Ultimate Vocabulary – Vocabulary Building Software

What English Words are Most Difficult to Spell Correctly?

October 27, 2010

For those of you who are learning English as a second language, the answer to this question might be “All of them!” Many words in English include tricky vowel combinations or unusual clusters of consonants that make their pronunciation and spelling less easy to figure out logically and to remember. Other words seem to ignore all rules of common sense, and are spelled or pronounced because – well, just because that’s the way it is. We’d have to trace the entire history of the English language to figure out why the words rough and cough don’t rhyme, or why borough isn’t pronounced “buruff.” Of course, there are always regional variations in the way some words are pronounced (try asking someone from London, someone from New York City, and someone from Texas to say the phrase “I can’t answer that” and listen to the differences) but in general, the spelling of the words doesn’t change.

Note: There are differences between the UK and US spellings of several common words, but we’re not going to address them here, nor insist that you choose between behavior and behaviour.

Here are some of the words that are most often misspelled in English. Can you pick the correct spelling?

1a. recommend	1b. reccommend
2a. supersede	2b. supercede
3a. judgement	3b. judgment
4a. embarrassment	4b. embarassment
5a. vaccum	5b. vacuum
6a. maneuver	6b. manouver
7a. cariacature	7b. caricature
8a. impetuous	8b. impetious
9a. anonymous	9b. anonamus
10a. susceptable	10b. susceptible
11a. immense	11b. immence

The correctly-spelled words are 1a, 2a, 3b, 4a, 5b, 6a, 7b, 8a, 9a, 10b, and 11a.

When you’re learning new vocabulary words, practice spelling them out several times as part of your study routine. If your hand does something often enough, muscle memory will help you remember the correct way to spell words. If you’re working with a study partner, you can quiz each other by taking lists of words, as we’ve done above, making slight changes in the correctly-spelled words, and challenging each other to pick out the right ones. As with any aspect of vocabulary study, the more you practice this spelling skill, the better you’ll get.

What’s the one word you never, ever remember how to spell correctly?

Why Don’t English Nouns Have Gender Differences?

October 26, 2010

If you’ve studied other languages, such as French or German, you’re well aware that one of the most difficult parts of learning languages that do use gender differentiation is associating the correct gender with each noun. For example, the French word for “river” can be either le fleuve (masculine) or la rivière (feminine) depending on whether it’s flowing into a body of water, or into another river, respectively. In German, a river is always gender-free, or neuter (das Fluss), although a brook is masculine (der Bach). Why, then, since much of the English language came from the same roots as the French and German languages, do we not have the same gender indicators in our language?

Well, at one time, we did – back in the Middle Ages, when our English-speaking ancestors were conversing in what we now call Anglo-Saxon, which was very closely related to the German language of the time. During the 10th century, when the British Isles were being invaded periodically by the Norse (Vikings), Anglo-Saxon began incorporating some of their vocabulary, and with the arrival of the Norman (French) contingent headed by William the Conqueror in 1066, French became an important part of the spoken language of the British Isles, and the Anglo-Norman dialect was created. However, the gender differentiation (male, female, or neuter) was still applied to nouns, in keeping with the grammatical rules of both German and French. By the mid-14th century, though, there was more of a reliance on the neutral word “the” (or “thee” as it was often spelled) to refer to a noun; this was only one of many standardizations that occurred in the English language around this time, coinciding with the adoption of the English language (rather than French) as the official language of Britain, and with the development of the printing press in 1470.

We still have a few gender-differentiated nouns in English, mostly in reference to animals:

doe (female) v. stag (male)
mare (female) v. stallion (male)
cow (female) v. bull (male)

A few professions (actor/actress, masseur/masseuse) also rely on different nouns depending on the sex of the person in that profession, and we also have gender differentiation through the use of the pronouns he/him, she/her, and it. Interestingly, it’s common for someone to use the neuter pronoun it to refer to a female animal (“That cow has a problem – it’s limping”), or to assign a gender-specific pronoun to a gender-neutral object (“I love this car – she’ll never let me down, will you, baby?”).

