCERT Class III–V vocabulary chapters list this pair under antonym practice. Therefore the incorrectly matched pair is B, where the relationship is opposite rather than similar in meaning.
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More questions
6A Class III teacher writes "sun + flower" on the board and asks children to read the new word formed when the two are joined. The word "sunflower" is best classified as which type of word formation in English?
7Consider the following statements about teaching synonyms and antonyms to Classes I–V learners as per NCERT primary English: (1) Synonyms are best taught only as long word lists copied from a thesaurus, with no story or picture context. (2) Antonyms are pairs of words with opposite meaning, such as "big/small", "hot/cold", "happy/sad". (3) Picture-word association and short story contexts help young learners infer the meaning of a synonym or antonym before they are asked to use it. Which of the statements are correct?
8Identify the correct antonym of the word "polite" suitable for a Class IV English vocabulary lesson.
9Consider the following two statements about word formation in primary English: (1) The prefix "re-" generally adds the meaning "again" or "back" to a base word, as in "redo", "rewrite", "return". (2) The suffix "-ness" attaches to verbs only and never to adjectives, so "kindness" and "happiness" are wrongly formed words. Choose the correct option.