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Vocabulary
EVERYONE—FROM BEGINNING LEARNERS in English to veterans in journalism—
knows the frustration of not having the right word immediately available in that lexicon
one carries between one's ears. Sometimes it's a matter of not being able to recall the right
word; sometimes we never knew it. It is also frustrating to read a newspaper or
homework assignment and run across words whose meanings elude us. Language, after
all, is power. When your children get in trouble fighting with the neighbors' children and
your neighbors call your children little twerps and you call their children nefarious
miscreants—well, the battle is over and they didn't stand a chance. Building a vocabulary
that is adequate to the needs of one's reading and selfexpression has to be a personal goal
for every writer and speaker.
Making It Personal
Using some durable piece of paper—white construction paper or the insides of the
rippedoff covers of old notebooks—begin to write down words in small but readable
script that you discover in your reading that you can't define. Read journals and
newspapers that challenge you in terms of vocabulary. Pursue words actively and become
alert to words that you simply overlooked in the past. Write down the words in one
column; then, later, when you have a dictionary at your disposal, write down a common
definition of the word; in a third column, write a brief sentence using the word,
underlined.
Carry this paper or cardboard with you always. In the pauses of your busy day—
when you're sitting on the bus, in the dentist's office, during commercials—take out the
paper and review your vocabulary words until you feel comfortable that you would
recognize (and be able to use) these words the next time you see them. The amazing thing
is that you will see the words again—even "nefarious miscreants," and probably sooner
than you thought. In fact, you might well discover that the words you've written down are
rather common. What's happening is not that, all of a sudden, people are using words you
never saw before, but that you are now reading and using words that you had previously
ignored.
Newspapers often carry brief daily articles that explore the meanings of words and
phrases. These articles often emphasize peculiar words that won't find themselves into
your working vocabulary, but they can still be fun. Often you'll find that learning one
new word leads to other new words, little constellations of meaning that keep your brain
cells active and hungry for more. Make reading these articles one of your daily habits, an
addiction, even.
Play dictionary games with your family in which someone uses the dictionary to find
a neat word and writes down the real definition and everyone else writes down a fake
(and funny) definition. See how many people you can fool with your fake definitions.
A thesaurus is like a dictionary except that it groups words within constellations of
meaning. It is often useful in discovering just the right word you need to express what
you want to say. Make sure you correctly understand the definition of a word (by using a
dictionary) before using it in some important paper or report. Your bookstore salesperson
can provide plenty of examples of an inexpensive thesaurus. The online Merriam
Webster's WWWebster Dictionary has access to both an extensive dictionary and a
hyperlinked thesaurus. Links allow you to go conveniently back and forth between the
dictionary and the thesaurus.
If you have a speedy computer processor and a fast hookup to the internet, we
recommend the Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus. Once the program is entirely loaded,
type in a word that you would like to see "visualized," hit the return key, and a construct
of verbal connections will float across the screen. Click on any of the words within that
construct and a new pattern of connections will emerge. Try the Visual Thesaurus with
several different kinds of words—verbs, adverbs, nouns, adjectives—and try adjusting
some of the various controls on the bottom of the window. We do not recommend this
website for slow machines; in fact, the bigger your monitor and the faster your computer
and connection, the more satisfying this experience will be.
When people use a word that puzzles you, ask what it means! You'll find that most
instructors, especially, are not in the least bothered by such questions—in fact, they're
probably pleased that you're paying such close attention—but if they do seem bothered,
write down the word and look it up later, before the context of the word evaporates.
Let's explore further. Going back to philosophy, we know the "sophy" part is related
to knowledge and the "phil" part is related to love (because we know that Philadelphia is
the City of Brotherly Love and that a philodendron loves shady spots). What, then, is
philanthropy? "Phil" is still love, and "anthropy" comes from the same Greek root that
gives us anthropology, which is the study ("logy," we know, means study of any kind) of
anthropos, humankind. So a philanthropist must be someone who loves humans and does
something about it—like giving money to find a cure for cancer or to build a Writing
Center for the local community college. (And an anthropoid, while we're at it, is an
animal who walks like a human being.) Learning the roots of our language can even be
fun!
Some common Greek and Latin roots:
Root
Meaning English words
(source)
aster, astr
star astronomy, astrology
(G)
audi (L) to hear audible, auditorium
bene (L) good, well benefit, benevolent
bio (G) life biology, autobiography
dic, dict (L) to speak dictionary, dictator
fer (L) to carry transfer, referral
fix (L) to fasten fix, suffix, affix
geo (G) earth geography, geology
graph (G) to write graphic, photography
jur, just (L) law jury, justice
log, logue word, monolog(ue), astrology,
(G) thought, biology, neologism
speech
luc (L) light lucid, translucent
manu (L) hand manual, manuscript
meter, metr
measure metric, thermometer
(G)
op, oper (L) work operation, operator
pathetic, sympathy,
path (G) feeling
empathy
ped (G) child pediatrics, pedophile
phil (G) love philosophy, Anglophile
body,
phys (G) physical, physics
nature
scrib, script
to write scribble, manuscript
(L)
tele (G) far off telephone,television
ter, terr (L) earth territory, extraterrestrial
vacant, vacuum,
vac (L) empty
evacuate
verb (L) word verbal, verbose
vid, vis (L) to see video, vision, television
Authority for this chart: The Little, Brown Handbook by H. Ramsay Fowler and Jane E. Aaron, & Kay
Limburg. 6th ed. HarperCollins: New York. 1995. By permission of Addison-Wesley Educational
Publishers Inc.
Authority for this table: The Little, Brown Handbook by H. Ramsay Fowler and Jane E. Aaron, & Kay
Limburg. 6th ed. HarperCollins: New York. 1995. By permission of Addison-Wesley Educational
Publishers Inc.
Suffixes, on the other hand, modify the meaning of a word and frequently determine
its function within a sentence. Take the noun nation, for example. With suffixes, the word
becomes the adjective national, the adverb nationally, and the verb nationalize.
See what words you can come up with that use the following suffixes.
Typical noun suffixes are ence, ance, or, er, ment, list, ism, ship,
ency, sion, tion, ness, hood, dom
Typical verb suffixes are en, ify, ize, ate
Typical adjective suffixes are able, ible, al, tial, tic, ly, ful, ous, tive,
less, ish, ulent
The adverb suffix is ly (although not all words that end in ly are adverbs
—like friendly)
The home dictionary should be large enough to contain much more than just
spellings. It should contain extensive definitions, word origins, and notes on usage.
