#14 Expand Your Vocabulary in Just One Step...

For those who had messaged and called me only to know how to learn new words.

Hope, this blog may help you.

Few years ago, I fetched a diary from the market and wrote hundreds of new words to upgrade my vocabulary. Unfortunately, after a few days, the pages of my journal were used in wrapping paronthas for my lunch box. I got disappointed, but the taste of maa de haath da bana hoya parontha, te aus de utte desi ghee comforted me. After that, I have never penned new words to learn, but started discovering new ways to update my dictionary.

After a few weeks or so, I found learning all the words are impossible. The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 1,71,476 words current in use, and 47,156 obsolete words.

‘Abey Bhadwe!  Dara mat… competition ki taiyari kar rha hun!  (You bloody Pimp! Don’t make me afraid. I am preparing for competition.),’ is what you may be thinking right now. Do not worry, I have found an easier way that helped me to learn hundred new words in a short span and I often use those words in writing stories and articles. I am not a man of letters nor an English teacher nor an English graduate, but let me help you because experience counts.

 Penning new words on a page and memorizing it is wastage of time. So I found a new method and named it, ‘Replace Old from New.’ What does it mean? It means replace the words that you often use with the new words.

For example: She bought a new phone. The word ‘new’ is quiet old. Replace it with ‘latest’ or ‘recent’.

 Another example is my previous sentence, “Replace it with ‘latest’ or ‘recent’.” You can use ‘swap’ instead of ‘replace’.

Swap all your old words with new words and use it in your conversation or writing. Listed below, a few common words that you may start with:

Decorate - Embellish

Sad – Gloomy

Wear – Clad

Work hard- Sweat

Fight – Scuffle

New – Latest, recent

Replace – Swap

Bring – Fetch

Lot of – Plethora

Lack – Dearth

Take – Seek

Want – Wish, Crave

Rich – Affluent

Not agree – Deny, Decline, Negate

Face – Confront, Encounter

Permission – Nod       

Show – Exhibit, Displayed

Many – Myriad

Repair – Mend

Rise – Escalate, Hike

Confuse, Frustrate – Baffle

Hungry – Famish

Thousand steps of journey starts with single step. And after taking first step, thousand steps of journey will not remain thousand. Serve yourself with new words in breakfast and eat it. Everyday, learn three words. At the end of month, you will have approximate 100 new words to use.

Often, teachers recommend, Word-power made easy by Norman Lewis, to students. I will try it for sure.

I would say Non-Sense verses by Edward Lear is helpful as well as entertaining to learn plethora of new words.

Till then read my previous blog — A kiss day with a sad song: http://grovernakul29.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-kiss-day-with-sad-song.html — to know the words I often use.   

Happy Reading :) :) :) 

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Email: grovernakul142@gmail.com