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.