Part One - Knowing a word
What does it mean to know a word? Well, what does it mean when we say we know someone?
If you know someone’s name, what job they do and where they live, does that mean you know everything there is to know about that person? Of course not, although that information maybe be useful if we want to get to know that person more, in other words, learn more about that person.
Also, is it important to know everyone in the same way? Do you need to know the same information about your doctor or the person who serves you in the supermarket that you know about your best friend? The answer, of course, is no.
Think about your ‘relationships’ with words in your own language. Some you use every day. You know these words very well, you know what they mean and how and when to use them. This is your active vocabulary. Then, there are other words that you maybe only see when you are reading something like a research paper, or you would only use when talking to a lawyer. That is your passive vocabulary. And, it’s the same when you are learning English. There will be words that you will need to get to know very well, that become part of your active vocabulary, so you can use them effectively in your writing and speaking. Then, there are the others that you don’t know so well, but that you will be able to understand if you read or hear them, in other words, your passive vocabulary.
As with people, sometimes it can take some time to get to know a word, because it has many different layers, and if you decide to get to know the whole family, that can take even longer! But just as people can make your life more enjoyable, having more words to express yourself will make communicating in English much more enjoyable and rewarding.
So the first question you need to ask yourself is how important is this word for me? Do I need to be able to actively use it, or is it enough to know just some of the information about it? I’ll talk more about how much you will need to know for both in a bit, but before that, I want you to stop reading. Take a pen and paper and write down everything you think you need to know about a word for it to become part of your active vocabulary, but not just that, what do you need to know about a word or phrase to feel really confident using it in English? Can you think of 5 things? What about 10? Ok, take 5 minutes now to think about it.
Ok, so we’re going to divide the words in three groups: Form, Meaning and Use, in other words, can you answer these questions about the word:
1. What does it look and sound like? (form)
2. What does it mean? (meaning)
3. How, when and how often do we use it? (use)
Part Two - Form
Let’s start with form.
So first, what does it look like? Can you write it or recognise it when you read it? How do you spell it? And if it’s a noun does it change if it’s plural? For example the ‘f’ of leaf becomes ‘v’ and we add ‘es’ to make the plural leaves, and foot changes to becomes feet. Does it have any double letters? Are there any differences between the UK and US versions of the word? For example, colour/color, and organise/organize. Are there any silent letters that you need to remember to write, like the ‘w’ in write and ‘k’ in know.
This is another thing you need to know, how do you pronounce the word? What does the word sound like when you hear it? How do you say it? What is the pronunciation? How many syllables does it have? Which syllables are stressed and which are weak sounds?
So, so far on our checklist of things to know about the word we have:
1. How do you spell it?
Does it have an irregular plural?
Does it have any double letters?
Are there differences between the UK and US spelling?
2. How do you pronounce it?
Does it have any silent letters?
How many syllables does it have?
Which syllables are stressed and which are weak?
Part Three - Meaning
Now, I'm sure one of the first things you probably thought about was the meaning of the word. It’s natural to want to find the translation of the word into your own language, but sometimes it's used in a different way, or the word may not even exist in you first language, so it may be helpful to write the meaning in English, especially if you are intermediate level or above. This will also mean you have a look for it in an English/English dictionary, which is where you will find a lot of other very useful information about the word or phrase, too.
Another reason it’s a good idea to look in the dictionary (I recommend the Cambridge Dictionary: www.dictionary.cambridge.org), even if you think you know the word, because the word might have other meanings that you need to know, but you didn’t realise existed. Now, don't worry if there are a lot. of different meanings given. I don't want you to think you have to learn all of them all at the same time. But how do you choose?! This is when you need to understand some of the codes used in the dictionary (and also know your level!). In a good dictionary, you will often see the following codes next to most of the words: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. They correspond to the levels, so A1 = beginner/elementary, A2 = pre-intermediate, B1 = intermediate, B2 = higher/upper intermediate, C1 = advanced, C2 =proficiency. Obviously, if you are in an Intermediate class and you check the dictionary and a word has 3 meanings, but one has the code C1 next to it, you don't need to worry about learning that one. Even if you are a high level student, if a word is completely new to you, focus on learning the lower level meanings first.
Let's look at the word even. Below, you will see that the first meaning given, which is the most common, is an A2 word.
Another meaning of the adverb is a B1 level word.
This word can be also be used as an adjective, verb and in fixed phrases, as seen below. You'll notice that these phrases are different levels.
So, let's take a look at an example of another word that has more than one meaning. One that commonly comes up for students studying IELTS is the word approach.
As a verb it can mean 'come closer to, so we can say “As I approached the bus stop, I saw the bus arrive.”, but the noun can be used when we want to talk about the way we do something. For example: “His approach to collecting data for his research is different from my way of doing it”. You will have to identify the word type (more about that later) and think about the context the word appears in, that is to say, the words around it, to understand which meaning it has.
Now, another thing, if you look at the two example sentences I’ve given you above, I have written them carefully, so that if you forget the meaning, you have enough information in the sentence to help you remember, or at least guess. ;-) And, a little tip here, if you write an example sentence like this, it’s a way of not only learning the meaning, but also you are more likely to remember it! Plus, you get some extra writing practice, too! And, if you can use it in a sentence accurately, it means it has now become part of your active vocabulary.