Carrying in your purse or backpack a pocket dictionary with more concise definitions is
also a good idea. Get in the habit of turning to it often. A well worn dictionary is a
beautiful thing.
Vocabulary University is a new online resource for working on groups of related
vocabulary words in a puzzle format. Vocabulary U., a graphically rich Web site, is
broken into beginning, intermediate, and collegelevel work. Vocabulary for English
Language Learners is a treasury and nicely organized resources for ESL students. It is
maintained by the College of Arts & Sciences of Ohio University.
There are also at least two services that send you an email message every day with a
new word—with definitions, pronunciation guides, and examples of its use. Get in the
habit of reading these messages regularly. Print out the words and definitions you think
will be really useful, or write them down and carry them around with you on your
personal vocabulary builder.
Garner's Usage Tip OF the Day Bryan Garner, author of A Dictionary of
Modern American Usage (Oxford University Press), offers this invaluable,
free, daily email service. Subscription is easy.
http://www.us.oup.com/us/subscriptions/subscribe/?view=usa.
Vocab Vitamins (formerly "MyWordaDay"): Colin O'Malley maintains this
Website, a treasure for people who know that developing an adequate
vocabulary is not a shortterm project. Users can visit the Website or have
the WordaDay emailed to them. Words are arranged in meaningful groups
and defined in painstaking and useful detail, with plenty of examples.
http://www.vocabvitamins.com/.
WORDSMITH: To subscribe or unsubscribe to A.Word.A.Day, send a
message to wsmith@wordsmith.org with the "Subject:" line as "subscribe "
or "unsubscribe." The Wordsmith has thousands of subscribers. It does a
great job of discovering interesting themes and sources of words and then
exploring those words—a word a day—for a week or so and then goes off to
another theme and series of words.
Word of the Day: Maintained by Merriam Webster, Inc., the dictionary
people. Go to the online WWWebster Dictionary and click on Word of the
Day. From there, you can either subscribe to their free daily service or
explore their archives. The guides for pronunciation are easier to follow than
Wordsmith's and the examples are well founded and even fun. The Merriam
Webster people also provide a neat link directly to their word database so
that you can highlight a word on a Webpage, click on their icon in your
personal toolbar and get an instant and authoritative definition for that word.
The following resources do not go to your email account, but they are
easily available online — if you can just remember to visit them on a regular
basis.
Word of the Day from the OED: Although the online version of the
esteemed Oxford English Dictionary is not available without a hefty price
tag, you can get a free Word of the Day from the OED. You will find more
information there about each word presented than you could ever imagine
existed.
The New York Times Word of the Day: every weekday, a word chosen
from the archives of the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/wordofday/.
Michael Quinion's "World Wide Words": investigating the use and
creation of English words, from a British point of view. Fun to read, always
something new.http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm.
The Atlantic section on Language: from the Atlantic Monthly's online
journal. Select from "Word Court," "Word Fugitive," and "Word Police."
http://www.theatlantic.com/language/.
Word Safari challenges web surfers' knowledge of vocabulary, and then
sends them off on expeditions to see the chosen word used in context on the
web. Aiming her Web site at building academic vocabulary skills, Ruth
Pettis adds new vocabulary words every week.
http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/safari/index.htm.
The Maven's Word for the Day was maintained by the Reference division
of Random House. It went bellyup in December 2001, but the archives are
still available online. http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/.
You can also go to the website of the ScrippsHoward Annual National Spelling
Bee and listen to words on Audio Paideia. The words are arranged in interesting groups.
With RealAudio on your browser, you can hear the word and its definition and then try to
spell it on your own. Have a dictionary handy! This Guide to Grammar and Writing also
has a series of spelling tests that can be used as a vocabulary builders: go to the section
on Spelling and choose the spelling tests (bottom of the page) that use sound (the words
you're asked to spell are accompanied by brief definitions).
Javascript Vocabulary Stretchers, maintained by John Gales, offers a new
computergraded vocabulary test (ten words) every week. Michael Quinion maintains a
series of articles about the English language called Wide World of Words (also
available as a weekly email newsletter). You can spend days wandering through the
maze of wordgames and language resources listed in Judi Wolinsky's Word Play.
Crossword puzzles are an excellent way to develop your vocabulary. Do the puzzles
that appear in your local newspaper on a daily or weekly basis or try these interactive
crossword puzzles on the internet:
The Christian Science Monitor Interactive Crossword Puzzle
Crossword of the Day
Michael Curl's Puzzles and Wordplay (This stuff is a real challenge!)
Voycabulary.com provides a means of typing in the URL of any Web page and the
program will turn every word on that page into a clickable hyperlink that will reveal a
definition in MerriamWebster's Dictionary or Thesaurus. Voycabulary will also translate
a Web page into another language for you. Try it with this page, whose URL is
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/vocabulary.htm
Five-Dollar Words
An extensive vocabulary can be a powerful writing and speaking tool; it can also be
misused, made to make others feel powerless. Never use a fivedollar word where a fifty
cent word will do the job just as well or better. Do we really need utilize when a three
letter word, use, will nicely suffice. Risible is a lovely word, but is it worth sending your
readers to the dictionary when laughable is at hand? It's a good question. On the other
hand, don't cheat yourself or your readers out of some important nuance of meaning that
you've discovered in a word that's new to you. At some point you have to assume that
your readers also have dictionaries. It's sometimes a tough line to draw—between being a
pedantic, pretentious boor (Oh, there are three dandies!) and being a writer who can take
full and efficient advantage of the English language's multifarious (another one!)
resources.
Quizzes
The quizzes listed below are meant for college-level work. They include a number of
words that are alleged to appear on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests and Graduate Record
Exams from year to year. Have fun building these muscles.
MODIFIER PLACEMENT
Basic Principle: Modifiers are like teenagers: they fall in love with whatever they're next
to. Make sure they're next to something they ought to modify!
MISPLACED MODIFIER: Some modifiers, especially simple modifiers — only, just,
nearly, barely — have a bad habit of slipping into the wrong place in a sentence. (In the
sentence below, what does it mean to "barely kick" something?)
The issue of the proper placement of "only" has long been argued among
grammarians. Many careful writers will insist that "only" be placed immediately before
the word or phrase it modifies. Thus "I only gave him three dollars" would be rewritten
as "I gave him only three dollars." Some grammarians, however, have argued that such
precision is not really necessary, that there is no danger of misreading "I only gave him
three dollars" and that "only" can safely and naturally be placed between the subject and
the verb. The argument has been going on for two hundred years.
