In this lesson, you will learn how to guess the meaning of vocabulary words through context, prefixes/suffixes, and similar-sounding words.
Now that you understand what it means to really know vocabulary, what do you think you should do if you come across a word you aren't familiar with?
Look at the following highlighted words. Can you guess what these words mean?
- I got abysmal feedback from my manager last week—the clients were not happy with the results of our study.
- The team told their new boss that his predecessor had been a terrible manager who wouldn’t listen to their ideas.
What should you do when you come across a word you don't understand?
- Consider the context. What comes before the word? What about after it?
- E.g.: She is always prompt when it comes to assignments—she gets them done immediately.
- Look at prefixes/suffixes. What are the smaller parts of the word that come before or after the root word?
- E.g.: You aren’t my boss—you’re my subordinate!
- Think about other words that sound or look similar. What is the base word that you see here? In other words, can you find another word that sounds the same?
- E.g.: Employee retention works towards saving a company money in the long run; you don’t need to train new people!.
- Think about the meaning of these words in your first language and look at the similarities and differences in definitions.
- E.g.: Coffee in Japanese means the same thing as it does in English, but mansion in Japanese does not have the same meaning as it does in English!
Read the following text with your teacher. Can you guess the meanings of the words in italics?
When doing presentations, learn to use your resources properly. Delays that occur because you don’t know how to use your equipment will annoy your audience and throw you off your game. In addition, avoid the use of jargon—you want everyone to be able to understand, whether they're in your field or not.