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english.tips
MASTER VOCABU V OCABULAR LARY Y
How to learn the vocabulary that natives speakers use
My name is Max and I’m from Argentina. Like you, I’m a non-native English speaker. I started to learn English in 2011 (yes, that recently) when after 2 years of very casually irting with the idea of learning this lan guage, I decided to get serious about it. I became uent a couple of months after that, and from those days until now I’ve learned a lot more.
Because I am not a native speaker, I can understand all the difculties d ifculties and frustrations that you have or are going through. Below I’m going to list some of the thoughts that have crossed my mind (and I’m sure yours too!) in my efforts to reach uency:
That’s me in the red t-shirt.
> How do I even begin? > I can’t speak! It’s so hard! > How the heck did they become that uent? Will I ever reach uency? > OMG! I’m gonna make a fool out of myself!
> When will I ever understand movies movies without subtitles! > They speak so fast I can’t understand
Fortunately, I’ve always found different ways to overcome all those difculties and now I can’t wait to share with you all about them. In this ocassion I will only focus on the vocabulary acquisition aspect of learning English. Perhaps another time we will get into the other many different things that go into learning English.
Enjoy! Max
max
english.tips
My name is Max and I’m from Argentina. Like you, I’m a non-native English speaker. I started to learn English in 2011 (yes, that recently) when after 2 years of very casually irting with the idea of learning this lan guage, I decided to get serious about it. I became uent a couple of months after that, and from those days until now I’ve learned a lot more.
Because I am not a native speaker, I can understand all the difculties d ifculties and frustrations that you have or are going through. Below I’m going to list some of the thoughts that have crossed my mind (and I’m sure yours too!) in my efforts to reach uency:
That’s me in the red t-shirt.
> How do I even begin? > I can’t speak! It’s so hard! > How the heck did they become that uent? Will I ever reach uency? > OMG! I’m gonna make a fool out of myself!
> When will I ever understand movies movies without subtitles! > They speak so fast I can’t understand
Fortunately, I’ve always found different ways to overcome all those difculties and now I can’t wait to share with you all about them. In this ocassion I will only focus on the vocabulary acquisition aspect of learning English. Perhaps another time we will get into the other many different things that go into learning English.
Enjoy! Max
max
english.tips
MASTER VOCABULARY
This guide is free and you are welcome to share it with others.
Three Vocabulary Learning Methods & Some Big Ideas: Ideas: > Introduction > Vocabulary List > Active Vocabulary vs Passive Vocabulary > Key to Success: Use your English Every Day > Method One > Is Translating a Good Idea? > Method Two > What’s the Vocabulary that Natives Use? > Method Three
METHOD ONE
METHOD TWO
METHOD THREE
INTRODUCTION Broadly speaking, vocabulary is one of the three pillars of any spoken language. We assign words to specic objects or concepts. Then, with grammar, we organize these words in a way that makes sense. And lastly, pronunciaon is how we turn these ordered sequence (grammar) of words (vocabulary) into sounds that can be understood by the listener. That’s how we speak.
vocabulary + grammar + pronunciation
=
language we can hear and speak One thing is the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciaon you naturally and progressively lear n from the day your brain starts to absorb language. But one very dierent thing is the language you start to learn as a human being who is past his or her childhood. This is when the following quesons start to puzzle millions of people around the world who have the desire to speak a second language:
1- How do I learn new words and not forget them? 2- How do I learn all these grammacal structures to speak perfectly? 3- How do I speak as fast as naves and lose my accent? 5
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In Master Vocabulary, I’m going to walk you through three vocabulary learning methods that tackle the rst ques tion: “How do I learn new words and not forget them? ”
This works for learninig the most essential pieces of vocabulary in English, like “animal names” or “days of the week,” but it’s specially useful for acquiring advanced vocabulary; more precisely “native speaker’s vocabulary,” which is the vocabulary that very few non-native English speakers actually use. (why don’t they use it? Go to page
25).
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VOCABULARY LISTS Keeping a vocabulary list is crical for a number of reasons. Three of the most important ones are: • We can use it for reference in the future. • We can use it for reviewing, which will further help us consolidate the learned vocabulary. • And most importantly, building a vocabulary list will force us to concentrate in each individual word or phrase because we will acvely explore their key aspects of meaning. This together with the benet of learning just from the process of wring down said word or phrase leads to an enhanced memory. The three vocabulary learning techniques I will teach to you in this guide rely on vocabulary lists. We want these new phrases and words –or at least a poron of them– to exist somewhere in the form of a database (i.e. in a text le in your computer).
