ESL001 : ELEMENTARY

SAYLOR.ORG

Nindya Putri Rismayanto

UNIT 1

The Eight Parts of Speech

This text contains a list of the parts of speech. Review it, then complete the rest
of unit one to learn about each part of speech in detail.

English uses eight parts of speech to build sentences. These words work together
to make all kinds of messages. When you know what part of speech a word is, it's
easier to see the meaning of a sentence. The parts of speech are:

Part of Speech What is it? Example

Noun A person, place, or thing dog, apple, computer

Pronoun Takes a noun's place I, you, he, it

Adjective Describes a noun red, small, pretty
Verb An action word run, sit, play*

Adverb Describes a verb happily, slowly, briskly

Preposition Connects words to each other in, on, around

Conjunction Connects phrases because, for, and

Interjection Tells emotion oops, yay, oh no

*There are two kinds of verbs. We'll cover "states of being" verbs in ESL 002.

Nouns and Pronouns

Read this text about nouns and pronouns.
Noun

A noun is a part of speech. It names or identifies four things:

 people
 places
 things
 ideas

Nouns can be categorized in many ways.

 They may be singular (like "son") or plural (like "sons"). This is called
number.
 They may be common (like "house") or proper (like "Thomas Smith"). All
nouns that are not proper are common.
 They may be concrete (like "street") or abstract (like "love"). All nouns that
are not concrete are abstract.
 They may be count (like "piece"), non-count or mass (like "information")
or collective (like "group"). This is called countability.
 Some nouns may be masculine (like "postman") or feminine (like
"stewardess"), but most nouns do not have gender. Nouns that are
masculine or feminine are said to have noun gender.

You may learn about these aspects of nouns or go to the next section about
pronouns.

There are five properties of a noun or a noun phrase or noun clause:

 A noun can be the subject of a finite verb.

The boy threw the ball. - here "boy" is a Noun, acting as the subject to the
verb "threw".

 A noun can be the object of a transitive verb.

He ate his food. - here "food" is a Noun, object of the verb "ate".

 A noun can be the object of a preposition.

He dived into the pool. - here "pool" is a Noun, acting as the Object of the
 preposition "into"

 A noun can be the complement of a verb of incomplete predication.

He is a good man. - here "man", a Noun is the Complement to the verb of

incomplete predication "is".

 A noun can be used in Apposition to a noun or pronoun.

It is funny that he said that to her. - Here, the Noun clause "that he said
that to her" is used in Apposition to the pronoun "It" in the Main Clause.

Pronoun

A pronoun is traditionally a part of speech in grammar, but many modern

linguists call it a type of noun. In English, pronouns are words such as me, she,
his, them, herself, each other, it, what. Pronouns are often used to take the place
of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun. For example, instead of saying:

 Tom has a new dog. Tom has named the dog Max and Tom lets the
dog sleep by Tom's bed.

it is easier to say:

 Tom has a new dog. He has named it Max and he lets it sleep by his bed.

When a pronoun replaces a noun, the noun is called the antecedent. For
example, in the sentence:The dog that was walking down the street, the relative
pronoun is the word that referring back to the antecedent, the word 'dog'. In the
sentence The spy who loved me, the relative pronoun is the word 'who' and its
antecedent is the word 'spy'.

>Differences and similarities to nouns

Pronouns are different from common nouns because pronouns normally do not
come after articles or other determiners. For example, people do not say "the it".
Pronouns rarely come after adjectives. They are also different because many of
them change depending on how they are used. For example, "we" is a 'subject' in
grammar, but the word changes to us when used as an object. Pronouns are the
same as nouns because they both change for number (singular & plural), case
(subject, object, possessive, etc.), and gender (male, female, animate, inanimate,
etc.) Nouns and pronouns can be used in almost all the same places in sentences,
and they name the same kinds of things: people, objects, etc. Even though they
can not normally come after determiners, or adjectives, neither can proper nouns.

Kinds of pronouns

There are four kinds of pronouns: personal, reciprocal, interrogative, and relative.

PERSONAL Your sister loves herself

RECIPROCAL we are looking at one another
INTERROGATIVE what happened?
RELATIVE the time which you told me

The tables below show all the personal pronouns in English that are commonly
used today.

