7 Tips to Enhance Your Vocabulary
Expanding your word knowledge and vocabulary enables you to communicate clearly and concisely with people. Aside from being knowledgeable of words, you will be able to write more effectively and understand various texts easily. Aside from this, learning new words is a fun activity and you’ll be surprised how vast the dictionary is.
Here are few ways to help you learn and expand your vocabulary – the enjoyable way.
Learning Tip No. 1: Read a Lot
Most writers use different words of the same meaning to provide diversity in their works. And it also common among them to employ words that few people are familiar with when writing their articles. Hence, reading a lot of literary works and articles means exposing yourself to more words you can ever imagine. And once you are able to encounter words for the first time, use the dictionary for the word’s definition or try to figure out the meaning based on how the word is used in the sentence.
Learning Top No. 2: Have a dictionary/thesaurus on hand
Whether it is a pocket version or installed in your tablet, it is always useful to have a dictionary with thesaurus within your reach. When you see a new word, look for the meaning in the dictionary then check the synonyms and antonyms for that particular word.
Learning Tip No. 3: List one word a day
Develop a habit of listing new words you learned by having a separate notebook for your word-a-day. Include also a short meaning and its related words. You’ll be surprised with how much words you have learned over time and you’ll even be more inspired to learn more once you see your growing list.
Learning Tip No. 4: Use the Word
Learning a new word is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Aside from listing the meaning, make a sentence or a short paragraph and incorporate that word. Practice and using the words repetitively will help in familiarizing yourself with it. Not only will it help you understand the word better, it can even help improve your writing skills as well.
Learning Tip No. 5: Play word games
Word games such as crossword puzzles, Scrabble and Boggle are some of the few word games which can help expand your vocabulary. It is challenging and at the same time a fun tool to discover new words that can increase your vocabulary. And don’t forget to include the newly-discovered word/s in your word list.
Learning Tip No. 6: Download audio books
With the inception of Kindle and other tablets, audio books have become popular these days. There are various audio books that can be downloaded for free or for a minimal fee so utilize those. Not only will it help expand your word vocabulary, you will also know how to correctly pronounce a certain word because most voice actors have excellent pronunciation skills.
Learning Tip No. 7: Engage in conversation
Whether it is an actual conversation with a real person or joining in forums, talking to someone can also widen your vocabulary. There will always be people you’ll come across with who have a wide language skills so once you encounter words that are foreign to you, make sure to list it down and look for its meaning.
