A dictionary is the best language learner's friend. Lexicography has evolved through ages. Modern dictionaries don’t merely define single words but they also provide information on pronunciation, word class, spelling differences etc. So how can the learner get the most out of dictionary? Here are some information a good dictionary provides:
1. Spelling: spelling refers to the way a word is written. All dictionaries provide spelling of words. Some of them also provide variation of spelling between American and British English. Some words can be spelt in two different ways.
2. Pronunciation: learning how to pronounce is essential for language learner. Some dictionaries like Oxford, Collins etc provide pronunciation tran******ion. You can find a key of symbols somewhere in your dictionary. These symbols are known as " International Phonetic Alphabet".
3. Stress: stress in English can change the whole meaning of the word. Learn to stress the correct syllable of the word if it has two or more syllables.
4. Word class: words are grouped into two broad classes: open and closed. These two are further broken down into the known classes such as: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, verbs etc. make sure you know which part of speech a word belongs to. This will help you decide where to put in the sentence.
5. Count vs non-count: words that are countable can be pluralized without any additional words e.g. book, book(s). a word like furniture can be made plural on its own so we need to add a word before it to make countable e.g. pieces of furniture. Uncountable nouns are not preceded by an indefinite article (a, an)
6. Meaning: a word can have different meanings depending on the con****. Make sure you associate the right meaning to the word your are looking up.
7. Collocations: sometimes we can not use all the words with each other. Certain words go with some words e.g. we can say "weather permitting" but no "weather allowing". Collocation are grouped into lexical and grammatical types. Check the right words that can be used with the word you want.
8. Idioms: idioms are fixed expressions that have been known to language speakers like proverbs and sayings. We cannot change the structure of idioms, but we can use them in situations similar to those in which they were first used. e.g. Achilles heel
9. Etymology: English borrowed words from different language like Greek, Latin, French, Arabic etc. some dictionaries provide the origin of the words. Some also provide information about the date of origin, development of meaning etc.
*** منقول ***
لمتابعة أكثر خارج موقع مسندم.نت...
نرجو زيارة هذا الرابط (( بالضغط هنـــا )) ..
