Your choice of vocabulary can also greatly influence your style of writing and
speaking.
Vocabulary refers to the stock of words that a language is
made up of. The English language is
made up of a huge number of words, although most educated native speakers of
English are likely to have in their own personal stock of words only a fraction
of this number. Furthermore, they are likely to use a relatively small number
of this personal stock of words in their day-to-day communication.
The words that a person is
likely to use confidently and regularly are known collectively as that person’s
active vocabulary. The opposite of
this is passive vocabulary. This consists of the words whose meanings a person
knows, although they would not
usually use them in the course of their ordinary conversation and writing.
People who are
keen to improve their English should try to improve the range of their
vocabulary. They may need relatively few words to make themselves understood,
but, although comprehensibility is extremely important in speaking and writing,
it is not the only issue. If you wish to make your speech or writing more
interesting and more stylish you need to introduce a degree of variation into
your vocabulary and so improve your word power.
How is this to be achieved?
There is very little point in simply learning lists of words, perhaps from a dictionary,
because things learned in this way tend not to stick in the memory very well.
Also, you need to see words in actual use in order
to know how you yourself should use them.
Reading can
extend your vocabulary quite considerably and this should not be confined to
the works of the acknowledged great writers in English. There is a wide range
of reading matter available and you should take full advantage of this.
Newspapers, for example, can be a useful source of words as well as news. A
word of warning, however. Try not to be too much influenced by the level of
slang that you may find in some articles in some of the tabloids.
Listening to
English radio programmes can also be useful, especially those that concentrate
more on talk than music. Television, too, especially ‘serious’ programmes such
as documentaries and those that are concerned with news, current affairs,
politics, the arts etc, can also be a useful contributor to your vocabulary
stock. Even just talking to and listening to people can be extremely valuable
in your attempt to increase your vocabulary.
To some extent, some language
reference books can help improve your word power. In general a thesaurus is
more helpful than a dictionary in this respect. A dictionary is a valuable tool
when you want to know the meaning of a word, or how to pronounce it, or when
you want to find out the origin of a word.
Some of them also
supply notes which provide useful advice on usage. Even more useful guidance on
usage is provided by those dictionaries which provide example sentences and
phrases showing the defined words in action. The dictionaries most likely to
provide such example sentences and phrases are those designed for use by
learners of English as a foreign or second language.
You are likely to
find a thesaurus more helpful than a dictionary in your attempt to increase the
extent of your vocabulary. In English, there are two kinds of thesaurus. One
type is arranged according to theme
and the other is, more or less, a dictionary of synonyms.
The first thesaurus, published in Britain in
1852, is known as Roget’s
Thesaurus, after its compiler, Peter Mark Roget. It is arranged according to theme. For example, all the words,
whatever their part of speech, and all the phrases relating to fear are included in the same section
and are followed by the words and phrases relating to the opposite of fear, courage. Thus we find such nouns as fright, terror and panic and alarmist, scaremonger and terrorist
together with adjectives such as afraid,
frightened, panic-stricken and verbs such as take fright, be petrified,
alarm, intimidate in the same section. There, too, are phrases such as make one’s blood run cold and make one’s hair stand on end.
Roget’s Thesaurus is an extremely valuable
reference book but it is a very sophisticated
one and it can be quite difficult to use until you become familiar with it.
There are other thesauruses, also arranged according to theme in the manner of Roget’s Thesaurus, but slightly easier
to use. Like Roget, they tend to be most useful when you want to write about a
particular topic and are seeking the range of vocabulary associated with that
topic.
If you want, for
example, to avoid repeating a particular word, although you want a word with
the same meaning, you will probably find it easier to use the kind of thesaurus
which is, in effect, a dictionary of synonyms. (The word synonym means a word that has more or less the same meaning as a
particular word.)
If, for example,
you want to avoid using an overused adjective, such as nice or good, a
synonym-style thesaurus will provide you with a selection of appropriate
alternatives. The more helpful of these will have numbered the various meanings
of a particular word and will have
provided example sentences or phrases.
Thus, instead of writing:
It was a nice day yesterday
and we decided to go for a drive in the country. We drove through some nice scenery and stopped for a really nice meal in a restaurant which was run
by two very nice people. It’s a long
time since I had such a nice day out.
With the help of a thesaurus you could avoid overusing nice and write, for example:
It was a sunny
day yesterday and we decided to go for a drive in the country. We drove through
some attractive scenery and stopped
for a really delicious meal in a
restaurant which was run by two very
agreeable people. It’s a long
time since I had such an enjoyable
day out.
Likewise, instead of writing:
My good friend Jim is
planning to visit us at the end of this month. It is a good time for him to come and see us as I am going to be on holiday
from work for a good two weeks
during his visit and we usually have
good weather at this time of year.
