12 ways to expand your vocabulary and start speaking beautifully

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

“Just reading more” won't help.

1. Get rid of word parasites

Make room for new expressions. Remove from your speech "uh-uh", "well," "as it were," "this" and the like, as well as obscene language and clichés. Send overly capacious expressions like "real", "fancy" and "cool" to them.

The trouble with them is that they are able to replace a significant part of the vocabulary and make speech scarce.

Notice unwanted words behind you. Record your own speech on a camera or voice recorder, pretend that you are at an interview or presentation. Reread your social media posts.

Analyze all this and write down the words and expressions that you want to get rid of. Share this list with a friend or colleague, ask him to tug at you every time he hears forbidden vocabulary.

2. Add variety to your reading

It makes sense that in order to know more words, you need to read more. But don't just cling to high literature. Do not disdain low-quality novels, flip through posts on social networks, blogs of strangers and magazines that do not meet your interests.

You should know equally well what is "indifferent", "emancipation" and "simulacrum" and what is "hype", "crowdfunding" and "punchline".

3. Learn the meaning of incomprehensible words

Do not be lazy to look into the dictionary and do not hesitate to ask your interlocutor again if you do not understand what he is talking about. There is nothing to be ashamed about admitting your ignorance, no. This is better than pretending that you understand everything, continuing an unproductive conversation and losing the chance to learn something new.

4. Chat with people who are not like you

Your usual social circle is constantly "brewed" in the same vocabulary, because you have the same interests and topics for discussion. You've probably noticed that when someone from your company finds another job or meets new people, their speech changes. He pours out unusual words, jokes, and even the manner of conversation can become completely different.

Every new person changes you. Therefore, strive to constantly expand your circle of acquaintances. Chat at the gym, shop, attend more events, and find people to chat with online. Don't push away those who are different from you.

5. Carry a notebook with you

In it, do not hesitate to mark interesting words that you come across, and unwanted expressions that you noticed behind yourself. But just taking notes is not enough - review them regularly and draw conclusions.

6. Learn a foreign language

This will make you pay attention to your own. You will become more careful with grammar and syntax, and you will start choosing your words more carefully.

In addition, while studying a foreign language, you are already working out the mechanism for memorizing new words, as well as introducing them into the active vocabulary.

7. Write

Start a personal diary or blog on social media. Describe your thoughts and experiences in great detail every day. Write about your goals and desires, come up with stories and stories. When chatting with friends, avoid ragged messages and don't use emoji instead of words.

First, writing is a great way to apply what you have learned and reinforce it. Secondly, if you write by hand, it will help you remember new words even better.

8. Memorize aphorisms, poems, quotes

It is much more pleasant to learn catchphrases that touched the soul than cramming vocabulary points in turn. Mark and write down everything that hooks. Learn, review, and reread. Over time, there will be more interesting expressions in your vocabulary.

It's not just about embellishing your speech. Imagine how great it would be to show off your knowledge in conversation. Just do not be zealous with quotes and bombastic lines: you may be mistaken for an upstart.

9. Use cards

If you can't remember a very difficult and interesting word, use the flashcard method. Many people know this method since school.

On one side of the card, you write the word, on the other, its meaning. First you need to try to remember the answer yourself, and then turn the element over and check yourself.

This method is very simple and effective: the memorization process begins with preparation. Therefore, it is better not to use applications, but to create cards yourself and write on them by hand. And you can take a small stack with you wherever you go.

10. Exercise

• Make sentences where each word starts with the next letter of the alphabet. For example: “The stork was a great accordion player. Even the raccoons howled pitifully and nodded curious little faces, enjoying the charming songs. That skill became fatal, fatal. The gloomy heron ambitiously threw poison at the puny selfish youth.
• Create stories from words that belong to the same part of speech. Describe your morning using only nouns. “Call, wake up, alarm, shutdown. Rise, search, clothes. Approach, window, opening, freshness. Cheerfulness, inspiration, joy. " Use the same principle to compose stories with the same verbs, adjectives, or participles. This activity seems simple only at first: if you set yourself the goal of adding more and more details, you will have to learn how to carefully select words and pull them out of the passive vocabulary.
• Make tautograms. The so-called sentences, all words of which begin with one letter. Here is an example from the work “Holguin Island” by Nikolai Kultyapov: “Father Onufriy, Osip Ostromirovich Ordynsky, graduated from Oxford in person. He definitely refused to stay far from the Fatherland, going back. The possessed Ordynsky announced a survey of individual districts, regions, vast outskirts."
• Choose synonyms and antonyms for words. This exercise can be done anywhere, anytime. Bored in line or at lunch - come up with a synonym for the word. For example, “beautiful” is picturesque, wonderful, gratifying, beautiful, and so on. Do the same with antonyms.

11. Play

You can learn new words while having fun. Solving puzzles, solving puzzles and crossword puzzles is practically a holiday. Except, of course, the hard work of the brain.

12. Follow the "word of the day"

Install applications like "Words of the Day" on your smartphone, subscribe to relevant blogs and newsletters. As a rule, in such headings complex and unusual lexemes are presented with an explanation and an example of use.

This will help if you can't find time to find new interesting words and their meanings. You just have to learn and practice them.