ACTIVE VOCABULARY VS PASSIVE VOCABULARY Your acve vocabulary is the body of vocabulary that you can use spontaneously at any given moment. I’m sure you don’t have any problem saying something like “I love reading books” because all these four words are at the core of your acve vocabulary. But, when you want to say something that requires a more advanced use of words, or when you are talking about a topic you are not very familiar with, you will most likely struggle to remember the words you want to say. When this happens, you interrumpt your speech and uer an “ uhmmmm” more oen than other mes. You might even admit you are short on words and say “ What is this word I’m looking for? ” or even “I don’t know how to say this in English.” Then, if someone guesses the words you’re trying to use you will say “ Exactly, that one!” and you’ll feel a great relief.
Thisrepresentsacvevocabularyasbeing –metaphoricallyspeaking–atthefrontof thebrain,meaningeasily available.Passive vocabularyisattheback,anditrequires a greater memory eort touse.
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When you stop to retrieve the elusive words from your memory, you are trying to use vocabulary that is in the passive vocabulary area of your brain. Your passive vocabulary is comprised of all the words and phrases that you know, but hardly ever use. When non-nave English speakers go from hardly ever using their English to using it a lot, their speaking skills improve dramacally. One of the reasons why this happens is because they have the opportunity to engage plenty of vocabulary they already knew but didn’t have the chance to use. This means that their progress is not just marked by how many new words they learn. A key reason lies in the fact that their acve vocabulary has been enlarged with formerly passive vocabulary. However, if they suddenly stop using the language on a reg ular basis, their acve vocabulary will start to shrink, as much of it will become, once again, passive vocabulary. When you bump into a new word, there is a process it has to go through for it to be come part of your acve vocabulary. When you learn it in a signicant way like in a real life situaon, this word is more likely to penetrate into your memory. If you learn new vocabulary by reading, watching TV or listening to an audio in English, engaging with it by going through the process of wring it down in your list will also increase the chances it will sck in your memory and be available when you need to use it. 9
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KEY TO SUCCESS: USE YOUR ENGLISH EVERY DAY Nothing can beat the eecveness of praccing what you learn, and vocabulary and second language acquision is no excepon to that. It’s only by pung your new knowledge into pracce that you will be able to build on your improving skills. The more you engange in the producon of language, whether it be speech or wring, the more you will predispone your brain to think in English as well as to consolidate recently learned vocabulary. Similarly, the more you engange in the recepon of language by listening and reading, the more you will perdipone your brain to absorb new vocabulary. Using English doesn’t just mean speaking it; it means geng exposure to the language as much as you can. The amount of me you can dedicate to enganging your brain in some kind of acvity that involves the language is directly propoonal to the results you can expect. The methods and vocabulary learning techniques that this guide teaches you are intended to maximize the natural benets that you get from using the language on a daily basis. Any new piece of vocabulary you learn –or anything that you learn in life for that maer– is in the beginning a frail sprout that will only survive if you water it. In your case, the water is the pracce of using your English regularly. This is the only way you can rest assured your English will take stronger roots and it will become beer in all its dierent aspects.
METHOD #1 This is the simplest and less novel of the three vocabulary building meth-
cousin: primo
od you will learn in this guide, and for this reason it’s also the most widely
aunt: tia
used. It’s a very plain formula: English word equals learner’s nave lan -
uncle: tio
guage word . This method is generally used at the beginning stage of the
nephew/niece: sobrino/a
learning process, where the goal is to learn as many words as possible
grandmother: abuela
to so that the student can start speaking. To the right is what this simple
This is exemplied with Spanish equivalents
system looks like. A beginning English student will see results from doing this acvity almost immediately, and this encourages them to keep learning vocabulary. Movaon is this method’s biggest intangible benet. Although it’s not essenal that you do this, a lot people like arranging words by semanc groups, like this:
Farm animals
Fruits
Ways to say “see”
cow: vaca
apple: manzana
Look at: mirar
horse: caballo
orange: naranja
Peet at: espiar
pig: puerco
pear: pera
Gaze: mirar fjamente
goat: cabra
watermelon: sandia
Squint: mirar con ojos entrecerrados
roast: gallo
pineapple: pina
Behold: observar
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Many also swear by the pracce of not just learning individual words, but also word groups. This is indeed a more eecve way to learn vocabulary because: a) you will become more aware of the context where the word is more likely to appear; b) you will get an idea of the words that usually collocate with the new word; and c) the surround ing words will magnify the meaning of the term in queson and this will increase the chances you will remember it. Let’s say you stumble upon the word “ aware” for the rst me:
We’re fully aware of the risks.