SINGULAR

Subject Object Possessive

First I me mine

Second you you yours

Feminine she her hers

Masculine he him his

Neuter it it its

PLURAL
 Subject Object Possessive

First we us ours

Second you you yours

Feminine they them theirs

Masculine they them theirs

Neuter they them theirs

A subject pronoun can replace a noun that is the subject of a sentence. Refer to
the table above; the subject pronouns are: I, You, He, She, It, We, They.

Another type of personal pronoun is called the 'reflexive pronoun'. Reflexive

pronouns are the words ending in '-self' or '-selves', such as: myself, itself,
themselves.

Grammar Essentials: Adjectives

Read the following text about adjectives.

An adjective modifies (describes/distinguishes) nouns and pronouns. In other

words, adjectives change nouns or pronouns in some way. So movie is a noun,
and a scary movie has been changed by the adjective scary.

It’s important to remember, too, adjectives, as in the case of a scary movie, give
you a way to inject your point of view into your writing. You might also describe
a lovable book, a beautiful dress, or an ominous sky. There’s a certain amount
of subjectivity, of course, in all of these words, so you’ll want to work to keep
your audience in mind when choosing your adjectives and do your best to make
sure your adjectives (or descriptors) are specific, concrete, and will make sense to
both you and your audience.

Order of Adjectives

Adjectives need to be placed in a particular order. What information do you post

first? If you’re a native English speaker, you can probably figure out the order
without any thought. That’s because you understand English grammar—even if
it’s only because you know what “sounds” right. And, if you’re a non-native
English speaker, you’ve probably been schooled in the order.

Below, you’ll find an image illustrating the royal order of adjectives. Again, native
English speakers follow the order—but we don’t always know WHY. Think about
it. Why would we automatically write four gorgeous, long-stemmed, red, silk
roses rather than four silk, long stemmed, gorgeous, red roses? What drives
the order in our description? The first example leads us down a logical path; the
second example doesn’t let us know which details are most important.

The Royal Order of Adjectives

Determine Observatio Materia

r n Physical Description Origin l Qualifier Noun

Size Shape Age Colo

r

a beautiful old Italian touring car

an expensive antique silver mirror

four gorgeous stemme red silk roses

Determine Observatio Materia
r n Physical Description Origin l Qualifier Noun

Size Shape Age Colo

r

her short black hair

our big old English sheepdo

g

those square wooden hat boxes

that dilapidated little hunting cabin

several gian young America basketbal players

t n l

some delicious Chinese food

Types of Adjectives

Comparatives and superlatives are types of adjectives, but one (comparatives)

provides a relative distinction while the other (superlatives) signifies the most
extreme.

Comparative adjectives often end in -er, and superlative adjectives often end in -
est.

Comparative:

My World of Warcraft fighter is tougher than your character.

Superlative:

My World of Warcraft fighter is the toughest character ever.

There are also some adjectives that are irregular when you turn them into the
comparative and superlative, and some, usually adjectives with two syllables,
require that you simply add more or most in front of them.

The following examples are of some regular and some irregular adjectives.

Adjective Comparative Superlative

kind kinder kindest
strong stronger strongest
good better best
bad worse worst
careful more careful most careful
awesome more awesome most awesome
Verbs and Adverbs
Verb
A verb is a kind of word (part of speech) that tells about an action or a state. It is
the main part of a sentence: every sentence has a verb. In English, verbs are the
only kind of word that changes to show past or present tense.

Every language in the world has verbs, but they are not always used in the same
ways. They also can have different properties in different languages. For example,
in some other languages e.g., Chinese & Indonesian) verbs do not change for
past and present tense. This means the definition above only works well for
English verbs.

There are sixteen verbs used in Basic English. They are: be, do, have, come, go, see,
seem, give, take, keep, make, put, send, say, let, get.

