Latin Influence in English Down Reading Answers

Aug 1, 2025

Latin Influence in English Reading Answers contains 14 questions and belongs to the assessment system of the IELTS General Reading test. Latin Influence in English Reading Answers must be answered within 20 minutes. In this IELTS reading section, question types include: Choose the most suitable headings, Do the following statements agree with the information, and Write the appropriate letter.

Latin Influence in English Reading Answers offers a comprehensive overview of English evolved as a Germanic language heavily influenced by Latin and French, borrowing extensively during major historical periods like the Norman Conquest and Renaissance. To practice similar reading tests, candidates can refer to the IELTS Reading Practice Test section.

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Topic:

A.English has been called a Germanic language with a Romance vocabulary. Estimates of native (Anglo-Saxon) words in English range from 20%-33%, with the rest made up of foreign borrowings. A large number of these borrowings are Latinate, coming directly from Latin, from Latin through Romance languages (French, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish) or from some other language (such as Greek) into Latin and then into English.

B.In the Dark Ages, the Germanic tribes who would later give rise to the English language (the Angles, Saxon, Frisians, and Jutes) traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire. Many Latin words for common objects therefore entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people before the tribes reached Britain: anchor, butter, camp, cheese, chalk, cook, devil, dish. Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the 6th century brought with them Latin religious terms which entered the English language: altar, bishop, church, clerk, mass, minister, monk, nun, pope, priest, school.

C.The Norman Conquest of 1066 gave England a two-tiered society with an aristocracy that spoke Norman French and a peasantry that spoke English. From 1066 until Henry IV of England ascended to the throne in 1399, the royal court of England spoke French. However, the Norman rule made no attempt to suppress the English language. In 1204, the Normans lost their land holdings in France and became wholly English. By the time we see Middle English in the 14th century, the Normans had contributed roughly 10,000 words to English, of which 75% remain in use.

D.During the time that the aristocracy had ignored the English language, the natural tendency of the language toward simplification had been able to proceed without official oversight. The result of this simplification was the loss of grammatical gender in nouns and adjectives, the beginning of the loss of the case system from Old English, simplified conjugations, and an overall loss of inflections. For example, of adjectival forms that existed in Old English, only two forms remained in Middle English, marking the singular and the plural, before becoming one form as in Modern English.

E.Old English had six ways of marking plural nouns. French, in common with all languages of the Western Romance branch, marked plurals with -s. Middle English, under influence from Norman French, had only two ways of marking plurals: -en and -s. The French -s eventually became the preferred form for marking regular plurals. In fact, only three inflected forms of the noun remain: brethren, children, and oxen.

F.The combination of a French-speaking aristocracy and an English-speaking peasantry gave rise to many pairs of words with a Latinate word in the higher register and a Germanic word in the lower register. For example, the names of barnyard animals tend to be Germanic, from the English farmers and herders used: chicken, cow, ox, sheep, swine. The names of the animals when they appear on one’s plate, as the aristocracy saw them, are of Latin origin: poultry, veal, beef, mutton, pork. Other such doublets include: close/shut; conceive/begin; decapitate/behead; desire/wish; noble/manly.

G.During the reign of the Normans, many words related to the ruling classes and the business of government entered English from French. Among these words are: city, conservative, countess, country, damage, etc. A few words retain the French construction of noun followed by adjective, in contrast to the typical English construction of adjective then noun: attorney general, court martial.

H.During the English Renaissance, from around 1500-1650, some 10,000 to 12,000 words entered the English lexicon, including lexicon. Many of these words were borrowed directly from Latin, both in its classical and medieval forms. Some examples include: allusion, democratic, enthusiasm, juvenile, sophisticated.

I.The dawn of the age of scientific discovery in the 17th and 18th centuries created the need for new words to describe newfound knowledge. Many words were borrowed from Latin, while others were coined from Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and/or from elements freely combined with elements from other languages including native Anglo-Saxon words. Some 20% of all scientific terms in English are of Latin origin: experiment, data.

J.As we saw with Latinate/Germanic doublets in food, English also has pairs of words where the noun is Germanic, the adjective is Latinate: head/capital, tooth/dental, moon/lunar, sun/solar, earth/terrestrial, mother/maternal, father/paternal, brother/fraternal, book/literary, edge/marginal, light/lucid, heart/cardiac, house/domestic and sight/visual.

K.It is not always easy to tell at what point a word entered English, nor in what form. Some words have come into English from Latin through one or another Romance language at one time and directly from Latin at another. Sometimes the same Latin word has given rise to more than one word in English. The first word in each pair came directly from Latin, while the second entered English from French (or Spanish, Italian): fragile/frail, fidelity/fealty. Some words have entered English twice from French, with the result that the English words appear to be changing in parallel. In French, for example, chief/chef (the former a Middle English development), Multiple borrowings from Latin have resulted in similar roots but often meanings and/or pronunciation diverge: strata/stratum; disc/disk; axis/axe; digital/digit.

L.As new technologies are invented, people coin new words using Latin or from coining new English words from Latin roots or other loanwords. As long as English remains the language of science and technology, Latin will continue to find new life.

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 3 has 12 paragraphs A-L.

Choose the most suitable headings for A-E.

Write the appropriate numbers (i-x).

NB There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all of them.

LIST OF HEADINGS

i. Half a dozen

ii. Goodbye gender

il. Old English, Middle English, and French

iv. In the 6th century and 7th century

v. Rivalry of plurals

vi. A library of languages

vii. An aristocracy vs. a peasantry

viii. The Norman Conquest of language

ix. Germanic tribes and Roman Empire

x. The origin of English

27. Paragraph A

Answer: x. The origin of English

Supporting statement: "English has been called a Germanic language with a Romance vocabulary."