You can be grateful that your study of English vocabulary isn’t further complicated by having to also learn the gender of each noun!

Vocabulary Study: Conscious Study and Unconscious Learning

October 21, 2010

Have you ever seen advertisements for “sleep-learning” tapes or recordings that promise to teach you something (such as a new language) while you doze comfortably in your bed? This idea of sleep-learning (also called “hypnopaedia”) has been around for nearly a century, but so far it has not been proven to have any measurable effect. While it’s true that you can often solve a problem, or come up with the answer to a question that’s troubling you, by “sleeping on it” – giving your unconscious mind time to put together facts and arrive at solutions – there has not been any conclusive evidence that hypnopaedia is effective in teaching concrete, precise elements of knowledge. In one sense your mind will “hear” the lesson being played out loud while you sleep, but the parts of your brain that connect that information and fix it in your memory are not active, and you won’t remember what you “heard” when you wake up.

On the other hand, a lot of the information we collect is done unconsciously – not in the sense that we are unconscious or sleeping at the time, but that we are constantly (while awake) and automatically gathering information about the sounds, sights, and activities around us, and processing those data in our brains. Part of that process is hearing words that are being used by other people, or seeing those words in print somewhere. For example, you might be on the bus, headed to work, and not really thinking about anything in particular, when the two people seated behind you begin a conversation about their co-worker and refer to his idiosyncratic habit of always lining up his pens at the right edge of his desk – never the left! You’ll overhear this conversation, and if you don’t know the meaning of the word “idiosyncratic” then you’ll unconsciously make note of it as something different and unusual. If you get distracted once you’re off the bus, you may not immediately look up the word to satisfy your curiosity, but the next time you see or hear the word, it will trigger a recollection in your brain about this overheard conversation, and you’ll be more likely to research the word, learn it, and be able to use it in the future.

Active, directed study is the quickest way to improve your vocabulary, but your unconscious mind will also be learning words throughout the day. You can help this process by being more alert and aware of the words you hear and see, jotting down notes in your vocabulary journal to remind yourself to look them up later.

By the way, “idiosyncratic” is an adjective often used to describe an individual’s unique and personal quirk or habit, often one that’s slightly odd or eccentric.

Vocabulary for Success: Infinitesimal

October 19, 2010

Studying for an important test like the GRE or SAT can seem overwhelming sometimes, with all of the facts and figures you need to learn and memorize. Given the amount of work required to prepare for these exams, it might feel as if you have only an infinitesimal chance at success.

The word infinitesimal is an adjective that describes something that is so small it’s impossible to even measure how small it is. The German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz may have coined the term in the late 17th century as part of his work on the development of the mathematical concepts and functions of calculus (though there is much disagreement as to whether Leibniz came up with these concepts, or copied the earlier work of the English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton).

Based on the word infinite, which has its roots in the Latin prefix in- (“not”) and word finis (“the end”), the addition of the suffix -esimus (used in Latin to convert cardinal numbers to ordinal numbers, as we use the suffix -th to turn hundred into hundredth today), the word infinitesimal turns the concept of infinity on its head. Something that is infinite goes on forever, with the underlying sense that it gets larger and larger – think of the infinite (as far as we know, anyway) universe, expanding in all directions, or the infinite series of numbers starting with the basic 1-2-3. Something that is infinitesimal goes in the opposite direction, being infinitely small, and possibly continuing to get even smaller. We just don’t know, because it’s impossible to measure something that small, just as infinity is too big to measure.

Of course, both infinite and infinitesimal are most often used in hyperbole (using exaggeration for emphasis), since few things that we deal with in daily life are actually that large or that small. A beach resort might promise “an infinite number of recreational opportunities” but if you stayed there long enough, you’d still run out of things to do. A perfumier might say that his signature scent is so delicious because of the infinitesimal amount of patchouli oil he adds to the mix, but it’s still a measurable quantity in the production of that perfume.