Looking up the word “to be aware” and nding out that it translates –in Spanish – to “ser conciente” is just one part of the puzzle. You might also want to take noce of “fully,” which is the word that collocates with “aware” to mean “very.” You should also noce from the sentence above that it’s not to be aware “in” or “on” something, the preposion that goes with this word is “ of .”
Paying aenon to the way a word interplays with other words in a phrase or sentence helps us absorb more in formaon about the the paerns and typical uses of the word. This will make our vocabulary more complete and ecient because you will see how it’s really used in English today. Below is what a vocabulary list entry for this example would look like:
to be fully aware of (sth): estar totalmente conciente de (algo). Ex: “ We’ re fully aware of the risks.”
If it’s the very rst me you see this word you might miss the fact that this sentence is also telling you more about 12
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the usage of this word. It’s telling you that “aware” is most mes used with a situaon that causes us to have a negave feeling. We say to be aware of an issue, problem, danger , etc. You might miss this the rst me, but by engag ing with vocabulary in this way will predispone you to later realize about these details.
Looking at new vocabulary in this way will also lead you to realize about other word combinaons. You have learned “to be aware of something,” but soon you will realize that “ to become aware of something” or “ to be made aware of something” imply dierent things. The more input you receive, the quicker you will be able to master the
full range of word combinaons a word has.
We have seen that method #1 has two formats. One that is very simple and consists of equang an English word to its corresponding word in the learner’s nave language, and another that captures more informaon about the surrounding words.
Format A
to be aware: ser/estar consciente
Format B
to be fully aware of : estar totalmente consciente de. Ex: We’re fully aware of the risks. main word contextual words 13
equivalent of main and contextual words
example sentence
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The moment format 1 is the most eecve is when a person is just starng to learn the language, but isn’t very pro acve yet. Here they encounter the rst hump in their eorts to speak another language, and this is not knowing enough words to express the most basic ideas. Vocabulary lists are the obvious soluon for this. Once they begin the process they see results almost immediately, which movates them to make a bigger commitment with their learning and hopefully advance to a most eecve system for building their vocabulary: format B or a personal ver sion of it that does a similar job.
In the le side of the diagram below are some entry examples of format B. In the right I have included some notes that account for the small changes these word groups have in the example sentences.
it means a lot to me : es muy importante para mi. Ex: “It means a lot to us that people appreciates our work.” “Your help means a lot to us.” not belong in a place (socially): no encajar en algun lugar/grupo. Ex: “Someone that judgmental doesn’t belong with us.” “I want to show everybody that I belong in the rst steam squad.”
it’s funny you should menon (that/sth): que curioso que menciones (algo)... Ex: “It’s funny you would menon that place because I’m just back from it .” “It’s funny you would recommend their service because from my experience they don’t do a good job. 14
We can use dierent object pronouns: us, him, them, etc. This phrase is oen preceded by “it” but it’s also common to have a phrase before it. Extra informaon between parenthesis can be helpful.
These examples tell us that this expression follows a pattern. We say “with people” and “in a group.” As you receive more input you’ll realize that in some cases people would say “belong with a group” but not “in people.”
