Ultimate Vocabulary – Vocabulary Building Software

2012 Words of the Year

December 26, 2012

The Oxford English Dictionary has selected omnishambles as their 2012 Word of the Year, but it might not be familiar to people who don’t live in the United Kingdom. It’s a word that was created as part of a political satire show in the UK, and it means “a situation that is completely shambolic.” So what does shambolic mean? Again, if you don’t live in Britain, you might not know. The word is defined as “disorganized, mismanaged, chaotic” and relates back to the noun shambles, meaning a state of chaos. That word is probably more familiar, no matter where you live in the English-speaking world.

The editors at the American dictionary Merriam-Webster picked two words for the top of their 2012 list: socialism and capitalism. The editors said that they picked the pair of words because they were frequently looked up together, especially after some of the more publicized political discussions in the United States over the past year relating to public health. Socialism is a system of cooperative economy, focusing on shared ownership and an equitable division of resources. In capitalism, private individuals are on their own in the economy, for better or for worse.

For the staff at the Oxford American Dictionary, all the excitement of 2012 was for a word that made the transition from an acronym to a verb: GIF. You might have seen this on computer files, after a dot at the end, like .pdf or .jpg, but now the Graphical Interchange Format has gone from the end of the line to the head of the class, and “to GIF” is now a common expression. It joins other techno-verbs like “to google” and “to tweet” in our 21st-century lexicon.

What was your favorite – or least favorite – word for 2012?

What’s the Best Learning Environment for English Study?

December 19, 2012

Here’s a useful word for your English vocabulary practice today: conducive (kuhn-DOO-sihv). This adjective means “helpful, providing support to, contributing to” and comes from the Latin verb ducere (“to lead”) with the prefix com- (“together, with”). It’s related to other words like the noun conductor (“leader, director”) and the verb produce (“to lead or bring out”). Some synonyms include helpful and supportive, and adverse is an antonym of conducive.

Something that is conducive will help you or lead you to the outcome you want. When you’re studying English vocabulary, it’s best if you can surround yourself with helpful resources so that your study time is as productive as possible. As we’ve illustrated in the previous paragraph, some of those resources include taking time to learn a word’s etymology so that you can link it to other related words, which will multiply the number of new vocabulary words you know in a very short time. It’s also a good idea to take a minute to find and learn a word’s synonyms, antonyms, and alternate definitions. Again, by linking as much related information as possible to a word, you’ll not only add to your vocabulary base, you’ll also make it easier to remember and use the word.

Where you study can be as important as what you study. Anything that distracts you from your study materials will slow down your learning speed, so do your best to find a quiet place where there aren’t many other people. If you’re alone in your room but there’s a lot of noise outside, you can use headphones to block the sound; sometimes listening to a piece of music without words will help offset outside noise, too.

How you study will affect your learning speed as well. When you’re focused and organized and have a clear plan for vocabulary improvement, you’ll find it easier to keep up a steady pace. If you take five minutes at the beginning of the week to write out your word lists, practice schedule, and goals, it may save you hours of distracted searching later, and every minute you save can be used to further improve your vocabulary, or to check other things off that week’s to-do list.

Get the support you need to make progress in vocabulary improvement, and you’ll help yourself achieve your vocabulary study goals.

Random Chance Has Created This Blog Post

December 13, 2012

Have you seen this video by comedian Spencer Thompson? In it he gets laughs by getting irate about how people use – and misuse – the word random. However, as OED editor Jesse Sheidlower pointed out in an interview with National Public Radio, not all “misused” words are really misused. The word random has been in the English language for over 600 years and during that time it, like many English words, has gone through evolution in meaning. It’s been used in many ways to mean many things (though the meanings are all more or less related). It started out as a noun meaning “sudden speed, impetuousness” and then became an adjective meaning “without definite purpose” a few hundred years later. As you can see, both of these meanings retain the general sense of what we commonly think of as random today. You might think of a rabbit suddenly darting away in what looks to you like a random direction, or a person wandering randomly through a park.

