Effective American English Is Usually Simple
There are three elements to any language:
- Vocabulary or words: the raw materials
- Grammar: the rules and structure
- Culture or context: the place where the language is used
There are two participants:
- The person/people speaking (or writing)
- The person/people listening (or reading)
Thinking About Vocabulary
Start with your personal vocabulary. These words and phrases are important for you. It does not matter what language you are using. At this stage, you need the raw materials to build your conversation.
Find YOUR Words
- Listen to yourself.
- Review your texts and emails.
- Record phone calls to see and hear what you are saying (ask permission first and then after the recording starts: Do you mind if I record this call to practice my English conversation?)
- Talk to yourself out loud (use your phone Voice Memo app or dictate notes) and record and review what you say (word and phrases).
- Identify the topics you talk about regularly at home, with friends, and at work.
- Narrate your day by saying out loud what you are doing.
I am emptying the dishwasher. There are three cups that go on the second shelf of the cabinet and four clear, short glasses that go on the shelf below the cups. The silverware drawer is a bit of a mess and needs to be reorganized, but not now. It is cool inside, and bright and sunny outside.
Build YOUR Personal Conversational Vocabulary
- Make simple (or complex) drawings to represent the words and phrases.
- Begin with one word/topic and brainstorm. Set a timer for three minutes. Write down any and all words and ideas come to mind. Do not list, just put the words randomly on the page. Draw pictures. Do not worry about spelling or think about why. This is about speed and connections.
- Use a Word Cloud Generator or a Word Count Generator to target where to focus. Word Frequency is a simple full-service generator. Copy and paste texts and emails and see what words appear most frequently.
Compare Word Lists
Compare your words with other frequency and content lists.
- Target common words, identify uncommon words. Get lists of words often used in your home and target languages. Wiktionary: Frequency Lists are a good place to find words and compare overlaps.
- Find overlaps in your personal vocabulary with the American English most common words. Review 1000+ Most Common Words in English from A-Z.
- Find words by topic or content. Vocabulary Lists from Vocabulary.com is a fun place to find gold. Other common word groupings can be found in My English Pages: Vocabulary.
- Identify words other people are using. Different locations and situations require different words: the pool, concerts, parks, other cities, the store, the garden center.
- Notice jargon (words that are specific to a particular place or field/industry), slang and/or idioms (informal common speech, often specific to a location or group of people).
Categorize Words
For now, there are eight parts of speech (classifications of words) in American English:
- Nouns: words that represent people, animals, objects, substances, states, events, ideas, and feelings
- Pronouns: words that replace nouns or phrases (I, he, she, it, they, this, that, etc.)
- Verbs: words that communicate actions or states of being (or mental/physical descriptions)
- Adjectives: words that describe or specify nouns or pronouns and include articles. Examples of adjectives include good, beautiful, nice, my, etc. and a/an, the
- Adverbs: words that modify (further describe the meaning of) verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs often end in -ly as in nicely, beautifully, slowly, etc., (formed by adding -ly to an adjective)
- Prepositions: words located before a noun, verb, or pronoun that create a phrase a group of words) show the relationship (physical position, for example) with other words in a sentence
- Conjunctions: words that connect clauses (parts of a sentence), sentences, or words
- Interjections: words that express surprise or emotion
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