8/2/2019 Tips for Syn and Ant

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Tip For Synonyms And Antonyms

I have got a piece of advice based on personal experience for the Vocabulary-concerned

members.

The very first two questions of the English Composition paper comprise of Synonyms and

Antonyms.

It really is a tough and toiling task remembering all the vocabulary and recalling thoseduring the exams.

I have an idea to share if it looks congenial to you.

You will be surprised to know that the real English words are merely 50 % while the

remaining are composed with the addition of either a prefix ( the word that is written before

the original word. e.g. un, in, im, etc.) and suffix ( the word that is written after the original

word. e.g. less, ale, ily, etc .)

The main thing you need to learn is the root word which gives birth to numerous words.

For instance, the word "vid" generally refers to "view". If you know this thing then you can

easily understand meanings of the words you have never heard or read before. e.g. video.

vision, visual. evidence. and many more such words which will give you the sense of the

word.

I repeatedly quote that half of the words for better understandings of English are merely a

guess work which you can learn by knowing the word etymology.

So for the quick reading of editorial, make use of guess-work by using common sense and

etymology.

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and

meaning have changed over time.

Here again I quote that I had never studied etymology at all but had good common sense of

comparing different words and taking out the similarities.

Nothing is easy or difficult to study. All I know is easy to me and vice versa.

It also needs one's personal interest as well to develop the skill.

Developing the skill of etymology needs your keen observation along with little effort.

Another example for etymology is as follows.

The words such as spectacle, spectrum, prospect , aspect, spectacular, inspection, inspector,

etc, have some thing in common and that is "spec". So one c an easily develop the sensethat all these words have more or less the similar meanings having a common word among

them.

All have some connection, one way or the other, with the meaning "view".

Hence, one can easily guess the meanings of various bizarre wo rds one comes ac ross during

composition paper.

Regards,