Whether you’re learning English as a foreign language or improving your vocabulary game later in life, there are many smart strategies for success. We’re not talking about quick tricks to help you cheat your way to excellence, because they don’t exist when it comes to vocabulary. Instead, these are intuitive ways to expand your vocabulary range through everyday life – continue reading to find out more.
Read Constantly
You will have likely heard people tell you to read more because it will open the door to the English language. Although this is a cliché, they’re not far off. Whether you’re getting stuck into a novel, reading a newspaper, or diving into a quality article online, reading will help you discover new words. Further, you will gain insights into their proper use and understand how to write them in a contextual sentence.
Listening Helps
Whenever you hear speaking, make sure you’re listening. Listen to your friends (but that’s just good manners), listen to the news, listen to a podcast, and even listen to movies. Doing this will help you learn more words and allow you to correct any misconceptions you have. Whether you’re interested in a conversation or not, listening constantly will improve your vocabulary; repetition is key here.
Play Scrabble
A great way to put your vocabulary to the test is to play a word game, like Scrabble. To win the game, you will need to know a wide variety of words of different lengths. To create words, you will need to unscramble words and put them down on the board, which will put your vocabulary skills to the test. If you’re allowed to use phones during your game, you can follow this link to unscramble words from a string of letters. Taking your Scrabble letters and unscrambling them will help you learn more words.
Improve Depth of Knowledge
You will already know many great words, but that doesn’t mean you fully understand them or know how to use them properly. Improving your vocabulary doesn’t always mean adding more words, it also involves growing your knowledge of existing words. You can keep track of the new words you learn by creating a personal dictionary, and sectioning them into categories including new words, used often, and never used. Go through your list regularly and explore different words and move them into “fully understood” once you’ve become an expert.
Explore Synonyms
Even if you don’t have a wide vocabulary range, there have to be words you use daily. Take these words and explore their synonyms, which are different words that have the same definition. Doing this will help add flair to your conversation, which will impress other people. However, you should consider the people you’re talking with before swapping out words, as convoluted (there’s another word for you) sentences are difficult to understand.
Use Apps
Pretty much everyone has a smartphone in 2022, which means you’ve got a world of knowledge at your fingertips. Whether you’re an iOS elitist or a humble Android user, there’s a large range of apps you can use to improve your vocabulary. Our favorites are Voxy, SAT, Intellicovap, and Basuu, which are all free to download. Some of these apps are iOS and Android exclusives, with many being available cross-platform. If you search for vocabulary apps in your respective store, they’re bound to show up.
The English language is a complex minefield where words sound the same but have different meanings and spellings, and words have more than one meaning. The only way to make your way through is by practicing constantly and learning about new words you hear – you will likely never stop expanding your vocabulary.
