1. Context Clues
Sometimes you find words that you don’t know their meaning, and you
don’t have a dictionary or you can’t use it. Well, another way to find
out the meaning of unfamiliar words is looking for clues that the author
left behind – context clues.
Context
clues are words, phrases, and sentences around the unfamiliar word that
give you clues to figure out the meaning of the unknown word.
Different kinds of context clues are: definitions or synonyms, concrete
examples, contrast clues, description clues, words or phrases that
modify, conjunctions showing relationship, and unstated or implied
meaning.
Example: Sammy was very stingy with the waitress. He didn’t give her a tip.
The word stingy
means unwilling to spend or give. We can determine this meaning because
the second sentence gives more information about Sammy’s action of not
giving the waitress a tip.
A clue for synonyms or definition is that it will be followed by a comma or a dash. It also might include words such as or, is called, that is, and in other words.
This kind of clue is mostly found in textbooks, especially science,
history and math. The author also gives examples to clarify a concept.
It helps you determine the meaning of the new word. Signal words that
can alert you that an example will follow are: such as, including, for instance, to illustrate, an example of, and for example.
In other occasions the writer gives the opposite meaning, describes the
words, show relationships, implied the meaning with prior knowledge, or
uses modifiers such as adjectives, adverbs, phrases or clauses to
clarify the meaning of the unfamiliar word.
2. Understanding roots, prefixes, and suffixes
Another method to learn the meaning of new words is roots, prefixes, and suffixes. A root word
is the basic element of a word that remains after eliminating the
affixes, or inflectional changes. The root contains the basic meaning,
or definition of a word. A prefix is a letter or a group of letters that appears at the beginning of a word and changes the word’s meaning. A suffix
is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. It changes
the words meaning and can change the part of speech or grammatical
function of the original word. If you know the meaning of the root word
and prefix or suffix you can then determine the meaning of the new word.
Example:
precook – pre is a prefix, and means before. Then the meaning is cook before.
novelist – ist is a suffix, and means a person who did something. Then the meaning is a person who wrote the novel.
3.Multiple Meaning words
In
English we have words that can have multiple meanings, this are words
that have more than one meaning. The context of the sentences helps you
determine which is the correct meaning of the word.
Example: fly
Definition: 1. to sail through the air; 2. an insect that buzzes.
Sentence: The airplanes fly straight toward to Panama.
In
this sentence, fly is referring to definition # 1, to sail
through the air. The airplane is a thing sailing through the air, and
is not an insect.
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