What Is vocabulary
- Vocabulary refers to the words a person knows and uses
- Vocabulary can be passive or active
Why should you improve your vocabulary?
- Words are catalysts for learning and thinking
- More words one can command, the more accurate one‟s thinking is
- Wide vocabulary improves academic scope
- Students who build vocabulary get better grades
- Words allow one to communicate one‟s thoughts and feelings
- Words help you to persuade and influence others
- A good repertoire of vocabulary reflects the personality of the speaker
How should you improve your vocabulary ?
- Learning is fun…like playing games
- Go for playing games … say with root words, foreign words [Greek, Latin, French, American, Indian]
- Play prefixing games, suffixing games,
- Synonym games and antonym games
- Use one word to learn many.
- Price refers to the amount of money for which something may be bought or sold.
- There are other words related to payment of money, l
- Fare
- Fee
- Fine
- Tax
- Toll
- Likewise, there are words related to travel, but a journey is not a voyage!
- An excursion is different from a tour and so on.
- Learn to use the right word.
Synonyms
- A synonym is a word which has the same or nearly the same meaning In one or more senses as another word.
- Use the right word… not almost the right word
- “THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RIGHT WORD AND THE ALMOST RIGHT WORD IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIGHTNING AND THE LIGHTNING BUG”—Mark Twain
- A student who knows a lot of synonyms will have the ability to use the right word in the right context. e.g.
- Vigorous/lively/energetic
- Elderly people who are frail should refrain from —-exercise
- Wrecked/demolished/ruined
- The old mansion was —-to make way for an expressway
Antonyms
- An antonym is a word that is opposite in meaning to another word
- Look at the following Examples.
- 1.Beating up a smaller person is not something brave. In fact it is a —–act
- 2. Some people are optimistic about the country‟s economy while others are quite—— about it.
- 3.Mr. Sharma‟s frugality is in sharp contrast to
his son‟s ——-.
Homophones
- These are words with the same pronunciation, but they are spelt differently and have different meanings. Most of them are short and monosyllabic:
- Tail and tale
- Bow and bough
- Hail and hale
- Pail and pale
- Blue and blew
- Bear and bare
- Fare and fair
Homonyms
- These are words spelt and pronounced alike, but have different meanings
- Bear
- Stalk
- Charge
- Row
- Bow
- Swallow
- Fine
Words with Classical roots
- -cide, -phile, -phobia are parts of words which can help you to multiply your vocab.
- They are words with Greek or Latin origins
- Cide is an act of killing
- Suicide, Genocide, Patricide, Matricide, Insecticide, Regicide, ecocide
- Phobia is a strong unreasonable fear about something
- Claustrophobia, Autophobia, Xenophobia, Ornithophobia, Aerophobia, Sociophobia, Astrophobia
- Phile refers to fondness for, affinity towards a particular thing
- Anglophile
- Bibliophile
- Pedophile
- Hellenophile
- Think of words commonly used like bonvoyage, viva voce
Idioms and slangs
- Knowing idioms and slangs can give a boost to your confidence.
- They cannot be understood literally.
- You must familiarize yourself with them.
- They can give you an edge over others who are not familiar with these phrases.
- American idioms and slangs are a huge part of American culture
Look at the following passage:
- Did you ever plan an exciting vacation only to get as sick as a dog when it was time to leave? Being under the
weather is no fun at all, but being sick on a vacation can make it really hard to keep your chin up. Just scarf down some hot chicken soup and get better lickety split…
Semantic field
- Words belong to different semantic fields like Medicine, Law, Journalism etc.
- Given below are set of words. Classify them according to four different semantic fields:
- Law, Cookery, Journalism, Politics
- Boil, Ballot, Appeal, Witness, Coverage, Court, Vote, Special Correspondent, Scoop, Knead, Barbecue, Manifesto, Spices, Adjourn, Seasoning, Reporter, Nomination, Public Prosecutor, Stir, Anesthetics.
Loan words or foreign words
- American English /British English
- Dumb
- Candy
- Apartment
- Gas
- Druggist
- Bill
- Fall
- French fries
Use New words
- There are plenty of words…interesting words, right words.
- Do not repeat the same words.
- That reflects a poor store of vocabulary.
- You don‟t like to repeat the same dress, do you?
- Why repeat words? Like its super, a college student‟s favourite word!
Look at the following letter written by a student who has joined the hostel . It was written some 10 years ago
- My dear Shashi,
- How are you? When I told you I have joined the college
and hostel you had asked me how I have adjusted to the
new surroundings. - The rooms are nice and my roommates are nice.
- The teachers are nice but the classrooms are not very nice.
- There is, however a nice auditorium which can
accommodate a thousand. - Every week some nice programmes are held there.
- When are you leaving for Jaipur? Have a nice trip.
- Now, help Veena who has a limited vocab .
- Try replacing „nice‟ with other suitable adjectives
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