DANGLING MODIFIER: When we begin a sentence with a modifying word, phrase,
or clause, we must make sure the next thing that comes along can, in fact, be modified by
that modifier. When a modifier improperly modifies something, it is called a "dangling
modifier." This often happens with beginning participial phrases, making "dangling
participles" an all too common phenomenon. In the sentence below, we can't have a car
changing its own oil.
A participial phrase followed by an Expletive Construction will often be a dangling
participle — but the expletive construction is probably not a good idea anyway. This
faulty sentence can be remedied by changing the participial phrase into a fullfledged
clause with a subject and verb.
A participial phrase followed by a Passive Verb is also apt to be a dangler because the
real actor of the sentence will be disguised.
An infinitive phrase can also "dangle." The infinitive phrase below should probably
modify the person(s) who set up the exercise program.
Confusion To keep the young recruits
interested in getting in shape, an
exercise program was set up for the
summer months.
Repair To keep the young recruits
Work interested in getting in shape, the
coaching staff set up an exercise
program for the summer months.
SQUINTING MODIFIER: A third problem in modifier placement is described as a
"squinting modifier." This is an unfortunate result of an adverb's ability to pop up
almost anywhere in a sentence; structurally, the adverb may function fine, but its
meaning can be obscure or ambiguous. For instance, in the sentence below, do the
students seek advice frequently or can they frequently improve their grades by seeking
advice? You can't tell from that sentence because the adverb often is "squinting" (you
can't tell which way it's looking). Let's try placing the adverb elsewhere.
See the section on Sentence Variety for definitions and examples of Summative and
Resumptive Modifiers
SENTENCE VARIETY
Definition of a Sentence
Before elaborating too much on the nature of sentences or trying to define a sentence's
parts, it might be wise to define a sentence itself. A sentence is a group of words
containing a subject and predicate. Sometimes, the subject is "understood," as in a
command: "[You] go next door and get a cup of sugar." That probably means that the
shortest possible complete sentence is something like "Go!" A sentence ought to express
a thought that can stand by itself, but it would be helpful to review the section on
Sentence Fragments for additional information on thoughts that cannot stand by
themselves and sentences known as "stylistic fragments." The various Types of
Sentences, structurally, are defined, with examples, under the section on sentence
variety. Sentences are also defined according to function: declarative (most of the
sentences we use), interrogative (which ask a question — "What's your name?"),
exclamatory ("There's a fire in the kitchen!"), and imperative ("Don't drink that!")
In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (IIiv), we see that great "stuffed cloakbag of
guts," Falstaff, in debate with his good friend Prince Hal, the future King of England.
After a night of debauchery together, he is imploring his young friend not to forget him
when Hal becomes King. The banter goes on, but the best part of it is Falstaff's last few
sentences on the matter (talking about himself here — his favorite subject):
But to say I know more harm
in him than in myself,
were to say more than I know.
That he is old, the
more the pity, his white hairs
do witness it; but
that he is, saving your
reverence, a whoremaster,
that I utterly deny. If sack and
sugar be a fault,
God help the wicked! if to be
old and merry be a
sin, then many an old host that
I know is damned: if
to be fat be to be hated, then
Pharaoh's lean kine
are to be loved. No, my good
lord; banish Peto,
banish Bardolph, banish
Poins: but for sweet Jack
Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff,
true Jack Falstaff,
valiant Jack Falstaff, and
therefore more valiant,
being, as he is, old Jack
Falstaff, banish not him
thy Harry's company, banish
not him thy Harry's
company: banish plump Jack,
and banish all the world.
The speech is quite a ramble, filled with Falstaff's lively good spirits. How can the Prince
follow this? He does, with two little sentences:
I do. I will.
And there you have it. The prince knows he must someday, soon, renounce his life with
Falstaff and turn to the responsibilities of ruling England. All the kinetic energy of
Falstaff, manifested in the turns of phrase and rhythm in this speech, has been dammed
up, thwarted and turned back by those two little sentences, four little words.
That's what variety of sentence length can do. Great expansiveness followed up by
the bullwhip crack of a oneliner. It's not that one kind of sentence is better than the other
(although the taste of the twentiethcentury reader generally favors the terse, the
economical). It's just that there are two different kinds of energies here, both potent. Use
them both, and your prose will be energized.
The trouble is that many writers, unsure of themselves, are leery of long sentences
because they fear the runon, that troll under the bridge, forgetting that it is often better to
risk imperfection than boredom.
What we need, then, is practice in handling long sentences. It is relatively easy to
feel confident in writing shorter sentences, but if our prose is made up entirely of shorter
structures, it begins to feel like "See Dick run. See Jane jump. See Jane jump on Puff."
Primer style (pronounced "primmer" in the U.S.A.), it's called, and it would drive a
reader crazy after a while.
NOW IF NATURE SHOULD INTERMIT HER COURSE and leave altogether, though it were but
for awhile, the observation of her own laws; if those principal and mother elements of the
world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qalities which
now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen
and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by
irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen; if the prince of the lights
of heaven which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course, should, as it were through
a languishing faintness, begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander
from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered
and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the
earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away as children at
the withered breasts of their mother no longer able to yield them relief — what would
become of man himself, whom these things now do all serve?
The modern reader might rebel at the complexity of those clauses piled one upon the
other, and it does seem rather ponderous at first. In fact, if you were to write such a
sentence in academic prose, your instructor would probably call you in for a conference.
But if, as reader, you let yourself go a bit, there's a well earned delight in finding yourself
at the end of such a sentence, having successfully navigated its shoals. And, as writer
(avoiding such extremes), there's much to be learned by devising such monsters and then
cutting them back to reasonable size.
Here are some hints about using long sentences to your advantage. The ideas here
are based loosely on those in Williams' book, which we highly recommend, but with our
own examples.
Coordination
Allow the complexity of a longer sentence to develop after the verb, not before it.
Click HERE to read a 239word sentence (not a runon, though) that succeeds
grammatically but fails stylistically because it does way too much work before the
subjectverb connection is made. Make the connection between subject and verb quick
and vigorous and then allow the sentence to do some extra work, to cut a fancy figure or
two. In the completer (predicate), however, be careful to develop the complex structures
in parallel form.
