FOCUSING ON VOCABULARY
When you read a new text, you may find words that you do not understand. It
can be very tiring and time-consuming trying to understand the text, especially if
you stop to look up all of the new words in the dictionary. Below are some
helpful strategies and exercises to help you to deal with new words while
reading the novel.
Possible Strategies for New Words
1. Ignore the word.
A good strategy if you still understand most of the meaning of the sentence.
2. Guess the meaning of the word.
A good strategy to use all the time to improve your reading and vocabulary.
3. Ask a friend what the word means.
A good strategy if you don’t have much time and you think your friend will know.
4. Look up the new word in the dictionary.
This is a good strategy for important or key words that you must know. You can also use
the dictionary if you want to check if your guess was correct.
A closer look at strategy two—guessing the meaning of the word…
You can guess the meanings of words by looking at the following features:
1. The context of the word in the sentence or paragraph in which you read
or hear it. The ideas in surrounding the word can give you clues about
what it means.
Cats are fastidious animals often seen cleaning their coats with their tongues.
The word ‘fastidious’ is written in the context of a sentence about cats. Other
information learned from is that fastidious cats clean themselves a lot.
2. We can also guess the meaning of words by considering the form of the
word.
Cats are fastidious animals often seen cleaning their coats with their tongues.
It ends like the words ‘delicious’ or ‘suspicious’ so it is probably the same kind of
word. We know that ‘fastidious’ describes the noun ‘animals’. From the context we
know that it describes something that cleans itself a lot.
So, what does the word ‘fastidious’ mean?
3. Sometimes you can guess because you know the meaning of part of the
word.
It was an eventful day.
The word ‘eventful’ contains the root word ‘event’ which is something that happens,
such as a party or a meeting. Therefore an eventful day is probably a day when
several important or interesting things happen.
A closer look at strategy four — looking words up in the dictionary…
Find the word ‘fateful’ in your dictionary.
Fateful: adj. involving momentous consequences or decisively important
You may notice that there are other similar words in the dictionary, such as ‘fated’ and
‘fate’. These are related words. Sometimes if you cannot find the word you are looking
for, you need to look at the meaning of its root word instead. In the case of the word
‘fateful’, the root word is ‘fate’.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass (pp. 19-27)
There are seven sentences below from chapter two of Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone. Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold. When you
have guessed all ten words, swap your answers with another person and check
the meaning in the dictionary to see if the guesses are correct.
1. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first
noise of the day.
‘Up! Get up! Now!’ (19)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
2. Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller
and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of
Dudley’s and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin
face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright green eyes. (20)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
3. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down
his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. (21)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
4. ‘Now what?’ said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he’d
planned this. (22)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
5. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old
jumper of Dudley’s (brown with orange bobbles). (23)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
6. They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his
knickerbocker glory wasn’t big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one
and Harry was allowed to finish the first. (24)
Pair guess: ___________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
7. ‘Make it move,’ he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass,
but the snake didn’t budge. (25)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone
Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat (pp. 85-91)
There are five sentences below from chapter seven of Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone. Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold. When you
have guessed all five words, swap your answers with another person and check
the meaning in the dictionary to see if your guesses are correct.
1. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right
– the rest of the school must already be here (85)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
2. Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville’s cloak, which was fastened under
his left ear, and on Ron’s smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.
(86)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
3. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard’s hat. This hat was patched and
frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn’t have let it into the house. (87)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
4. Harry didn’t feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the
hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have
been the one for him. (89)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________
5. ‘Well done, Ron, excellent,’ said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry (91)
Guess: _______________________________________________________________________
Dictionary meaning: _________________________________________________________