Teaching of English

Teaching of English

Enriching one’s vocabulary

      Vocabulary enrichment does not mean rote-learning or memorizing words. It can be exciting. Look at the following problems:

     The plural of ‘milkman’ is ‘milkmen’; but the plural form of ‘walkman’ is ‘walkmans’ and not ‘walkmen’ – not even the nonsexist walkpersons! The reason is walkman is not a kind of man; it is the brand name for an instrument.

Hollywood has been making films based on comic book heroes; it has so far made three ‘Supermans’ (not supermen), and two ‘Batmans’ (not Batmen)

The plural of ‘mouse’ is ‘mice’ but we say that administration is full of ‘Mickey Mouses’ (not Mickey Mice) because it refers to timid people.

      Crimes like ‘robberies, muggings and pick-pocketings …’ Should it be  ‘pocket –picking or pick-poketing? One who does it is called a ‘pickpocket’, not a pocket-picker (though we have rag-picker) or a ‘pickpocketer’

   Such problems can create a lot of interest in word formation processes. By learning the company that words keep (called collocation), one can learn a lot about how words are used in combination with other words, phrases and idioms. Take idioms, for example:

    Kick the bucker, Spill the beans, Bite the bullet, Go bananas……

      There is no way to predict the meaning of such expressions from the meanings of their components: for example, kicking the bucket is not a kind of kicking, and buckets have nothing to do with it. We have to take these phrases as ‘words’ and learn their meanings.

Homonyms

Homonyms are two words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have different meanings. The word "homonym" comes from the prefix "homo-," which means the same, and the suffix "-nym," which means name. Therefore, a homonym is a word that has the same name as another word, meaning that the two words look and sound exactly alike.

A simple example of a homonym is the word "pen." This can mean both "a holding area for animals" and "a writing instrument." Another example is "book," which can mean "something to read" or "the act of making a reservation." In both cases, the sound and spelling are the same, and only the definition changes.

Homonym Examples

Here are 30 more examples of homonyms. Note that some homonyms have more than two meanings (for example, "tender" can also mean sensitive, easily chewed, or even refer to chicken strips), but to keep things simple we've only included two in our homonyms list:

·         Address - to speak to / location

·         Air - oxygen / a lilting tune

·         Arm - body part / division of a company

·         Band - a musical group / a ring

·         Bark - a tree's out layer / the sound a dog makes

·         Bat - an implement used to hit a ball / a nocturnal flying mammal

·         Bright - very smart or intelligent / filled with light

·         Circular - taking the form of a circle / a store advertisement

·         Current - up to date / flow of water

·         Die - to cease living / a cube marked with numbers one through six

·         Express - something done fast / to show your thoughts by using words

·         Fair - equitable / beautiful

·         Jag - a sharp, jutted object / a crying spree

·         Kind - type / caring

·         Lie - to recline / to tell a falsehood

·         Match - to pair like items / a stick for making a flame

·         Mean - average / not nice

·         Pole - a person from Poland / a piece of metal that holds a flag

·         Pound - unit of weight / to beat

·         Quarry - a site for mining stone / to extract or obtain slowly

·         Ream - a pile of paper / to juice a citrus fruit

·         Ring - a band on a finger / something circular in shape

·         Right - correct / direction opposite of left

Homophones

Homophones are pairs of words that sound the same, but have distinctly different meanings and different spellings. Understanding homophones is an essential part of mastering the English language, both for vocabulary building and spelling.

20 Common Homophone Pairs

Some common examples of homophones, including the words used in a sentence, are:

·         brake/break: When teaching my daughter how to drive, I told her if she didn't hit the brake in time she would break the car's side mirror.

·         cell/sell: If you sell drugs, you will get arrested and end up in a prison cell.

·         cent/scent: I won't spend one cent on a bottle of perfume until I know that I love the scent.

·         die/dye: If you accidentally drank a bottle of fabric dye, you might die.

·         flour/flower: To bake a flower-shaped cake, you'll need some flour.

·         for/four: I purchased four new pairs of shoes for my upcoming vacation.

·         heal/heel: If the heel breaks on your shoe, you might fall. However, your injuries will heal over time.

·         hear/here: I wanted to sit here so I could hear the singer performing without any distractions.

·         hour/our: We have one hour before our appointment with the real estate agent.

·         idle/idol: Being idle makes me unhappy, but listening to my idol Taylor Swift makes me happy.

·         knight/night: The knight is on his way to the castle, but traveling at night is very dangerous.

·         knot/not: I do not know how she learned to tie the knot to make that necklace.

·         poor/pour: I pour drinks at a bar every night. I am poor because I have too many bills and not enough money.

·         right/write: There is no right way to write a great novel.

·         sea/see: At my beach house, I love to wake up and see the sea.

·         sole/soul: I need to get a new sole put on my favorite pair of running shoes. Jogging is good for my soul.

·         son/sun: My son is 13 years old. He likes to spend time outside in the sun.

·         steal/steel: Someone who decides to steal a car has committed a crime, but auto parts are made of steel.

·         tail/tale: My cat was crazily chasing his tail while I read a fairy tale to my children.

·         weather/whether: I don't know whether to bring a jacket or not. The weather looks unpredictable today.

Frequently Confused Homophones

There are several homophones in the English language that almost everyone gets confused at some point. These frequently confused homophones include:

·         accept/except: Accept is a verb that means to take or receive. Except is used as a preposition or conjunction to mean but or exclude.

·         affect/effect: Affect is a verb (in most cases) and indicates influence. Effect is a noun (in most cases) and is the result of an action or change.

·         compliment/complement: Compliment means to say something nice about someone or something. Complement means something that enhances or completes.

·         then/than: Then is a versatile word used as an adverb, noun or adjective to show the order of how things happened. Than is a subordinating conjunction you can use to make comparisons.