The entry was made with “menon” but we also note that other verbs can go in its place, like “recommend.” max
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IS TRANSLATING A GOOD IDEA? Most English teachers argue that in order to be uent, you should think in English and never translate. This is indeed very true. But, because of this widespread senment in the English learning world people have erroneously given translaon a bad name and have also unecessarily given way too much emphasis to the idea of “thinking in English.” Thinking in English is unquesonably something learners have to strive for. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t benet from using translaon as a learning strategy. It will not hinder your ability to think in English and it makes no sense to ght it since it will always exist if you know more than one language. While it’s true that it isn’t a good idea to rst think what you want to say in your nave language, and then translate it to English, this will actually never happen if you dedicate enough me to using your English. This will only and naturally happen in the early stages of a someone’s English learning. As you start to learn more and more ways to express ideas in English, you will gradually lose the dependency to base those thoughts in your mother tongue. So, there’s no point in forcing yourself to think in English when it’s sll too soon; it will only bring frustraon. Translaon is never a disservice to your uency or ability to “think in English.” If anything, you will become a great translator and a uent English speaker at the same me. The only thing that will keep you from being able to think in English is not knowing enough English. Like Method 1, Method 2 uses translaon as a learning technique. You will be surprised by how much translaon as a learning strategy will improve your ability to thinking in English.
METHOD #2 In its core, this vocabulary building technique is another type of vocabulary list, but it’s also so much more than just that. What makes this method especially eecve is that you will speak and record each word you write down on your vocabular list. You do this to later listen to yourself read each word along with its denion, equivalent and examples. This will maximize your vocabulary acquision by engaging all your muscle, visual and auditory memory. But, here’s the special trick. As you record yourself reading the entry from your vocabulary list, you will purposely leave a 3-second silent gap aer the L1 equivalent (L1 means nave language). The purpose of doing this is so that you have me to say the word in English that corresponds to the L1 equivalent. Take a look at the below example. For the sake of explanaon, this entry only has its bare essenals (English word, L1 equivalent, example). This is what an entry looks like on paper:
let go of: soltar >> Let go of the door handle, please! new word
L1 equivalent
example
This is how you will read it and record it:
soltar ... ... ... >> Let go of the door handle, please! 3-sec L1 equiv. gap
example
Listen to the audio recording for this entry here. When you go back to listen to the recording, you will listen to the equivalent rst, and then the 3-second gap, which is meant to give you some me for you to SAY the word in English as you’re listening to the recording. You might or might not guess the correct word, you might not even recall it; either way, you will nd out from your own voice 16
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immediately aer as the recording goes on. If you can’t recall the word in English, don’t worry, next me you probably will. This adds a gamied experience to the process, and anything that’s a game your brain will engage in a more acve way, thus making you remember more and beer. To review, when you record it, you rst read the word in your nave language, then you leave the 3-second gap (a lile less, a lile more; it’s irrelevant) and lastly you read the example sentence. The example is what will tell you whether or not you said the correct word in the 3-second gap, or it will make you remember it if you weren’t able to recall it at all.
Anatomy of Denion Entries The example entry in the previous page is a simplied version since it’s made up of just the English word + the L1 equivalent + one example. For some vocabulary that might be just enough. The expression “to let go of sth” probably doesn’t need to be dened in a much more thorough way. Although, if you explore this phrase on online diconaries maybe you will realize it’s also used metaphorically, as in the example “how to let go of someone who you deeply loved.” Therefore, a second example with this usage might be a good idea. It’s up to you how brief or how complete you want an entry to be. As we will see next, these entries can become very thorough, and when you make one of these, the word will sck with you for a very long me. Let’s take a look in the next page at what a more complete entry looks like. 17
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ransack: [go hurriedly through a place stealing things and causing damage] saquear, desvalijar >> When you ransack, you rie through things, steal some of them, and leave a huge mess behind >> The soldiers opened re, ransacked houses, and killed who they killed >> Protesters ransacked an oce of the Brotherhood’s polical party, burning books and chairs in the street. If we break down the format of this entry, this is what it looks like: English word/phrase: [monolingual denion] L1 equivalent >> Example 1 >> Example 2 >> Example 3 The you read and record this following this structure: L1 equivalent then [monolingual denion] then ...3-second gap... then Example 1, 2 & 3. Listen to a recording of the entry on the word “ransack.” Note: this entry has two L1 equivalents. You might include in your entry as many of them as you consider necessary. As for the example sentences, having three of them is a good idea because in this way you will grasp more context and collocaons than if you just had one, but if you consider that less than that is enough, that’s okay. Let’s now take a look at a word that has two meanings. How do we account for that second meaning? Here’s how this second denion (which I’ve underlined below) ts into the entry format. step aside: [move to one side] moverse a un costado, hacerse a un lado / [rere from an oce so some one else can take over] dar un paso al costado >> Would you step aside for my uncle and his walker? >> We had to step aside for the people in wheelchairs to get by >> Walter stepped aside for a younger person to take over. Listen to how this is recording here. In the recording the “/” is “also.” 18
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There are two sets of monolingual denions and L1 equivalents separated by a slash “/”. We then have three sen tence examples, the two rst correspond to the rst denion, and the last one to the second deniton. 1st monolingual and L1 equivalent
2st monolingual and L1 equivalent
step aside: [move to one side] moverse a un costado, hacerse a un lado / [rere from an oce so some one else can take over] dar un paso al costado >>Would you step aside for my uncle and his walker? >>We had to step aside for the people in wheelchairs to get by >>Walter stepped aside for a younger person to take over.