Thompson bases his criticism on a more precise definition of the word, when it’s used to indicate a completely impersonal and statistically average selection of a few specific things (or people) from a larger general group. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has four different definitions for the adjective random, and his definition is the last on the list:

#1: Without a definite plan or purpose.
#2: Done or chosen haphazardly.
#3: Relating to events with definite probability of occurrence.
#4: Relating to a set of elements, each of which is equally probable to occur.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be careful about how we use words, because even when different definitions of a word are similar, they can have quite different nuances in meaning. When you’re working on vocabulary study, be sure to look carefully at all of the common definitions of a word and make sure you know how to use each correctly. Communication is definitely not something that you want to do haphazardly!

Hvor Kommer Du Fra: The REAL Origins of English?

December 5, 2012

According to University of Oslo professor Jan Terje Faarlund and his colleague, Czech professor Joseph Emmonds, modern English isn’t a direct descendant of Anglo-Saxon, Old English, and Germanic roots as most people believe. Rather, they say that it’s another form of Scandinavian, like Norwegian and Swedish. They base their conclusion on a comparison of both the vocabulary and the grammar of the old and modern forms of the languages.

There are words that Old English speakers used that we’d recognize today (although the pronunciation might not be quite the same) like bread, blood, drink, and heart. These words reached the British Isles with the invaders from what is now Germany, the Angles who left their language and their name to England beginning around 500CE. However, this Old English language had a lot in common with modern German as well, in particular the word order (with the verb at the end of the sentence), and it’s so different from Modern English that it’s hard to read today. By contrast, Middle English used a sentence structure that’s basically identical to how we speak English today – and it’s the same sentence structure that the Scandinavian languages use.

Faarlund and Emmonds say that the Norse influence on the English language is much stronger than the early Germanic, and that the centuries-long occupation of the northern and western parts of the country firmly established the Nordic flavor of the language, even after the Norman invasion in the 11th century. According to these researchers, Old English died out, it didn’t evolve. Middle English, full of Scandinavian words like knife, husband, berserk, and trust, is fairly easy to read and understand even today, and the modern versions of English and Norwegian (for example) are close enough that speakers of one language can at least get the sense of meanings in the other language that they don’t know. It’s a good explanation for the shape and substance of Modern English, and helps clear up some of the problems people come across when trying to link English and German more directly. Hva tror du?

Read the full article here.

Accio Dictionary! The Power of Latin in Vocabulary Improvement

November 29, 2012

Even if you’re not Hermione Granger with a wand made of a dragon’s heartstring, you still have the magical power of summoning all of the vocabulary knowledge you could ever need just by picking up a dictionary – or using the modern wizardry of the internet, calling one up on line. In order to understand the words in the spells used at Hogwarts, however, you’ll need to call up a Latin dictionary; many of the spells are composed of Latin or pseudo-Latin words. In fact, because of the popularity of the Harry Potter series, some schools are noticing an increasing interest among students in learning Latin!

Up until the middle of the 20th century, Latin was actually fairly common as a required subject in highschool and colleges in England and the United States. Many academic professionals see Latin as the basis for a good knowledge of the English language, as well as skill in medical and scientific fields which still use Latin terminology. Currently there are over three dozen schools in the New York City area alone that have added Latin to their list of languages, along with the more common French, German, and Spanish.

You don’t need to study the language in order to improve your vocabulary, but since Latin root words form the basis of many English words, it’s good to take a little time to do some etymological research. In addition, there are common Latin phrases that are still used in English conversation. If you want to be part of the group of highly-educated and literate professionals who benefit from a knowledge of Latin word origins (or at least want to sound as if you are!) then study these phrases and you’ll soon be a wizard of words.

non sequitur (nahn SEH-kwi-toor)
A statement that doesn’t logically fit into the flow of what was previously said or discussed.

ad infinitum (add in-fih-NIGH-toom)
Forever, to infinity – in general used to mean “unchanging, without end.”

in vitro (een VEE-troh)
Literally “in glass,” this refers to something that happens in a laboratory (usually in a culture dish or test tube) as opposed to inside the body (in vivo). Most common in the phrase “in vitro fertilization.”

tempus fugit (TEHM-pus FOO-jeet)
“Time flies” (or as Virgil said, Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore).

