Strategies for Expanding and Enhancing Your Language Palette

Fancy yourself a word whiz, wanna-be scribe, or aspiring poet? Regardless of your station in life, challenge yourself to broaden that damned vocabulary of yours! Not just for sounding like a literary genius or acing that term paper, but for the amazing effects it'll have on your everyday chitchat.

Your wordstock—yeah, that's your vocabulary—is a stash of terms you're familiar with. And don't forget, it can be specific to your field of study or expertise! We're talking 20,000 to 35,000 words you can actually use, read, and understand, baby!

Vocab can be broken down into three tiers:

The B.S. tier: The basics. Stuff like 'girl', 'swim', and 'cold' that most kiddos will catch on to before they even hit the kindergarten doors.
The Science geek tier: Words you'll only learn when there's a darn good reason, like if you're huddled over a lab table trying to figure out photosynthesis.
The Shakespeare tier: Terms you might come across in books, essays, or in the speeches of kings and queens. Things like 'auspicious', 'articulate', and 'summarize'.

But, what do educators have to say about all of this? They separate language into four groups:

Your listening vocab: Words you can hear and understand without breaking a sweat.
Your speaking vocab: The words you can rattle off in a sentence.
Your reading vocab: The terms you need to catch on to in order to understand the printed word.
Your writing vocab: The words you can use to craft your own masterpieces.

Why does this even matter? Because your vocab is an essential tool in your communication arsenal. It helps you convey your thoughts and ideas, improves your reading comprehension, gives you a leg up in the job market, and lets you express yourself like a pro in your writing.

It's no secret that our wordstock grows as we grow. As a kid, your vocab will depend on your upbringing, the peeps you hang around with, your level of education, and the things you read and watch on TV. By age six, you'll be dropping 2,600 words in conversation and understanding 20,000 to 24,000 words. By the time you hit your tweens, you'll be at around 50,000 words!

So, how do you tell if your vocab sucks? High school essay declarations consisting of "uh," "like," and "so"? Feeling clueless after reading a book or article? Misinterpreting messages from friends or important letters? Fumbling for the right word in a conversation? Struggling to articulate your political opinions?

It's never too late to improve your vocab, no matter your age! Here's how:

Play Word Games: Scrabble, crosswords, and apps on your phone can help you pick up new words!
Learn a New Word Every Day: Challenge yourself to use that new word like six times a day. Repetition is key!
Read More: Reading often helps you pick up new words and understand their context.
Refer to the Dictionary or Thesaurus: Use a physical copy, because there's nothing like lunging for the right term to help it stick in your brain!
Take an Online Course: English courses can help you expand your knowledgebase and vocabulary like it's going out of style.
Use New Words in Writing: Keep a list of new words and incorporate them into your writing. This helps reinforce the term in your memory and could even kickstart a new passion for writing!

Engaging in activities beyond your current interests can significantly expand your vocabulary. For instance, delving into home-and-garden shows can introduce or refine terms like 'perennials', 'landscaping', and 'terrarium', enriching your lexicon.

Furthermore, embracing education-and-self-development opportunities, such as online courses centered around learning new languages or advanced topics, can also boost your wordstock by introducing concepts and terminologies you may not encounter otherwise, like 'semantics', 'philology', or 'hermeneutics'.