Exploring into the Meaning of Words Curiosity is the mother of all knowledge, and if you are interested in maximizing your vocabulary acquision you have to be curious. If you aren’t inially too movated to go deep in each word you learn, I suggest you sll make the eort to do it. Like many things that bring results, this can seem tedious in the beginnig but even aer a very short period of me engaging in this pracce you will see noceable improvements, which in turn will spark your curiosity and movaon to learn more. Master Vocabulary is all about learning as much vocabulary as possible, and this doesn’t mean just piling new words and phrases on top of more words and phrases. It means absorbing vocabulary in a way that you can use it like a nave English speaker. There are many things that come into play before you are able to do that, like for example learning vocabulary in signicant ways from actual life experiences and not only from diconaries. However, grasping the essence of words and phrases through online diconaries is sll a great place to start. Al19
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though it can’t replace real life English situaons, it gets close in terms of what you can learn and how it can prepare you to respond to advanced vocabulary. When you do parcipate in a real English language seng, all your vocabulary knowledge will be further consolidated. In our eorts to absorb as much informaon as we can and sll t it into our entries, we can be more exible in the way we format said entries. Pay aenon to the entries format below, especially the underlined parts. These parts enable us to capture the “loose ends” certain words have (to play the recordings click on rst word). ick: pelicula >> I wanted to see a Bruce Willis lm, but my girlfriend insisted we see a chick ick {pelicula de mujeres}” [OTHER MEANINGS: ick through: hojear / ick sth away: quitarse algo de encima con un movimiento rápido >>the snake’s tongue icked in and out >>she icked her hair out of her eyes] synomyms
slick: [sth that looks smooth and eortless in style] (>polished, skillful) impecable / [slippery] resbaloso >>that graph you just made looks slick >> slick performance >> There’s a lot of sloppy snow, the road is really slick [OTHER MEANINGS: oil slick: mancha de aceite / slick back: hacerse el pelo hacia atras >>He slicks back his hair like a 1950s greaser] compel (to do sth): [to force or drive someone to do something] forzar, obligar >> I feel compelled to say that {me veo obligado a decir que} >> You can’t compel me to do that [OTHER MEANINGS: complelling: convincente, persuasivo >> Compelling evidence >> His side of the argument was very compelling] synomym
headrst: [with the head in front] (>headlong) de cabeza / sin pensarlo, precipitadamente >> I went headrst down the stairs >> If a business idea comes their way Aries men they tend to plunge right in headrst {lanzarse de cabeza} >> Students dive headrst into iOS7” 20
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How to Make a Method Two List: Step by Step We have already seen what the entries look like in our vocabulary list and how we recorde them. Let’s now take a look at the process behind it. 1) To discover new vocabulary you have to expose yourself to
List of words and phrases (on Evernote) to explore later
the language. The best way to do this from home is watching TV in English, listening to music or podcasts or reading things you enjoy. When you noce a word you are not familiar with and because of this you can’t understand what’s being said, that’s when you write it down. The best pracce is also include the sentence in which that word or phrase appears, so that you can use it as an example in the denion entry. If it’s a piece of vocabulary that you are a lile familiar with, you can sll benet from making an entry on that word or phrase. You don’t need to look it up right away. Keep a list of words to look up later and just keep enjoying what you’re watching/ reading/listening to. If you’re on the go, write down the vocabulary in a note-taking app on your phone. If you’re on your computer, keep a text le for this. You can use apps that sync your cell phone and desktop computer’s notes, like Evernote. 21
