How to Use a Dictionary

[ستاره لارا]

Lesson One

Why do we use a dictionary?

A dictionary is a book which contains information about words. A dictionary contains an enormous amount of useful information that helps you in speaking, reading and writing. There are two kinds of dictionaries: monolingual and bilingual. Although bilingual dictionaries are required for translation purposes, students of foreign languages are advised to use monolingual ones.
This topic tells you about the different types of information available in a dictionary. These pieces of information include: spelling, syllable division, stress, pronunciation, part of speech, meaning, and usage label. It should be mentioned that not every dictionary would provide every piece of information presented here altogether. In order to be familiar with the system of presentation of a dictionary, you should read its introduction very carefully. For example, look at the entry for the word "commence", shown below. When you look up a word in the dictionary, you will find information on:


Spelling and Syllable Division: com.mence
Pronunciation and Stress: /kamens/
Grammar: vt
Usage: (formal)
Meaning: begin (sth); start
Example: Shall we — the ceremony ?

<<<<<>>>>>

I will also provide you with some practice exercises, which help you to develop certain skills. When you finish the practice exercises, you should know what a dictionary contains and how it can help you in your English studies. It should be stated that Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Oxford Elementary Dictionary are the basis for doing the exercises. The topic contains a section on each of the above-mentioned pieces of information. But first you must know how to find the entry you want. Entries are the words that are explained in a dictionary. For example, this is an entry for the word "apple":
apple n 1 (a) round fruit with firm juicy flesh and green, red or yellow skin when ripe: an apple juice, apple sauce illus at fruit. (b) (also apple tree) tree bearing this fruit. 2 (idm) an/the apple of discord (fml) cause of an argument or a quarrel. the apple of sb's eye person or thing that is loved more than any other: She is the apple of her father eye. in apple-pie order very neatly arranged. q applecart n (idm) upset the/sb's applecart = upset. applejack n [U] (US) strong alcoholic drink distilled from fermented cider.
Dictionaries provide different types of information about a given word. They do not use the same system of presenting different pieces of information about a given word. Thus, when using a dictionary, you should carefully read the information provided in the beginning or at the end of the dictionary tiltled "Guide to Using the Dictionary". It should be stated that Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is the main basis throughout this book. Among many kinds of dictionaries available in different sizes and prints, the following are suggested:
1. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: It is written especially for students. It provides information about meanings, idioms, parts of speech, usages, pronunciations and spellings, and syllable divisions.

[ستاره لارا]

How to Use a Dictionary

Lesson two

Locating a word in a dictionary


Since the words that are explained in a dictionary - entry words - are arranged in alphabetical order, those whose first letter is "a" are at the beginning and those whose first letter is "z" are at the end of the dictionary. Therefore, the word "egg" comes after the word "apple" and the word "lemon" comes before the word "new" in the dictionary.
But what if you have a list of words beginning with the same letter like "ball", "bring", "beach", and "bird"? Look at the second letter of each word: "ba" comes before "be", "be" comes before "bi", and "bi" comes before "br". So the correct order is "ball", "beach", "bird", and "bring". If the second letter of each word is the same, look at the third letter, and so on.
When you know the alphabet, you can find any word quickly and easily. First, decide if the word is near the beginning, middle or end of the dictionary and open the dictionary at about the right place. When you find the approximate location of the word in the dictionary, you then need to locate specifically the word you are looking for. To do so, you should look at the top of the page and find the words printed in boldface. Those words are called guide words.
The guide word on the top left is the same as the first word on that page and the guide word on the top right is the same as the last word on that page. Suppose one is looking for a word such as "make". One should first open the dictionary to somewhere in the middle. If the guide words are "men" and- mind", it is clear that the word "make" is not on that page, because the second letter of the word "make" comes before "e" and "i" in the alphabet. But if the guide words are "mad" and "mass", it is obvious that the word -make" is on the same page.

