What does native mean?
Word: Native
Part of Speech: Adjective, noun
Meaning: Native means belonging to a place because you were born there, or (for plants and animals) growing or living there naturally. As a noun, a native is a person born in a place.
Synonyms: local
Antonyms: imported
How do you spell native?
Syllables: na - tive
Tricky part: The first a is said like the a in name, but no i follows it. Naitive is a common slip.
Watch out for: naitive, naytive
Memory tip: Native and nation both begin with nat and both say the a like the a in name, with no i after it.
Native in a sentence
Example 1: Riya is a native of Kolkata but now lives in Bengaluru.
Example 2: Her native language is Marathi.
Example 3: The garden is full of native plants that need very little water.
Fun Fact
A native plant grew in a place before people brought it there. The neem tree is native to the Indian subcontinent, while the potato first came from South America.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
native
a) famous
b) ancient
c) friendly
d) foreign
Show answer
d) foreign. Something foreign comes from another country, not from the place itself.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our teacher told us that the peacock is nateve to India and Sri Lanka.
a) peacock
b) Lanka
c) teacher
d) nateve
Show answer
d) nateve. The ending of native is ive, with an i.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
tivane
a) navite
b) antive
c) natvie
d) native
Show answer
d) native. The t comes straight after na, and the v sits near the end.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) contry
b) vilage
c) native
d) langauge
Show answer
c) native. The others should be village, language and country.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A native speaker of Tamil is someone who ____.
a) teaches Tamil
b) grew up speaking Tamil
c) translates Tamil books
d) is learning Tamil
Show answer
b) grew up speaking Tamil
2. Which of these animals is native to India?
a) the kangaroo
b) the Bengal tiger
c) the penguin
d) the llama
Show answer
b) the Bengal tiger