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2) When you have some free me, look up the vocabulary you have collected in your note-taking app or text le. You can just google these words and you will get results from the top online dicoaries. If you have a favorite dico nary, you can look up the new vocabulary directly on its website. In my opinion, the best diconaries for our purpose are: Vocabulary.com (American; this one provides very insighul and friendly denions). Collins Diconary (American) Oxford Diconaries (Brish; the most complete one, plenty of example sentences) Cambridge Diconary (Brish) For L1 equivalents, the best opons are www.wordreference.com and www.linguee.es. The forum of Word Reference will occasionally come in handy as well. 3) Once you nd a clear and concise denion, copy it and past it into your vocabulary list. Do the same with the L1 equivalent and the example sentences. I suggest you have the entry format ready on your vocabulary list, so that you just ll in the blanks, like this: : [] >> >> >> : [] >> >> >> : [] >> >> >> : [] >> >> >> 22
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Remember this is the format:
English word: [monolingual detion] L1 equivalent >> example 1 >> example 2 >> example 3 You can also add synonyms between parantheses, like this: (> synonym 1, synonym 2). Place this in between the monolingual denion and the L1 equivalent. Here’s an example of an entry. spill: derramar, volcar >> Crude oil spilled into the ocean >> The milk spilled across the oor >> The wine spilled onto the table” Listen to the recording of this entry here.
Like in the entry on “spill,” somemes entries don’t need a monolingual denion. Don’t add one if you think the L1 equivalent is enough. On the other hand, keep in mind that the example sentences should be relevant and prefera bly add more context to the usage of the word in queson. brawl: [noisy quarrel or ght] (>melee) riña, pelea >> Fans were brawling in the streets aer the game >> the brawl broke out in the bar. Play recording. In the above example, the rst example shows that “brawl” can be used as a verb. The second one is collocated with the phrasal verb “break out.” By doing this you learn new vocabulary that goes beyond the parcular word you’re looking up, and this is how you start to make the lexical connecons in your mind that make you a much more competent speaker. 4) The fourth step is recording. You can make one audio recording per entry but I suggest you do one for every three entries so that you don’t end up with so many audio les. 23
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5) Once you make recordings for the new vocabulary, save the audio les. Aer doing steps 1, 2, 3 and 4 you will feel you have mastered the new vocabulary. Reviewing by playing the audio recordings will ensure the vocabulary stays fresh in your mind. Below are more entry examples (click on rst word to listen to the recordings). smuggle: [to import illegally] contrabandear / pasar a escondidas >> They smuggled the drugs through customs >>They smuggled immigrants across the border >>We smuggled his favorite sandwich past the nurse. pop into: [alternave to come into mind] se me ocurre / [enter a place to visit quickly] entrar de golpe >>something pops into your mind and you think, “Wow, this is a REALLY great idea! >>Why don’t you pop in and see us this aernoon? >>All I have to do on the way home is pop into the drugstore. patch: [a piece of cloth that covers a hole in a item of clothing] parche >>She wore a sweater with patches on the elbows >> You can download this patch from our website. >> [a bald patch >> I don’t want to have a bald patch when I’m 40 / eye patch: parche de ojo / shoulder patch: insignia / road patch >> Beware of the road patches on the street / rough patch on gums: fueguito] cheapskate: (similar to sngy) poco generoso, codito >> These fucking bunch of cheapskates should provide breakfast >> You only got me a half pint - you cheapskate! >> He got his his mother a pen for 50c as a christmas present. What a cheapskate! heart to heart conversaon/talk/chat/discussion: [conversaon concerned with personal problems or inmate feelings] conversacion inma >>a heart-to-heart talk >>he took me aside for a lile heart-toheart >>to have a heart-to-heart talk with sb.
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WHAT’S THE VOCABULARY THAT ONLY NATIVES USE? In order to get a beer grasp on what “nave vocabulary” actually is, let ’s talk science for a lile bit. In linguiscs there’s a subeld called Contrasve analysis , which studies the dierences and similaries between two languages. This science is used to explain why some features in the language you are trying to learn are more dicult than others. For example, mastering the sentence “what’s his name” is considerably easier than mastering “what does he look like? ” A lot of mes, learners will make the mistake of saying “ how does he look? ” or something similar.
