Learning synonyms and antonyms can help you a lot in decoding meaning of words and sentences. This module will help you understand and develop this skill. You will learn words with same and opposite meaning. So, let’s start now.

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Modified In-School Off-School Approach Modules (MISOSA)

Distance Education for Elementary Schools

SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

USING SYNONYMS

AND

Revised 2010

by the Learning Resource Management and Development System (LRMDS), DepEd - Division of Negros Occidental

under the Strengthening the Implementation of Basic Education in Selected Provinces in the Visayas (STRIVE).

This edition has been revised with permission for online distribution through the Learning Resource Management Development System (LRMDS) Portal (http://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/) under Project STRIVE for BESRA, a project supported by AusAID.

Section 9 of Presidential Decree No. 49 provides:

“No copyright shall subsist in any work of the

Government of the Republic of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the government agency or office wherein the work is created shall be necessary for exploitation of such work for profit.”

GRADE V

USING SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS

Learning synonyms and antonyms can help you a lot in

decoding meaning of words and sentences.

This module will help you understand and develop this

skill.

You will learn words with same and opposite meaning.

So, let’s start now.

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Do you recall your lesson on suffixes? I guess you do. Your main task in this exercise is to identify the root word of each word below.

Exercise A

1. irregular - 9. dependent -

2. nonsense - 10. decompose -

3. paraphrase - 11. difference -

4. honorary - 12. acceptable -

5. miscarriage - 13. stationary -

6. retroactive - 14. drunkard -

7. multinational - 8. dishonest –

Exercise B

Read the word list below and do these things.

1. Number the words in alphabetical order. 2. Write the number of syllables in each word. 3. Write the root word of each.

4. Write the prefix and/ or suffix if any.

ABC Order Word No. of

Syllables

Root Word

Prefix Suffix

Let us now proceed to your new lesson. Study the sentences below. Pay attention to the underlined words.

A. The huge dark cloud has covered the tip of the mountain because it is big enough to hide its perfect shape.

B. The kalamansi plant grows fast because Leny takes care of it everyday. Its rapid growth was noticed by her Mother one morning when she went out to the garden.

Let us study sentence A. What are the underlined words? (huge ang big). Which is being referred to as huge in the sentence? (dark cloud) How about big?

Notice that big is referring to the pronoun it. And if we study the idea

conveyed in the sentences, it is also referring to the dark clouds which is the same as dark clouds described as huge.

So what conclusion do we make? What can you say about the meaning of the words huge and big? Are they the same?

To understand more our lesson, let us analyze further sentence B. What words are underlined? (fast and rapid)

How is the growth of the plant being described in the first sentence? (fast) How about the second sentence? (rapid) The words fast and rapid both described the growth of the plant. Do you notice that they have the same meaning used in the sentence?

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Here are more examples of synonyms.

1. gentle, mild

2. calm, peaceful, tranquil, serene 3. salary, wages, earnings

4. quick, fast, rapid

5. intelligent, bright, genius 6. error, mistake, blunder, fault 7. frail, weak, brittle

8. idle, lazy, inactive 9. gay, glad, happy, merry 10. slim, slender, thin, lean

There are also words with meanings opposite each other. Take a look at the examples below.

A. The Santo’s house has been built since 1905. It is already very old that some parts of it are already unsafe for sheltering. So they decided to move out and buy a new one in a middle class subdivision.

What words are underlined? (old and new) Which is being described as old in the paragraph? How about new?

Yes, old and new both describe the house. However, you will notice that the meaning are exactly the opposite of each other.

Words with opposite meanings are called ANTONYMS. Therefore, old and new are called antonyms.

Can you name some more antonyms.

Study the words below. These are Antonyms.

1. long – short

2. wide – narrow

3. fast – slow 4. high – low 5. healthy – sickly 6. sleep – awake 7. light – heavy 8. weak – strong 9. increase – decrease 10. start – end

Now, I bet you have already understand our lesson on synonyms and antonyms.

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Activity 1

Identify the pair of words of antonyms or synonyms. Write A for opposite words and S for words with the same meaning. Do it in your notebook.

_______ 1. quick – fast ________ 6. brave - courageous

_______ 2. difficult – hard ________ 7. unite - divide

_______ 3. smooth – rough ________ 8. shout - whisper

_______ 4. careful – careless ________ 9. expensive - cheap

_______ 5. dull – bright ________ 10. plenty – abundant

Activity 2

Match the words with their synonyms. Draw a line to connect them.

A B

friend contempt

scorn comrade

mistake blunder

student fear

terror pupil

A B

information absolute

pardon reply

hasten knowledge

answer defend

Activity 3

Circle the antonym in each row of synonyms.

1. cease stop continue end finish

2. cruel brutal inhuman kind Savage

3. fake real genuine true Actual

4. enough scarce sufficient plenty Abundant

5. diminish increase decrease reduce lessen

Very good kid.

You have been showing interest in finishing your task.

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A. Choose the antonyms of the underlined words in the following sentence from the list in the box. Write the letter of your answers in your notebook.

a. huge e. reckless i. extinct

b. wide f. artificial j. noisy

c. behind g. rough

d. difficult h. beneath

_________ 1. Mang Carding is a careful driver. _________ 2. The boys are quiet.

_________ 3. The cat jumped over the fence. _________ 4. Do dinosaurs still exist now.

_________ 5. Floors made up of tiles are smooth. _________ 6. Natural orange juice is not nutritious. _________ 7. The street is so narrow.

_________ 8. The quiz was very easy.

_________ 9. Our basketball team is ahead by three points. _________ 10. We have a small puppy.

B. Find more other suitable words with similar meaning as the underlined words in the following sentences.

1. That toy looks fine.

2. The old woman called for help. 3. My aim is to take her home. 4. The car waited at the gate.

C. Complete the analogies using synonyms and antonyms. The first one is done for you.

1. Boy is to girl as man is to woman.

2. Sad is to jolly as strong is to __________. 3. Dead is to alive as smooth is to _________. 4. Narrow is to wide as easy is to _________. 5. Difficult is ton hard as many is to ________. 6. Rich is to wealthy as costly is to _________. 7. Unite is to divide as remember is to ______. 8. Intelligent is to bright as lazy is to ________. 9. Pretty is to ugly as generous is to ________. 10. Start is to finish as arrival is to _________.

Did you enjoy the activities in this module?

I hope so.

For your last task, let’s do the writing activity that follows.

Rewrite the given prayer below using synonyms in place of the underlined words.