Pro Tips for Perfect Vocabulary Preparation

November 22, 2012

Many words are built out of several separate parts, and often you can use this fact to make it easier to learn new words, or to learn multiple words at once. For example, look at this set of words:

cover
discover
discovered
undiscovered

That’s four words that can all be learned at once! The root word cover (“to hide”) is the basis for the set, and when you add the prefix dis- (from the Latin for “lack of” or “not”) you get the new word discover meaning “reveal” or “find” – in other words, “not hidden.” Discovered adds the suffix that shows the verb is in the past tense, and the prefix un- (which also means “not”) changes the verb again, giving it the opposite meaning (“still hidden”). By learning prefixes and suffixes, you do two things: first, you increase your ability to figure out the meaning of new and unfamiliar words when you can identify the meaning of their component parts; and second, you can multiply the number of words you learn at the same time using the method shown above.

Prefixes are useful, but can sometimes be confusing when they’re similar. Make sure you know exactly what the prefix means and can identify it properly as part of the word you’re learning. Today we’ll look at three prefixes that are very similar, but have different meanings: pre-, per-, and pro-.

pre- “before”

predict: to foretell, to anticipate the future
prediction, unpredictable

prefer: to like something or someone more than another
preferable, preferential

precede: to come before in order or in time sequence
precedent, unprecedented

per- “through” or “during”

perspective: a point of view

perforate: to make holes in
perforation, perforated

pro- “ahead” or “in front of”

prospective: likely to happen, expected
prospect

proceed: to start, to move forward, to continue
proceeding

Faster, Better, Stronger: How to Get a $6 Million Vocabulary

November 16, 2012

If you had the chance to upgrade your vocabulary skills and your job skills at the same time, would you take it? Well, who wouldn’t want to improve their ability to compete and communicate in today’s employment market! Best of all, this method of vocabulary building won’t add any more time to your regular study program – thanks to modern technology, and the flexible features built into eReflect’s newest product, Ultimate Typing.

If you’re wondering how learning to touch type can help build vocabulary, keep reading, because there are more connections between the two than you might think. The first connection is the most basic: when you’re typing, you’re typing words. The more words you know, the easier they are to type, because you won’t have to stop and wonder if the word is spelled or used correctly. If you’re doing transcription and typing what someone else has dictated, your ability to catch and correct mistakes in vocabulary will make you a more valuable employee; it’s often the secretary who has the final responsibility of making sure business correspondence goes out error-free.

The fact that Ultimate Typing allows you to import any text to use in its exercises makes another important connection, because it means that when you’re practicing your typing skills to improve your speed and accuracy, you can use the vocabulary lists you’re studying. You can even import the words with their definitions, so that when you’re typing you’re also reading and absorbing the vocabulary information you need. If that isn’t a time-saver, we don’t know what is!

The third connection between vocabulary and typing has to do with speed. As you’ll learn when you go through the Ultimate Typing program, touch typing begins with your ability to memorize the placement of letter keys and train your brain to control your fingers so that they hit those keys automatically, without conscious effort. When you have an excellent vocabulary, it means you’ve also memorized the way words are spelled, and you don’t have to consciously think about it. Having both the spelling and the key combinations come automatically to your fingertips means that you’re able to type much faster, and your accuracy will be greater as well.

Adding this powerful tool to your vocabulary-building kit can only improve your chances of success! To learn more about Ultimate Typing, and how you can double or even triple your typing speed, visit the Ultimate Typing website.

The Best Resources for Vocabulary Improvement

November 15, 2012

When it comes to vocabulary improvement, one size definitely does not fit all. It’s important that you match your learning style, your vocabulary goals, the time you have available, and the reason you want to improve your vocabulary to the resources and tools you chose to use. To put it simply, you need to find a method of vocabulary study that’s flexible enough to give you the results you need in the shortest possible time. Whether that’s a tool like Ultimate Vocabulary (which was designed to meet the needs of people at all grade levels) that you can adapt to your purposes as your targets change, or whether that means you move from one method to another to accommodate your changing vocabulary goals, remember that most vocabulary study guides are fairly restricted and specific to one age, one grade level, or one set of words. That being said, even these more limited applications are very useful if they match what you want to learn at the time.

