How to spell questionnaire

hear itques·tion·naire/,kwɛsʧə'nɜr/nounPrefixes and work

What it means: A form containing a set of questions.

In a sentence: The teacher gave us a questionnaire to learn about our favorite animals.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double n, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as questionare or questionairre.

Same family: question, questioner, questioning, questionable, survey. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Questionnaire” comes from French, formed from “question” plus the suffix “-naire,” originally used for people or things connected with a list (as in “millionaire”). It entered English in the 19th century, and its French-style ending is one reason many people find it tricky to spell.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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