Pretentious is one of the words that the Merriam-Webster online dictionary site says is the most frequently looked up. Is it because of the spelling? Maybe it’s the pronunciation that people are looking for, or the definition. In some cases, it’s all of the above. These three aspects of learning a vocabulary word pose a perennial problem for a student of the English language. The word perennial is a good one to use as an example of how to study English vocabulary, because it’s a challenging word in all three of these areas.

Learning a word’s definition. You can take a quick look at a dictionary to find a definition of a word, and when you glance at the first entry in most dictionaries, you’ll find that perennial is an adjective meaning “lasting throughout the year.” If that’s all you think you need to know, you might stop there. However, what would you think if you then read the following two sentences?

The garden center is having a sale on perennials.

Deciding on the summer carnival theme is a perennial issue for the town council.

How can a garden center be selling adjectives? And does the town council think about the summer carnival theme all year long? If you’d looked into more definitions of the word, you would have seen that perennial can also be a noun, referring to plants that grow year-round, and that another meaning of the word as an adjective is “occurring over and over.” It’s important to look at all aspects of a word’s definition so that you’ll understand its meaning in any context.

Pronouncing words correctly. Knowing how to pronounce a word gives you the ability to use it correctly in conversation, and to be understood. If you’re mispronouncing a word, you will confuse your listeners if they hear a word they don’t recognize. There’s additional confusion possible if you’re pronouncing one word incorrectly, but that incorrect pronunciation is the correct way to say a completely different word. The word perennial is pronounced puh-REH-nee-uhl. If you accidentally put the stress on the third syllable, and say peh-reh-NEE-uhl, you’re not describing a long-lasting plant, you’re referring to a rather personal area of the human body. Not only does this cause problems in comprehension, it also gives your listeners a poor impression of your knowledge.

Learning how to spell a word. Doubled letters within a word often cause problems for people trying to spell them, and this word is no exception. How will you remember that the r is not doubled, but the n is? One way is to look at the etymology of the word for clues. Perennial comes from the Latin roots per (meaning “through”) and annus (meaning “year”). By learning this, you can remember that the double n comes from annus.

Study each new word in detail, and you’ll enjoy the lasting benefits of an excellent English vocabulary!