Basic English Vocabulary

what is vocabulary ?

 Vocabulary is a term in English to refer to vocabulary. Are you interested in learning vocabulary? Learning vocabulary is quite easy. When you learn vocabulary, you will increase your vocabulary in English. So, this will make it easier for you to learn vocabulary. So, what exactly is vocabulary?

Vocabulary is a language component that contains information about the meaning and use of words in a language, many words belonging to the speaker, writer, or language and a list of words arranged like a dictionary but with short and practical explanations. Vocabulary is (1) the number of words in a language, all the words that people know or are used in certain books, a list of words and their meanings, especially those found in foreign language textbooks (Hornby, 1995: 1331). 

Based on the definition above, we can conclude that dictionary is the number of words in a foreign language (in this case English) that are mastered by English students. So to be able to speak English we must have sufficient vocabulary (vocabulary). This often becomes an obstacle for people who want to be able to speak English well. 

Many people use memorization to enrich their vocabulary. However, in my opinion, memorizing without additional effort to remember the memorized words is useless. So if you want to use memorization, you have to use memorized words when you speak or write, so that these words remain imprinted in our memory.There are many things you can do to enrich your vocabulary, There are many ways to increase your vocabulary, one thing that is done by reading. Be diligent in reading English texts and diligently find out the meaning of the words in the text. You can also create a personal dictionary containing the words you are looking for the meaning of. You can provide a small notebook that you can carry anywhere and anytime.

Types of Vocabulary

There are at least 6 types of vocabulary that you should know. The types relate to the use of parts of speech. The types of vocabulary that you need to know include word classes, word families, word formation, multi-word units, collocations, and also homonyms.

1. Word Classes

Word classes are a language or use of words related to morphology. However, usually this type is often referred to as parts of speech which can be in the form of nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions. You can study these word classes in your grammar book.

2. Word Families

Word families are words that describe an affix. This word is used to make a sentence, for example the following words.

play – plays – played: these words are infected

Play – replay – playful: these words are part of

3. Word Formation

Word formation is a type of word formation in English and these words are compound words, blending, clipping, and conversion.

– compound : typewriter, content writer, script writer, etc

– blending: information and entertainment = infotainment

– conversion : when I do my task, I always google the information I need.

4. Multi-Word Units

Multi-word units are a type of English vocabulary that can be used as verb phrases or as idioms. The example is; look after, look for, throw away, put on, put off, etc. However, you cannot interpret these words as different words in one word because the words above have one meaning.

5. Collocations

Collocation is a type of English vocabulary which is defined as two or more words that always have the same meaning or are related to each other. So, when you use these words, you can't separate them.

6. Homonyms

A homonym is a word that has different letters, but has the same pronunciation. An example is the word "well". Well you can interpret it as well but you can also interpret it as good.