Click HERE to visit our section on parallel form,
most of which is taken from William Strunk's
Elements of Style. Be sure to go through our "slide
show" on the Gettysburg Address and closely
examine the uses of parallelism in that classic
speech.
Repeated Terms
One of the scariest techniques for handling long sentences is the repetition of a key
term. It feels risky because it goes against the grain of what you've been taught about
repetition. When properly handled, though, repetition of key words and phrases within a
sentence and then within a paragraph not only holds things together but creates a rhythm
that provides energy and drives the meaning home.
The Swiss watchmakers' failure to capitalize on the invention of the digital timepiece was
both astonishing and alarming — astonishing in that the Swiss had, since the
beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe, been among the first to capitalize on
technical innovations, alarming in that a tremendous industrial potential had been lost to
their chief competitors, the watchmakers of Japan.
In the following sentences, from a speech by John F. Kennedy (dedicating the
Robert Frost Library at Amherst College), observe how the repeated, parallel phrases pile
up meaning in rhythmical waves:<
IN AMERICA, OUR HEROES HAVE CUSTOMARILY RUN to men of large accomplishments.
But today this college and country honors a man whose contribution was not to our size
but to our spirit, not to our political beliefs but to our insight, not to our selfesteem, but
to our selfcomprehension. . . .
I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will
match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power
with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and
beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the
great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will
build handsome and balanced cities for our future.
Amherst, Massachusetts
October 26, 1963
The same principle can apply to repeated whole sentences in a paragraph. Watch
how President Kennedy drives home his point in the famous "Ich bin ein Berliner"
speech:
THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD who really don't understand, or say they don't,
what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come
to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them
come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with
the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is
true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress.
Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
Hartford continues to lose its industrial base, which means that more and
more of its income base depends on companies whose primary business is
paper shuffling.
Instead of using that clumsy "which clause," let's rename the event and follow it with a
dependent clause that amplifies the added noun.
Hartford continues to lose its industrial base, an economic catastrophe in
the making [that is] characterized by an income base primarily dependent
on companies engaged in paper shuffling.
I SEE IT NOW — THE WIDE SWEEP OF THE BAY, THE GLITTERING SANDS, the wealth of
green infinite and varied, the sea blue like the sea of a dream, the crowd of attentive
faces, the blaze of vivid colour — the water reflecting it all, the curve of the shore, the
jetty, the highsterned outlandish craft floating still, and the three boats with the tired men
from the West sleeping, unconscious of the land and the people and of the violence of
sunshine.
And we all nodded at him: the man of finance, the man of accounts, the man of law,
we all nodded at him over the polished table that like a still sheet of brown water
reflected our faces, lined, wrinkled; our faces marked by toil, by deceptions, by success,
by love; our weary eyes looking still, looking always, looking anxiously for something
out of life, that while it is expected is already gone — has passed unseen, in a sigh, in a
flash — together with the youth, with the strength, with the romance of illusions.
Joseph Conrad
"Youth: A Narrative" (1902)
The Swiss watchmakers' failure to capitalize on the invention of the digital
timepiece was both astonishing and alarming — astonishing in that the
Swiss had, since the beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe, been
among the first to capitalize on technical innovations, alarming in that a
tremendous industrial potential had been lost to their chief competitors, the
watchmakers of Japan.
A summative modifier quickly renames or sums up what was going on in an
earlier part of the sentence and then adds new information:
The defensive coaches taught risktaking, ballhawking, and perpetual
movement — three strategies that bewildered the opposition and resulted in
many bad passes, steals, and easy fastbreak baskets.
5. Appositive: Maria, an obedient child, went to sleep.
6. Participial Phrase: Maria, hoping to catch up on her rest, went
to sleep.
Using Terminal Modifiers:
7. Present Participial Phrase: Maria went to sleep, hoping to
please her mother.
8. Past Participial Phrase/Adjectival Phrase: Maria went to sleep,
lulled by music.
9. Maria went to sleep, awakening to scary dreams, relieved when
it was morning.
Combining Modifiers:
10. Quickly and quietly, Maria, a young girl, went to sleep hoping
to please her mom.
(This section was prepared by Kristin Zook, a student in Professor Karyn Hollis's Tutor Training course at
Villanova University.)
Unlike medicine or the other sciences, writing has no
new discoveries to spring on us. We're in no danger of
reading in our morning newspaper that a
breakthrough has been made in how to write a clear
English sentence—that information has been around
since the King James Bible.
__
William Zinsser
in On Writing Well
Try beginning an occasional sentence with something other than the normal subject
followedbyverb order of things. Begin with a modifying clause or participial phrase
instead. "After Pontiac's insurrection led to the Proclamation of 1763, a brief period of
peace ensued. Having led his people in a successful resistance, Pontiac was astonished to
discover how Indian tribal differences and individualism began, instantly, to erode their
base of unified power."
Try beginning a sentence with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, nor, for, yet,
or, so). Many writers have had it pounded into their skulls that if you begin a sentence
with and or but that sentence should have been linked (instead) to the previous sentence
in a compound structure. It goes against the grain to begin a sentence with and or but. But
give it a try. A sentence beginning with a conjunction will almost always call attention to
itself and it will always serve primarily as a connective device. If that's what you want,
use it — but not so often that the effect gets out of control and becomes selfdefeating.
Try using a variety of basic sentence structures. We can categorize sentences into
four main types, depending on the number and type of clauses they contain:
1. Simple (one independent clause):
We drove from Connecticut to Tennessee in one day.
2. Compound (more than one independent clause):
We were exhausted, but we arrived in time for my father's birthday party.
3. Complex (one independent clause and at least one dependent clause):
Although he is now 79 years old, he still claims to be 65.
4. Compoundcomplex (more than one independent clause and at least one
dependent clause):
After it was all over, my dad claimed he knew we were planning something, but
we think he was really surprised.
Sentence Types
In terms of style, you will also find that sentences are classified as periodic or
cumulative sentences. Periodic sentences begin with modifying phrases and clauses,
sometimes piling them on, and then end with an independent clause, period.
Cumulative sentences, on the other hand, begin with the independent clause and
then finish with a flurry of modifying constructions. See the sentences of President
Kennedy above.
Again, it is not so much that one kind of sentence is to be preferred over another but
that a good craftsperson uses the right tool for the right job and doesn't use the same tool
all the time.
