Learn a word everyday...how to start?

Question

i'm trying to improve my vocabulary. but i don't want to learn all of the words in the dictionary. i want to learn words that are relevant to everyday speech. the ones that i could easily substitute in conversation. so how do i start?

Answer 1

That's a cool thing to do! I need to do that too.

First thing I would have suggested is to go through the dictionary and circle all the words that look interesting to you, and learn one of these every day.

But if you don't feel like doing that, just pick up some books at the library and read them. Any book would be fine, but try to make it one that you know is challenging and higher than your currently reading level (for example, more pages). I picked up a old book that is written in the most proper english you would find (although, not as proper as Shakespeare, if you know what I mean). Poetry books can be good for this also.

Not only will you be adding new words to your conversations, you will also be adding new topics! It feels kinda cool when you are listening to some people talking about a book, knowing you have read it. But why just listen when you can join in as well and give your opinions on it?

I would also recommend picking up a Latin or Greek roots dictionary and learning those, because it can really helpful (not to mention a life saver on tests) when you don't know a word's exact definition, but can understand the jist of it.

Good luck! Hope this helped!

Answer 2

Dear Charmed: Here's some suggestions.
1) Read. Then read some more. And when you find a word you don't know, look it up.
2) Get one of those Page-a-Day calendars with words as the subject. I have one on my desk right now and I've learned a number of new words so far this year.
Don't be put off by the strange looks you might get when you use one of the new words you've learned. When someone asks what that means, tell them to "Look it up".

Answer 3

I have on my yahoo homepage a word of the day. I just added content and did a search for word of the day and stuck it on there. It shows you how to spell it, pronounce it, and how it is used. Pretty spiffy.

Answer 4

you should get something lke SAT question of the day..tjhey take revelant vocab and put it into question form and usage and then you try to learn the word and its proper usage in everyday language

Answer 5

a thesauras- dont know how to spell. look up words you usually use and write down the synonym. Viola!!

Answer 6

Try this

http://www.merriamwebster.com/cgi-bin/wodcalendar.pl

it has a new word daily so you can start here