This is because there is a lack of correspondance between your nave language and English. If your nave language is any of the Romance languages, you probably wouldn’t have any trouble asking “what kind of car is this? ” but asking “whose car is this? ” is proven to be more complicated for learners. There’s a higher word-
by-word correspondace in the rst queson than in the second.
High Correspondance (HC) vs Low Correspondance (LC) The vocabulary that advanced non-nave English speakers use is comprised of almost all the features of English that have a high correspondance value (simply, because they’re easier) and also quite a few low corresponance value features. However, even advanced non-nave English speakers miss an enourmous amount
of low correspondance vocabulary that –of course– nave speakers use naturally. One of the most common low correspondance features of English are phrasal verbs. Learners apply the avoidance strategy with phrasal verbs because they don’t t with a pre-established linguist concept in their
brains. This makes your brain work extra hard to constantly keep these elusive words from falling o your acve vocabulary (or just learn them). Thus, for your brain it’s signicantly easier to say “could you inform me on something” than “could you ll me in on something.” Although both sentences are correct, this shows
how your brain would tend to gravitate towards vocabulary paerns that are closer to what you are familiar with in yuor nave language. Below are some random sentences framed in the high correspondance non-nave way and in the low correspondance nave way. They express the same idea, though the wording is clearly dierent. HC Advanced non-native
Sorry for the bad news, but... • He’s contributed a lot . • He made you a favor to let you know. • I can’t promise you that . • I’ll use that in the future. • In the minute 3 in the video. • He has a lot of tattos. • I started gimnastics but I didn’t continue. • I’m still feeling bad about that loss. •
LC Native
Sorry to break it to you, but... • He’s contributed as much as anyone. • He went out of his way to let you know. • Don’t hold me to it . • I’ll use that going forward . • 3 minutes into the video. • He’s all tattooed up. • I started gimnastics but I didn’t stick with it . • That loss is still eating at me. •
This is just illistrave of possible dierences between a nave and a non-nave speaker way of expressing the same idea. This does not mean that the HC sentences are incorrect. It’s worth nong that when naves use formal language, there tends to be a lot more correspondance between the English and the other Romance languages. The language in the nave side of this chart is fairly informal.
So, what’s the vocabulary that only naves use? What I mean by ‘nave speakers vocabulary” is the LC vocabulary that the majority of advanced speakers don’t seem to develop the awareness needed to absorb and start using. One of the goals of Master Vocabulary is to develop the percepon that you need to recognize, learn and reproduce this type of vocabulary.
Method 1 in Master Vocabulary is intended to deal mainly with HC vocabulary (i.e. easier vocabulary). Method 2 is meant to tackle LC vocabulary (i.e. harder vocabulary), and also some of the HC for consolidaon purposes. Finally, Method 3 is meant to absorb as much LC vocabulary as possible. For this reason, the note-taking aspect of it is signicanly simpler than Method 2.
METHOD #3 If I taught someone English from scratch, I would suggest they learn vocabulary following the three vocabulary techniques presented in this guide. I would tell them that in the rst 3 to 6 months, they follow Method 1 to acquire as much vocabulary as they can. Then, I would suggest Method 2 for the next year and a half or unl they reach 2000 Method 2 entries. Finally, at roughly around the start of her 3rd year of immersion in the language, Method 3 replaces Method 2. You’re ready for method 3 when you can understand 95% of spoken English. Note: If you have reached this point in the guide you surely are ahead of method 1, but can you start from method 3 and skip method 2? You might have been studying English for more than 3 years, but that doesn’t mean you can’t benet from method 2. I suggest you start from method 2 regardless of your level. If you have been learning English for more than 3 years, do 1000 entries instead of 2000. Ulmately, it isn’t about the number of entries you have in your vocabulary list, what it really comes down to is that if you have 1000 entries, you have been exposed to English for a long me, and this beyond any vocabulary building technique is what is going to make your English beer in all its aspects. If you feel Method 2 isn’t for you regardless of how long you have been learning the language, then feel free to try out Method 3. Method 3 is notably easy to do, and because your body of passive and acve vocabulary is considerably sizeable af ter doing Method 2, you can manage without diconaries. This is because the vocabulary you have learned enables you to be much beer at guessing the meaning of words and phrases by context. This noon is based on the principle that the more you know, the easier it is for you to learn more. Your memory isn’t like a box that can 28
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only be lled up to the point in which nothing else can t in. On the contrary, the
Neural Network representation
more vocabulary you know, the more solid the interconnecon of the vocabulary stored in your passive and acve memory will be. Your brain has more data to relate new vocabulary to, and this means there is less chance of forgeng. In more technical terms, your brain is a neural network that help you assess and nd paerns in the new data that enters your mind. Fisherman casting net
For example, you probably know all the words in the sentence “we cast a wide net to get our ads in front of a lot of people .” If you do, your previous knowledge will help
you internalize the expression “to cast a wide net (to do sth).” Your memory here is aided by a very clear imagery of a sherman castng (you probably know this is a another word for “throw”) a net to catch sh.
