WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

Do you find learning new words difficult? Well, don’t worry - you are not alone. Most students struggle with understanding meanings of new words.

One of things that is challenging about new words is learning them in isolation. It's more difficult to learn words individually, therefore try to link them together with other words that they are commonly found with.

For example: seek - When you seek the truth... / Children love to play hide and seek / Seek and ye shall find (this is from the Bible but lots of people say that when someone finds something they have been looking for).

These are probably the only times that people use the word seek, so it makes sense to learn it in those phrases. Practice those phrases out loud and then you will have a better chance of not only remembering them, but understanding them too.

Words that are commonly found together are called "collocations". You can buy a collocation dictionary to help you to learn new words.

If you would like more information on WORDS, WORDS, WORDS, please email Doctor English with your questions at drenglish@vec.ca.