Build Your Vocabulary

Vocabulary building is one of the first and foremost steps in learning a language. It is also a fundamental stage that helps in language development. While there are multiple methods you can follow to build your vocabulary, this literary piece aims to lay out a few common and successful strategies you can use.

When a kid is first sent to school, the very first thing taught to students is the English alphabet. Gradually, they are introduced to words by associating letters with words that start with a particular letter. For instance, ‘A for apple’, ‘B for ball’, ‘C for cat’, ‘D for doll’, and so on. If you notice, you will see that the words used would be names of things that a kid sees on a regular basis. This is because these things are easier for children to identify and learn.

They can further be introduced to more words, maybe in accordance with the number of letters or syllables in a word. For example, they can start with two letter words up to four and five-letter words and gradually move on to bigger words. To help them remember, make sure you have pictorial representations of each word. Believe it or not, visual aids always facilitate faster comprehension and also never forget it.

Students are also taught words based on their rhyme, as it helps them grasp words quickly. For example, pat-fat-cat-mat-rat-sat-bat-fat, fan-man-ran-tan-can-pan-ban, try-pry-fry-cry, etc. Approaching words with the number of syllables is another method. In this method, you can start with monosyllabic words followed by disyllabic, trisyllabic and polysyllabic words.

Another aspect of such vocabulary teaching and learning is that the words that are taught initially are nouns. They are referred to as naming words to start with. Action words and describing words are introduced at a later point in time. Slowly, they are taught that naming words are called nouns, action words are called verbs and describing words are called adjectives. Once you have a basic idea of what nouns, verbs and adjectives are, you can explore their various types. For example, you can learn proper nouns and common nouns, countable nouns and uncountable nouns, singular nouns and plural nouns, collective nouns, compound nouns, abstract nouns and possessive nouns.

Here is a list of common nouns, verbs and adjectives for your reference. Go through them and build your vocabulary.