It is not the usual holiday season, but I have a good reason for taking a break as I have been working a great deal
of overtime. I am quite glad that the children are not going to be on holiday
because, although they are usually very good,
they probably would not sit quietly to listen to Jim’s stories. He is a good conversationalist and has led
an interesting life. A very good
engineer, he has had several very good
jobs in many parts of the world and loves to talk about his experiences. I
cannot wait for him to get here and tell me about them.
With the help of a thesaurus
you could avoid overusing good and
write, for example:
My close friend Jim is
planning to visit us at the end of this month. It is a convenient time for him to come and see us as I am going to be on
holiday from work for a full two weeks during his visit and we
usually have fine weather at this
time of year. It is not the usual holiday season but I have a valid reason for taking a break as I
have been working a great deal of overtime. I am quite glad that the children
are not going to be on holiday because, although they are usually very well-behaved, they probably would not
sit quietly to listen to Jim’s stories. He is an excellent conversationalist and has led an interesting life. A very
competent engineer, he has had
several very interesting jobs in
many parts
of the world and loves to talk about his experiences. I cannot wait for
him to get here and tell me about them.
These are very simple
examples, but they illustrate how you can introduce variation into your
vocabulary, perhaps with a little help from a reference book.
When deciding on the
vocabulary for your piece of writing or speech you must be careful that you do
not use very informal words in a piece of very formal writing or speech, such
as a company report. Conversely, you must be careful not to use very formal
words in a piece of very informal writing or speech.
The aspect of
language that refers to formality and informality is called register. It refers to language of a
type that is used in a particular social
situation. Formal language should be used in formal social situations and
informal language in informal situations. Many dictionaries, particularly those
specially designed for use by learners of English as a foreign or second
language, will often indicate which words are formal and which are informal.
Language
formality can be seen as a kind of scale. It starts with the very formal
language of formal invitations and legal documents and ends with the slang of
much of today’s speech. Much of today’s written language comes in the middle of
the scale. It is neither very formal nor very informal.
People producing
written material have much more time than people who are producing
instantaneous spoken material in which to choose the exact word they are
looking for. Of course, they also have the opportunity to consult thesauruses
and dictionaries. This has the result that written English often contains much
more innovative and formal vocabulary than the spoken version, unless, of
course, the spoken English takes the form of a prepared speech which is to be
read aloud.
There is a danger in having a
great deal of time in which to prepare a piece of writing or a speech. You can
be faced with the temptation to try to impress people by selecting very
difficult words, rather than using those words that come naturally. Although it
is a good idea to introduce some variety into your vocabulary, you should
resist the temptation to seek out very difficult or pompous-sounding words.
This will simply bore your readers or listeners. You will not keep their
attention if you are using a great many unnecessarily difficult words which
they do not understand.
You should also
avoid using a large number of words where a few would be perfectly adequate. If
you are too wordy or verbose you are, again, likely to bore, or even confuse,
your readers or listeners. Again, you are unlikely to hold their attention.
You can add variety to the
vocabulary of writing and so improve your personal style by the careful use of
figures of speech such as similes. A figure
of speech is is a word or phrase that departs from everyday literal
language for the sake of comparison, emphasis, clarity or freshness.
A simile is a figure of speech in which a
thing or person is, for the sake of comparison, said to be like another and most include the words like or as. Examples of
similes include:
as calm as a millpond
as cool as a cucumber
as helpless as a babe in arms
as keen as mustard
as neat as a new pin
as poor as a church mouse
as silent as the grave
Another figure of speech
found in English writing is the metaphor.
Like a simile it uses comparison to create a striking image that can enliven
your writing
but it does not use the words
like or as that help to identify similes. I had butterflies in my tummy
is a good example of a metaphor. The words do not mean that the person literally has butterflies in their tummy but
the image the words present beautifully illustrates that feeling of nervousness
that many of us often experience.
Sometimes correct
English writing lacks the fluent use of an English idiom which can be used inventively to increase the effect of what
is being said. An idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood
meaning that differs from what its composite words would suggest. In other
words it is a phrase whose meaning cannot easily be understood just from the
meanings of the individual words that make up the phrase. Knowing what all the
individual words mean in an idiom will not necessarily help you to work out
what the idiom is about.
Take, for
example, the common English idiom let the
cat out of the bag. Most people new to it will know all the words in this
phrase but they will probably not be able to guess that the phrase means to
make known to other people, often accidentally or inappropriately, something
that is intended to be kept secret or confidential. If you swallow something hook, line and sinker, it does not mean that you
are literally copying the actions of a fish in the process of being caught.
Instead, it means that you believe something completely (and often naïvely).
There are a great
many idioms in the English language. They can add colour and interest to your
writing but you should not use too many of them or the clarity of your writing
may suffer. You should especially use sparingly those idioms which have been
used so often that they have become clichés.