Keywords: [Germanic, Romance vocabulary, foreign borrowings]

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, Line 1

Explanation: Paragraph A introduces English as a blend of Germanic structure and Romance vocabulary, setting the stage for the origin and evolution of the language, making “The origin of English” the most appropriate heading.

28. Paragraph B

Answer: ix. Germanic tribes and Roman Empire

Supporting statement: "the Germanic tribes...traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire."

Keywords: [Germanic tribes, Roman Empire, Latin words]

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, Line 1

Explanation: The paragraph focuses on interactions between Germanic tribes and the Romans and how Latin words entered their vocabulary even before arriving in Britain.

29. Paragraph C

Answer: viii. The Norman Conquest of language

Supporting statement: "The Norman Conquest of 1066 gave England a two-tiered society..."

Keywords: [Norman Conquest, French, 1066]

Keyword Location: Paragraph C, Line 1

Explanation: This paragraph discusses the linguistic impact of the Norman Conquest, including the influx of French words and the two-language class system.

30. Paragraph D

Answer: ii. Goodbye gender

Supporting statement: "The result of this simplification was the loss of grammatical gender in nouns and adjectives..."

Keywords: [loss, grammatical gender, simplification]

Keyword Location: Paragraph D, Line 2

Explanation: The paragraph focuses on simplification in English grammar, especially the loss of gender and inflections, which justifies the heading “Goodbye gender.”

31. Paragraph E

Answer: v. Rivalry of plurals

Supporting statement: "Middle English...had only two ways of marking plurals: -en and -s."

Keywords: [plurals, -s, -en, rivalry]

Keyword Location: Paragraph E, Line 2

Explanation: The paragraph compares historical plural forms in English, focusing on the shift from six plural forms to just -en and -s under French influence.

Questions 32-33

Match together the following sentence halves. Write the appropriate letter A-G.

A. with Latin religious terms.

B. before bringing them to England.

C. and so permanently settled in England.

D. are beef/cow, mutton/sheep and porky swine.

E. are earth/terrestrial, house/domestic and sight/visual.

F. came directly from Latin.

G. came from overseas.

32. Some common Latin/German doublets of the 17th and 18th centuries

Answer: E. are earth/terrestrial, house/domestic and sight/visual.

Supporting statement: "English also has pairs of words where the noun is Germanic, the adjective is Latinate..."

Keywords: [noun, adjective, Germanic, Latinate]

Keyword Location: Paragraph J, Line 1

Explanation: Paragraph J gives examples of noun/adjective doublets from Latin and Germanic roots, relevant to the 17th and 18th centuries.

33. In the 13th century the Norman French lost all their possessions in France

Answer: C. and so permanently settled in England.

Supporting statement: "In 1204, the Normans lost their land holdings in France and became wholly English."

Keywords: [lost land, became English, 1204]

Keyword Location: Paragraph C, Line 4

Explanation: The Normans lost their French territory and remained in England, cementing their linguistic and cultural integration.

Questions 34-36

Match together the following sentence halves. Write the appropriate letter A-G.

A. with Latin religious terms.

B. before bringing them to England.

C. and so permanently settled in England.

D. are beef/cow, mutton/sheep and porky swine.

E. are earth/terrestrial, house/ domestic and sight/visual.

F. came directly from Latin.

G. came from overseas.

34. Some common Latin/German doublets of the Norman period

Answer: D. are beef/cow, mutton/sheep and porky swine.

Supporting statement: "For example, the names of barnyard animals...are Germanic...the names...on one’s plate...are of Latin origin..."

Keywords: [beef/cow, pork/swine, Norman period]

Keyword Location: Paragraph F, Line 2

Explanation: This illustrates how the aristocracy used Latin-based terms for food, while the peasantry used Germanic terms for animals.

35. Roughly three quarters of English words

Answer: F. came directly from Latin.

Supporting statement: "Estimates...range from 20%-33%...with the rest made up of foreign borrowings...A large number...are Latinate..."

Keywords: [Latinate, borrowed words, Latin origin]

Keyword Location: Paragraph A, Lines 2–3

Explanation: The majority of English words come from Latinate sources, many of which were directly borrowed from Latin.

36. Germanic tribes learnt new Latin words from the Roman Empire through war and trade

Answer: B. before bringing them to England.

Supporting statement: "Many Latin words...entered the vocabulary...before the tribes reached Britain..."

Keywords: [Latin words, Germanic tribes, before reaching Britain]

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, Line 2

Explanation: Germanic tribes acquired Latin words during their interactions with Romans, before migrating to Britain.

Questions 37-40

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

YES if the statement agrees with the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the writer

NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage.

37. The term court martial is an example of an adjective followed by a noun.

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: "...French construction of noun followed by adjective: attorney general, court martial."

Keywords: [noun followed by adjective, court martial]

Keyword Location: Paragraph G, Line 3

Explanation: The passage states that “court martial” is an exception to English syntax, retaining French structure where the noun comes before the adjective.

38. The word atomic has a Latin root with an Anglo-Saxon root.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: The passage does not provide any information about the etymology of the word “atomic,” so the answer must be “Not Given.”

39. Frail and crown are English words that came directly from the French.

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: "fragile/frail – the first word in each pair came directly from Latin, the second from French..."

Keywords: [frail, fragile, Latin, French]

Keyword Location: Paragraph K, Line 4

Explanation: While “frail” came from French, its pair “fragile” came directly from Latin; “crown” is not discussed in this context.

40. Straight and strait mean the same but are pronounced differently.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: The passage does not mention these words or any comparison between their meanings or pronunciation.