You know the world of English is a fun and exciting place to be. I'm so glad you could join me for another lesson.
Would you like a cup of coffee? or maybe some hot chocolate? or perhaps a drink of ginseng? Maybe a milkshake is more your fancy? or perhaps a bottle of beer? or maybe something a little stronger? No? OK, perhaps later. Hi everybody, this is Misterduncan in England. How are you today? Are you OK? I hope so! Are you happy? I hope so! In this lesson we will look at a useful way to increase and expand your vocabulary so allowing yourself to express more clearly, the things you wish to say. With… Word association.
You know what it's like, you want to say something in a way that will make people listen to you and be interested in what you are saying. You want to show-off your English skill. Just like any other language, having a wide or varied vocabulary is very important, if you wish to fully grasp English. Sometimes it is necessary to use the same word within a sentence, so to avoid repeating yourself, you will need to have a group of similar or suitable words ready to replace it with.
For example, listen to this sentence. "I went home yesterday but when I arrived at my home there was nobody home." What exactly is the problem with this sentence? Well, grammatically there is nothing wrong with it. However it does sound as if my vocabulary needs to be expanded. How can we change this sentence to make it better?
"I went home yesterday." That part is fine.
"but when I arrived at my home" As you can hear, I have repeated the word 'home' again. Maybe we can change this for another word with the same meaning. How about? "but when I arrived at my house" I'm saying the same sentence, but now it sounds better.
And finally… "there was nobody at home." Instead of saying 'home' again, we can instead say… "there was nobody in." or "there was nobody there."
So now the sentence reads… "I went home yesterday, but when I arrived at my house, there was nobody in." Much better.
That was a very simple way of showing how important it is to have a good vocabulary. The more words you know then the better you can express yourself. During any Oral English exam you will be tested to measure how wide your vocabulary is, just from answering a few simple questions.
Try to get used to learning new words, but even more importantly you must learn words that have similar meanings. A Thesaurus can help you to do this.
What is a Thesaurus? Wow… so many words! A Thesaurus is similar to a Dictionary, where all the words are in alphabetical order, but unlike a Dictionary, a Thesaurus will give you a list of similar words or synonyms, that can be used instead and even examples of replacing a word with a suitable preposition.
You may already have a Thesaurus, but if not, then how about buying a pocked sized one for class? or you can borrow one from a library. It will make a very useful addition to your textbook collection. So now let's look at an example of word association.
So let's look at a word at random. For example, the word 'see' can have many direct synonyms connected to it, such as… Behold, Gape, Gawk, Gawp, Gaze, Glance, Look, Observe, Stare and Watch. Now one word has become ten new words. So by knowing these other words, you can expand your vocabulary easily.
Here's an example of a sentence, to show you just how useful synonyms are. "I went to see my friend's new house, I spent two hours gazing at all of her new furniture. It was fun to look at. She even let me have glance at her bedroom."
Using different words to express the same thing is a great way to expand your word power. It will also help you in your Oral English exam, when answering random or quick-fire questions. So if you wish to expand your vocabulary effectively, then a Thesaurus will give you all the help you need.
Mmm… I've decided to have a strawberry milkshake. Delicious. OK, today's lesson should keep you busy for a while until the next time we meet here for some more great tips and ideas on learning English. Thank you for watching me, teaching you. This is Misterduncan in England saying… Ta-ta for now.