How To Build Your Vocabulary
Building your vocabulary has a ton of advantages in life.
You will appear smarter to anyone you speak to. You will feel much smarter which will increase your confidence in any social situation. That leads to more friends and of course… friends who think you’re smart so they actually respect you more.
You will be able to win conversations easier by confusing your opponent with words they don’t understand.
And of course you will be able to write better articles, lyrics, songs or whatever you are building your vocabulary for.
That helps you get ahead in your career.
Oh and let’s not forget that girls love guys that are smart and there is no quicker way to look smarter than building your vocabulary.
In a book I read about building social skills the author showed how simply adding a few new words to your vocabulary will make you stand out and look much smarter among your peers.
All you have to do is swap words you already use with a new bigger word that means the same thing.
For example, which sentence would sound more impressive if you said it?
“It’s not likely that a record label will sign you until you are more known.”
“It’s not feasible that a record label will sign you until you are more known.”
The only word we changed here was feasible. Notice in ‘3’ in the picture below it actually says the word ‘Likely’.
I didn’t even notice that till I just pulled the picture in.
Why? Because I already knew the word feasible meant ‘likely’ because I built the word into my vocabulary already.
Here’s another example.
“My ex girl friend required a lot of attention and upkeep.”
“My ex girl friend was really fastidious.”
You can say so much more with less words if you build your vocabulary properly.
1. How to build your vocabulary everyday quickly and easily
2. Tricks to force yourself to build your vocabulary (there’s no escaping it)
3. Methods to memorizing new words so they stick in your vocabulary
4. How to get new vocab words into your e-mail everyday instantly
5. How to set up your web browser to give you a new vocabulary word everyday
6. How to exchange weak words in your vocabulary for stronger more intelligent words
Here I will show you how to set up your home page to give you a new vocabulary word every single day.
The browser I am using here is Google Chrome.
But the set up is similar in all other browsers.
Top right in your browser there will be the 3 dots that leads to the menu.
Click to the menu and then click ‘Settings‘
At the very top in the settings you can see an option to be able to set up what happens on browser start up.
Click the button for ‘Open to a specific page or set of pages‘
Then click ‘Set Pages‘
If you’d like to, you can set it up to open more than 1 new page. So you can even set it up to open another website that has a word of a day if you’d like.
Now you can enter any website you would like to enter as a page that automatically pops up when you open your browser.
In that top box you want to copy and paste this:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/
Then press ‘OK‘
Now you have officially started your new path on building your vocabulary.
Here is how to set up your e-mail to receive a new vocabulary word everyday
You simply go to this link (the same link you’ll be getting your daily word from)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/
And right under the daily definition and on the very bottom of the page there is an e-mail sign up that you can enter your info into in order to receive a new vocabulary word daily.
They look like these two boxes below
When your new word of the day comes to your e-mail everyday it will look like this
Open the e-mail and you will see the exact page that you get in your home page.
The only difference is that you have to go to the actual page to hear the word pronounced for you. (Which I recommend)
🙂
Let’s remember, you have to learn a new word before you can start to use it.
You can’t just SEE IT and think you know it.
In order to truly have a word in your vocabulary you need to hear it 10-15 times according to literacy expert Timothy Shanahan.
I personally have heard in my life you have to hear a word over 30 times to know it but him saying 10-15 times with variation makes a lot of sense. This is hearing the word in different contexts and also using it yourself.
So what do we do to learn it? Some people are audible learners and some people are visual learners.
So we are going to do BOTH ways to make sure the new word sticks with you.
Repeating the new vocabulary word numerous times
I recommend you read the word a bunch of times. Forwards AND backwards! May sound weird but just do it.
The more you READ it, the more you will embed it in your mind and add it to your vocabulary.
Read how the vocabulary word is used in a sentence
This is so you can understand how to use the new word.
Right under the definition there are examples of how the word has been used in popular literature
And below that they show the history of the word if you really care to learn that.
Click the pronunciation button to hear the vocabulary word
I recommend you click that button on the right in the picture below like 10 times at least.
While doing this, also say the word out loud along with it after you hear how it is pronounced.
Hearing yourself say a new vocabulary word out loud will help your brain remember it much easier when you want to use it in a sentence. Only seeing a word isn’t always enough. It’s definitely going to help build your vocabulary to say it too.
Don’t skip this step!
Also if you missed yesterdays word of the day you can click the “<” arrow and it will bring you to yesterday’s word.
Or you can scroll to the bottom of the screen and see all of this week’s words and pick which one looks interesting to you that you think will stick easiest to your vocabulary.
Write down the new vocabulary word a few times
Do you remember in kindergarten when your teacher had you write a new vocabulary word on a sheet of paper 20 times every single day every week?
There was a reason for that. Not only am I making you READ IT and HEAR IT, I am getting you to write it and that is really going to make the word stick.
I recommend you go get a brand new .60 cent notebook with fresh paper and every single day you write that new word on a single line.
I actually recommend you get yourself a ‘fancier’ notebook for cheap so that you take better care of it and you are more likely to use it everyday. You’ll feel more need to actually write the new vocabulary words down if you invested in something to do it.
I have bigger better notebooks that I take much better care of for things like my life goals and things I learn. They mean more to me because they are helping me grow as a person. For that reason I take much better care of them and use them more often.
One like this for instance. You can choose any color notebook on the left side of the screen.
You’ll write it maybe 5-8 times to fill the line up and it’ll take you 20 seconds!!!
After a week you will already be smarter than all of your friends and be throwing words around like an angry English teacher holding a book.
Try to use the new vocabulary word sometime during the day
At some time during the day, try to use the new word in a conversation.
Of course it is going to stick with you easier if you can immediately start implementing it into your daily life 🙂
Don’t feel stupid if you feel like you used it incorrectly. Simply state to the other person, you learn 1 new word everyday and you try to use it during the day in order to memorize it.
They will actually be impressed that you are learning how to build your vocabulary.
It means you are a smart person and they will respect that you are trying to better yourself.
Increasing specific vocabulary words to look and sound smarter.
If you want to increase your vocabulary while also replacing current words in your vocabulary you can use a thesaurus or simply look at the synonyms of words you see a definition for.
For example, today’s word of the day was ‘kibitzer’
You simply take the word of the day and type it into a thesaurus (the website we use to build your daily vocab has a thesaurus as well)
Bam! Now you can just look at the synonyms and look for words you ALREADY KNOW and potentially replace that word with the NEW WORD. 🙂
You can do this everyday and in a month your vocabulary will already be way bigger.
Setting it up as your home page AND your e-mail (that you should be checking everyday) makes it so you almost can’t escape at least seeing the new word. If you really care, you will learn it.
Then going out and using the word around other people… that is what is really going to make it stick.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope I answered the question ‘How to build your vocabulary’.
I know this stuff has worked for me and I hope it works for you.
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