Hey guys,
I want to be able to use a new vocabulary or make my English looks a little bit complex instead of simple. When I use very simple words, I feel that my English level is very basic. What can you suggest me? or what can you advise me to change this situation, please?
Thanks in advance!
Do not worry. Do not try too hard to use "advanced" words. Simple writing is good writing.
George Orwell was a master of prose style. In his essay, "Politics and the English Language," he says "Never use a long word where a short one will do."
Use basic vocabulary whenever it expresses your meaning.
Only use a fancy word when it is useful. Only use it when it means something a little different from the plain word, and you know for sure what the difference is, and it expresses your meaning better than the simple word does.
Your vocabulary will expand naturally with reading. Don't force it. Just keep reading, and look up the words you don't know.
Here is a passage from one of the most famous speeches of all time, given by Winston Churchill during World War II. He was a highly educated man and the author of many books. This is good English; in fact, this is great English:
"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
By my count that is 75 words, of which 66 are words of one syllable. And notice what Churchill does not do: he does not use synonyms to avoid repetition.
Read Read Read! Novels are good because they are fun and interesting to read and if its a good author you will come across lots of interesting word and descriptions. I would recommend
Ann Cleeves
Cheryl Honigford
Jodi Piccolt
Clive Custer
What I do mostly is watch a lot of Ted Talk and read difficult books and absorb them, and the difficult words, so I could use daily in my conversations. Also I google the words I really fancy and write them on flash card and just read them once in a while so i would be able to use them.
Its amazing. When you intend to explain the ideas afterward to a person, you see shows, read books and listen to conversations with a different mindset.