Verb forms

In English and many other languages, verbs change their form. This is
called inflection. Most English verbs have six inflected forms (see the table),
but be has eight different forms.

past: walked
example: She walked home
3rd singular present: walks
Primary forms
example: She walks home
plain present: walk
example: They walk home
plain form: walk
example: She should walk home
gerund: walking
Secondary forms
example: She is walking home
past participle: walked
example: She has walked home
You should notice that some of the verb forms look the same. You can say they
have the same shape. For example, the plain present and the plain form
of walk have the same shape. The same is true for the past and the past
participle. But these different forms can have different shapes in other verbs. For
example, the plain present of be is usually are but the plain form is be. Also, the
past of eat is ate, but the past participle is eaten. When you look for a verb in the
dictionary, it is usually the plain form that you look for.

An English sentence must have at least one primary-form verb. Each

main clause can only have one primary-form verb.

Kinds of Verbs

English has two main kinds of verbs: normal verbs (called lexical verbs)
and auxiliary verbs. The difference between them is mainly in where they can go
in a sentence. Some verbs are in both groups, but there are very few auxiliary
verbs in English. There are also two kinds of auxiliary verbs: modal verbsand non-
modal verbs. The table below shows most of the English auxiliaries and a small
number of other verbs.

Auxiliary Verbs

Can you play the piano?

I will not be there

modal verbs Shall we go

Yes, you may

You must be joking

Have you seen him?

non-modal verbs I did see it

He is sleeping

Lexical Verbs
 I fell

I didn't fall

I had breakfast.

I'm playing soccer.

Must you make that noise?

Have you seen him?

I did see it

He is sleeping

Tense and Aspect

Tense

Tense is mainly used to say when the verb happens: in the past, present, or
future. In order to explain and understand tense, it is useful to imagine time as a
line on which past tense, present tense and future tense are positioned.

Past tense Present tense

She walked home She walks home

He ran quickly He runs quickly

I could swim well I can swim well

Did you live here? Do you live here?

Aspect

Aspect usually shows us things like whether the action is finished or not, or if
something happens regularly. English has two aspects: progressive and perfect. In
English, aspect is usually shown by using participle verb forms. Aspect can
combine with present or past tense.
 Key Points

 All verbs have both tense and aspect.

 Aspect gives us additional information about a verb by
telling us whether the action was completed,
continuous, neither, or both.

Key Terms

 tense: A quality of verbs which indicates whether the

verb occurred in the past, present, or future.
 aspect: A quality of verbs which indicates whether the
verb is continuous, completed, both of those, or neither.

Present (non-
Aspect Past Future
past)
Simple go(es) went will go
was/were
Continuous am/is/are going will be going
going
Perfect have/has gone had gone will have gone
Perfect have/has been had been will have been
continuous going going going

Adverb
An adverb is a word used to tell more about a verb, and it almost always answers
the questions how?, when?, where?, how often?, and in what way?. Words
like slowly, loudly, carefully, quickly, quietly or sadly are all adverbs. Adverbs
usually, but not always, end in -ly.

Examples of adverbs in a sentence (with the adverb in italics): that is a weird word
and is seen differently

 How did the man walk? The man walked slowly.

 How did the dogs bark? The dogs barked loudly.
An adverb can also modify (describe) an adjective or another adverb

Examples:

 Adverb modifying a verb: He writes well

 Adverb modifying another adverb: He writes very well
 Adverb modifying an adjective: He is very well

In the first two examples the word 'well' is an adverb. In the last example, it is an
adjective. This is one example in which the same word can be both an adjective
and an adverb but not in the same sentence.

As a rule, the same word can play different roles but not in the same sentence. It
all depends on what the word is doing in the sentence. It could be a noun, an
adjective, an adverb, a verb, etc. Example: take the word 'cool'. In the sentence,
"he walks cool", the word 'cool' is an adverb. In the sentence, "cool the hot dish",
the word 'cool' is a verb. In the sentence, "it is a cool evening", the word 'cool' is
an adjective. In the first example, "he walks cool", the word 'cool' really means
'coolly' as in "play it cool" (do not get excited; be calm).

Adverbs most commonly describe HOW, but below is a more comprehensive list of the most
common types of adverbs.

Type of Adverb Example

Adverbs of manner
Christine sang the song atrociously. No more karaoke for her!
(or how)

Michelle did her homework yesterday, but she did the wrong
Adverbs of time
assignment.