Clichés are expressions which have become so overused
that native speakers of English tend
to use them without thinking. They are an important part of the English
language (especially so in spoken English) and they can add interest and
variety to what you want to say in your writing but it is difficult for
learners of the language to become familiar with them and learn how to use them
well. Like other aspects of language this requires of lot of practice.
There are some
words (particularly relevant to spoken English but which you may wish to
include in your written English) which can cause some confusion because they
are very similar in some way to other words. These are homophones, homonyms and
homographs.
A homophone is a word that is pronounced
in the same way as another but is spelled in a different way and has a
different meaning. For example, aisle
is a noun meaning a passage between rows of seats in a church, theatre, cinema
etc, as in The bride walked down the aisle
on her father’s arm while isle
is a noun meaning an island, often in used in literary or poetic contexts, but
occasionally used in place names, as in the
Isle of Skye.
A homonym is a word that has the same
spelling and the same pronunciation as another word, but has a different
meaning from it. For example, bill
is a noun meaning a written statement of money owed, as in You must pay the bill for the conversion
work immediately; a written or printed advertisement, as in We were asked to deliver handbills
advertising the play; and a bird’s beak, as in The seagull injured its bill.
A homograph is a word that is spelled the
same as another word but has a different meaning, and sometimes pronunciation
(heteronym). For example, sow,
pronounced to rhyme with low, is a
verb meaning to scatter seeds in the earth, as in In the spring the gardener sowed some flower seeds in the front garden,
while sow, pronounced to rhyme with how,
is a noun meaning a female pig, as in The
sow is in the pigsty with her piglets.
(See homophones for more examples of homophones, homonyms and homographs.)
Rewrite the following passage
using complex sentences with subordinating
conjunctions or participial phrases instead of
coordinating conjunctions.
A bad start to the day
I didn’t hear my alarm go off yesterday and I overslept. I dressed very
quickly but was still very much behind schedule. I was very late and I had no time
for breakfast, not even a cup of coffee.
I was late leaving the house and I had to run to
the bus stop. I got there on time to catch the bus, but I didn’t get on it.
There was a long queue in front of me waiting for the same bus and it was soon
full.
What was I to do? I could wait for the next bus,
but I would be late for work. I had been late twice this month already and my
boss would not be pleased. In fact, he would be furious.
I was standing there feeling very depressed and
I heard a car’s horn sounding. I looked up and saw my friend Jack waving at me
from his car. He is a very kind person and he offered me a lift. I would not be
late after all!
I arrived at work on time and was able to relax
for the first time that morning. Better still, I could have a cup of coffee. I
must remember to go out at lunch time and buy a new alarm clock.
The passage below is just for
guidance. There are other ways of rewriting the passage.
Yesterday I overslept because I didn’t hear my alarm going off. Even
though I dressed very quickly I was still very much behind schedule. Being very
late, I had no time for breakfast, not even a cup of coffee.
I had to run to the bus stop because I was so
late leaving the house. Although I got there on time to catch the bus I didn’t
get on it. As there was a long queue in front of me waiting for the same bus,
it was soon full.
What was I to do? I would be late for work if I
waited for the next bus. My boss would not be pleased since I had been late
twice this month already. In fact, he would be furious.
I suddenly heard a car’s horn sounding while I
was standing there feeling very depressed. When I looked up I saw my friend
Jack waving from his car. Being a very kind person, he offered me a lift to
work. I would not be late after all!
Having arrived at work on time, I was able to
relax for the first time that morning. Better, still, I could have a cup of
coffee. I must remember to go out at lunch time so that I can buy a new alarm
clock.
Replace the word hard in each of the sentences below. Choose a suitable word for
each sentence from the list below.
arduous, difficult,
complicated, firm, harsh, industrious, unkind, violent 1 It had not rained for a long
time and the ground was very ...........
|
2 |
They were all ........... |
workers
and deserved a pay increase. |
||
|
3 |
He received a ........... |
blow to
the head and passed out. |
||
|
4 |
Whether to go or stay was a |
........... decision for
him to make. |
||
|
5 |
This jigsaw is too |
...........
for a child. |
||
|
6 |
After an ........... |
climb up
the mountain the climbers were exhausted. |
||
|
7 |
An exchange of ........... |
words between the two sisters led to a bitter family |
||
|
|
feud. |
|
|
|
|
8 |
Poor farmers lived in very ........... |
conditions in those days, especially in |
||
|
|
winter. |
|
|
|
1 It had not
rained for a long time and the ground was very firm.
2 They were
all industrious workers and deserved a pay increase.
3 He
received a violent blow to the head and passed
out.
4 Whether to
go or stay was a difficult decision for him to make.
5 This
jigsaw is too complicated for a child.
6 After an arduous climb up
the mountain the climbers were exhausted.
7 An exchange of unkind words between the two sisters led to a bitter family feud.
8 Poor farmers lived in very harsh conditions in those days, especially in winter.
