What does subcontinent mean?
Word: Subcontinent
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Subcontinent means a large area of land that forms a distinct part of a continent, such as the part of Asia made up of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and their neighbours.
How do you spell subcontinent?
Syllables: sub - con - ti - nent
Tricky part: The last syllable is said quickly and weakly, so many pupils end the word in ant. It ends in ent.
Watch out for: subcontinant, subcontinet, subcontinint
Memory tip: Picture a tent pitched on a map of South Asia: the last three letters are the ent of tent.
Subcontinent in a sentence
Example 1: Monsoon winds bring most of the yearly rain to the Indian subcontinent between June and September.
Example 2: Cricket is followed with huge passion right across the subcontinent.
Example 3: Tea grown in the hills of the subcontinent is drunk all over the world.
Fun Fact
Used on its own, 'the subcontinent' nearly always means the Indian subcontinent. It rides on the Indian Plate, and that plate's slow push into the rest of Asia is what raised the Himalayas.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning.
1. plateu 2. subcontinent 3. peninsla 4. archipelego
a) a huge block of land within a much larger landmass
b) a piece of land almost surrounded by water
c) a group of islands scattered across a sea
d) a wide area of high, fairly flat land
Show answer
a) a huge block of land within a much larger landmass. Subcontinent is the one printed right; peninsula needs a u, archipelago has an a where this list has an e, and plateau ends in eau.
Mingle-Mangle
The sentence contains a jumbled word. Choose the word it hides:
Our train crossed a huge part of the eoibnttsnncu in three days, from Assam to Gujarat.
a) continental
b) constituent
c) subcontract
d) subcontinent
Show answer
d) subcontinent. Only subcontinent uses the b and all three n's; subcontract needs an a and an r, continental an a and an l, and constituent has no b.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our school quiz team had to name every river that flows through the subcontenent before the buzzer sounded at the end.
a) quiz
b) river
c) subcontenent
d) buzzer
Show answer
c) subcontenent. The vowel straight after the first t is an i, not an e.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
subconttinent
a) b
b) t
c) u
d) n
Show answer
b) t. Only one t follows con; the word's other t comes at the very end.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Pick the country that lies on the Indian subcontinent.
a) Kenya
b) Japan
c) Nepal
d) Peru
Show answer
c) Nepal
2. Which topics would you most expect a book about the subcontinent to cover?
a) the Alps and the River Rhine
b) the Ganga, the Thar Desert and the Deccan Plateau
c) the Sahara Desert and the River Nile
d) the Amazon rainforest and the Andes
Show answer
b) the Ganga, the Thar Desert and the Deccan Plateau