How it works Like in Method 2, for Method 3 you will write down pieces of vocabulary on a note-taking app on your phone or on a text le on your computer. As I suggested before, you might want to keep your phone and computer synced with Evernote or another similar app. Aer this, you will, again, record yourself reading sentences. Method 3 is 10x faster to do than Method 2, as you will nd out below where we will go through this method step by step. 1) When you read, watch TV, listen to music or a podcast, you will come across words, phrases and expressions that 29
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either you don’t know but can somewhat guess the meaning of, or you know but don’t use. If it’s the laer, you know the reason why you don’t use it is simply because this word or phrase is in your passive knowledge. Whichever the case is, you will write down this piece of vocabulary –along with the whole sentence it appears in – on your note-taking app or text le. See the examples below. • It was my job to keep a tally of all the ckets we sold.
These are some examples
• The dierence is not so cut and dry.
of sentences I read or heard
• I got all weirded out when I talked to her.
and that caught my aen-
• 2-hour tailback on the road and I’m stuck in the car with my ex (cola de autos). • The interface is ever so slightly dierent. • Larry only likes girls who hang on his every word. • Nobody is saying that. You’re just digging for leverage now. (ventaja en discucion)
on. I didn’t only write down the specic word or phrase (which I’ve put in bold here for you to see), I also wrote down the whole sentence in
• They kind of le you away in their minds as a certain kind of person.
which these pieces of vocab-
• GE was really forward-thinking in their ability to think like a publisher.
ulary in queson appeard.
• And then it dawned on me.
Lastly, I did know the majori-
• I’ll put my ass on the line. Fuck it, I’m gonna go for it.
ty of these words and phras-
• Take your mind out of the guer , come on!
es, but upon hearing them I
• You can’t pass for 22, you look almost 30.
realized I wasn’t using them,
• The thief made a break for it when the ocer looked the other way (escape).
so by going through the pro-
• His main job was being a cop but on the side he sold water puriers. • Watch Kanye West repeatedly get his ass handed to him. • You won’t see him sugar-coat the truth.
cess of Method 3 I was able to turn this vocabulary into acve vocabulary.
• I don’t really remember all the things I got done this week. It’s like a blur. 30
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It’s important that you write down the word or phrase together with the sentence it occurrs in. If you are not completely sure you’re guessing the correct meaning of a word or phrase, you can quickly look it up on the diconary. However, you don’t need to copy denions, examples or equivalents as in method 2. At this point in your vocabu lary learning process, you will most likely remember it without doing that. 2) When you nd the me, record yourself reading out the sentences. I suggest that you make one recording for ev ery 20 or so sentences if you don’t want to end up with an ungodly amount of recordings. Here’s the recording with the sentences from the last page. You might want to name the recording le with a number or something that helps you keep it organized (for example: recording 1, 2, 3, etc.). 3) Lastly, save these recordings in your cell phone or MP3 player and listen to them from me to me to keep the vocabulary fresh in your mind. You can set your own roune by, say, listening to them at a specic date every month or you can just do it whenever you like. These recordings are very praccal in the sense that you can listen to them while you do other acvies like commung, walking, cleaning, etc. Because this method takes so lile me to do and yet can be extremely eecve to learn and remember new vo cabulary, you may keep doing this for as long as you wish. You will keep growing your vocabulary on your list and on your brain, both passive and acve.
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