In the modern world, a rich vocabulary of a person may well serve as a very objective indicator of his intellectual development, a high level of culture and a good education. Society, as a rule, perceives such a person as smart and creative. It is initially easier for such a member of society to find a good and more promising job, he is moving faster and more successfully up the career ladder and has a reputation as a person, whose advice and recommendations should be more often and attentively listened to.
What does the concept of human vocabulary mean?
Simply put, this is a set of words that this or that person owns. According to modern scientists, a person’s vocabulary is of two types: active and passive. The first consists of words that are used both in writing and in spoken language. Passive, in turn, is that set of words that is recognized and understood, but not used by man. As a rule, the latter is several times superior to the first.
What is the vocabulary of the Russian language?
According to recent statistics, our language has nearly 500,000 words, but only 3,000 are used in everyday speech. An average student operates with 5,000 words, and an adult has 8,000 vocabulary.
In other languages, the situation is almost the same.
Is it possible to increase the used set of words?
Very often in everyday conversations one has to hear about the tongue-tied language of one or another common acquaintance. Often you can find the opinion that the gift of oratory is given to us at birth and subsequently the vocabulary of a person (as a predisposition, for example, to some bad habits or diseases) cannot be corrected. This is no more than a delusion! Can! You can add, fix and improve! And to do this is not so difficult, the main thing is to set a goal.
How to improve a person’s vocabulary. A list of simple tips
- Make a list of words that you always use day after day. Let this list be as long as possible. Are you done? Now, using the explanatory dictionary or the dictionary of synonyms, write several alternative options opposite each word. For example, “interesting” - remarkable, entertaining, curious, noteworthy, noteworthy. Try to remember them and during the day use at least once each of the written options. Only in this way can they be deposited in our memory.
- Read as much as possible. Start with books by those authors who are close and enjoyable to you. And only gradually will it be possible to move on to more serious literature. If an unfamiliar word is found in a work, it is recommended to look at its meaning in the dictionary, and if you want to remember it, read it aloud and mentally repeat it several times. Why so? - Modern scientists have proved that in human memory what is said at least once is better put aside.
- Write. If you have no one to write letters that are long, warm and filled with positive emotions, use the example of Demosthenes: rewrite other people's articles, your favorite works of art, write in a special notebook some poems that stirred up something in your soul or sayings of great ones.
- Crosswords are also quite useful for developing vocabulary. But in this case, I would like to warn you - the publications that print them should be well-known and verified.
- If you have to spend most of your time on the road or driving, and the aforementioned just has a catastrophic lack of free time, you can resort to the help of audio books, the choice of which is now quite large, and the quality is quite decent.
With these proven methods, you can gradually increase your vocabulary: English, Chinese, French and any other. But we should not forget that, without making an effort, you are unlikely to be able to make your speech more melodic, informative and expressive.