It is also a good idea to learn words that also have the same meaning at the same time. So, if we take the example of approach as a noun, meaning the way you do something, 'method' is a synonym, that is, a word that has the same meaning. However, if you already know this word, then making this connection will help you learn the word approach.
Sometimes it can be helpful to learn a word together with it’s opposite as well. So, in the case of approach, as a verb, some antonyms, in other words, words and phrases with the opposite meaning, would be 'go or walk away from' or 'leave'.
So, to our checklist, we can add:
3. What does it mean?
How would you say it in your language?
Can you write the definition in English?
How many other meanings does it have?
What are some common synonyms and antonyms?
Part Four - Use
Ok, so we’ve looked at form and meaning, but what about use? The first question we need to answer is HOW do we use the word? One of the key things you need to understand is what type of word is it, or what part of speech is it? Is it a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or other type of word? Why is this important? Because if you know what type of word it is, you will have to know some other pieces of information about it. For example, if it’s a verb, is it regular or irregular? If it’s a noun, is it countable or countable… or both? Is it often used in the singular or plural? Does the spelling change if it’s plural? Such as in the examples of leaf and foot that I mentioned above. If you can answer these questions, you will be able to use it in a sentence that is grammatically correct. Of course, it helps if you are good at grammar and if you have an awareness of suffixes.
Suffixes are word endings, and they often tell you the word type. It is very helpful if you are familiar with them and something I will talk about another time. But, let me give you a few common examples quickly. If a word ends in “–tion”, such as information or station, or if a word ends in “-ence” or “-ance”, like in sentence or appearance, you can be sure that these words are nouns. In addition, once you’ve identified what type of word it is, if you want to really advance your vocabulary, you can look at other words in the family, so for instance, information is the noun, inform is the verb, informative is the adjective, and by adding a prefix, in this case –un, we can make another adjective, uninformed. I’ll talk more about prefixes another time too, but back to the grammar.
When you learn a word, it’s not just important to learn what type of what it is to use it in a sentence, but also the words that go with it, so for example if we take the verb inform, we have to use it with an object pronoun and the preposition of or about, in other words the structure is inform someone of/about something we’d say “the boss informed us of/about the change in the meeting time”. However, this is not the only possible structure, as it’s also possible to inform someone that something happened, is happening or will happen, so we could also say “the boss informed us that the meeting time had been changed.” Here the sentence pattern is subject + verb + object +that + subject (the meeting) + verb. However, if I chose to use a synonym of inform, in this case declare, then I have to use a different structure: “my boss declared (that) the meeting time had been changed”, so in this sentence the word that is optional and we do not need the object pronoun.
Another thing to consider is what words collocate with it, meaning what words do you usually hear or see together with the word you are learning. For example, we often see the phrases 'a piece of' or 'a bit of' with information, as it is an uncountable noun, and the adjective 'informed' usually comes before the nouns 'choice', 'option' or 'decision', but not 'film', 'book' or 'talk' (in that case we’d use 'informative'!). The subject of collocation is also one that I will explore with you in another video/blog.
Ok, so we’ve looked at how you use a word, what about WHEN? Firstly, let’s consider register, which in very simple terms means is the word used in a formal situation, informally or is it more neutral, such as the word information. Sometimes words and phrases may be used in spoken English in both informal and formal settings, but would never be included in a formal piece of written English.
Words can also have an emotional association, which again can be positive, negative or, as is the case with most words, neutral. An example of this is the words: slim, skinny, slender, thin. What connects them? They are all used to describe someone who is the opposite of fat, or overweight. But why do we need so many words, so many synonyms for the same meaning? Well, because if you use the words slim or slender to describe someone, you are usually showing you approve of this, in other words, you feel positively about it. Whereas, if you describe someone as being skinny, you are usually showing that you feel negatively about this, that you disapprove of this fact. Maybe you feel they are not looking after themselves in the way they should. Lastly, thin has a more neutral feeling, in other words, you’re not saying this a good or bad thing.
So, to our checklist, we can add:
4. How do we use it?
What part of speech (verb, noun, adjective or adverb?
What structure(s) is it found in?
What other words usually go with it?
5. When do we use it?
What register does it have? Formal, informal or neutral?
What feeling, or connotation does it have?
What is the cultural use? Is it British English? American? Australian? Regional?
6. How often do we use it?
Is it a high frequency word we need to put into our active vocabulary or can we include it in our passive vocabulary?
Part Four - Knowing a Word Checklist
So, to summarise, there are SIX key questions you need to ask yourself when you're learning a new word or phrase. Let's take take all of the questions we have above and create one definitive checklist.
FORM
1. How do you spell it?
Does it have an irregular plural?
Does it have any double letters?
Are there differences between the UK and US spelling?
2. How do you pronounce it?
Does it have any silent letters?
How many syllables does it have?
Which syllables are stressed and which are weak?
MEANING
3. What does it mean?
How would you say it in your language?
Can you write the definition in English?
How many other meanings does it have?
What are some common synonyms and antonyms?
USE
4. How do we use it?
What part of speech (verb, noun, adjective or adverb?
What structure(s) is it found in?
What other words usually go with it?
5. When do we use it?
What register does it have? Formal, informal or neutral?
What feeling, or connotation does it have?
What is the cultural use? Is it British English? American? Australian? Regional?
6. How often do we use it?
Is it a high frequency word we need to put into our active vocabulary or can we include it in our passive vocabulary?