Basic Details
Word: Photograph
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A picture made with a camera.
Synonyms: photo, picture, snapshot
How to Spell Photograph
Syllables: pho - to - graph
Tricky part: The f sound is written ph both at the start and at the very end. Students often write fotograph or end it with graf.
Watch out for: fotograph, photograf, photogragh, fotograf
Memory tip: Photo means light and graph means writing or drawing, so a photograph is a picture drawn with light. Both Greek parts carry a ph.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Dadi keeps a faded wedding photograph in a silver frame on her cupboard.
Example 2: We took a photograph of the whole class in front of the school gate.
Example 3: The magazine printed a photograph of a snow leopard on the cover.
Fun Fact
One of the oldest surviving camera photographs was made in France by Nicephore Niepce in the late 1820s, and it needed an exposure of many hours.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Find the correctly spelt word in the list and choose its meaning.
1. binoculers 2. photograph 3. microskope 4. telescoap
a) a picture made with a camera
b) an instrument for viewing distant objects
c) a pair of lenses for seeing far with both eyes
d) an instrument for seeing very tiny things
Show answer
a) a picture made with a camera. Telescope, microscope and binoculars are each misspelt, so only photograph stands as written.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
During the trip to Ooty, my uncle stopped the car every few minutes to take a fotograph of the tea gardens and the misty hills.
a) minutes
b) fotograph
c) gardens
d) misty
Show answer
b) fotograph. The word opens with the Greek ph for light, never a plain f.
Mingle-Mangle
The sentence hides a jumbled word. Unjumble it and choose the word:
The museum shows a ghaprohtop of the first steam train that ran in the city.
a) photograph
b) phonograph
c) paragraph
d) autograph
Show answer
a) photograph. Phonograph needs an n and autograph a u, and paragraph has too many a's; photograph matches every letter.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these do you need to take a photograph?
a) a stethoscope
b) a compass
c) a thermometer
d) a camera
Show answer
d) a camera
2. To photograph a bird in flight without a blur, the camera needs a ____ shutter speed.
a) round
b) heavy
c) fast
d) slow
Show answer
c) fast