For example, if you’re interested in learning vocabulary as part of an overall language development program, or if you have the goal of being an English teacher, then you’ll get a lot of material from the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. Editor Michael Byram is a Professor of Education, and he has come up with a reference guide that provides information on all aspects of language instruction. This is a particularly useful resource for someone who wants to make a career of teaching English as a second language.

Another book that’s useful for current or future English teachers is Penny Ur and Andrew Wright’s Five-Minute Activities: A Resource Book of Short Activities. The nice thing about this book is that it will help you improve your own vocabulary study program even if you’re not focused on becoming a teacher. If you’re a parent, you can also use this resource to help your child improve vocabulary and supplement the instruction they get at school.

Specifically for students in middle grades, or for adults learning English as a second language, there’s the book Painless Vocabulary (part of Barron’s “Painless” series – there are other books that help improve writing skills, grammar, math, spelling, and more). ESL teachers can get some good ideas for lessons from this book, too, but it’s a particularly useful gift to help a student improve vocabulary skills to ensure they’re ready for college and the job market.

In short, before buying something to help you learn vocabulary, make sure it’s the right choice for your vocabulary improvement goals.

If you’re looking for the best vocabulary books for children or hoping to improve business communication, we can help! Keep reading The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog for the links to the resources you need to improve your vocabulary.

Fancy Learning A Few Britishisms Today?

November 7, 2012

When the Colonies severed ties with England, they also started the evolution of what’s now commonly known as American English. Grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary are sometimes so different between the two countries now that even native speakers of English sometimes get confused when talking to their counterparts “across the pond” – something we’ve talked about in previous posts on the difference between British English and American English. For two hundred years after the Revolution, when it took days or even weeks to get from one country to another, there wasn’t a great deal of influence by one side on the other. However, now that the whole world is connected by airplanes and the internet, that’s changing fast. The BBC’s “Dr. Who” series has fans in Louisville as well as in London, and teenagers in Leeds flock to the new Hollywood releases just as they do in Los Angeles. It’s not surprising that British vocabulary words are being used in American conversations, as the BBC News Magazine noted recently. Here are some of the transatlantic terms they found:

ginger
A red-headed person.

one-off
Something that happens only once.

cheeky
Disrespectful or insolent, but often in a humorous way.

mobile (pronounced MOH-bile, second syllable pronounced like “eye”)
A cellular phone.

twit
A silly person, a fool.

fancy
To want, to wish for, to like.

What words have you noticed drifting into America from England, or vice versa? What about words from other English-speaking countries, like India or Australia?

Words, Words, Words Created by Shakespeare

October 30, 2012

One of the great pleasures to be found in reading Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets is the beauty of his phrases and the way he skillfully uses words to create images and evoke emotions. As one of the earliest and most prolific writers in the English language, there are words that appear in his texts that were never seen before. There’s some discussion as to whether Shakespeare invented all of those words, or whether he was just the first to put them in print, but many scholars do credit Shakespeare with the invention of dozens of vocabulary words that are just as useful today as they were in the 16th century. If you’re not familiar with these 400-year-old words, then it’s time to learn them – and to use them, whether you’re onstage or off. And … action!

discontent (DIS-kuhn-TENT) adjective
Definition: Not satisfied (“dis-” is a prefix meaning “not”).

Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house / In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
– Richard III

gnarled (NARLD) adjective
Definition: Twisted, knotted (the Middle English word “knar” referred to a knot on a tree).

Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split’st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak / Than the soft myrtle.
– Measure for Measure

dwindle (DWIHN-dull) verb
Definition: To decrease, decline, get smaller, lose force.

Weary se’n nights nine times nine / Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:
Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.
– Macbeth

moonbeam (MOON-beem) noun
Definition: A ray of light “coming from” the moon, though actually being reflected off the moon from the sun.

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
– A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Read this post for more information on Shakespeare’s words and phrases. For further information on Shakespeare’s vocabulary, refer to Louise McConnell’s “Dictionary of Shakespeare.”