How to Build a Damn Good Vocabulary in One Minute a Day

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With over 170,000 words in the English language alone, it’s truly impossible for the most intelligent of us to know them all. In fact, why would you even need to know them all? You’ll find early or later on in life that expanding your vocabulary not only can help you impress others, but yourself as well. You don’t have to study day and night or walk around with a dictionary in your hand either. Here are a few tidbits of information on how you can build a damn good vocabulary in only one minute a day.

Why It’s Important to Learn New Vocabulary Words

To be serious about learning new words each day, you should, of course, have motivation as to why you are doing so. If you have kids, that’s reason enough. Do you recall coming home each day with a list of vocabulary words you needed to know for your spelling test? Well, your kids have spelling tests each week also.

How can you force them to get straight A’s if you are not willing to know the same words they know? I mean, these aren’t “cat”, “actual”, “nation”, and “outcome”. Oh no, thank God our children are being put on the same pedestal as those children in Singapore and Hong Kong! Now, they need to know “Diatribe”, “Quisling”, “Waffle – not the food”, “Macerate”, and well, you get the picture. Show your child that you’re serious and excited about learning and they will too.

Another reason to learn new words is so that you aren’t sitting around at work, or an intellectual social gathering looking like a fly on the wall because you have no clue what anyone is talking about. You also don’t want to sound like an airhead with your required-to-learn vocabulary knowledge. Come on, you have bosses to impress!

Things You Can Do Daily to Improve

Again, you can have the best damn vocabulary in one minute a day. All it takes is incorporating one new word a day.

1. Read – Reading a book, of course, will take you more than one minute a day, but you should be reading anyway. Heck, you’re reading this right? Read an online magazine or newspaper. Write down any words you are unfamiliar with, but try to decipher it from the context it’s used in.
2. Download a vocabulary app – Enough of the Minecraft, Talking Tom, Bubble Buster, and Cake Mania. You can download a few vocabulary apps, can’t you? So while you’re standing in line at Macy’s, learn a new word or two. Word with Friends comes to mind.
3. Make a game out of it – So have you thought to reward yourself for learning so many words a week? Keep a journal of all your new found words and if you can pass the test at the end of the week, reward yourself with a slice of cake. You’ll also have a place to refer to your words from time to time.
4. Take up Latin – Ok, not really. You need to master the English language first. However, many of our English words are derived from Latin or Greek Words. Learning these prefixes, roots, and suffixes will help you master many English words.

Here are four great sites to make learning new words enjoyable:

1. Wordsmith
2. Learn That Word
3. Vocab Sushi
4. Word Think

To help you out, keep watch on my Facebook Page and follow me on Twitter. I’ll blast out a new I-S-Diva Word of the Week for you each Monday (starting today). You’re Welcome!

~ Independent, Smart, Diva