Active vocabulary
You recognise many more words than you can use. Active vocabulary grows when you produce words in context, not when you read word lists.
Key ideas
- Learn phrases and collocations, not isolated words.
- Production makes words available for speaking.
- Choose words you will actually need.
Step by step
- 1
Collect ten useful phrases from real situations you face.
- 2
Write each in a sentence about your own life.
- 3
Say each sentence aloud, then vary it.
- 4
Review with spaced repetition and use three in conversation this week.
Example
Instead of memorising 'deadline', a professional learns 'meet the deadline', 'push the deadline back' and 'a tight deadline', and uses them in her next meeting.
Your drill
Write five sentences about your week using new phrases, then say them aloud without reading.
Common mistakes
- Learning long lists of words you never use.
- Learning words without the words that usually go with them.
Check yourself
Why learn collocations rather than single words?
Show the answer
Words are used in natural combinations; learning them together makes speech accurate and fluent.
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