A ‣ What do you need to learn?

Did you know that there are over half a million words in English but that the average native speaker only uses about 5,000 in everyday speech? You already know many of those 5,000 words. This book will help you to learn many of those that you do not yet know and it will help you to use them appropriately and accurately.

B ‣ What does knowing a new word mean?

It is not enough just to know the meaning of a word. You also need to know:
– which words it is usually used with;
– its grammatical characteristics;
– how it is pronounced;
– whether it is formal, informal or neutral.

So when you learn a word you should make sure that you:

1. Learn new words in phrases not in isolation.
2. Notice how words commonly go together. These are called collocations and include:
   adjectives + nouns, e.g. rich vocabulary, classical music, commonsense;
   verbs + nouns, e.g. to express an opinion, to take sides;
   nouns in phrases, e.g. in touch with, a train set, a sense of humour;
   words + prepositions, e.g. at a loss for words, in particular.
3. Notice special grammatical characteristics of new words. For example, note irregular verbs,
   e.g. undertake, undertook, undertaken; uncountable nouns,
   e.g. luggage; or nouns that are only used in the plural,
   e.g. scissors.
4. Notice any special pronunciation problems with new words.
5. Check if the word is particularly formal or informal in character, in other words if it has a particular register.

C ‣ How can you help yourself to memorise words?

Research suggests that some students find it easier to learn words if they
(a) learn them in groups and
(b) make use of pictures, as shown here.

You can group words in any way you like – topic, grammatical feature, word root, and soon. The unit titles in this book might give you some ideas.

D ‣ How can you help yourself learn more words?

This book will help you to learn vocabulary in a systematic way. However, you can also help yourself to learn more words and expressions by reading and listening to as much English as possible. Here are some ideas about things you can read or listen to: