Exercises on Greek loanwords

Howdy!

Did you read my post about Greek borrowings in the English language that I wrote last week? Today I'm bringing you some exercises that will challenge you and hopefully will reinforce your knowledge of Greek loanwords. As usual, the answers will be at the bottom of the post. Ready?

1. Write the name of the following things. Pay attention to your spelling! All the words come from Greek! Clue: all the words have the [f] sound.
a)  b) 

c) d) 

e)   f) 
g)  h) 
i)  j) 

2. Spell the following words from its phonetic transcription. All of them come from Greek:

a) [‘a:kaɪv]
b) [eɪk]

c) [kəˈtæstrəfi]

d) [kəˈrɪzmə]
e) [kaɪˈmɪərə]
f) ['saɪkɪk]
g) ['ekəʊ]
h) ['ɑːkɪˌtekt]
i) ['ɔːkɪstrə]

3. Underline the word which is correctly spelled. Sometimes, more than one option is correct. Then, identify the Greek words

a) festival / phestival
b) dolfin / dolphin
c) phantasy / fantasy
d) psyquiatric / psychiatric
e) Fiona / Phiona
f) Filip / Philippe 
g) corus / chorus
h) archaic / arcaic
i) dichotomy / dicotomy

j) Christian / Cristian 
k) carp / charp
l) fetus / phetus 
m) caracteristic / characteristic
n) crocodile / crochodile
o) physics / physich / fysic
p) fenomenon / phenomenon

4. Guess the meaning of the following Greek loanwords from their components (prefixes, suffixes, words...)

a) microphone
b) photophobia
c) monolingual
d) hypothermia 
e) hypercorrection
f) polysyllabic 
g) theology
h) politics
i) amphibian
j) octopodes

5. Give the plural form for the following words coming from Greek:
a) Polyhedron
b) Trauma
c) Oasis
d) Climax
e) Criterion
f) Metamorphosis
g) Analysis
h) Phenomenon
i) Appendix 




Answers:
1. a) Photographer b) pharynx c) microphone d) elephant e) sphere  f) pharaoh 
g) geography h) pharmacy (chemist) i) trophy j) phoenix

2.  a) archive b) ache c) catastrophe d) charisma e) chimera f) psychic g) echo h) architect i) orchestra

3. a) festival b) dolphin c) fantasy and phantasy (the option with <ph> is not very common); d) psychiatric e) Fiona and Phiona (the option with <ph> is unusual); f) Philippe g) chorus 
h) archaic i) dichotomy  j) Christian k) carp l) fetus m) characteristic n) crocodile o) physic 
p) phenomenon.

b), c), d), f), g), h), i), j), m), o) and p) come from Greek. 

4. 
a) microphone = Micro (small) +  phone (sound). A device that produces a small sound.
b) photophobia = Photo (light) + phobia (fear). Fear to the light.
c) monolingual = Mono (one) + lingua (language). Speaking one language.
d) hypothermia = hypo (under) + thermos (heat). Below normal temperature
e) hypercorrection = hyper (over) + correction. Correct someone more than necessary
f) polysyllabic = poly (a lot) + syllable. A word having a lot of syllables (more than three).
g) theology = theo (God) + logos (study). The science that studies God.
h) politics = polis (city) + tikos (related to). The science that studies the city. 
i) amphibian = amphi (both) + bios (life). An animal that can live both in the water and in the ground. 
j) octopodes = octo (eight) + podes (feet). An animal with eight feet (the irregular plural of octopus).

5. 
a) Polyhedra
b) Traumas /traumata
c) Oases
d) Climaces (climaxes)
e) Criteria
f) Metamorphoses
g) Analyses
h) Phenomena
i) Appendices (appendixes)  

Well, I hope that words from Greek won't be a mystery for you at this point. 
See you around.