It does no good to be overly conscious of these sentence types in the first draft of
your essay, but as you review your essay, keep in mind that too many sentences of any
one kind — especially too many simple sentences — will be tedious for your reader. On
the other hand, as we have seen, there is nothing like a brief sentence to drive home a
point after a lengthy, rambling sentence. Try spicing up your prose by combining
sentences into different structures.
See the Exercise on Avoiding Primer Style.
The most important thing you will derive from using a variety of sentence types is
the shifts in tone that will result. Variety of sentence structure and type liberates your text
from the monotone. Ezra Pound said that writing aspires to music, "which is the art of
arts." Good academic prose is not poetry and it is not music, but there is surely no reason
for it to remain on the dull plains of sameness.
Try using an occasional cleft sentence. The structure of a cleft sentence allows a
writer to emphasize a part of a sentence in the same way that a speaker can emphasize
part of a sentence using voice stress. We could say "Coach CALHOUN came up with the
program of recruiting players from foreign countries." and by stressing the word
"Calhoun" we let the listener know that we're distinguishing this coach from all others (in
this particular context). To create the same kind of stress in writing, we can "cleave"
(split) the sentence into two parts:
It was Coach Calhoun who came up with the program of recruiting players
from foreign countries.
Or we could stress the idea of the PROGRAM in this way:
It was the program of recruiting players from foreign countries that Coach
Calhoun came up with.
The cleft sentence usually uses it as the main subject with a to be verb; the real
information in the sentence, oddly enough, follows in the predicate and then in a
dependent clause beginning with a dependent word (usually who, which, or that).
Another form of the cleft sentence can be created with what (instead of it).
What you did in your youth is your own business.
The what form of the cleft sentence will frequently take the main verb (and business)
of the sentence and put it into an initial noun clause:
A massive typhoon off the east coast delayed the invasion.
What delayed the invasion was a massive typhoon off the east coast.
Cleft sentences are useful for putting stress in a sentence exactly where you want it,
but they should be used sparingly, reserved for special occasions — like birthdays,
wedding anniversaries, and the annual return of the buzzards to Hinckley, Ohio.
An emphatic sentence puts the stress on an auxiliary verb instead of some element
after the verb, a complement or modifier. In normal intonation, we might say something
like "The President was traveling to EGYPT yesterday," thus stressing how the President
spent the day. If someone doubted the veracity of our statement, however, we might
make our statement more emphatic by placing the stress of our intonation on the
auxiliary: "The President WAS traveling to Egypt yesterday." In the absence of an
auxiliary, the verb "do" is used to create emphasis: "The President DID spend the day in
Egypt." The "to do" form has no effect on the meaning of the sentence except that it adds
emphasis. Click HERE for more information of the uses and forms of the "emphatic do."
Emphatic sentences are seldom used in academic, formal prose.
The picture of Falstaff (above, top of page) is a detail from Francis Hayman. Falstaff Raising Recruits, 1760s
Verbs and Verbals
auxiliary || gerunds || infinitives || irregular || linking || mood || auxiliary || participles || phrasal ||
causative || factitive ||sequence || tense
There are separate sections on
The Passive Voice
Progressive, Stative, and Dynamic Verbs and
Conditional Verb Forms
The "To Be" Verb
Definitions
Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence.
I am a student.
The students passed all their courses.
As we will see on this page, verbs are classified in many ways. First, some verbs require
an object to complete their meaning: "She gave _____ ?" Gave what? She gave money to
the church. These verbs are called transitive. Verbs that are intransitive do not require
objects: "The building collapsed." In English, you cannot tell the difference between a
transitive and intransitive verb by its form; you have to see how the verb is functioning
within the sentence. In fact, a verb can be both transitive and intransitive: "The monster
collapsed the building by sitting on it."
Although you will seldom hear the term, a ditransitive verb — such as cause or
give — is one that can take a direct object and an indirect object at the same time: "That
horrid music gave me a headache." Ditransitive verbs are slightly different, then, from
factitive verbs (see below), in that the latter take two objects.
Verbs are also classified as either finite or nonfinite. A finite verb makes an
assertion or expresses a state of being and can stand by itself as the main verb of a
sentence.
The truck demolished the restaurant.
The leaves were yellow and sickly.
Nonfinite verbs (think "unfinished") cannot, by themselves, be main verbs:
The broken window . . .
The wheezing gentleman . . .
Another, more useful term for nonfinite verb is verbal. In this section, we discuss
various verbal forms: infinitives, gerunds, and participles.
Name of verb Base form Past form Present participle Past participle
I can work.
to work I worked. I am working. I have worked.
I work.
I can write.
to write I wrote. I am writing. I have written.
I write.
Linking Verbs
A linking verb connects a subject and its complement. Sometimes called copulas,
linking verbs are often forms of the verb to be, but are sometimes verbs related to the five
senses (look, sound, smell, feel, taste) and sometimes verbs that somehow reflect a state
of being (appear, seem, become, grow, turn, prove, remain). What follows the linking
verb will be either a noun complement or an adjective complement:
Those people are all professors.
Those professors are brilliant.
This room smells bad.
I feel great.
A victory today seems unlikely.
A handful of verbs that reflect a change in state of being are sometimes called resulting
copulas. They, too, link a subject to a predicate adjective:
His face turned purple.
She became older.
The dogs ran wild.
The milk has gone sour.
The crowd grew ugly.
"This is he."
A Frequently Asked Question about linking verbs concerns the correct
response when you pick up the phone and someone asks for you. One
correct response would be "This is he [she]." The predicate following the
linking verb should be in the nominative (subject) form — definitely not
"This is him." If "This is he" sounds stuffy to you, try using "Speaking,"
instead, or "This is Fred," substituting your own name for Fred's — unless
it's a bill collector or telemarketer calling, in which case "This is Fred" is a
good response for everyone except people named Fred.
Mood
Mood in verbs refers to one of three attitudes that a
Click on the "Verb Guy" to
writer or speaker has to what is being written or spoken. read and hear Bob
Dorough's "Verb: That's
The indicative mood, which describes most sentences on What's Happening!" (from
this page, is used to make a statement or ask a question. The Scholastic Rock, 1974).
Schoolhouse Rock® and its
imperative mood is used when we're feeling sort of bossish characters and other
elements are
and want to give a directive, strong suggestion, or order: trademarks and service
marks of American
Broadcasting Companies,
Inc. Used with permission.
Get your homework done before you watch television tonight.
Please include cash payment with your order form.
Get out of town!
