Use of English

Learning Vocabulary Well

Many learners think that building vocabulary is simply a matter of (0) MEMORISING long lists of words. However, if you want to use English naturally, you need to understand meaning in context and notice which words often go (1) .......... together. For example, you might know the word "decision", but you also need to know you usually (2) .......... a decision, not *do* one. The same is true for phrasal verbs: if you look a word up in a dictionary, you may find several meanings, so you have to (3) .......... the one that fits the sentence. A good strategy is to keep a notebook and write down short example sentences, rather than single words (4) .......... . Later, test yourself by covering the meaning and trying to remember it. If you get it wrong, don’t be too hard on yourself—just (5) .......... it again the next day. Finally, try to learn words in groups: synonyms, opposites, and common phrases. This helps you (6) .......... up patterns and makes new vocabulary easier to recall. Over time, you’ll (7) .......... that you can guess unknown words more confidently from the surrounding text, instead of stopping to translate (8) .......... word.