Ways of Recording Vocabulary

TOPIC/THEMATIC VOCABULARY: e.g. Houses and accommodation, etc.

e.g.

attic; backyard; chimney; clothes line; drainpipe; flowerbeds; fence; garage; gutter; window panes, etc.

1. Collocations: words that occur together frequently 'collocate'.

e.g. Time flies / goes by / wears on / passes (NOT speeds/rides/moves)

2. Phrasal verbs: a verb plus one or two particles. e.g. bring in, take out, go off, etc.
(Here are some common verbs: bring, get, go, put, take, turn)
(Here are some common particles: up, down, out, in, off, on)
a) Particle immediately after the verb:
e.g. The cat stayed on top of the wall and only got down at meal times. (descend)
b) Particle after the object:
e.g. This terrible weather is getting many people down. (making them depressed)
c) Particle before or after the object:
e.g Did you get down all the information? (manage to make a note of it)
e.g. Did you get all the information down?

3. Word Formation: prefixes are used before different parts of speech.

e.g. happy - unhappy ; decent - indecent; relevant - irrelevant
Suffixes are used at the end.
e.g. scandal - scandalous; special - specialise; sweet - sweeten;

4. Synonyms
e.g. He has been likened / compared to Pele.

5. Antonyms:
e.g. old woman # young woman

6. Homonyms: words that share the same form but have unrelated meanings.
e.g. She has tears in her eyes when she tears old letters.
e.g. The two men in the left row had a row.
e.g. The little boy wih a black bow made a bow in front of the hostess.

7. Idioms:
e.g. down in the dumps = depressed
e.g. right up our street = within one's range of interests/knowledge