Notice that there is no subject in these imperative sentences. The pronoun you
(singular or plural, depending on context) is the "understood subject" in imperative
sentences. Virtually all imperative sentences, then, have a second person (singular or
plural) subject. The sole exception is the first person construction, which includes an
objective form as subject: "Let's (or Let us) work on these things together."
The subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses that do the following: 1)
express a wish; 2) begin with if and express a condition that does not exist (is contrary to
fact); 3) begin with as if and as though when such clauses describe a speculation or
condition contrary to fact; and 4) begin with that and express a demand, requirement,
request, or suggestion. A new section on the uses of the Conditional should help you
understand the subjunctive.
She wishes her boyfriend were here.
If Juan were more aggressive, he'd be a better hockey player.
We would have passed if we had studied harder.
He acted as if he were guilty.
I requested that he be present at the hearing.
The subjunctive is not as important a mood in English as it is in other languages, like
French and Spanish, which happen to be more subtle and discriminating in hypothetical,
doubtful, or wishful expressions. Many situations which would require the subjunctive in
other languages are satisfied by using one of several auxiliary verbs in English.
The present tense of the subjunctive uses only the base form of the verb.
He demanded that his students use twoinch margins.
She suggested that we be on time tomorrow.
The past tense of the subjunctive has the same forms as the indicative except
(unfortunately) for the verb to be, which uses were regardless of the number of the
subject.
If I were seven feet tall, I'd be a great basketball player.
He wishes he were a better student.
If you were rich, we wouldn't be in this mess.
If they were faster, we could have won that race.
An excellent resource for learning more about the subjunctive is available in the online American Heritage
Book of English Usage.
Quiz on Uses of the Subjunctive
The problem with phrasal verbs is that their meaning is often, at first, obscure, and
they often mean several different things. To make out, for instance, can mean to perceive
or to see something; it can also mean to engage in light sexual play. If someone chooses
to turn up the street that is a combination of a verb and a preposition, but it is not a
phrasal verb. On the other hand, if your neighbors unexpectedly turn up (appear) at a
party or your brother turns up his radio, those are phrasal verbs. To come out, we are told,
has eighteen different meanings.
Verbs can be combined with different prepositions and other words, sometimes with
dizzying effect: stand out, stand up, stand in, stand off, stand by, stand fast, stand pat,
stand down, stand against, stand for. Further, the verb and the word or phrase it connects
to are not always contiguous: "Fill this out," we would say, but then we would say, "Fill
out this form."
You can click HERE for an extensive list of phrasal verbs, broken down into
categories of transitive and intransitive, separable and inseparable. The list of verbs is
accompanied with brief definitions and examples. Printed out, the list will be five or six
pages long, depending on the size font you are using, the width of your browser window,
etc. Understand, however, that the list is a mere sampling of the hundreds of phrasal verb
combinations. For beginning language learners, the challenge of mastering phrasal verbs
is so great that only intensive instruction and practice in an ESL program and a great deal
of time spent listening and reading carefully can address the problem. Having a good
dictionary at hand is also helpful.
Quiz on Phrasal Verbs
Second Quiz on Phrasal Verbs
Causative Verbs
Causative verbs designate the action necessary to cause another action to happen. In
"The devil made me do it." the verb "made" causes the "do" to happen. Here is a brief list
of causative verbs, in no particular order: let, help, allow, have, require, allow, motivate,
get, make, convince, hire, assist, encourage, permit, employ, force. Most of them are
followed by an object (noun or pronoun) followed by an infinitive: "She allows her pet
cockatiel to perch on the windowsill. She hired a carpenter to build a new birdcage."
Three causative verbs are exceptions to the pattern described above. Instead of being
followed by a noun/pronoun and an infinitive, the causative verbs have, make and let are
followed by a noun/pronoun and the base form of the verb (which is actually an infinitive
with the "to" left off).
Professor Villa had her students read four short novels in one week.
She also made them read five plays in one week.
However, she let them skip the final exam.
Factitive Verbs
Verbs like make, choose, judge, elect, select, name. are called factitive verbs. These
transitive verbs can take two objects, or seem to:
They judged Philbert's dog Best of Show. (where "dog" is the direct object
and "Best of Show" is the second complement).
The faculty elected Dogsbreath the new Academic Dean. (where Dogsbreath
is the direct object and "Academic Dean" is the second complement).
U.S. News and World Report named our college the best in the northeast.
(where "our college" is the direct object and "the best" is the second
complement).
Tenses
Tense shows the time of a verb's action or being. There are three inflected forms
reflected by changes in the endings of verbs. The present tense indicates that something
is happening or being now: "She is a student. She drives a new car." The simple past
tense indicates that something happened in the past: "She was a student. She drove a new
car." And the past participle form is combined with auxiliary verbs to indicate that
something happened in the past prior to another action: "She has been a student. She had
driven a new car."
Unlike most other languages, English does not have inflected forms for the future
tense. Instead, English future forms are created with the use of auxiliaries: "She will be a
student. She is going to drive a new car." English can even create the future by using the
present tense, "The bus arrives later this afternoon," or the present progressive, "He is
relocating to Portland later next month."
For an extensive discussion of the future tense in English, click HERE.
Progressive Verbs
The progressive tenses, which indicate something being
or happening, are formed with the present participle For help with the
form (ending in ing) along with various auxiliaries. verb "to be," click
the enter button
"She is driving. She was driving. She will be driving. below.
She has been driving. She had been driving. She will
have been driving." Click HERE for more on the
progressive forms. Some verbs, called stative verbs,
(including, sometimes, the verb to be) do not normally
create the progressive. Click here for a discussion of the
difference between stative and dynamic verbs.
If you have a framescapable browser, we recommend the
The Directory contains descriptions, conjugations (for both regular and irregular verbs),
and sample sentences for the twelve tenses of active voice verbs. For a greatly simplified
onepage summary of these tenses, click HERE.
Quiz on Identifying Tenses
Irregular Verbs
Most verbs in English form their various tenses consistently: add ed to the base of a
verb to create the simple past and past participle: he walked; he has walked. There are,
however, a number of socalled irregular verbs, (including, unfortunately, some very
common verbs such as to be and to have) whose various forms must be memorized. An
alphabetized list of Common Irregular Verbs is available in the Guide that you can
copy or print out and then try to memorize or at least use in practice sentences. You
should take the quizzes on irregular verbs, below, after you've looked at this list.