[ستاره لارا]

Some exercises

1.Write down this shopping list in alphabetical order. We have started it for you.

eggs
apples
cheese
jam
fish
bread
ice
apples
honey
dates
grapes
lemons


2.Write down these words in alphabetical order.

contend
contain
contract
consult
contact
consume


3.Choose the correct guide word for :

respond


a.response/rest
b.respect/respire
c.respite/responsible
d.restore/result

[ستاره لارا]

Lesson Three

Parts of Speech


Words can be classified as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. These classes of words are called parts of speech. Dictionaries use abbreviations to represent the parts of speech; for example, "n" means that the word is a noun, and "adv" indicates that the word is an adverb. An abbreviation is a short form of a word or a group of words such as "Nov." for "November" and "NATO" for "North Atlantic Treaty Organization". Abbreviated forms are often written with a period.
Many words in English can be used as more than one part of speech; for example, "sip" is often used both as a noun and as a verb:

Sip your coffee slowly. (v)

He took a sip of his coffee. (n)

When a word has different parts of speech, the specific function of the word depends on the context in which it is used. We should pay attention to the part of speech to which a word belongs in order to determine its appropriate meaning. For example, in the sentence "He doesn't like the job, but the pay is good." the word "pay" is a noun and means "salary"; whereas in the sentence "Are you paying in cash or by cheque?" the word "pay" is a verb and means "to give money".
However, when each part of speech has a number of different meanings, the two parts of speech are usually dealt with in separate numbered entries, as in the case of "print" and "print2" below:


print' /print/ n 1 [C] mark made on a surface by
pressure: finger —s; foot 2 [U] (a) letters made by
printing. (b) printed matter. 3 [C] picture, design, etc made by printing on paper, etc: old Japanese 4 [C] photograph printed from a negative.


print2 /print/ vt, vi 1 press or stamp (letters, a design, etc) onto or into paper, fabric, etc. 2 make books, pictures, etc in this way. 3 publish; cause to be printed: — a magazine. 4 write in printed characters (instead of ordinary, connected handwriting). 5 make (a photograph) from a negative film or plate: How many copies shall I for you?
Sometimes, words which are completely unrelated in meaning (such as spring' and spring2) happen to have the same spelling. These are always = ;alt with in separate entries.


spring' /sprig/ n 1 sudden strong jump. 2 place where water comes out of the ground. 3 thin piece of wire or metal that is twisted round and round so that it will jump back into place if you pull or push it.


spring2 /sprig/ n time of the year after winter, when plants begin to grow.

[ستاره لارا]

1.Look up the following words. Each word may have one entry or several entries in the dictionary. Find the entry that covers the part of speech indicated. Write the entry word in the spaces provided with its raised number, if necessary.


show (v)............................. show2
grill (v)
primary (n)
hold (n)
tight (adv)
answer (v)
long (adj)


2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the following words.


immobility - good - inform - vaccinate - system


a.Her illness has made her completely ......
b.For further...., please write to the company.
c.Have you........ your dog against rabies?
d.He is very...... in all he does.
e.The children behaved........


3. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the words given.


differ
a.How does this car ..... from the more expensive model?
b.There is an age........ of three between the two children.
c.The two houses are very......... in style.


divide
a. Nine is ..........by three
b.The ............. of Germany occurred after World War II.
c.The house was ...... into flats.


rule
a.Do you know the......... of chess?
b.Britain once....... over a vast empire.
c.Who is the ........ in this country?


fertilize

a.Flowers are often........ by bees as they gather nectar.
b.The plains of Alberta are extremely.......
c.Get some more................ for the garden.


continue
a.The desert ...... as far as the eye could reach.
b.The next issue will be a ..... of the story.
c.Films are often made out of.........



4. Look at the words in boldface in the following sentences. Try to find the parts of speech of these words according to the context in which they are used and then try to guess their meanings based on their parts of speech.

present
a.The Smiths were present at the ceremony.
b.I bought a birthday present for my sister.
c.The watch was presented to me when I retired.


well
a.I am quite well today.
b.You speak English very well.
c.They draw water from a well.
d.— Do you like it?
— Well, I'm not really sure.
e.Tears welled up in her eyes.


spring
a.With one spring, the cat landed on the table.
b.Daffodils bloom in the spring.
c.When the alarm clock went off, John sprang out of bed.
d.This is soft springy grass.


spot
a.I've spotted a couple of spelling mistakes in his composition.
b.Her house is always spotless.
c.Leopards have dark spots.


book
a.Please write down all the new vocabulary in your exercise books.
b.I've booked a hotel room for you.
c.The company's books are audited every year.


