Build Your Vocabulary

Vocabulary building is one of the first and foremost steps in learning a language. It is also a fundamental stage that helps in language development. While there are multiple methods you can follow to build your vocabulary, this literary piece aims to lay out a few common and successful strategies you can use.

When a kid is first sent to school, the very first thing taught to students is the English alphabet. Gradually, they are introduced to words by associating letters with words that start with a particular letter. For instance, ‘A for apple’, ‘B for ball’, ‘C for cat’, ‘D for doll’, and so on. If you notice, you will see that the words used would be names of things that a kid sees on a regular basis. This is because these things are easier for children to identify and learn.

They can further be introduced to more words, maybe in accordance with the number of letters or syllables in a word. For example, they can start with two letter words up to four and five-letter words and gradually move on to bigger words. To help them remember, make sure you have pictorial representations of each word. Believe it or not, visual aids always facilitate faster comprehension and also never forget it.

Students are also taught words based on their rhyme, as it helps them grasp words quickly. For example, pat-fat-cat-mat-rat-sat-bat-fat, fan-man-ran-tan-can-pan-ban, try-pry-fry-cry, etc. Approaching words with the number of syllables is another method. In this method, you can start with monosyllabic words followed by disyllabic, trisyllabic and polysyllabic words.

Another aspect of such vocabulary teaching and learning is that the words that are taught initially are nouns. They are referred to as naming words to start with. Action words and describing words are introduced at a later point in time. Slowly, they are taught that naming words are called nouns, action words are called verbs and describing words are called adjectives. Once you have a basic idea of what nouns, verbs and adjectives are, you can explore their various types. For example, you can learn proper nouns and common nouns, countable nouns and uncountable nouns, singular nouns and plural nouns, collective nouns, compound nouns, abstract nouns and possessive nouns.

Here is a list of common nouns, verbs and adjectives for your reference. Go through them and build your vocabulary.

Nouns
Ant Ball Cot Dog Eel
Fish Goat Hat Ink Jet
Kit Lamp Man Nose Oil
Peas Quail Rabbit Shark Tree
Umbrella Vase Whale Yak Zebra
Verbs
Aid Break Catch Drive Earn
Fry Give Have Itch Jump
Knock Light Match Need Occur
Pack Question Roast Strike Thrive
Use Validate Wake Yelp Zip
Adjectives
Ample Boundless Cunning Different Ecstatic
Functional Grumpy Hungry Indulgent Jovial
Known Loyal Moist Noisy Omniscient
Playful Quiet Rampant Strict Tasty
Unique Various Weird Yellow Zesty
Common Words for Your Daily Conversation
Opposite Above On Over Open
End Quickly Immediately Pink Shine
Independent Prior Because Yet Although
Right Left Middle Uniform White
Before Dinner Sweet Everyday Tomorrow
Daily Rarely Seldom Never Forever
Black Shake Eat Water Dance
Drink Dress Blue Socks Scissors
Newspaper Ticket Tie Skirt Bus
Train Road River Pipe Toy