Tag Archive | vocabulary

As the years pass, language evolves.

Since the days of Chaucer and Shakespeare, we can all agree English has become less flowery.

Some fantastic vocabulary just dropped out of everyday conversation.

Author Mark Forsyth writes about the words we’ve lost. From his book “Horologicon” to his Tumblr and published articles, we compiled a list of the best words that need reviving.

1. Ultracrepidarian (n):”Somebody who gives opinions on subjects they know nothing about.”
Example: Too many ultracrepidarians discuss the conflict in Syria. Read More…

February 8, 2014

in General Learning
2 Comments

Tips to Improve Your Business Vocabulary

Written by Lynn Gaertner-Johnston, Syntax Training

In the business writing classes I lead, people often tell me they want to use the right verbiage to come across professionally. The first tip I offer them is to get rid of words such as verbiage, whose meaning has been muddied and is not what people typically think it is. (Read my blog post “Watch Your Verbiage” to learn the many meanings of verbiage.)

Apply these tips to improve your language:

Convince or persuade?

Understand that some experts say that “persuade” and “convince” are synonyms that go back at least to the sixteenth century. The meanings are so closely knit that often one word serves as well as the other.

Grammar

After ‘persuade’ we use the structure
to + infinitive:

I persuaded them to stay for another drink.
He persuaded her not to take the job.

After ‘convince’ we cannot use a verb infinitive. We say ‘convince someone that‘:

She convinced the police that she was telling the truth.
He convinced her that it was the right thing to do.

Both of the above sentence would also be correct without ‘that’:

She convinced the police she was telling the truth.
He convinced herit was the right thing to do.

Meaning

Convince yourself to get these words right. Persuasion is a process. A hoped-for result is to convince.

There can also be a subtle difference in meaning between ‘convince’ and ‘persuade’, as seen here:

Although Robert finally persuaded his girlfriend to move abroad with him, she was not fully convinced that it was the best thing to do.

In the example, Robert’s girlfriend was persuaded (to move) but was not convinced (that it was the correct decision). So, we can see that when we persuade someone to do something it doesn’t always mean that we have also convinced that person.

The teenager is convinced she can win. The boy was persuaded to run the 10-yard dash.

“Convinced” is for changing mental beliefs. Persuasion is change of belief followed by action.

One more thing is worth mentioning about ‘persuade’ and ‘convince’. If we are absolutely sure about something, we say I’m convinced:

– Are you sure he’s innocent?
– Yes, I’m convinced. NOT ~~I’m persuaded~~

Additional info

Some related words:
convincing (adjective) It was a convincing argument.
persuasive (adjective) Marta can be very persuasive when she wants.
persuasion (noun) He used his powers of persuasion.

When confronted with issues of word choice, I often find it helpful to consider the associations and connotations a word has in its different forms. A convincing person or argument is one that other people cannot help but agree with, whereas a persuasive person or argument is one that other people find compelling, but which leaves more room (in my mind) for the opportunity to disagree.

If you have been convinced, you have clearly and decisively changed your perspective. If you have been persuaded, then you have chosen to agree with those you previously disagreed with. In the latter case, it may not be so much that you’ve found an argument you agree with so much as you’re indulging someone who has appealed to you, either positively or negatively.

Prefer “convince” when the change of opinion must be definite or to deemphasize the role of whomever did the convincing. Prefer “persuade” to draw attention to either the arguments used or the individuals doing the arguing, to emphasize reluctance on the part of the persuaded, or when you need the word to contain more vowels.

Resources:

Photocredit: http://persuasionuvm.blogspot.com

July 29, 2012

They said what?!

Engrish it is:

n. The phenomenon of often hilarious gramatical catastrophes resulting from poor, usually over-literal translations of Japanese to English.

A form of English characterized by bad translation from Japanese by someone who is decent at translating vocabulary but has a poor grasp of English grammar. Tends to be a word-by-word literal translation with humorous results for native English speakers. Engrish is most common in old video games and anime subtitles.

The term “Engrish” comes from the fact that the Japanese language does not have distinct L and R sounds. They do have a consonant that is roughly somewhere in between these two sounds, but whether this translates to L or R in English depends on the situation (and therefore can be interpreted wrong.)

So, there they go:

In mood for some more Engrish?

http://www.engrish.com/

Must go now I to ,

July 20, 2012

in Bits and pieces, General Learning, Reading, Review(s)
3 Comments

I don’t believe in tests…

anymore.

A couple of days ago I posted an interesting online based vocabulary test and my result of 17.000.

Yesterday I got back to it and did the test once again (as you may have expected, I know the same set of words), BUT this time I checked different post-vocabulary fileds. Instead of “All of my subjects were in English” (or sth of the kind) I checked that I no more learn English and that I stopped about an year ago (true fact). On the additional questions (this time there were much more – I checked that I read, speak, and write a lot: with one word communicate a lot in English (the truth). Guess what, this time my result was not 17.000 but 23.500.

So, I decided to take another test and to see what would my n:

Found this one: http://dynamo.dictionary.com/placement/level

Result: 50.052

Pff, what should that mean?

For one it surely means that the tests are lost on me. The lot of them and all the pals, mates, and peers they might have.

I remembered how we once had that perfect candidate for the place of attorney in our office. He got 100/100 on each and every test but turned to be a weird psycho bloke post-hiring. He did know the matter but had no clue how to use it.

So, I’ll stop with tests and will continue with reading, speaking and writing a lot and…

come what may.

Your remaining-untested-in-the-future,

July 17, 2012

in Bits and pieces, General Learning, Reading
17 Comments

How many words do you know?

A nice tool that claims to access your English command (or, at least a rough estimate number of words that you may know):

Test your Vocab

1,500–3,000 words: a couple of years of English courses
4,000–7,000 words: intermediate English (4–6 years)
8,000–10,000 words: advanced English (8 years) for a particularly good student

Anything much beyond 10,000 words generally only comes from living abroad in an English-speaking country for a significant period of time, or else spending tremendous amounts of one’s own time exposed to English media (books, sitcoms, movies, etc.).