TNPSC Group IV · Bite-size lessons

Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary

About 6 min · General Tamil — Eligibility-cum-Scoring Test · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 367 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary forms a scoring section in the TNPSC Group IV Tamil Eligibility-cum-Scoring Test (Part C). This section tests your ability to understand unseen Tamil prose passages and your command over Tamil vocabulary — synonyms, antonyms, idioms, proverbs, and grammatical forms like singular-plural and gender.

Key ideas

• Unseen Passage (பத்தியறிதல் வினாக்கள்): A prose passage is given; questions test literal comprehension, inference, title selection, and author's purpose.
• Synonyms (ஒத்த சொல்): Words with the same or nearly same meaning. Example: அழகு = எழில், சீர்.
• Antonyms (எதிர்ச்சொல்): Words with opposite meaning. Example: இருள் ↔ ஒளி, வெற்றி ↔ தோல்வி.
• Idioms (மரபுத்தொடர்): Fixed expressions where meaning differs from literal words. Example: "கண்ணில் படுதல்" = to be noticed, not literally falling in the eye.
• Proverbs (பழமொழி): Traditional sayings conveying wisdom. Example: "ஆழம் தெரியாமல் காலை விடாதே" = Don't step without knowing the depth.

Watch out for

• Bringing outside knowledge to comprehension → The correct approach is to answer strictly based on what the passage states, even if you know additional facts.
• Confusing idioms with proverbs → Idioms are phrases (incomplete sentences with figurative meaning); proverbs are complete sentences with moral wisdom. "கை கொடுத்தல்" is an idiom; "காக்கைக்கும் தன் குஞ்சு பொன் குஞ்சு" is a proverb.
• Selecting partial-theme titles → For title questions, students pick an option that matches one sentence. The correct title must capture the entire passage's scope.

Quick reference

• Comprehension mantra: Read twice → Find theme → Answer from passage only
• ஒத்த சொல் = Same meaning | எதிர்ச்சொல் = Opposite meaning
• மரபுத்தொடர் = Phrase (figurative) | பழமொழி = Sentence (wisdom)
• Singular → Plural: Usually add -கள் (புத்தகம் → புத்தகங்கள்)
• Gender quick check: -ன் ending often masculine, -ள் ending often feminine, -கள் for plurals

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 17 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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