Keep learning new words like these, and your progress will be measured in more than infinitesimal amounts, as you head out to the infinite horizon of future career successes!

Radio Programs and Podcasts About English Language and Vocabulary

October 15, 2010

In an ordinary busy life, it’s hard sometimes to find time to sit down and devote even fifteen minutes to a vocabulary study program. Fortunately, with today’s technology, there are many ways to access information on vocabulary, and if you have a radio, or can tune into a radio station on your computer, you should be able to find one or more of the programs we highlight below. In addition, many of these programs have podcasts available, so if you don’t have time to listen to the shows live, you can download the podcasts and listen to them while riding the bus to work, or walking the dog in the evening.

The radio show “Says You!” describes itself as “a game of words and whimsy, bluff and bluster” and involves a panel of word-savvy folks playing a variation on the game Fictionary, where an unusual or obscure word is given to one team member along with the correct definition, the two other team members must come up with a fictional definition for the word, and the opposing team has to pick the real definition from the three presented. They also play other word games, discuss language-related trivia, and answer questions from the audience that have been submitted through their website. The show is taped live in various locations around the United States. Look on their website to see if the production will be in your area soon, and also to find radio stations where you can listen to the show.

“A Way With Words” is a call-in show that answers listeners’ questions about vocabulary, grammar, word origins, and anything else word-related that people are interested in. This show is aired on many public radio stations in the United States (you can check the site for a station in your broadcast area). Recent episodes included discussions on how to pronounce the word niche, the etymology of the word frenetic, and how Twitter is changing the way we use language. These shows are also available as podcasts.

The BBC’s “Learning English” website is a world-wide and excellent resource for general information about vocabulary and language, with sections on business English, pronunciation, and grammar. They’ve got on-line quizzes to test your skills, and a YouTube-based broadcast called “The Flatmates” that gives examples of using vocabulary in context. While the BBC radio network has in the past broadcast word-related shows (both quiz shows and documentaries) they do not currently have a regular feature. However, you can download the “Learning English” segments in MP3 format to listen to offline.

The ABC is the Australian broadcasting network, and they offer the radio show “Lingua Franca,” which covers a wide range of topics related to vocabulary and language. You can listen to their shows live, download podcasts, or read transcripts of previous shows. While this isn’t a program that focuses on learning vocabulary, it’s an always-interesting discussion about the way language shapes our lives.

Do you have a radio show or podcast to recommend? Let us know!

Vocabulary Quiz Answers: Do You Know Your Word Roots?

October 14, 2010

Yesterday we posted a short quiz to give you an example of some of the words you might encounter on a test such as the SAT or GRE, where part of the English language test section requires you to identify and define difficult or uncommon words. To figure out the answers to those questions, we encouraged you to use your knowledge of etymology (the history of words and the original root words that now make up our English vocabulary) to break down the words and puzzle out their meanings. Here are the correct answers: 1.c; 2.b; 3.a; 4.d

Calcite (the main component of limestone), hematite (iron ore), and muscovite (also known as mica) are all types of minerals. The word plebiscite comes from the Latin words plebs (“the general public”) and scitum (“decree”), and means a question or issue that is put before the public for a deciding vote, often in the form of a ballot. A related word is plebeian (common, ordinary, “just folks”).

The three architectural terms are ogee (an arch whose sides are curved first outward then inward), cornice (a decorative molding or shelf at the top of a wall), and portico (a small roofed porch at the entrance of a building). While minatory might sound like another architectural term, minaret (the tall narrow tower atop a mosque), it’s actually an adjective meaning menacing or threatening. Minaret comes from the Arabic term for candlestick, manar, but the root word of minatory is the Latin minari (“to threaten”).