5.Look at the following words. Each of them may have more than one part of speech. Look up each word in the dictionary, and for each part of speech try to make a sentence. If you are not sure about the correctness of your sentences, you can write the examples which are given for each part of speech in the dictionary.


fast
a.He drives fast. (adv)
b.He is a fast speaker. (adj)
c.He fasts in Ramadhan. (v)
d.He broke his fast because he was sick. (n)


balance
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................


survey

.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
patient
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................

cross
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................

spring
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................

leaves
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................


well
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................
.................................................. .................................................. ................................................


6.The list below copntains some abbreviations. Find each item in your dictionary and write its full form.
Where is the abbreviation page in your dictionary? Can you find all the abbreviation I list below on this page in your dictionary?

1. idm
2. illus
3. indef
4. infin
5. infml
6. interj
7. interrog
8. joc
9. masc
10. symb
11. usu
12. v
13. prep
14. vi
15. esp
16. vt
17. eg
18. am
19. pref
20. suff

The list is endless check your abbreviations on the abbreviation page in your dictionary.

7. Answer the following questions based on your dictionary.

• What is a guide word?
• How many parts of speech does the word "present" have?
• What is the noun for "preserve"?
• What is the verb for "pressure"?
• What is the adjective for "presume"?

[ستاره لارا]

How to use a dictionary

Lesson four

Spelling

Spelling refers to the way you write a word. Most students are aware of irregularities of spelling in the English language. Of course, there are rules of spelling which would help the reader to remember and identify the correct spelling of words. However, a dictionary is one of the best sources to check the spelling of words. Sometimes, you may know most of a word but you are unsure of certain letters. In this case write down the parts of the word that you can spell and leave gaps for any missing letters, like this:

sep_r _te

Now, start looking through the words beginning with sep_ in the dictionary. You will soon find that "separate" is the correct spelling.
Sometimes there is more than one correct spelling of a word for British speakers. For example, "gasoline" can also be spelled "gasolene". In these cases the most common spelling is listed first in the entry for the word. So, if you look up the entry ("gasoline", "gasolene"), you will see that "gasolene" is the recommended spelling. If you look up the entry gasoline in your dictionary, you will find "— = gasolene". "=" in this case means "is an alternative spelling of".
In addition, some words have two spellings, one of them is British and the other one is American. Suppose that you meet "favour" for the first time and want to find out its meaning. You see that an alternative spelling is also given at this entry; it is "favor". The difference between the two spellings is that the second one is American and it is shown in the entry by using " US " before the latter spelling.

[ستاره لارا]

Lesson Five


Finding the Right Entry Word
Derivatives and Compounds
Imagine you want to find the meaning of the words in bold type in the following sentence:

The laziest pupils failed the exam.

If you search for them in your dictionary, you will not find these words; you will have to look up the words "lazy", "pupil", and "fail". This is because:
(1) comparative and superlative forms of adjectives (e.g. smaller, smallest),
(2) plural forms of nouns (e.g. bags, churches) and
(3) inflected forms of verbs (e.g. pushes, pushing, pushed) are not usually listed as entry words in the dictionary.
A derivative is a word formed by adding an ending to another word, so "marked", "markedly" and "marking" are derivatives of "mark".
A compound is a word or expression formed from two or more separate words. "Markdown" and "markup" are compounds of "mark".
Derivatives and compounds are listed in bold type in a separate section at the end of an entry and are in alphabetical order.
Sometimes, however, a derivative or compound of a word has its own separate entry. It may be that its spelling is very different; for example, compare "adhere" with its derivative "adhesion". It may also be because its meaning is very different, the meaning of the compound "horseradish", for example, has no obvious connection with the word "horse"

[ستاره لارا]

Exercises


1. Find the following words in your dictionary. They are all derivatives or compounds of the word soft.


soft-boiled
soft drink
soft-hearted
softly
softness
soft option
soft-soled
soft-spoken
software


Now complete each of the sentences below by writing one of the derivatives or compounds in the space.


a.Those....... shoes are not suitable for climbing.
b.How much....... is supplied with the computer?
c.He didn't offer us a . , let alone a full dish!
d.He always speaks too ....... on the telephone.
e.She's too ...... — she should be tougher.
f.The ........... of the baby's skin surprised her.
g.Could Iplease have a ....... egg?
h.He's always very ....... on the telephone.


2. In order to find the meanings of the following words, which entries should you look for in the dictionary?


a.visited .................................................. .........................
b.children .................................................. .......................
c.stood .................................................. ..........................
d.buying .................................................. ........................
e.phenomenon...................................... .............................
f.physiological .................................................. ...............
g.bookstore .................................................. ....................
h.pressman........................................ ...............................

