As you know, some English words have more than one meaning, depending on the context (genre / surrounding words and images) in which they are used. A good dictionary will provide all the possible meanings of a word, so you will have to decide which one fits the context your word is in.

Let's practise! Read the sentences below and match the correct meaning of 'round' to the correct sentence. Use the context to help you.

As you probably know, English words are not always pronounced in the way you would expect from their spelling. However, if you want to use new words in both writing and speaking, you will have to learn both the spelling and the pronunciation. A good dictionary will help you with both, and you should write down both the spelling and pronunciation - this physical action will help you to remember.

Practice 3.1 IPA script
You have probably seen the IPA before (the International Phonetic Alphabet), which is a set of symbols, each of which represents a sound (NOT a letter). Forty-four symbols are used in most dictionaries, many of which are the same as the alphabet. If you want to learn the IPA, focus on learning the symbols which represent vowel sounds as these are often the difficult parts of new words to pronounce. Below are twenty words, each containing one of twenty vowel sounds represented in the IPA. Can you match the IPA scripts below to the correct word?

For more help with the IPA, see here: http://www.macmillanenglish.com/pronunciation/interactive-phonemic-charts/

When you see the IPA script of a new word in a good dictionary, it will show you the word stress as well as the individual sounds which make up the word. For example, the single quotation mark shows us that the 2nd syllable in banana is the strongest/loudest one:
/bəˈnɑːnə/. You should note the word stress of every item of vocabulary as you learn it. Use any symbol that works for you, e.g. banana, or banana, or ban⁰ana.

Let’s practise word stress. In each line below, one of the four words given has a different stress pattern to the others. Click on it. For example, in row 1, the word with different word stress is: giraffe. The second syllable is stressed. With the other words, the first syllable is stressed: lion, tiger, camel.

Some words follow the normal rules of grammar, but others do special things. A good dictionary will tell you the part of speech, and if there is anything grammatically special about your new words. Here are some grammatical labels found in good dictionaries, with a quick explanation.

Countable (C)
A noun that can be easily counted, e.g. one pen, five pens

Uncountable (U)
A noun that cannot be counted, e.g. water

Transitive (T)
A verb that must have an object in a sentence, e.g. I like it.

Intransitive (I)
A verb that doesn't take an object, e.g. I arrive.

Plural (pl)
A noun that does not have a singular form, e.g. scissors

Here are some words that have a special grammatical feature. Find the feature from the drop down menu. If you don't know which special feature each word has, use a good dictionary to find out: https://www.ldoceonline.com/

A good dictionary will also give you lots of information about how a word is used in practice, such as whether it is rather old-fashioned, or in/formal, or used in a particular register such as the field of medicine or law. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (https://www.ldoceonline.com) will even tell you whether a word is in the Academic Word List (AWL), or in the top 1000 words spoken (S1) and/or written (W1). However, collocations are not always mentioned explicitly, although there may be example sentences showing typical collocations. The best way to learn which words go best with others is through usage.

Here are some typical collocations. However, one word in each set does not usually collocate with the head word given. Choose the odd one out from the drop down menu.