I met my friend at the coffee shop, and that’s where we saw the
Adverbs of place
first signs of the outbreak.

Adverbs of degree It’s too quiet in here.

Michael Jordan rarely misses a free throw, but

Adverbs of frequency
Shaq frequently does.

Adverbs of purpose I clean the litter box every day to keep the house from smelling.
And like adjectives, adverbs have a “royal order.” While you may already have an
innate sense of this order, it can be helpful to review the rules.

The Royal Order of Adverbs

Noun+Verb Manner Place Frequency

Beth swims avidly in the pool every evening

Dad walks impatiently into town every morning

Joe naps peacefully in his room every afternoon

Prepositions and Conjunctions
Prepositions
Prepositions are relation words; they can indicate location, time, or other more
abstract relationships. Prepositions are noted in bold in these examples:

 The woods behind my house are super creepy at night.

 She sang until three in the morning.
 He was happy for them.

A preposition combines with another word (usually a noun or pronoun) called

the complement. Prepositions are still in bold, and their complements are in
italics:

 The woods behind my house are super creepy at night.

 She sang until three in the morning.
 He was happy for them.

Prepositions generally come before their complements

(like in England, under the table, of Jane). However, there are a small handful of
exceptions, including notwithstanding and ago:

 Financial limitations notwithstanding, Phil paid back his

debts.
 He was released three days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lorcetNSPG8&t=11s

Prepositions of location are pretty easily defined (near, far, over, under, etc.), and
prepositions about time are as well (before , after, at, during , etc.). The following
video is a succinct overview of the types of prepositions:

The most common prepositions are one-syllable words. According to

one ranking, the most common English prepositions
are on, in, to, by, for , with, at, of , from, as. There are also some prepositions that
have more than one word:

o in spite of (She made it to work in spite of the terrible traffic.)

o by means of (He traveled by means of boat.)
o except for (Joan invited everyone to her party except for Ben.)
 o next to (Go ahead and sit down next to Jean-Claude.)

Using Prepositions

A lot of struggles with prepositions come from trying to use the correct
preposition. Some verbs require specific prepositions. Here’s a table of some of
the most commonly misused preposition/verb pairs:

think of or
different from comply with dependent on
about

need of profit by glad of bestow upon

Some verbs take a different preposition, depending on the object of the

sentence:

agree with a person agree to a proposition

differ from (person or thing) differ from or with an opinion

reconcile with (a person) reconcile to (a statement or idea)

compare with (to determine value) compare to (because of similarity)

When multiple objects take the same preposition, you don’t need to repeat the
preposition. For example, in the sentence “I’ll read any book by J.K. Rowling or R.
L. Stine,” both J. K. Rowling and R. L. Stine are objects of the preposition by, so it
only needs to appear once in the sentence. However, you can’t do this when you
have different prepositions. Let’s look at this using a common phrase: “We fell
out of the frying pan and into the fire.” If you leave out one of the prepositions,
as in “We fell out of the frying pan and the fire,” the sentence is saying that we
fell out of the frying pan and out of the fire, which would be preferable, but
isn’t the case in this idiom.

Prepositions in Sentences
You’ll often hear about prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase includes
a preposition and its complement (e.g., “ behind the house” or “a long time
ago “). These phrases can appear at the beginning or end of sentences. When
they appear at the beginning of a sentence, they typically need a comma
afterwards:

 You can drop that off behind the house.

 A long time ago, dinosaurs roamed the earth.
 As the saying goes, hard work always pays off.

Conjunctions

If words are the building blocks for our writing, then good transitions are the
cement that holds them together. To make these transitions in our writing we
need to turn to conjunctions. A conjunction is a word or words used to show the
connection between ideas.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions coordinate or join two equal parts. They are

particularly important because, when used with a comma, they can actually
connect complete sentences.

Of course, they don’t always have to connect complete sentences. Coordinating

conjunctions can also connect smaller, equal parts of a sentence.

The key to using coordinating conjunctions is to think about what they are
coordinating. This will help you make decisions about which one to use and how
to punctuate.