.................................................. .................................................. ....................

Use your dictionary to answer the following questions.

1.What are the compound forms of the word 'farm'?
2.What are the derivatives of the word 'fascinate'?
3.In which entry can you find the word 'fashionably'?
4.In which entry can you find t he word 'farcical'?
5.What is the part of speech of the word 'father'?
6.In which entry can you find the word 'fantasies'?

[ستاره لارا]

How to use a Dictionary

Lesson six

Grammatical Information

Look at the entry for the word "dictionary" shown below:

dic.tion.ary /dikioneri/ n [C] (pl -ies) book with words or topics arranged in alphabetical order that gives a meaning, spelling, pronunciation, etc for each word.


Immediately after the information on pronunciation comes the grammatical information. We are told that "dictionary" is:
a.a countable noun; and
b.has the plural form "dictionaries".


The dictionary gives two main types of grammatical information about a word. It tells you:


a.what its part of speech is; and
b.how to change its form to make plurals, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, tenses of verbs, etc.

The dictionary gives you information on the irregular plurals of nouns under the entry for the word in its singular form; so if you want to check the plural form "cities", look up the singular form "city". However, if the plural form is spelled very differently from the singular noun, it is also listed
separately. Therefore, "mice" (the plural of "mouse") is a separate entry word in the dictionary.


Before you can use a noun in a sentence correctly, you must know whether it is countable or uncountable. The symbol [C] (countable) means that the noun has both a singular and a plural form. It can be used in thesingular with "a", "an", "another" (as in a bottle, an apple, another boy), in the plural with "many" (many apples), and in the singular or plural with "numbers" (one bottle, six bottles).
The symbol [U] (uncountable) means that the noun does not have a plural form. It can be used in the singular with words like "some", "enough", "much", "more" (some information, enough money, much noise, more equipment). It cannot normally be used with "a", "an", "another", "many", or with numbers.
The symbols [C, U] mean that the noun can be used either as countable or uncountable. For example, "coffee" is used as [C] in Two coffees, please!, and as [U] in Have some more coffee!
The dictionary also gives you information on the irregular forms of verbs under the entry for the verb in the infinitive form. However, many irregular verb forms are spelled very differently from the infinitive and are also listed separately. Therefore, "swum" (the irregular past participle of the verb "swim") is a separate entry word in the dictionary.

Here are the past tense and past participle of the verb "hide":

hid, hidden pt, pp of hide'
hide' /hard/ vt, vi (pt hid /hid/, pp hidden /hidn/) 1 put or keep out of sight; prevent from being seen.
The dictionary also tells you whether a verb is transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb is followed by a direct object and is shown by vt in the dictionary. An intransitive verb cannot be followed by a direct object and is shown by vi.

For example 'cook' is used transitively in Are you cooking dinner?, and intransitively in Are you cooking?

[ستاره لارا]

Exercises

1. Use your dictionary to look up the plural form of each of the nouns listed below. Write each plural form in full. Where more than one form is given in the dictionary, write both forms.

foot feet



hoof


knife


potato


diary


buffalo


child


deer


donkey



roof



tooth



2.Look up these nouns in your dictionary. Are they countable or uncountable? Can they be both? Write [C], [U], or both .



leg [C]



bread



table



information



tennis



cake



student



knowledge



experience


3. Use your dictionary to write the form indicated for each of the verbs listed below.

swim................pt..................swam
hide..................pt.................
catch................pp................
fry....................pp................
bring................pp................
take.................pt.................
teach...............pt.................
kneel...............pp.................
forgive............pt..................

4.Look up these words in your dictionary. Are they transitive or intransitive? Write an example of each case along with vt, vi or both.


rise (vi) The water rises in the tube.
lose
quarrel
complete
obey
protect
drop
complain
ruin


5. Answer these questions.

• What are the parts of speech for the word '' tally ''?
• If '' tally '' is a verb, is it transitive or intransitive?
• What is the past tense and past participle of '' tally '' as a verb?
• What are the different forms of the word '' tame '' as an adjective?
• How many nouns does the word '' tan '' have? What is the difference between them?
• In which entry can you find the words '' tanner '' and '' tannery ''?
• What are the parts of speech for the word '' tandem ''?