Recognizing Verbs: Verbmaster
Recognizing Verbs: Verbmaster 2
Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs II
Irregular Verbs III
Irregular Verbs Crossword Puzzle
Sequence of Tenses
Sequence of Tenses: The relationship between verbs in a main clause and verbs in
dependent clauses is important. These verb tenses don't have to be identical as long as
they reflect, logically, shifts in time and meaning: "My brother had graduated before I
started college." "My brother will have graduated before I start." Click HERE for a chart
describing various time relationships and how those relationships determine the
appropriate sequence of verb tenses.
Verbals
Verbals are words that seem to carry the idea of action or being but do not function
as a true verb. The are sometimes called "nonfinite" (unfinished or incomplete) verbs.
Because time is involved with all verb forms, whether finite or nonfinite, however,
following a logical Tense Sequence is important. Click HERE for a chart describing the
time elements involved in choosing the correct verbal form. Verbals are frequently
accompanied by other, related words in what is called a verbal phrase.
Participle: a verb form acting as an adjective. The running dog chased the fluttering
moth. A present participle (like running or fluttering) describes a present condition; a past
participle describes something that has happened: "The completely rotted tooth finally
fell out of his mouth." The distinction can be important to the meaning of a sentence;
there is a huge difference between a confusing student and a confused student. See the
section on Adjectives for further help on this issue.
Infinitive: the root of a verb plus the word to. To sleep, perchance to dream. A
present infinitive describes a present condition: "I like to sleep." The perfect infinitive
describes a time earlier than that of the verb: "I would like to have won that game." See
the section on Sequence below for other forms as well.
If there is one error in writing that your boss or history prof can and will
pick up on, it's the notorious split infinitive. An infinitive is said to be
"split" when a word (often an adverb) or phrase sneaks between the to of
the infinitive and the root of the verb: "to boldly go," being the most
famous of its kind. The argument against split infinitives (based on rather
shaky historical grounds) is that the infinitive is a single unit and,
therefore, should not be divided. Because it raises so many readers'
hackles and is so easy to spot, good writers, at least in academic prose,
avoid the split infinitive. Instead of writing "She expected her
grandparents to not stay," then, we could write "She expected her
grandparents not to stay." Sometimes, though, avoiding the split infinitive
simply isn't worth the bother. There is nothing wrong, really, with a
sentence such as the following:
He thinks he'll be able to more than double his salary this year.
Gerund: a verb form, ending in ing, which acts as a noun. Running in the park after
dark can be dangerous. Gerunds are frequently accompanied by other associated words
making up a gerund phrase ("running in the park after dark").
Because gerunds and gerund phrases are nouns, they can be used in any way that a noun
can be used:
as subject: Being king can be dangerous for your health.
as object of the verb: He didn't particularly like being king.
as object of a preposition: He wrote a book about being king.
The women's hockey
team hoped to have won
a gold medal before they
were done.
Perfective
Forms We were thrilled about
their having been in
contention in the world
championships before.
To be chosen as an
olympian must be the
biggest thrill in any
Passive athlete's life.
Forms
Being chosen, however,
is probably not enough.
The women did not seem
satisfied simply to have
been selected as players.
Perfective
Passiv
e Having been honored
Forms this way, they went out
and earned it by winning
the gold.
Perfective To have been competing
Progre at that level, at their age
ssive already, was quite an
Infinitiv
e accomplishment.
Although a gerund and an infinitive will often have practically the same meaning
("Running in the park after dark can be dangerous" and "To run in the park after dark can
be dangerous"), there can be a difference in meaning. Gerunds are used to describe an
"actual, vivid, or fulfilled action" whereas infinitives are better used to describe
"potential, hypothetical, or future events" (Frodesen & Eyring 297). This is especially
true with three kinds of verbs: verbs of emotion, verbs of completion/incompletion, and
verbs of remembering.
EMOTION
Actual Event Potential Event
I hated practicing my I prefer to work during the
violin while the other kids day.
were playing outside.
COMPLETION/INCOMPLETION
Actual Event Potential Event
We began working on this We will continue to work
project two years ago. We on this project for the next
finished working on this four months. I wonder
project a month ago. when we will start to wrap
(Finish always takes a up this project.
gerund.)
REMEMBERING
(such as remember, forget, regret)
Juanita forgot to do her Juanita forgot doing her
homework. (meaning that homework. (meaning that
Juanita failed to do her Juanita did her homework
homework because she but that she forgot she had
didn't remember to do it) done so)
These distinctions for the various kinds of verbs (above) are based on those found in Grammar Dimensions:
Form, Meaning, and Use. 2nd Ed. Jan Frodesen and Janet Eyring. Heinle & Heinle: Boston, 1997.
Examples our own.
For
additional
help
recognizing
and working
with verbs
and verb
forms, see
Chapter 2 of
Sentence
Sense: A
Writer's
Guide.
Free English lessons for busy people —
Learn English in as little as 2 minutes a day.
Get Better at English!
English idioms: to wing it (to improvise)
September 25, 2006 at 00:53 · Filed under 2minute English, listening
Transcript
Hi and welcome to 2minute English, brought to you by Better At English dot com.
Today’s phrase is
To wing it
"I didn’t have time to prepare this speech, so I’ll have to wing it."
“She didn’t spend much time getting ready for the meeting; she just kind of winged
it"
"I don’t have time to study for the test tomorrow, so I’ll be winging it"
To wing it
Meaning
To wing it is an idiom that means to improvise, to do something without proper
preparation or time to rehearse. People often talk about winging it when they have to do
something difficult that they didn’t have time to prepare — like a make speech or give a
presentation. They might say something like "Sorry if I seem a bit disorganized, I’m
totally winging it." You tell people that you’re winging it, that you’re improvising, so
that they won’t expect too much from you, or so that they will be more forgiving if you
make a mistake.
I have a little note about pronunciation for you. In rapid nativespeaker speech, the
final g on the ing tends to disappear. So it sounds like
I’m wingin’ it
I’m wingin’ it
I’m wingin’ it here
Rather than I’m wingING it. Do you hear the difference?
WingING
Wingin’
Authentic example
In today’s authentic example we’ll hear a bit of Seth Godin’s presentation at the
GEL 2006 conference.
And I want to…talk about what I think seven of those reasons might be. But first I
gotta take a minute…I gotta explain…I’ve never given this presentation before, not one
word of it, not one picture, and I may never give it again. But I’m wingin’ it so we’ll see
what happens…But…what does it mean to be broken?
