LETRS Morphology & Spelling 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the smallest unit of meaning in a language?
- Phoneme
- Morpheme (Correct answer)
- Grapheme
- Syllable
Correct answer: Morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in language, distinct from a phoneme which is the smallest unit of sound.
Question 2: Which of the following is an example of a free morpheme?
- -ing
- un-
- book (Correct answer)
- -tion
Correct answer: book
A free morpheme can stand alone as a complete word; 'book' is independent, while -ing, un-, and -tion must attach to other morphemes.
Question 3: How many morphemes are in the word 'unbreakable'?
- 1
- 2
- 3 (Correct answer)
- 4
Correct answer: 3
'Unbreakable' contains three morphemes: the prefix 'un-', the base 'break', and the suffix '-able'.
Question 4: What type of morpheme is the suffix '-ed' in the word 'walked'?
- Derivational morpheme
- Free morpheme
- Inflectional morpheme (Correct answer)
- Compound morpheme
Correct answer: Inflectional morpheme
The suffix '-ed' is an inflectional morpheme that marks past tense without changing the word's part of speech or core meaning.
Question 5: Which of the following words contains a derivational morpheme?
- cats
- walks
- teacher (Correct answer)
- jumped
Correct answer: teacher
'Teacher' contains the derivational suffix '-er,' which changes the verb 'teach' into a noun, creating a new word with a different part of speech.
Question 6: What does the Latin root 'dict' mean?
- Write
- Say or speak (Correct answer)
- Read
- Think
Correct answer: Say or speak
The Latin root 'dict' means 'say' or 'speak,' appearing in words like dictate, dictionary, and predict.
Question 7: Which spelling rule applies when adding '-ing' to the word 'sit'?
- Drop the final e
- Change y to i before adding the suffix
- Double the final consonant (Correct answer)
- No change needed
Correct answer: Double the final consonant
The doubling rule applies to one-syllable words with a short vowel followed by a single consonant when adding a vowel suffix, making 'sitting'.
LETRS Morphology & Spelling 1
What is the smallest unit of meaning in a language?