What’s in a word?

In our past few English lessons I became aware of the fact that there is much more to a word than just its obvious meaning. That means that especially when learning a word you cannot simply be satisfied with knowing its translation. In order to really KNOW a word, you have to know several aspects of it, like the following:

• Pronunciation

It is important to know how to pronounce a word correctly in order to be able to use it in spoken conversation or to recognize it when it is used by somebody else.

• Spelling

Obviously you have to know how to spell a word in order to produce it correctly.

• Collocations

Knowing how a word combines with other words or which phrases the word is commonly used in helps you to use it properly.

• Register

Also, you have to know in which situation or context the word can be used. A register that is too formal or informal might lead to misunderstandings or awkward situations.

But where can you find all these aspects of a word? - Ideally in a good dictionary. We compared some monolingual online dictionaries in class and I would like to present my personal top three online dictionaries to you:

-       Thesaurus
      This dictionary is particularly useful if you are looking for synonyms and try to make your text more varied. It also has some really cool extra features, for example you can order the results by complexity or by how common they are.

-       Merriam Webster
      Even though the MW dictionary for native speakers provides a lot of information about a word, like for instance various definitions, example sentences and even facts about the word's origin, some definitions are rather difficult. However, for those who prefer simpler definitions, the MW learner’s dictionary is great. On this site you can also find beneficial pronunciation exercises.

-       Vocabulary.com
      This dictionary provides great definitions and a variety of example sentences. Also, you can listen to the pronunciation of every word. From my point of view, this dictionary can help to get to know a word from many different angles. In addition, you can sign up on this website and create your personal vocabulary lists, take quizzes, etc... Personally, I find this dictionary's layout as well as its content the most attractive. 

comma, comma, comma, comma, comma, chameleon ?!

It’s only little more than a month to go and the end of this semester is coming closer every day ;) Unfortunately, the amount of stuff we have to accomplish is equally increasing.

That’s why I couldn’t really think of a topic to write about that is not related to studying, so I decided to tell you about something that troubles me - COMMAS!
In English the well-known rule for these nasty little signs is “When in doubt, leave it out.” In German, however, it’s pretty much the opposite. Consequently, when it comes to commas, I’m often at a loss. Sometimes even thoughts like “Why do we need them anyways?!” sneak into my mind. However, I realized that sometimes commas can be pretty useful, as following examples illustrate:

Likewise, a wrongly placed comma might turn the eating habits of a peaceful animal into a violent short story: “the panda eats shoots and leaves” vs. “the panda eats, shoots and leaves”

To bring some light into the darkness of punctuation, I refreshed my memory on the UEfAP website. http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

I’m quickly going to summarize the most important rules below:

Commas function in five main ways

1. Before or after adverbial clauses and groups.

Recently, the number of service enterprises in wealthier free-market economies has grown rapidly.

After dinner, he walked around the town.

Some businesses only seek to earn enough to cover their operating costs, however.

2. Before various connectives to join two independent clauses.

(and, but, or, so nor, for yet)

What we require is a National Emergency Government, but no two men I meet can agree how this can be formed.

There was no Canadian Consulate in Paris at that time, so we had to go to the American Consulate for ours.

3. To separate some non-defining phrases from the rest of the sentence.

Malaria, once a widespread disease, is under control.

The Conservatives, who had gained more votes than Labour in the 1929 general election, were only the second largest party.

4. To separate words, groups and clauses in a series.

Life-support machines are no different in principle from medicines, surgery, or other treatment.

A policeman has to be able to work at night, at weekends and on holidays.

5. To separate adjectives that separately modify the same noun.

Critics praise the novel's unaffected, unadorned style.

He walked with long, slow, steady, deliberate strides.

Common mistakes

A comma cannot separate subject from predicate.

WRONG: *A man of his great abilities, would always be successful.
RIGHT: A man of his great abilities would always be successful.

A comma cannot be used to join grammatically separate sentences. The following sentences are not possible:

WRONG: *London is a very cosmopolitan city, there are people from many culture living there.
RIGHT: London is a very cosompolitan city. There are many people from many different cultures living there.

English ≠ English ?!

Since the contents of some units that will be tested on our first PC deal with different "Englishes", I have recently been busy memorizing different English terms for one and the same thing. Of course, “different Englishes” refers to the varieties of English spoken in different parts of the world such as the US, Great Britain, the Caribbean Islands or India. 

Just out of curiosity I did some research and found out that English is the official language (or at least one of them) in over 50 countries. If anybody is interested in the detailed list, you can find it here:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/map_of_countries_where_english_is_an_official_language.pdf

Anyhow, considering the fact that English is spoken in so many countries, it’s not surprising that there are a lot of different English dialects and slangs. However, when I was younger, I always considered English as the “world language” which is uniform everywhere. Well, when I grew older, I realized that this is far from reality.

The first difference between “Englishes” I personally encountered was the one between British English and American English. In high school we were told that in these countries different words are sometimes used for the same thing. I have to admit that this didn’t really bother me then. If we were given two terms I usually tried to remember the simpler one, no matter if it was BE or AE. Now, since our university teacher told us to stick to one style of English, I’m paying a lot more attention to this matter.

By chance, I found this illustration on the Internet and noticed that there actually are a lot of words on it that we need to know for the PC. So I thought I’d share it with you. It might also be helpful for more visual learners.