If you are an upperintermediate or advanced learner, I highly recommend you
watch the full presentation on Google video. It’s really funny, entertaining and full of
useful vocabulary.
Thanks for tuning in to 2minute English. We’ll see you next time!
Look up to wing it in the dictionary.
See examples of how to wing it is used.
Proofread like a pro: how to catch those pesky mistakes
your spell checker misses
September 21, 2006 at 01:40 · Filed under writing tips
Why is it that you only see those pesky, embarrassing typos in important pieces of
writing AFTER they’ve gone to press? Like this one from one of my own archives:
…he never fully recovered from the pubic humiliation of having his…
I’ve never fully recovered from that particular "pubic humiliation" either. When you
work with words for a living, you really can’t afford to let mistakes like that slip by. And
even if writing isn’t your profession, typos can still make you look careless at best,
ignorant at worst. Modern spell checkers are useful tools, of course, but they don’t catch
everything. My spell checker didn’t save me from the unfortunate "pubic incident"
because spell checkers highlight only words that they can’t find in their dictionaries.
Pubic is a perfectly good word, just incorrectly wielded in this context. But why didn’t I
see it myself?
I didn’t catch the typo myself because my brain, expecting to find the word public,
filled in the missing L. Our brains are masters at getting us to see what our experience
and expectations tell us we should see. Thus the pubic/public problem wasn’t the only
typo that managed to slip by in that text: I tend to flip letters when I type, and there were
several instances where I’d typed form instead of from; my brain, doing what brains like
to do, had quite merrily transposed the letters back into their correct positions as I
proofread because it knew what I had meant to type.You’ve probably already thought of
a few things your own fingers tend to fumble over when typing.
Everyone has been guilty of letting a typo slip through at some point, so your ego
can probably recover from what are obvious mechanical errors. But what if you happened
to let one of the pet peeves of eighthgrade English teachers slip unnoticed into your
writing when you’re not looking, unspeakable horrors such as writing loose when you
mean lose? Of course you know the difference between loose and lose, but when your
deadline is imminent and you’re writing in a lastdash, coffeefueled frenzy, it’s easy to
read right past this kind of slipup. And there are plenty of uncharitable people in the
world who will not see it as a mere slipup, but rather as a grave indication that you have
the intelligence of a turnip. (Note: I am not one of those people!)
So you can’t trust your spell checker or even your own brain when it comes to
proofreading your own texts. It sounds like a hopeless case, doesn’t it? Luckily, it’s not.
Here are two proofreading methods that can help:
1) Enlist the help of a second reader to help you proofread. It works like this. Your
friend slowly and carefully reads aloud from a hard copy while you silently read either
the online version or another hard copy. Because the text is new to your friend, her brain
is not as likely as you are to fix mistakes as she reads along. Between the two of you,
you’ll catch far more errors than you would on your own. You then correct them on the
online copy while your friend watches to make sure that you don’t inadvertently add
another error. Don’t have a second reader available? Then point 2 is for you.
2) Use texttospeech software in place of a second reader. You read silently on the
hard copy (you’ll catch more errors on a hard copy than you will online) while the text
tospeech software reads the text aloud to you. You will be surprised at how many errors
you catch this way, errors that you probably never would have noticed when reading
silently to yourself. Mark the changes on the hard copy, and then VERY CAREFULLY
enter them into the online copy.
Of course, no method is guaranteed to catch everything. But if you use either textto
speech software or a second reader, you will have done just about everything you can to
minimize the risk of pub(l)ic humiliation because of unfortunate typos. Good luck!
Note: this post is part of a “how to” group writing project over at ProBlogger.net.
Links:
The best free online English dictionaries
September 19, 2006 at 23:37 · Filed under learning resources, dictionaries
Here is a list of our favorite online dictionaries. To be included on this page, a
dictionary has to be uptodate, have a good user interface, and the website can’t be too
adheavy. We promise to list only the English dictionaries that we actually use ourselves
in our daytoday work here at Better At English, dictionaries that we find truly useful. If
we are missing a good dictionary resource, please drop us a line and let us know so that
we can help spread the word!
These dictionaries are designed for nonnative speakers of English.
Dictionaries designed primarily for native speakers of English (but if you are upper
intermediate to advanced, you should give them a try). For example, learner’s
dictionaries don’t tell you where words originated, but dictionaries aimed at native
How to Increase Your Vocabulary
In last weeks conversation tip, we talked about the value of having a good
vocabulary. It was established that a good vocabulary is one of the tools needed to
make good conversation. Well, that leads us right into this week’s topic, which is
how to increase your vocabulary. Actually it’s quite easy. Here are a few
suggestions.
There is no easier way to increase your vocabulary than by reading. Of course,
books and other reading material that can be classified as “light reading” may not
have much in the way of words you don't already know, but if you pick up a more
literary work, you should find plenty of new words to add to your vocabulary. The
beauty of learning new words as you read is that you already have an example of
how it should be used in a sentence, which helps clarify the meaning of the word
even more than just a dictionary definition alone.
There are many different word games that you can play that will help increase
your vocabulary. If you have the completive spirit like I do, nothing will give you
more motivation to learn new words (particularly words that contain the letter “z” or
“w”) than the desire to win. I owe a good portion of my vocabulary to “game night”
with my family where we ate popcorn and played Scrabble, Boggle and a host of
other board games.
There are many calendars on the market today that help you increase your
vocabulary by featuring a different word and its definition for every day of the year.
If you make an effort to use the “word of the day” in your conversations, you will
increase your vocabulary by 365 words in no time.
Okay, I admit this sounds strange and exceedingly dull, but if you are lover of
words and of language like myself, you might find reading the dictionary appealing.
When I was around 10 years old I began opening the dictionary to a page at random
and reading the definitions I found there. One of the things I found most interesting
is the additional definitions that exist for words I already knew. If you love trivia,
reading the dictionary to increase your vocabulary might be something you'd like to
try, at least once.
Another wonderful way to increase your vocabulary is to use your thesaurus to
find synonyms to the words you use most often. Several times in this Conversation
Tip I used the word “increase” to describe what you can do to your vocabulary.
There are several other words I could have used, such as boost, enlarge, expand,
enhance, improve, and the list goes on and on. The thesaurus is a great tool to use if
you want to augment your vocabulary.
As you can see, there are many ways you can enhance your vocabulary. Give
one or two of them a try, and as your vocabulary grows, your ability to make good
conversation will improve exponentially.