A very useful new habit - learning synonyms
I feel it is important for me to mention again something that I often mention when people ask me how to improve their English. One of the keys to understanding English more easily is to know that native English speakers [like myself] very, very seldom use the same key word or term over and over again, either in speech or in writing. Instead, after using any key word once, we replace it with its ‘synonyms’. [Synonyms are words or phrases with either the same or a very similar meaning as the original word.] Here is an example of what I mean: The word ‘cordial’ is a formal and polite word with many synonyms such as: gracious; affable; agreeable; good natured; good tempered; pleasant; sociable and warm. So, in order to illustrate my point about avoiding repetition [repeating the same word more than once] I’ll make some sentences which replace the word ‘cordial’ with other words [synonyms] that have the same general meaning as the word ‘cordial’ instead of using the word ‘cordial over and over again. ‘Sophia is extremely well liked because people find her very cordial in all her dealings. In fact, it is her graciousness that people most often think about when this good-natured woman is mentioned in conversation. If everyone were as agreeable to be around as Sophia is, our meetings would always be more pleasant to attend. Wouldn’t it be great it everyone was as sociable and warm as she is!’ In this example you can see, by looking at the underlined words how the key concept of ‘cordiality’ is mentioned ‘in spirit’ over and over again without ever repeating the word ‘cordial’. I hope that this example [above] will help you see why learning synonyms of the words you are learning along with the word itself, is of great value to you in your process of learning to master English. This ‘habit’; once developed, will help you improve your listening comprehension, your reading comprehension and your spoken English!!!!!!!!!
October 10th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Very good suggestion!
Yeah, it is a BIG problem that Chinese learners of English repeatedly use the same word. Sometimes I also found myself cannot avoid using the same word for several times. The reason behind this might be that we don’t have enough active choices in our vocabulary bank. Especially when we speak under tension or pressure, all we have on our mind are some highly frequent words (or active words). But as you pointed out, we should definitely try to avoid using the same word over and over again. That means we can always try to remember synonyms when we look up a new word in a dictionary.
Your entries show that you are very patient when explaining things. I also like the way you give examples! Very effective and direct!