Check
Exceptional Expressions For Everyday Events
Many words can communicate more precisely the kinds of activities in which students engage. In a classroom, check is often used to mean confirm or verify. Check can also be used in the sense of testing something.
A third use of the verb is to limit or stop (e.g., The new law served to check the amount of funding). See how many of the words in the word web you and your students can integrate into your everyday classroom talk.
Follow-Ups
- How is examining different from scanning?
- How is to validate or to certify different from to check?
- If someone asks you to monitor the fish in the fish tank, what does the person want you to do?
- What does it mean to check your emotion or attitude at the door?
The Spanish Connection
The word check comes from the Middle English word chek-en, although it was derived from other languages. Originally, chek-en was used to describe a move in chess. We still use the word check in chess, though this is not the most common usage for the word check. The Spanish word for to check is the cognate chequear.
Word Changes
- Check can also be used as an adjective. Some tablecloths have a checked pattern that looks like a chessboard.
- There are two common definitions for the word checker. The first refers to the playing pieces used in the game checkers. Although the word check was originally used in chess, and the game of checkers is related to chess, the word checker is not check with the inflected ending -er. Checker is derived from the original use of the word, which meant to play chess.
- The second common definition for the word checker is a person who tallies the cost of items at a store. Checker in this definition derives from the use of check meaning to confirm or verify.