In the third question we deliberately tried to make the solution harder to find – we tried to obfuscate, in other words, by providing alternate answers that seemed like reasonable alternatives at first glance. In fact, you might have misconstrued (interpreted incorrectly) the meanings of the root words of these three other options, which all seem similar to the word confusion, which is something that results from obfuscation. We attempted to confuse you by picking the words confabulate (to chat) and confute (to disprove) because they start with the same letters. However, the correct answer is obfuscate, whose root is the Latin word fuscare, “to make dark.”

If you answered all of the questions correctly, you’re probably feeling rather jovial: happy and full of good humor. This word gets its meaning from the Roman god Jove, after whom the planet Jupiter was named, and the term was applied to people born under that astrological sign, who were thought to be of generally merry dispositions. Be sure to reward yourself with a lovely bouquet of jonquils (daffodils) because your mastery of word roots is no jejune (unsophisticated, lacking in meaning) matter. And remember to spend a judicious (using good judgment or common sense) amount of time in the future on your explorations of the interesting and intricate origins of the words you’re studying.

Vocabulary Quiz: Practical Uses For Word Root Study

October 13, 2010

We’ve been going on and on lately about how important it is to devote study time to learning basic word roots, and that’s partly because many primary schools these days skip over this essential vocabulary skill in favor of rote memorization. If etymological research was not something you learned how to do in school, now that you’re focused on learning vocabulary to study for an SAT or GRE test, or to improve your ability to read complicated technical or scholarly documents as part of your professional or academic advancement goals, you’ll need to spend part of your vocabulary study schedule on practicing just that. We’ll be giving more helpful tips on how to identify and learn word roots in the future on this blog, along with our usual study guides and vocabulary lessons, but today we’re giving you a little quiz to help you judge how well you’re able to use your knowledge of word roots to determine the meanings of words you’re not familiar with.

1. Which of these is not a type of mineral?

a. calcite
b. hematite
c. plebiscite
d. muscovite

2. Which of these is not an architectural element?

a. ogee
b. minatory
c. cornice
d. portico

3. Which of these words means “to deliberately make something harder to understand”?

a. obfuscate
b. confabulate
c. misconstrue
d. confute

4. Which of these words would you use to describe a person who’s happy and full of good humor?

a. jonquil
b. jejune
c. judicious
d. jovial

We’ll post the answers tomorrow. In the meantime, if you’re not confident that you have the skills you need to use word roots to help you understand new words, you can review these previous posts:

Learning key word roots

Important word roots (part 1)

Important word roots (part 2)

Why etymology is important

How studying word roots improves your vocabulary

New Words in the Oxford English Dictionary

October 11, 2010

Words are added to the English language every day, as people invent them in speech and in writing; some catch on and are eventually used by enough of the population that the arbiters of the English language, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, decide that they can be added to the official roster of English vocabulary. Many of these words start out as slang, like the new word riffage, added in July 2010, to describe the repetitive playing of catchy musical phrases (“riffs”) on a guitar. In September 2010, another musical word was added to the OED: dubstep, the syncopated percussive electronic music with a heavy bass drive that became popular in London dance clubs starting in 2001.

Of course, if you live in the boonies (a word also added September 2010) you might not have heard this music. If you’re in the boonies, you’re out in a remote area, in the boondocks, a rural location isolated from the rest of civilization – or at least from modern dance clubs. In fact, if you go to a grocer’s in such a small town with your shopping list of new September 2010 OED words and ask for borlotti (Italian white kidney beans) or goji (Chinese wolfberries), you probably won’t have much luck.

You’ll be glad to know that parkour is gaining in popularity worldwide, though, and doesn’t require any big-city facilities, though it’s frequently practiced there. Parkour (parcours in the original French) is a type of training or competition in which participants use any physical means possible to get over, under, or through obstacles. Developed in the early 1930s by French naval officer Georges Hébert, it involves no tools or aids, just well-honed bodies with great athletic skills. You can probably find video clips of parkour on your iPod – another word that was added to the OED in September 2010.