First, however, we should look at the list of coordinating conjunctions. There are
only seven, and you may have heard of them as the FANBOYS.

 For
 And
 Nor
 But
 Or
 Yet
 So
If you are using a coordinating conjunction to connect two complete sentences,
you must also use a comma.

I knew that phrase from the debate would be a meme, but I am surprised at
how quickly it happened.

If you aren’t connecting two complete sentences and are just connecting smaller,
equal parts of a sentence, you should not use a comma.

I knew that phrase from the debate would be a meme but am surprised at
how quickly it happened.

You will notice there is no comma because we no longer have two complete
sentences (or independent clauses)—one before and after the coordinating
conjunction. In the second sentence, the conjunction is simply coordinating a
compound predicate.

Coordinating conjunctions can also coordinate smaller words and phrases. The
idea is that they coordinate equal parts:

o apples and oranges

o running for office or staying home to relax
o werewolves and vampires
o small but powerful

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions connect parts that aren’t equal. In fact, you can tell
by their name that they make a phrase subordinate to the main phrase or clause.

Common subordinating conjunctions

are after, although, because, before, eventhough, since, though, and when.

Key to using subordinating conjunctions correctly is to remember that a

subordinating conjunction sets off a phrase, so there should always be words
with it.
When a subordinating conjunction appears at the beginning of a sentence, the
subordinating phrase is always set off with a comma. When a subordinating
conjunction appears at the end of a sentence, the subordinating phrase is not
usually set off with commas.

The exceptions (and there are always exceptions, right?) are when you use words
like although or even though at the end of a sentence. Because these set-off
phrases show contrast, they still get a comma, even when they are used at the
end of the sentence.

Examples

Although I tried, I could not outrun the werewolf.

I could not outrun the werewolf, although I tried.

Because my alarm clock did not go off, I missed the full

moon and will now have to wait until next month to go out and
play.

I missed the full moon and will now have to wait until next
month to go out and play because my alarm clock did not go
off

You will notice the comma with the although phrase, no matter where it appears
in the sentence, but the because phrase follows the standard "rule". It’s also
important to note that although cannot stand alone.

 Although, I tried to outrun the werewolf.

The above example is a common, incorrect usage of although and actually

makes a sentence fragment, which is a serious grammatical error.
Interjections
Read this resource and think of what interjections you hear during your day.

An interjection is a spoken or written expression of emotion like "Wow!" for

surprise, "Ouch!" for pain, or "Damn!" for anger, or "Argh!" for frustration. These
phrases can stand alone, and are usually capitalized and punctuated. While
interjections are very short, they communicate a great deal because they are
typically used to express emotion.

"Ouch! That hurts!" I said to the vampire.

Whoops! Did I forget to include you in the

zombie plan?

Because interjections communicate strong emotions, they should not be over-

used. Also, check that your audience is familiar with the interjections you use
since some are culturally and age specific. Here are additional examples of
interjections: Aha, Blah, Eek, Eww, Hmph, Whee, Whew, Whoa, Yikes,Yum
UNIT 2
Previewing Text

Reciprocal Teaching Helping Students Understand What They Read

Many school secondary teachers use an activity called "reciprocal teaching" to

help struggling readers. Aimed at improving comprehension in certain subject
areas, teachers and students use this strategy to enter into a dialogue where they
summarize, generate questions, clarify, and predict various things about a
segment of text. Teachers and students take turns leading the dialogue, such as
in a group, to bring meaning to the text.

Summarizing asks the group to identify and integrate the most important
information in the text – across sentences, across paragraphs, or across the
passage as a whole.

Question generating engages learners in an additional step. Students first

identify what information might prompt a question, then pose this information in
question form, and make sure they can answer it. Questions can arise at many
levels: for example, students may ask questions about supporting details or they
may practice inferring or applying new information from a text.

Examples of question generating:

 I wonder why . . . ?
 Does this mean . . . ?
 What about . . . ?

Clarifying helps students who have difficulty with comprehension. Asking

students to clarify the text helps ensure they understand the meaning of the
words it uses. Perhaps it incorporates new vocabulary, unclear reference words,
or unfamiliar or difficult concepts. Students should review the text, ask for help,
and take other measures to restore meaning. Sometimes it helps to read the text
out loud.

