How can I increase my vocabulary
One of the most frequent enquiries is "How can I increase my vocabulary?" .
Your vocabulary can be divided into 3 categories
- 1. Words with which you are thoroughly familiar and use confidently in your everyday speech and writing.
2. Words that you vaguely understand in other people's speech and writing, but which you wouldn't feel comfortable using yourself.
3. Those words that you don't understand at all.
Your goal would be :
- to become confident enough to use category 2 words yourself
- to gain an understanding of words that are fairly commonly used but which, for you, would presently be listed under category 3
Set yourself a target - say 10 words per week. (You can always increase your target as you get into the swing of things.)
Keep a notebook in which you jot down category 2 and 3 words that you come across in your daily life - in newspapers, radio, TV and at school or work.
- Write down just the word itself in the first instance
- When you have time, write down the whole sentence in which it appeared (as near as you can remember it.)
When it's convenient, perhaps when you’ve collected 2 or 3 words:
- Consult your dictionary to find (or confirm) the meaning. Does the word make sense in the sentence where it was used?
- Note down other words in the same word family. They should be listed along with the word you were looking up.
- Look your word up in a Thesaurus to find other words having a similar meaning. (A Thesaurus is by far the best tool to help expand your vocabulary)
An example might make this clearer. Suppose you read the following sentence in your newspaper: "Mr Bigg, president of Betaluna, was yesterday accused of being a despot by the country's opposition leader, Mr Aginim."
- Your dictionary would tell you that a despot is "an absolute ruler, a tyrant...." and words to that effect
- Your dictionary would also list:
- despotic - acting like a tyrant, dictatorial ..... etc
- despotism - rule with unlimited power
- Your Thesaurus would take you to "dictator, autocrat, overlord, oppressor, bully, tyrant ... etc
THEN you need to practise your new word
- Write a new sentence for each of the words in the word family, for example:
- Since being promoted to office manager, Mrs Brown has behaved in a rather despotic manner towards the staff.
- Despite appearing to take into consideration the views of his cabinet colleagues, the Prime Minister is still regarded as a despot.
- Idi Amin promised to introduce democracy to Uganda but what followed was in fact despotism.
- Practise using the words in speech:
- first thinking up sentences in your head
- saying them out aloud (to avoid embarrassment you need to be alone while you're doing this!)
- then using them in real conversations
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