If you play Scrabble with friends who frequently put down combinations of high-scoring letters that make you say something like “THAT’s not a word! What does it mean?” then you may have noticed that while they can frequently prove that what they’ve put down is a real word by referring to a dictionary, they won’t be able to define the word themselves or use it in a sentence. For a winning game of Scrabble, all you need to do is remember the patterns that the letters make, so you can play the word for the most points. This might work if you just want to memorize a list of words to become a world-class Scrabble player, but if you want to become a world-class English speaker, you’ll need to pay attention to more than the order of the letters in words.

Think about the last time you learned a new skill – how to ski, for example. The instructor would have told you how to correctly strap on your skis, how to stop and start, how to turn, the etiquette to use when on the slopes, and ways to navigate through the runs or trails without getting lost. If they had stopped with the first step, you’d still be standing there in the snow, with your skis on but with no idea of how to use them. When you’re learning English, merely “strapping on” a dictionary or a set of word lists won’t give you good vocabulary skills, just like simply wearing a pair of skis doesn’t make you a good skier.

You do need to know the patterns of the letters in a word, because you need to know how a word is correctly spelled. However, you also need to know how a word is pronounced if you want to use that word in spoken conversation as well as in written communication. You need to know how the word is used in context, so that you’re able to fit it in where it’s most appropriate. If you study a word’s etymology (its origin and history) then you’ll get information relating to all three of these aspects, and you’ll also learn about related words, which expands your vocabulary even further. Finally, taking the time to learn synonyms (words that have similar meanings) and antonyms (words that mean the opposite) of any word will give you a great deal of flexibility in your ability to communicate with people in a variety of situations. If you pay attention to all of these aspects of English vocabulary study, you’ll get the most benefit out of your study program.