Examples of clarifying:

 Maybe it's trying to say that . . .

 The author is trying to make us see that . . .
Predicting prompts students to hypothesize what the author will discuss next,
calling on the background knowledge they already possess about the topic. This
gives them a purpose for reading – to confirm or disprove their hypotheses – and
allows them to connect new knowledge from the text with what they already
know. The predicting strategy helps students realize that headings, subheadings,
and questions in the text are useful tools for helping anticipate what might occur
next.

Examples of predicting:

 This might be about . . .

 I think that what will happen is . . .

Examples of connecting:

 This reminds me of . . .
 I can relate to this because . . .
Reading Comprehension
In this activity, you will answer questions about a story by reading and identifying
important details.

The Magic Paintbrush

A long time ago in China there lived a poor boy called Liang. He had no family,
so he made his living by doing odd jobs for other people in his village, such as
cutting wood and tending cattle. His life was difficult, but Liang was a generous
boy and always willing to help people who needed it. In his heart he had a
dream. He wanted to paint pictures and become a great artist. He practised
drawing all the time. When he was in the forest cutting wood, he drew birds and
animals with a stick. If he was looking after a farmers’ cows he drew on the sides
of the barn. Whatever he was doing he drew – plants, animals, birds and people.
He thought of nothing else except drawing, and soon he became very good at it.

One night Liang dreamed that an old man gave him a paintbrush. The man said it
was a magic paintbrush and Liang should use it to help people. When Liang woke
up the next morning, he was surprised to see that he had a beautiful paintbrush
in his hand. Liang was hungry, so he painted a bowl of rice. Suddenly the rice
became real, and he ate it. Now he felt happy, so he drew a bird. The bird came
to life and flew away.

When Liang went into the village he met an old farmer carrying water from the
river to his field. It was a long walk and the man was very tired. Liang painted a
river beside the field and the river came to life. Now the farmer could easily bring
the water to his crops. Soon Liang met another villager who was crying because
his cow had died in the night, and there was no milk for his children. Liang drew
a cow, and it came to life. The villager was overjoyed and happily began to milk
his cow.

From that day Liang used his paintbrush to help the people in his village.
Whenever they needed something, Liang would paint it. Soon the villagers began
to prosper, and word of Liang’s magic paintbrush began to travel beyond the
village.

People asked him, "Why don’t you use your magic paintbrush to become rich?"

"What else do I need?" replied Liang. "I feel rich because I can help."

It wasn’t long before a rich man who lived near the village heard about Liang’s
magic paintbrush, and thought he would use it to make himself richer than the
emperor. This man decided to steal Liang’s paintbrush. He sent some of his
*thugs to Liang’s home, where they captured Liang and put him in prison. The
rich man took the paintbrush.

The rich man wanted to show off his power so he invited some friends to his
house. He drew a lot of pictures, but not one picture became real. The rich man
figured there must be some special secret that he didn’t know about, so he sent
for Liang. When Liang stood before him he said, "If you draw some pictures for
me and they become real, I will let you go free."

Liang knew that this rich man was not a good man. He didn’t want to help, but
he wanted to be free. He had an idea. He said, "I will help you, but you must let
me go."

"Paint me a golden mountain," said the rich man. "I want to go there and get lots
of gold." What he didn’t say out loud was, "And then I will be the richest man in
the kingdom, richer even than the emperor himself!"
 Liang drew a picture of the sea.

"Why did you draw the sea?" said the rich man, "I told you to draw the mountain.
I want gold, not fish!"

"The mountain is on the other side of the sea." replied Liang. "I’ll show you."
Liang drew the golden mountain on the other side of the sea.

When the rich man saw the mountain shining in gold his eyes lit up like two
yellow suns. "Yes!" he said, "That’s much better! But the mountain is far from
here. How will I get there?"

