Vocabulary and Idioms: ਮੁਹਾਵਰੇ, ਅਖਾਣ and Word Relationships
This section checks whether you can choose the right word and use fixed expressions correctly. ਮੁਹਾਵਰੇ and ਅਖਾਣ must be learned as whole units with their meaning and grammatical behaviour.
The four question types
- ਸਮਾਨਾਰਥਕ ਸ਼ਬਦ (synonyms) and ਵਿਰੋਧੀ ਸ਼ਬਦ (antonyms).
- ਅਨੇਕਾਰਥੀ ਸ਼ਬਦ: one word, several meanings decided by context.
- ਮੁਹਾਵਰਾ: a figurative phrase used inside a sentence, agreeing with the subject in gender, number and tense.
- ਅਖਾਣ: a complete sentence of folk wisdom, quoted whole and never altered.
Worked example
Use ਨੱਕ ਵੱਢਣਾ (to be humiliated, to lose face) in a sentence. Reasoning: the idiom needs a subject, an object and a tense, and the verb must agree with the subject. So: 'ਉਸ ਨੇ ਝੂਠ ਬੋਲ ਕੇ ਆਪਣਾ ਨੱਕ ਵੱਢ ਲਿਆ।' Wrong versions are the bare phrase, or a literal sentence about cutting someone's nose, which shows the meaning was never understood.
Traps that cost marks
- Translating an idiom word for word instead of giving its figurative meaning.
- Presenting a ਮੁਹਾਵਰਾ as a complete proverb, or breaking an ਅਖਾਣ and quoting half of it.
- Using an idiom in the wrong tense or with the wrong gender agreement.
- Giving a synonym that only fits one sense of an ਅਨੇਕਾਰਥੀ word.
- Spelling a fixed expression with a wrong ਮਾਤਰਾ; the expression then reads as a different phrase.