Best way to increase your vocabulary?

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tonny

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hie
the bestest way to increase your vocab is you try to read more and more..
the second thing is learn and use mnemonics...
also refer English gramar books like comprehensive english grammar and ofcourse there are so many books in market. You sholud buu whatever you want.
Thanks
tonny:-:)-(
 

salihtel

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Read many book! That is best way expand your vocabulary.You will learn many word you had expected least time
 

yuanyelss

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There are many ways to expand vocabulary. My approach, learning new words is a translation of it, about 5-6 per day into my native language, try to remember them immediately...
 

Moby Wan

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Best way is to read a lot books. And once more to read a lot books.
 

CatFive

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NOT A TEACHER....

Read.

If the story is good, you will want to look up that new word. Often times, just seeing the word in context will convey its definition.

Word of caution: Understanding a word in print and using it correctly does not mean you will pronounce it correctly. I have been guilty of this offense more than once in my lifetime =).
 

mrang

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Singing songs with only lyrics do help. There are lots of youtube songs with lyrics only nowadays. Enjoy what you are doing and you can learn fast. This works well for children as well as adults.
 

TomUK

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When I went to school we were always given lists of vocabulary which we had to learn by heart. Quite often these were words we would never come across again and after nine years of English lessons at school my knowledge of the language was still very limited.

When I moved to England I had no choice but to improve my English as much and as fast as I could. Apart from talking to people on a daily basis the following helped me quite a lot:

I read newspapers, magazines and books, basically anything printed I could lay my hands on. In addition to this I listened a lot to BBC Radio 4 and I still do. My favourite programs are "Just a Minute", "I'am sorry, I haven't a clue", "The News Quiz", "The Now Show" and of course Radio 4's "Today" and "PM".

On TV I liked "Open all Hours", "The two Ronnies", "Yes Minister", "Porridge", "Steptoe & Son", "Dinner Ladies", "Only Fools and Horses", "Fawlty Towers", "Allo!Allo!", "Dad's Army", "The Good Life", "Blackadder", "One Foot in the Grave", "Have I Got News for You", "Goodness Gracious Me", and a few others I can't think of at the moment.

You will find that most of the above are comedy programs and that is with a good reason. First, there is not too much action, but people talk a lot instead. And second, when you are having a laugh it is much easier to learn new words. Because you are enjoying yourself remembering new words comes natural and does not feel like work at all.

Another option to increase your vocabulary would be to ask yourself what you are interested in (apart from learning English) and then try to find a web forum in English which covers this topic. You will find that, when a subject really tickles your fancy, learning new words will not at all feel like a chore.

For example I searched for the following:

- Training for a pilot's licence
- General travel tips
- How to safe money
- Model railways
- Travelling to Thailand / Living in Thailand
- Playing the piano / music in general

For each subject I found at least one forum in English. So don't be shy, just go out there and have a look for yourself.

TomUK
 

konungursvia

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Hi there

The thing I would like to focus mostly on right now, is to increase my vocabulary. So therefore I would really like some advice and help on this matter.

So do any of you, have any special tips or tricks? Or I would very much like to just hear your way of doing it!

Or do you know any games that will help you achieve the task? (know it might sound a bit silly, but you never know)

Hope to get some advice!

When learning French at 16 or 17, I bought Le Monde in Brussels almost every day and read through the front page, underlining all of the words I didn't know, before looking them up and making a booklet of them. Newspapers are a good dictionary of frequency.

Interestingly, I would usually hear the very words I learnt that same evening, watching Apostrophes with Bernard Pivot (one of my heroes).
 
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