"I’ll draw you a boat to get to the mountain," said Liang. And he drew a golden
dragon boat that was even bigger and more beautiful than the emperor’s boat.
The rich man climbed aboard the boat and stood in the bow facing the golden
mountain. He said to Liang," Now draw me a wind to take the boat to the
mountain." Liang began to draw a wind, and the boat set sail. The rich man
stretched his arms out to grab the golden mountain. "Make the wind stronger so
I can get there faster," he said to Liang. Liang kept drawing and the wind got
stronger. Soon the wind became a terrible gale and the rich man’s beautiful boat
sank beneath the sea and took him down with it.

People say that Liang married a beautiful girl from his village and had a big
family, and they were happy all their days.

* thug: a violent and rough person

o Use the title first to help you predict what the story will be about.

o Liang is generous and willing to help, so generous can also mean Liang is
helpful.

o The last sentence explains Liang’s love of drawing, so he is likely to draw

something next.

o The sentence connects “overjoyed” to “happily”, so the context clues tell

you that overjoyed means very happy.

o Liang says helping people makes him feel rich. This means he enjoys
being helpful, so you can predict he will only use the paintbrush to help
people.

o The correct answer is “a strong wind”. The sentences explains that Liang
is making the wind stronger until it becomes a “gale”.

o The correct answer is “Liang knew that this rich man was not a good
man.” In the story Liang was helping good people, he does not want to
help someone who is not good. This predicts that he will trick the rich
man.
Strategies to Improve Your Vocabulary
Read this article for ways to build your vocabulary.

You derive several proven benefits from learning new vocabulary, but how should
you go about learning new words in the most effective way? By using the
following ten vocabulary-building strategies, you are guaranteed to develop a
strong vocabulary and keep improving it every day.

1. Read Voraciously

Reading is undeniably your most effective technique for learning new vocabulary.
When you read, you see words being used in context, which makes it more
effective than merely memorizing a word list.

Seeing the contextual information that surrounds each word allows you to guess
its meaning by understanding the overall text. Discovering the meaning of words
in this way is the natural way of learning a language. Reading provides the best
opportunity to get exposed to this natural way of learning.

If you are not able to infer the meaning of a new word you read, it is probably
because there are too many unknown words in the text. In this case, try reading
easier materials. The key to good reading is making it a pleasurable activity. Do
not be afraid of coming across unknown words, but make sure the text is
appropriate for your reading level.

2. Make Friends with the Dictionary

A dictionary is an indispensable resource for helping you improve your

vocabulary. Looking up a word in a dictionary will help you learn its precise
meaning, spelling, alternate definitions, and other useful information. A thesaurus
is another valuable resource since it helps you find connections between words,
such as their synonyms and antonyms.

Consider adding a good dictionary and thesaurus to your bookshelf. Here are
some recommendations:

 Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

 The New Oxford American Dictionary
 The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

There are many free online dictionaries with great additional features. Even if you
have a good dictionary in print, you cannot miss having a good online dictionary
at your disposal. Here are a few:

 OneLook: has a reverse lookup function (get the word from its definition)
and works as a "meta-dictionary" showing you definitions from other
major online dictionaries
 Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a well-established and well-
regarded name in the realm of dictionaries
 Ninjawords: searches the free dictionary Wiktionary. What makes this site
interesting is that you can look up multiple words simultaneously.
Moreover, the results pages can be bookmarked – making them good
personal reference pages
 Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus: if you're a fan of mind mapping, you will
certainly enjoy viewing related words represented in a visual map format
 Answers.com, Dictionary.com, The Free Dictionary, and many others: all of
them are good resources – try each one at least once to help you make up
your mind.
3. Use It or Lose It

Try using the new words you read and those you have looked up in the
dictionary. Using these new words will help you commit them to your long-term
memory.

Be creative and try to use your newly-learned words in as many ways as possible:

 Write them down

 Say them aloud
 Create sentences with them, mentally or in writing
 Try to use them in a conversation
 Discuss them with friends

It is also important to be aware of your own language style. Try to catch yourself
every time you are about to use common or nonspecific words such as "nice". Try
to use a richer, more descriptive, and more precise expression instead.

4. Learn One New Word a Day

If you learn just one new word every day, you will notice they add up pretty
quickly.

