What does commentary mean?
Word: Commentary
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Commentary means a spoken description of an event, such as a match, given while it is happening; also a set of written notes that explain a text.
Synonyms: description, account, report
How do you spell commentary?
Syllables: com - men - ta - ry
Tricky part: Said quickly, the a before the final ry almost disappears, so students write commentry or commentery. The ending is ary, as in library and diary.
Watch out for: commentry, commentery
Memory tip: Picture a library of match reports: commentary and library both close with ary, so the a must be written even when you hardly hear it.
Idioms and Phrases
- a running commentary: a description that goes on non-stop while something happens Example: "My little sister kept up a running commentary on every car that passed our window."
Commentary in a sentence
Example 1: We listened to the Hindi radio commentary while driving to the stadium.
Example 2: In the final over the commentary grew so excited that we could hardly hear the crowd.
Example 3: Our teacher read out a short commentary on the poem.
Fun Fact
Commentary is also the name for a written explanation of an older text. Scholars have been writing commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita for well over a thousand years.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) commentary
b) perfomance
c) audiance
d) champianship
Show answer
a) commentary. Audience ends in ence and championship has io after the p; performance is missing the r after per.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word:
commentary
a) narration
b) applause
c) interruption
d) headline
Show answer
a) narration. A commentary tells the story of an event while it happens, which is what narration does.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
co_m_ntary
a) m,e
b) n,a
c) m,a
d) n,e
Show answer
a) m,e. Two m sounds run together after co, and the vowel straight after them is e.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
commenttary
a) a
b) e
c) m
d) t
Show answer
d) t. One t is enough; it sits between the n and the a.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. During a cricket match on the radio, the commentary tells listeners ____.
a) what is happening on the field, ball by ball
b) the times of trains back from the stadium
c) the price of tickets for the next match
d) the names of every person in the stands
Show answer
a) what is happening on the field, ball by ball
2. A teacher hands out a written commentary. It probably explains ____.
a) the timetable for the school bus
b) the rules for the sports day relay
c) the price of the new school uniforms
d) the lines of a poem the class is reading
Show answer
d) the lines of a poem the class is reading
