What does mainland mean?
Word: Mainland
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Mainland means the main part of a country or continent, not counting the islands around it.
How do you spell mainland?
Syllables: main - land
Tricky part: The first part is main, spelt with ai as in rain and paint. Children sometimes write mane or mayn.
Watch out for: maneland, maynland, mainlnad
Memory tip: Picture rain falling on the ferry as it reaches the mainland: rain and main are both spelt with ai.
Mainland in a sentence
Example 1: We took a ferry from Havelock Island back to the mainland.
Example 2: Supplies for the island come by boat from the mainland every week.
Example 3: Hong Kong Island sits just a short ride across the water from the mainland.
Fun Fact
On the Andaman Islands, people often speak of the rest of India as the mainland, even though Chennai is more than 1,000 kilometres away by sea.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
mainlland
a) a
b) n
c) l
d) d
Show answer
c) l. Land has only one l, and it does not change when main comes in front.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) island
b) coastline
c) peninsula
d) mainlend
Show answer
d) mainlend. The second half is the plain word land, with an a.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
dimannal
a) mankind
b) maintain
c) mainland
d) mandolin
Show answer
c) mainland. Mandolin needs an o, maintain needs a t, and mankind needs a k.
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) farmhous
b) mainland
c) sunflour
d) footbal
Show answer
b) mainland. Farmhouse keeps its final e, sunflower ends with the flower you grow, not flour, and football has a double l.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. To travel from the mainland to the Andaman Islands, you would have to ____.
a) ride a bicycle
b) take a ship or a plane
c) walk across a bridge
d) catch a local bus
Show answer
b) take a ship or a plane
2. Which of these places is on India's mainland?
a) Kavaratti
b) Delhi
c) Port Blair
d) Havelock Island
Show answer
b) Delhi
