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AP Latin Practice Quiz: Morphology essentials and recognition cues

Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026

Test your understanding with short quizzes. This quiz has 7 questions to check your progress.

Question 1 of 7

Which of the following best defines a morpheme in linguistics?

All Questions (7)

Which of the following best defines a morpheme in linguistics?

A) The smallest unit of sound in a language.

B) The smallest meaningful unit in a language.

C) A complete word that can stand alone.

D) A grammatical rule governing sentence structure.

Correct Answer: B

A morpheme is defined as the smallest meaningful unit in a language. While it can be a complete word (free morpheme), it can also be a part of a word that carries meaning but cannot stand alone (bound morpheme). Option A describes a phoneme, and Option D describes syntax.

In the word 'unbreakable', how many morphemes are present?

A) One

B) Two

C) Three

D) Four

Correct Answer: C

The word 'unbreakable' consists of three morphemes: 'un-' (a bound prefix meaning 'not'), 'break' (a free root morpheme), and '-able' (a bound suffix meaning 'capable of being').

Which of the following pairs correctly distinguishes between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme?

A) 'Cat' (free) and '-s' (bound)

B) 'Run' (bound) and 'quickly' (free)

C) 'Pre-' (free) and 'view' (bound)

D) 'Happy' (bound) and 'un-' (free)

Correct Answer: A

A free morpheme can stand alone as a word, like 'cat'. A bound morpheme must be attached to another morpheme, like the plural suffix '-s'. 'Run' is a free morpheme. 'Pre-' and 'un-' are bound prefixes, and 'view' and 'happy' are free morphemes.

An affix that changes the grammatical category (part of speech) of a word, such as changing a verb to a noun, is known as a(n):

A) Inflectional morpheme

B) Free morpheme

C) Derivational morpheme

D) Allomorph

Correct Answer: C

Derivational morphemes are affixes that can change the meaning or the grammatical category (part of speech) of a word (e.g., 'teach' (verb) + '-er' = 'teacher' (noun)). Inflectional morphemes change grammatical function but not the core meaning or part of speech. Free morphemes stand alone, and allomorphs are variant forms of a morpheme.

Consider the words 'cats', 'dogs', and 'boxes'. The plural morpheme in these words exhibits different phonetic forms (e.g., /s/, /z/, /ɪz/). These variant forms of a single morpheme are called:

A) Allophones

B) Homonyms

C) Allomorphs

D) Synonyms

Correct Answer: C

Allomorphs are variant forms of a morpheme that have the same meaning but differ in pronunciation depending on their phonetic environment. The plural morpheme in English, often represented as '-s', has allomorphs like /s/ (cats), /z/ (dogs), and /ɪz/ (boxes). Allophones are variant forms of a phoneme, not a morpheme.

Which of the following is an example of an inflectional morpheme?

A) The '-ness' in 'happiness'

B) The 're-' in 'rewrite'

C) The '-ed' in 'walked'

D) The '-ful' in 'beautiful'

Correct Answer: C

Inflectional morphemes add grammatical information (like tense, number, or case) without changing the word's core meaning or part of speech. The '-ed' in 'walked' indicates past tense, but 'walk' remains a verb. '-ness', 're-', and '-ful' are derivational morphemes, as they change the word's meaning or part of speech (e.g., happy (adj) -> happiness (noun); write (verb) -> rewrite (verb, but new meaning); beauty (noun) -> beautiful (adj)).

In the word 'disagreeable', which part serves as the root morpheme?

A) dis-

B) -able

C) agree

D) disagree

Correct Answer: C

The root morpheme is the core part of a word that carries the main meaning and to which affixes are attached. In 'disagreeable', 'agree' is the root. 'dis-' is a prefix, and '-able' is a suffix. 'disagree' is a word formed by adding a prefix to the root, but 'agree' is the fundamental semantic core.