Name: When and how to use a dictionary – and when NOT to use a dictionary!
Uploaded: 2016-10-06T09:50:03.000Z
Duration: 20 min
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam.

To-infinitive

In today's lesson I want to speak with you about: "How to Use a Dictionary".

Now, for some of you, this might seem very obvious.

You open the dictionary, you look for your word, there it is, everything's good. But

it's not that simple. Now, the reason I say it's not that simple is because a lot of people

have a problem with exactly how to use a dictionary, and also when to use the dictionary. You don't

So, before I look at a few examples of when you should look for a word in the dictionary,

I want to stress that if you really, really want to build your vocabulary quickly and

have a very wide range of vocabulary, use an English to English dictionary. I'm going

to give you a couple of examples of which dictionaries to use after, but English to

English. Now, I've had many students who use English to whatever language, English to Spanish,

English to Japanese, English to whatever language is their native language and vice versa. This

is good for a very quick check, but don't make it a habit. Okay?

Get yourself an English to English dictionary-you can get the book, I'll show you one in a second-or get online

and find the apps for the more common dictionaries. Now, the reason I say this is because you

will have to look for meanings of words, and if you don't understand the explanation of

the meaning, you will probably learn more words in that explanation and then you can

look those up. So you're actually going to build your vocabulary exponentially. "Exponentially",

very quickly and to a large degree, without end, so you can go very quickly.

So, let's look at three sentences, and I underlined the words we're focusing on. Okay? "Salivate",

"plethora", "mitigate". Now, you may know these words, you may not, but these are a

little bit higher end words, they're not very common. So we're going to think about what to do.

First, use context. What I want you to do is I want you to try to guess the meaning

of a word before you go to the dictionary.

"The hungry dog began to salivate when it saw the steak on the table."

Now, most of you have seen a dog, most of you have probably

seen a hungry dog. Now, you think of a hungry dog, you think of a steak, what do most dogs

do? Even what do humans do? Dogs do it more obviously, they start to salivate. They start...

The little wet stuff comes out of their mouths. Right? That wet stuff is "saliva".

Dogs have it, you have it, I have it, human beings have it, too. It helps us to eat and digest our

food. Now, because of the context, because you have a hungry dog and because you have

a steak, it seems pretty obvious that "salivate" means to start emitting or getting... Letting

out saliva. Now, another thing to keep in mind: The next sentence will probably use

this word, "saliva". So: "The dog began to salivate, and all the saliva gathered in a

pool on the floor. So then when I walked by it and I slipped and hurt myself, it's the

dog's fault, not my fault." Okay? So, now, do I need to or should you go look at this...?

Look for this word in the dictionary? No. You can guess the sentence. You probably are

right in your guess of what this means. The next sentence will probably confirm it. Just

move on. Don't worry about this word. It's easy. Now you have a new word in your head.

"The forum was a grand success as it had generated a plethora of ideas."

Now, you have a forum. A "forum" is where people exchange ideas or

where they have discussions. On the internet, there are plenty of forums.

At www.engvid.com, there's a forum where you can ask questions, and teachers help, and other students help.

So, if the forum has all these ideas and it was a grand success - why? Because it had

generated, it had made or created a plethora of ideas. Now, you can probably guess what

this means. A "plethora" means many and varied. So, a large amount or a large number, and

a varied number. So, now, if you can guess the sentence but you don't really know this

word, skip it. Don't look for it in the dictionary. When should you look for this word in the

dictionary? When you see it the second or third time. Now, "plethora" is a very high-end

word, mostly used in academics, and even then, rarely used. People don't like this word because

it's a little bit snobby. Okay? Not everybody knows this word, not everybody needs to know

this word. Most people will just use a better word or an easier word. "...generated many

ideas" or "...generated a variety of ideas". If you have a simpler word, use it. So, if

you see this word, don't look it up. If you see it again or the third time, then yes,

look it up so you have it in your vocabulary base.

Next: "Many investors sell off their stocks during crises, thinking that this will mitigate

their losses." So here's our word: "mitigate", notice we have all verbs, but you know because

of context. Now, again, usually the context will allow you to guess the meaning, but this

word is pretty sure to come up again and again. This is a good word, it means to make less,

like less intense, less painful, or weaken the impact of something. So, this word...

Okay, the first time if you can understand the sentence without looking it up in the

dictionary, keep going. The second time, and there will be a second or third time, look

it up in the dictionary. So, this one we're going to look up.

Now, those of you taking the IELTS or the TOEFL test, you need to know this word. It will show up at

some point on the test. If not the test you're taking, then the next practice test or the

next practice test. This word will come up again. Know it. So look this word up in the

So, when do you use it? When a word is repeated often enough that you know it's a word that's

commonly used, and if the word... For example: "plethora", if you can't understand the sentence,

again, do you need to go right away, look at the dictionary? No. Do you understand the

paragraph? If you understand the paragraph and you have a general sense of positive or

negative in the sentence, again, skip it. If it comes up again, look it up. If you need

to know this word to be able to make sense out of the whole paragraph, then of course,

look it up. Now, the reason I say this is because many students tell me that it's very

boring to read. Why? Because every few words, they have to go to the dictionary. So, they're

reading with a dictionary in one hand, and the book or the magazine article in the other

and it gets very tiring. And yes, I understand that. So, learn when to skip a word, learn

to guess the meanings of the word, and understand that words that are repeated often should

be looked up and become part of your vocabulary base. Okay? So, now, we're going to look more

detail in what you're going to see in the dictionary when you look up a word, and what

to make of all the information that's presented there. Okay?

Okay. So, now, we're going to look at basically how to use the dictionary. Now, before I get

into all the different aspects of what's in the dictionary, I want to talk about using

an actual book dictionary, a physical book you can hold in your hand or getting online

and using one of the dictionaries online. Now,

I personally prefer the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Because I write mostly for a North American audience-okay?-and I

deal mostly with North American writing, I use a North American or the top North American

dictionary. This is the American dictionary, but it also applies in Canada. If I were in

Europe or in the UK, I would use the Oxford Dictionary. There are lots of other dictionaries;

there's the Collins in Canada, there's the Cambridge in the UK, etc. I use this one.

Now, you're thinking: "Well, look how thick that is", and it's actually pretty heavy.

Do you want to carry this in your bag everywhere you go? Of course not. I don't suggest or

I don't recommend that you do that, but have this available to you when you're at home

or at your local library, at your school, at your office. Be able to access this whenever

you need. Now, this one is full of very tiny writing. I'm not sure if you can actually

see that, but everything that is online is also on here.