ESLR 50
A Baker’s Dozen (=13) Ways to Develop Your Vocabulary
1. READ! This is the number one best way to build up your mental list of words and expressions. Read
anything and everything that is interesting to you, read every day, read easy and hard things, both.
2. Practice with homophones. (sound-alike words – homophone means “sound the same”). This will
help your spelling and improve your writing.
bare (empty, naked)
bear (an animal)
sighs (loud breathing out)
size (amount)
to (preposition)
too (also)
two (2)
their (belonging to them
there (that place)
they’re (they are)
3. Practice with homographs. (look-alike words – homograph means “written the same”) This will
help your reading speed and comprehension very quickly.
too (also)
too (excessive, too much)
bear (an animal)
bear (to carry)
bright (strong light)
bright (smart, intelligent)
4. Learn multiple meanings. Similar to homographs above, it will help you to know that a word can
have many meanings. This gives you better reading skills when you can understand faster.
Ex: stick
verb: to put (he stuck it in his pocket) OR to stick to (like sticky tape)
noun: a small branch or piece of wood
5. Learn many synonyms. (same/similar meaning)
bite – nibble, munch
mistake – error, blunder, gaffe
cold – chilly, frosty, icy
build – construct, create
run – dash, sprint, flee
quit – give up, stop, resign
6. Learn a lot of antonyms. (opposite/very different meaning)
correct =/= wrong
busy =/= idle
dim =/= bright
increase =/= decrease
completed =/= unfinished
elevate =/= lower
hardworking =/= lazy
developed =/= undeveloped connected =/= disconnected
7. Learn word domains. Domains are words that are all part of or connected to the same idea. These
will help you learn the culture, take part in conversations, and write more about a topic.
For example, you can learn the word “dream” but also learn “dream-like” and “hallucination”
and “daydream” and other words that are similar. Learn some related words: nightmare,
sleeping, dreamy, dreamer, dream research, dream journals, REM sleep, etc. Learn the
collocations “dream of, dream about, hopes and dreams,” and so on. Learn at least one popular
song with “Dream” in it. Know a famous poem with “Dream” in it. Listen to a famous “Dream”
speech. Know the culture of a word.
8. Learn compound words. English has three types of compound (= put together) words:
* double words: library book, summer vacation, Christmas shopping (nouns)
* hyphenated words: non-smoking, six-year-old, co-worker, ex-wife (adj & nouns)
* joined words: worldwide, sunrise, underground, classroom (adj & nouns)
9. Learn the most common collocations. Collocations are words that often appear together. They will
help you read faster and write with fewer word choice mistakes.
raise – we raise money, raise kids, raise awareness, raise questions
educational – educational opportunities, educational programs, educational policy
education – higher education, public education, liberal education
success – we talk about the success of something, success or failure, success at / in
10. Learn different words forms (parts of speech). Word forms are different grammar forms of the
same word. They will help you write and paraphrase better.
NOUN
success
marriage
art
artist
VERB
succeed
marry
-----
ADJECTIVE
successful
married
--artistic
ADVERB
successfully
--- * there is not always a word form
--artistically
*often there are two or more noun forms, one for the idea, one for the person
education
educate
educational
educator
--educated
educating *sometimes there are many forms of nouns and adjectives
educationally
---
11. Learn about denotation and connotation. Denotation is a word’s dictionary definition.
Connotation is the emotional value or the strength of a word. Knowing the connotation will help you
understand the true meaning of the words and also feel the author’s tone and emotions.
house – a building, the structure you live in / home – a place where you are safe and with family
thin – not fat / slim – thin and attractive / skeletal – dangerously thin and scary
fat - not thin / chubby – fat and cute, like a baby / obese – dangerously fat, unhealthy fat level
small – not big / tiny – very small / minute – very very small / petite – small and cute (women)
microscopic – extremely small / trivial – small in importance, unimportant.
12. Learn slang words and casual expressions. They will help you read and listen to conversations
better. Remember not to use them in formal academic writing or speaking, though.
quit - throw in the towel
idle - goofing off
unaware – clueless delicious - delish
http://www.eslcafe.com/slang/list.html & http://onlineslangdictionary.com/word-of-the-day
13. Learn prefixes, roots and suffixes. These will help you to guess the meaning of new words faster,
and understand very long words by seeing their parts. Suffixes will tell you the part of speech (word
form) so you can see the grammar faster. There are many, so start learning them as soon as possible.
Ex: UNPREDICTABILITY
UN PRE DICT ABIL ITY
UN – not
PRE – before DICT – say ABIL – able ITY – noun suffix
when you aren’t able to say what will happen before it happens.
I didn’t wear the right clothes today and the weather suddenly became very cold and wet; they
didn’t say that on TV last night! The unpredictability of the weather has always been a problem.