HOMOPHONOUS AND HOMOGRAPHIC WORDS

Homophonous words are words that are pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. Homographs words are words of similar spelling but with more than one meaning.

If you have to use a word which sounds or looks like another word (or, put another way, a word from which has several meanings), make sure that the context of its use clearly and firmly establishes the meaning you are using it for.

Example:

air, airs (n)The air is cold. (the air we breathe/oxygen)She sings German airs well. (German songs/melody/tune)

Bore (n)She bore child out of wedlock. (gave birth)Her boyfriend was such a bore what she left him. (a dull or a not interesting person)Termites bore holes as they eat their way through the wood. (pierce or to make a hole)

BoundPerfect binding means the leaves and cover are bound by glue.(to put together)Law enforcement agents are bound to uphold the law.(devoted or attached)Our comics tend to go beyond the bounds of decency. (limit or boundary)We are finally bound for home. (heading or going)

DishThis dish is quite tasty. (food)This dish looks like the one I broke. (plate)

GlassesMy brother drinks two glasses of milk before breakfast. (a container)The teacher cannot read without her glasses. (Spectacles/reading glass)

Paper, papersUse no more than a sheet of paper for your bio-data. (used to bear writing or printing)Submit you papers tomorrow. (in a written or printed form)I subscribed to seven papers. (Newspapers, journals, magazines)

LittleShe puts little chili in her fried rice. (amount)She uses the little chili, not the big one. (size)

Word meanings:

There are words that are very closely related to each other but have different meanings.

Example:

Advance vs. advancedThe group has to send an advance copy of its itinerary to the local producers. (prior to the set date/time)Their teachers have more advanced facilities than ours. (advancement in technology)

Disallow vs. prohibit, forbidEmployees of the ministry have been disallowed from personally following up papers. (Permission was

withdrawn)Unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering the storeroom. (no permission was given)

Consent vs. assent:The emperor consented to the marriage of the Crown Prince to a commoner (gave permission)The young career diplomat assented to the marriage proposal. (responded positively)

1. Read and Analyze Words

Reading voraciously is not always the best way to enrich your vocabulary. I used to read a lot but now for a few

days, reduced my intake to less than half as much. The trick to learn more words is not reading fiction; you may easily get absorbed into the story and your aim will sink into oblivion. Instead of fiction, read a lot ofnonfiction—articles from newspapers, blogs, magazines, etc. You will encounter several new words. Reading on specialized topics and general articles one hour or even half-an-hour a day will secure you some cool new words.

The mistake casual readers make is they do not look up the confusing new words in a dictionary. They try to assess the meaning from the context. This is not an appropriate way to enrich your vocabulary. People dedicated to vocabulary buildup should keep a dictionary handy when they read. Check all those new words for their correct meaning.

2. Form Your Sentences

Keep a diary also handy. Jot down new words and their meaning. Now, form acouple of new sentences using each new word. This will help embed each of these words into your Grey matter. Usage of a word is more important than anything else; you should not invent new usages to a word. Here is my article on semantics of words, which explains this better.

3. Use a Thesaurus

As an addition to the above tip, always keep a thesaurus handy. A thesaurus is a reference that gives you words approximate in meaning to the original. When online, you can check the Encarta Dictionary and Thesaurus or the Merriam Webster.

However, the synonyms given by the thesaurus may not always be apt to the context. Thesaurus only gives you words approximate in meaning. You should look up the synonyms also in the dictionary and form appropriate sentences. This will greatly increase your vocabulary.

4. Wordlists

Some professional publishers provide you the ‘word of the day’ This is a good read at the start of the day. Five of your minutes will fetch you five new words. Here are some of these sites; subscribe to their feeds and keep them ready for reading in the morning.

Vocabulary.com WordlistDictionary.com: Word of the dayMerriam WebsterWordsmith.orgThe New York Times Word of the DayOxford English Dictionary

5. Vocabulary Games

What are the games you play to kill time? Why not include crossword to the list? You can also invent some new word games and play them occasionally with your friends or spouse. These activities will greatly help you gain new words. Many people (I included) kill their spare time with Flash games. Vocabulary games are fun as well as enriching and can be great replacement for any other type of games. Here are some places for you to play and learn:

Vocabulary.co.il: Learning vocabulary funDaily Crossword PuzzleVocabulary GamesVocabulary.com

6. Prioritize Your Vocabulary Building

The most important of all these tips is this: prioritize your vocabulary buildup. This is not exactly a tip, but a word of caution. If you don’t give it importance, it can easily be secondary to you, leading to inactivity after a month. So, make sure you do it every day. Vocabulary building is like bodybuilding—something to be done every day unless you want to get right back to the starting point. In your daily schedule, allot one hour in the early morning for new words, and that’s it!

7. List Your Words and Use Them Regularly

Surveys indicate that a person is most prone to forget the newly learned words within the first 24 hours. So, you should find ways to retain the new words learned for that time. Come back to your list more often during the time of the day. If possible, create some stickers with new words and put them on your room wall.

Another nifty tip: if you are using computer on a daily basis, save the new words into an image file and put it as

your desktop background. You can create images using professional image editors, but for this purpose, your normal Windows Paint is enough. Familiarize the words again and again during the week, and the word will gradually permeate into your permanent word stock.

8. Power of Writing

Never underestimate writing as a way of vocabulary building. When you actually sit down to write a paragraph, you will know the difficulty. More than words, their coherence and usage matter. You can put down a few words in any order and be unprofessional, but there is only one way to be a better writer—write regularly. It doesn’t matter how many words, but be regular.

When you write, expressing your ideas in the most appropriate way is a tiring job. Sometimes you may not find the appropriate word for the context; sometimes you may just hate the word you used; sometimes the sentence constructed may not be satisfactory to you.

To avoid these issues, you will naturally look up new words, usages, and constructions in the dictionary. These efforts, if regular, will readily influence your speech, command of language, and professionalism.

9. Don’t Ignore Those Casual Words

Here is something people completely miss—the casual words. How many times have you found a bright new advertisement with a brand new word in a TV program and were puzzled what the word meant? How many times have you overheard a conversation with a word that confused you? These are normal daily life occasions, and people tend to ignore those new words instantly. Sometimes the words may be familiar but you may not be able to place their meaning at the time.

These casual occasions can contribute well toward your vocabulary. The nifty tip is to use your cell phone or pocket diary to jot down the new word instantly. You can refer for it at the end of the day. Alternatively, just take a shot of the ad with your cell phone camera if you have one.

10. Listening and Watching

Audio and video content can greatly influence your vocabulary building. When you can’t find time to read the news articles or blog content, you can watch related videos. Video sites like YouTube contain many popular short videos on many topics. You can search for any specific topic and find the corresponding videos. News websites like CNN, Reuters, FoxNews, etc., provide streaming video content of popular news stories. Alternatively, search within Google Videos for any topic.

There are a million videos available there on any subject. Audio content is a great substitute for videos. You can listen to the podcasts from popular news websites.Online radio websites are also there (BBC Radio for instance), which stream audio 24 hours a day. You can listen to them in your spare time and jot down the new words as you encounter.