‘Plane’ and ‘Plain’
- (a)‘Plane’ means a flat surface, and ‘plain’ means something that flies.
- (b)‘Plane’ means the flat surface, and ‘plain’ means not elaborate.
- (c)‘Plane’ means something that flies, and ‘plain’ means flat surface.
- (d)‘Plane’ means not elaborate, and ‘plain’ means flat surface.
Correct — B, the option that gives 'plane' as the flat surface and 'plain' as not elaborate. Both halves match the core senses of the two words — a plane is a flat, level surface, and 'plain' as an adjective means simple and unadorned. This is the only option that gives each word a sense that belongs to it alone, without borrowing from its partner.
- (a)‘Plane’ means a flat surface, and ‘plain’ means something that flies. — Its first half is right, but a plain does not fly. The flying machine is a plane, a shortening of aeroplane.
- (c)‘Plane’ means something that flies, and ‘plain’ means flat surface. — This is the tempting one, since a plane does fly and a plain is flat country. The key does not take it: 'something that flies' is the clipped form of 'aeroplane' rather than the word's core sense, and a plain is a flat tract of land, not the abstract flat surface that 'plane' names — which is the very confusion the pair exists to prevent.
- (d)‘Plane’ means not elaborate, and ‘plain’ means flat surface. — Both halves are swapped. 'Not elaborate' belongs to 'plain', and the flat surface belongs to 'plane'.
'Plane' and 'plain' both descend from the Latin planus, flat, which is why their meanings sit so close together. In present use 'plane' is the flat or level surface, while 'plain' is the adjective for simple and unadorned and the noun for a wide flat stretch of land.
This item deserves an honest word. Option (c) is not nonsense — people say 'plane' for an aeroplane every day, and the Gangetic plain is a flat tract of land — so a careful candidate can argue for it. The official key marks the other option, and its logic holds together: it pairs each word with a sense that is uniquely its own, since only 'plane' names a flat surface in the geometric sense and only 'plain' means unadorned. Where a key and a defensible reading pull apart like this, the safer exam habit is to prefer the option that keeps the two words distinct over the one that leans on a colloquial shortening.
- Both words descend from the Latin planus, flat.
- 'Plane' also names a carpenter's tool for smoothing wood, and a level of thought or existence as in 'on a higher plane'.
- 'Plain' as a noun names a large flat area of land, and as an adjective means simple, unadorned or easy to understand.
- Choosing the option that reaches for the aeroplane sense.
- Assuming that one true-sounding half makes the whole option correct.
Asked as a paired-words item where more than one option contains a true-sounding half and only one keeps the two words apart.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct sentence.
- (a)Two lines can meet on the same plain.
- (b)Two lines can meet on the same plane.
- (c)She wore a plane cotton saree.
- (d)The carpenter smoothed the board with a plain.
Answer(b) Two lines can meet on the same plane — a plane is a flat surface in geometry.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill in the blank. The food at the hostel is wholesome but __________.
- (a)plane
- (b)plain
- (c)planed
- (d)planing
Answer(b) plain — here it means simple and unelaborate.