What does foreigner mean?
Word: Foreigner
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Foreigner means a person who comes from another country.
Synonyms: outsider, stranger, alien
Antonyms: native, citizen
How do you spell foreigner?
Syllables: for - eign - er
Tricky part: The eign has a silent g and puts e before i, breaking the usual i-before-e rule. Students write foriegner or forigner.
Watch out for: foriegner, forigner, foreiner
Memory tip: Sound the silent g in your head as you write, and let the e lead the i, just as it does in their and weird.
Foreigner in a sentence
Example 1: The foreigner at the bus stop asked us the way to the Gateway of India.
Example 2: In Japan, my uncle felt like a foreigner until he learnt a little Japanese.
Example 3: The museum guide explained the paintings in English for the foreigners in our group.
Fun Fact
Foreign comes from Latin foris, outside, through Old French forein. The g crept into the English spelling later, to match words like reign and sovereign.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. langauge 2. pasport 3. embassey 4. foreigner
a) an official document you show when you travel abroad
b) the words and grammar that a people speak
c) someone who belongs to a different country
d) the office of one country's officials in another
Show answer
c) someone who belongs to a different country. Passport doubles its s, language has the u before the a, and embassy has no e before the y; foreigner is spelt correctly.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word foreigner as used in the sentence:
The shopkeeper treated the young backpacker like a foreigner, though she had grown up two streets away.
a) local
b) guest
c) traveller
d) newcomer
Show answer
a) local. A foreigner comes from elsewhere; a local belongs to the place, so local is the opposite.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The noefirreg stepped off the train at Varanasi and stared at the crowded platform.
a) forerunner
b) forgiven
c) engineer
d) foreigner
Show answer
d) foreigner. Forerunner needs a u, engineer has no f and forgiven needs a v, so the letters can only make foreigner.
Word Cookie
Fill in the missing letters to complete the word:
f_reign_r
a) o, o
b) o, a
c) o, e
d) a, e
Show answer
c) o, e. It begins with the fo of forest, and the person ending is er, as in teacher.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these people is a foreigner in Canada?
a) a farmer from Alberta working in Ontario
b) a student from Quebec studying in Toronto
c) a tourist from Brazil visiting Vancouver
d) a doctor from Manitoba moving to Halifax
Show answer
c) a tourist from Brazil visiting Vancouver
2. If you feel like a foreigner in a new school, you feel ____.
a) too tired to join the games
b) out of place among the others
c) eager to lead the assembly
d) the most popular in the class
Show answer
b) out of place among the others