Many websites provide free word-of-the-day services. Here are some to try:

 Merriam-Webster's Online Word of the Day: this website delivers the most
useful words of all. It is also the most feature-rich: it provides an audio
explanation, pronunciation, and word history.
 WordSmart Wordcast: provides difficulty level, comprehensive details, and
audio pronunciation for the word.
 Dictionary Word of the Day: another fine service, perhaps not as complete
as Merriam-Webster's or WordSmart, but still worth checking out.

5. Understand the True Meaning of Words

By deeply understanding words, you can make your vocabulary grow

exponentially. Instead of just memorizing words, try to really understand them by
looking at their etymology, word roots, prefixes, and suffixes. At least half of
English words are derived from Greek and Latin roots, so enormous benefits
come from being familiar with them.
For example, when you understand the prefix "ortho" means straight or right, you
can find connections between words that seem unrelated, such as orthodontist (a
specialist who straightens teeth) and orthography (the correct or straight way of
writing).

Understanding the logic behind words always pays off in terms of learning and
recalling. Consider the examples breakfast which means to "interrupt the night's
fast", or rainbow which means "bow or arc caused by rain". Having insights about
words, foreign or otherwise, never fails to deepen your connection to them.

6. Maintain a Personal Lexicon

By keeping a personalized list of learned words, you will have a handy reference
to review later. Since you will probably want to go back and refresh your memory
on recent words, keeping them in your own list is much more efficient than going
back to the dictionary every time.

Even if you never refer to your lexicon again, writing words down will enhance
your ability to commit them to memory. Another excellent learning aid is to write
an original sentence that contains the word. Using your lexicon to do that is a
great way to enforce this habit. You can also add many other details, such as the
date you first came across the word or maybe a sequential number to help you
reach a word quota.
There are many ways to keep a personal word list. Each has its own advantages
and disadvantages, so make sure to pick the format that works best for you. You
may prefer to keep it as a simple text file on the computer, in a regular paper
notebook, or maybe as flashcards in a shoebox.

One option is a computer spreadsheet, for its handy features such as searching,
sorting, and filtering.

7. Follow a Process

To make vocabulary improvement a permanent habit in your everyday life, you

should make it as habitual, automatic, and tightly integrated in your daily
workflow as possible. Otherwise, you won't do it when your days get too busy.

One useful concept is maintaining a Word Inbox. Creating a predefined place to

capture the words you come across will help you process them more efficiently.

Your process can be as simple as you wish. The key is to define it beforehand and
follow it. Knowing exactly how, and how often, to process your inbox allows you
to stay on top of improving your vocabulary, even when other pressing matters
are vying for your attention.

8. Play and Have Fun

Playing games and engaging in group activities are useful and effective for
language-related learning. Gather your family and friends and play word games
together. Some interesting options are Quiddler, in addition to the classics
Scrabble and Boggle.

It is easy to come up with your own word activities without having to spend
money on boxed games. For example, you may try your own variation of "word
evening" when a different person brings a new word to the meal on a certain day
of each week. The person reads the word, defines it, and others must create a
sentence using the word.

There are also many word games in the Internet. You can play them when you
are bored or integrate them in your daily routine, such as after lunch. Consider
the following recommendations:

 Merriam Webster's Word Games & Quizzes

 Merriam Webster's Daily Crossword
  Scrabble or Words with Friends

9. Leverage Every Resource You Can

The Internet is a goldmine of resources for vocabulary building. Here are a few to
get you started, though many more exist:

There is a wealth of free literature on sites such as Project Gutenberg. There are
many ways to integrate dictionary lookup functions into your browser, such as
the Google Dictionary extension in Chrome or the Oxford Dictionary add-on in
Firefox. You can find specialized vocabulary lists, such as these feeling words or
descriptive words. You can even learn some classy, Shakespearean insults!

You are only limited by your willingness to learn: let curiosity be your guide and
you will never run out of resources to learn from.

10. Diversify

Do something different from your daily routine: hunting, fishing, or blogging –

any activity that is not a part of your normal life can help you learn new words.
Every niche has its own jargon and unique ways of communicating. Read
different books and magazines than the ones you are used to. Watch foreign-
language movies, take up new hobbies, or hang out with different people.

Doing things out of the ordinary will help you improve your vocabulary and make
your life much more interesting.