Paper 3: Reading and understanding in Greek — Edexcel GCSE Greek
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Paper 3: Reading and understanding in Greek explained
This criterion asks you to work out the meaning of unfamiliar Greek words and phrases from the context of a variety of written texts.
Read the full explanation
You will meet different text types, such as messages, articles, stories, notices and advertisements, and you need to use clues around the unknown word to deduce its meaning. Clues include the topic of the sentence, the grammatical role of the word, cognates, word families, prefixes and suffixes, and the logic of what comes before and after. For example, if a text about a journey says that the travellers were tired and then uses an unfamiliar word for a place where they stopped, the context of rest and travel helps you deduce that it means a hotel or campsite. In a multiple-choice question, use these clues to eliminate options that do not fit the context, then choose the option that makes best sense of the whole sentence or paragraph.
Your focus
- Work out the meaning of unfamiliar Greek words from the context of a sentence or paragraph.
- Use cognates, word families, prefixes and suffixes to support deduction.
- Apply deduced meanings to answer multiple-choice questions about a variety of written texts.
Paper 3: Reading and understanding in Greek exam tips
Marking Points
- Uses the surrounding words and sentences to work out the meaning of an unfamiliar Greek word or phrase.
- Recognises cognates, word families, prefixes and suffixes that give clues to meaning.
- Uses knowledge of the topic and text type to predict likely meaning.
- Checks that the deduced meaning fits the grammar and logic of the whole sentence or paragraph.
- Selects the option that is consistent with the context rather than one that merely looks or sounds similar.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Read the whole sentence and the sentences before and after an unfamiliar word before you try to deduce its meaning.
- 💡Look for cognates, word roots, prefixes and suffixes that can give you a clue to the meaning.
- 💡Eliminate options that do not fit the grammar or the logic of the passage, then choose from the remaining options.
Common Mistakes
- Guessing a meaning from a single familiar-looking word without checking the rest of the sentence. Correction: read the whole sentence and the sentences around it before deciding.
- Assuming a word means the same as a similar-looking English word when the context shows it does not. Correction: test the assumed meaning against the whole passage and reject it if it does not fit.
- Ignoring grammatical clues such as gender, case or verb endings that show how a word functions. Correction: use these clues to narrow down what kind of word it is and what it can mean.
- Choosing an option because it repeats a word from the text rather than because it fits the meaning. Correction: focus on overall sense, not on matching individual words.