Whether you are trying to strengthen and broaden your vocabulary for some competitive exam or for personal growth, the key is commitment to regularly learning new words. Before we begin with the things that should be done, lets unlearn the most common misconception - “Read lots of books and mark every new word that you come across and look for its meaning”. Well, if you are a tyro, chances are that you will find at least 5–8 new words in almost every page of the book, so you will keep shuffling between the dictionary and the book, your reading speed will fall drastically, you will be baffled by such a huge number of words and there is little chance that you will remember them. So instead of learning new words, you might lose your reading speed. AVOID MARKING EVERY NEW WORD THAT YOU COME ACROSS.
Here are some of the pragmatic ways to enrich your vocabulary-
Make 1 Cue Card/week- The most useful source to increase vocabulary is newspaper. The editorial column of any newspaper has plethora examples of semantics. I would recommend you to read THE HINDU. Here are the steps on how to make your cue card and utilize it-
Get a chart paper, make a cue card of the size in which you can write 15–20 words.
Quickly scan/underline the new words from the editorial column (You will easily find 15–20 new words in a single page)
Write the word at the front and its meaning at the back side of the card.
Keep this card handy and go through it repeatedly till the words are imprinted in your mind.
Make only 1 cue card for a week.
The advantage of this method is that editors keep using these words and you will find them often in the newspaper which will make sure that you have properly learned and understood its usage.
2. Importance of pronunciation- Once you learn a new word, make sure that you are able to pronounce it correctly, only then you will be able to use the word confidently.
3. Remember the formula - GRASP-PT - Learn words in Groups, know its Root, Associate words in picture, Do Sentence formation, know its part of the speech, its prefixes/suffixes and know the tone of the word (if its a positive, negative or a neutral word)
The above formula would help you to use the appropriate word for a situation.
4. Word power made easy- it teaches you the etymology approach, which is very convenient to guess the meaning of the word even if you don’t know the exact meaning. This is important as it serves the purpose of understanding the meaning of a sentence or paragraph for your Verbal prep. It does not take much time to go through the book, and its worth your while.
5. Mnemonic Techniques- Though I am not a huge fan of this , but there are certain helpful Mnemonic techniques. You can easily search them on youtube.
6. English Bites- Author Manish Gupta has narrated his story, he made sure to include some big words (do not worry as their meanings are explained in the very same page and you do not have to run for your dictionary every time!), some similar sounding words, some trivia and enough jokes and anecdotes to keep you laughing/smiling throughout.
As a student, I was too lazy to go find a dictionary every time I came across a new word, I would simply read and re-read the sentence or the passage
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