Studying Etymology to Improve Your Vocabulary

October 10, 2010

There are many reasons you might spend time researching etymology, the history and origins of words – simple curiosity, for one. You might wonder: What does the word etymology mean, and where does it come from? The word can be traced back to the Greek words etymos (“true”) and logos (“word”). The etymology of a word shows its true meaning, by tracking the word backwards through its development over the centuries or even millennia, helping you discover the relationships between that word and others, and possibly sending you down other paths of word research as your interest is piqued by connections you never knew existed. A “wow, I didn’t know that!” moment can lead you to hundreds of new words that you’ll find interesting and useful, that you might have never seen without your explorations into the origin of one single word.

Being curious about things, and being willing to take the time to do some research to discover the answers, is an asset in vocabulary improvement (and most other aspects of your academic and professional life as well). Learning new vocabulary doesn’t have to be just a dull repetition of words you’re learning only because they’re on a list someone has handed you. You might remember those words long enough to pass a test, but because you haven’t developed an interest or a personal tie to those words, you’ll forget them just as quickly. The goal of effective vocabulary study is to integrate the words you’re learning into your conversations and your daily life, and one of the best ways to learn a word thoroughly is to find out more about how it has grown and developed over the years to arrive at the definition and usage you’re assigning to it today.

Do you think it’s funny that words can change meaning over time? Your sense of humor might be tickled to know that originally humor (from the Latin umor, or “body fluid”) referred to what were believed to be the four liquids in the body – blood, bile, phlegm, and choler – that controlled a person’s disposition. If one humor was more present in a body than another, that determined what the person was like, and from that we get the words that describe temperament: choleric, phlegmatic, bilious (or melancholy), and sanguine.

Indulge your curiosity and delve into the roots of the words you’re studying – you never know where they might lead you.

Why Learning Word Roots is Important

October 1, 2010

The process of vocabulary acquisition can be compared to putting together a jigsaw puzzle: taking small pieces that fit together, finding out which ones truly fit and which ones only seem to, building a frame, comparing the parts to the whole picture, and finally assembling a complete phrase, sentence, paragraph, dissertation, or thousand-page book. When you look at a completed puzzle, it seems like a smooth and seamless image, but if you look closer, the image can be broken down into many parts. In English (and other languages), many of those parts are the word roots: the origins of the words from the ancient Greek, Latin, or Sanskrit or, more recently, from Old Norse, Middle English, or Anglo-French, for example. When you spend time looking at the etymology of words, tracing them back to their beginnings, you can see how words are related to each other, and identify the components that will help you quickly recognize the meanings of new and unfamiliar words that share those same components.

As an example, the word recognize can be traced back to three Latin roots: re- (“again”), co- (“with”), and gnoscere (“to be acquainted”). By knowing these three roots, you could say that the definition of the word recognize is “to be acquainted with again” or “to know again.” While that may not be a precise literal translation of the word, think about how it’s used in context. If you recognize a person, or a place, it’s because you have had a previous connection, or acquaintance, with them. When you recognize them, you are reconnecting with them, reacquainting yourself with them. The meaning of the word comes through, even if the root-word translation doesn’t directly match up with a standard dictionary definition.

When you recognize word roots and are able to apply their meanings to help you get the sense of words you’ve never seen before, your reading and comprehension speed will increase, and you’ll be able to handle more complex and detailed documents on many different subjects.

Be careful, though, that you don’t assume that just because words seem to share the same root words that they indeed have the same basic sense. Many words do share the same etymological roots; these words are called cognates. But look at the word cognate itself. At first glance, it appears to share the same root gnoscere as the word recognize. Actually, cognate comes from the Latin root gnatus (“to be born”) along with the root co- (“with”). The word therefore can be translated as “to be born with, born together”, which accurately describes its meaning: words that share the same linguistic “parents” are cognates. In this case, recognize and cognate are called “false cognates” because they appear to share the same main root, but in fact do not.

Take time to research the roots of the words you’re studying, and you’ll be able to puzzle out the meanings of any new words that come your way.