Make your own vocabulary test

I remember that when I studied Latin and had to memorize tons of vocabulary, I had my mother test my vocabulary before every test. Her job was very limited. She just had to say the word in Dutch and I would translate it into Latin.
Recently, I doscovered that I could have saved her a lot of time! On the internet, I found the website www.vokabel.com. It is a grammar and vocabulary site, but it also offers its users the possibility to create their own test. All you have to do is insert a list of words and the according translation. And after just one mouseclick, the website test you just as your mother would. The next time I have to study vocabulary, maybe when I start studying Spanish, I think I could really use that website!

Random words

I was opening my Longman Dictionary earlier today to look up the word "mallet" which I encountered in Trivial Pursuit. Suddenly I realized that each time I open the program, it displays a random word with its definition and a clarifying picture!
So actually, everytime I look up a word, I could learn two. I will try to remember all of these random words at well! The word that popped up today is "strainer". Not the kind of word that I would discover while playing Trivial Pursuit, but still nice to know!

Much/Many

One grammatical feature of English that I really have a problem with is the difference in use between much and many. I even made the mistake of writing "much compromises" in an essay.
I know the rule: use much for uncountable nouns, many for countable. But still, sometimes much just seems more right with a countable noun. I think that it has something to do with the colloquial speech of many Americans. In films and television series, I'm sure that I have heard it wrong a few times. And even if that makes a character more believable for the audience, it makes it difficult for the language learner!

Thanks a million!

In my previous post, I talked about how I'm taking over Irish expressions. Today, it happened to me again. I wanted to photocopy one page in the library, but had forgotten my copy card. I asked a girl if I could pay her to photocopy the page for me. She did it and didn't even desire any money for it!
It struck me as the ideal opportunity to exclaim something I had heard many Irish say already: "Thanks a million!" I still thought it sounded somewhat unusual, but the girl clearly perceived nothing strange. I think I might use that expression more often, however I wonder if an American or even a British person would understand it. I should try it out one day.

Half Four

The Irish expression of time is very confusing for people who speak Dutch. Already in my first days here, I noticed that when Irish say "half 4" they mean 4.30. In Dutch "half vier", the literal translation, means 3.30!
However, after 3 months in Ireland, I have started to use the expression in the same way and the Erasmus people in my house completely understand me. I guess I'm really taking over the culture in all its ways!

New word!

A new word which I have very consciensly learned is the verb "to indent". I heard it first in the tutorial Critical Practice and I wouldn't have known what it meant, if it weren't for the context. After hearing the word, I stored it in my memory. But my knowledge of it was only passive, because when I was writing an essay I tried to think of the term but I couldn't recall it.
Luckily, a few days later it was mentioned again in the lecture of Critical Practice. Because I knew there was a chance I'd forget it again, I really focussed on it this time. And as you can see, I have now gained active knowledge of the verb "to indent"!

Word Challenge

In my last post, I stated that gaming can have positive effects on one's vocabulary. A specific type of games who will definitely help a language learner, are word games. A crossword puzzle can be seen as a word game, but nowadays, many more animated games are at our disposal.

An example one one of those games is Word Challenge. This game can be added as an application on the popular networking site Facebook and is all about vocabulary. The player gets a set of 7 letters and is challenged to make as many words as possible with them as fast as possible. Words which you would have never expected to be English pop up and find the way to one's memory. After all, a player will need them again when the same set of letters appears ever again.

I must admit though, this kind of memory game is not the best way to build up a vocabulary. Sure, a huge amount of words passes by, but you cannot see them in their context and often don't even discover their meaning at all. So perhaps a good old fashioned crossword puzzle with only 15 words, accompanied by their explanation might do more for us.