What does fluent mean?
Word: Fluent
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Fluent means able to speak, read or write a language easily and smoothly, without stopping to search for words.
Synonyms: smooth, flowing, articulate
Antonyms: halting
How do you spell fluent?
Syllables: flu - ent
Tricky part: The ending is ent, as in student. Because the middle is said quickly, children often write fluant or fluint.
Watch out for: fluant, fluint, flewent
Memory tip: Picture a fluent speaker's words running on like the current of a river: current and fluent finish with the same ent.
Fluent in a sentence
Example 1: Meera is fluent in Tamil, Hindi and English.
Example 2: After a year of practice, his reading became fluent.
Example 3: Our new neighbour from Paris speaks fluent French.
Fun Fact
Fluent comes from the Latin fluere, to flow, which also gave English the words fluid and influence.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
fluent
a) hesitant
b) honest
c) cheerful
d) careful
Show answer
a) hesitant. A hesitant speaker stops and starts, which is the opposite of fluent speech.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) fluent
b) langauge
c) pronounse
d) vocabulery
Show answer
a) fluent. Each of the other three has one slip: language, pronounce and vocabulary.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
fleuent
a) e
b) l
c) u
d) n
Show answer
a) e. Straight after fl comes the u; an e there is one letter too many.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
tunelf
a) fluent
b) tuneful
c) fluency
d) flute
Show answer
a) fluent. Flute leaves out the n, tuneful needs a second u and fluency a c and a y; fluent takes all six.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Who is fluent in English?
a) Kiran, who stops after each word
b) Nora, who chats in it with ease
c) Dev, who can read only its numbers
d) Ben, who knows only its alphabet
Show answer
b) Nora, who chats in it with ease
2. Which habit would most help a child become a fluent reader?
a) reading once a month
b) reading aloud every day
c) reading only the titles
d) skipping every long word
Show answer
b) reading aloud every day
