How to make a Russian language dictionary that you will want to read. To have it made, or How to make a dictionary in English Dictionary design

_________________Greetings to everyone who looked at my review!_______________

Despite the fact that the school year has come to an end and summer is ahead, and over the summer you can lose all the accumulated knowledge, my daughter and I decided to set aside a little time for classes according to the school curriculum.

We will focus on basic subjects, including English.

Today I want to tell you about a checkered school notebook produced by the BG company.

General squared notebook number of sheets 96.

Format 165 by 205 mm

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

The sheets of the notebook are light (their thickness is acceptable, not excessively thin), the cells are drawn in blue, and the notebook also has red fields.

The notebook is bound with metal staples.

The notebook format is A3, so it fits standard notebook covers.

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

The cover of the notebook is not very hard, it is polished. I immediately bought a cover for the notebook to avoid fraying of the edges.

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

On the back you can see the color variations of this series of notebooks.

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

Why the choice fell on this particular notebook was precisely because of the attractive cover picture. In fact, the range of notebooks with more than 80 sheets in stores is not that large.

We purchased this notebook at a price of 48 rubles. with the aim of making it English dictionary with alphabetical index on the right inner side of the notebook, to facilitate the search and translation of the necessary words.

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

I cut out the alphabetical index myself. Because There are 26 letters in English, I highlighted for each letter 3 sheets each notebooks. That is why I chose a thick general notebook, so that at the end of the notebook there would still be sheets for notes, where I could write down some rules on the pronunciation of words and so on.

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

It was at the stage of cutting out the alphabetical index that I discovered the main disadvantage of the notebook from the manufacturer LLC "BG".

The thing is that the marking of blue cells on the sheets of the notebook is not uniform.

By cutting out the extra strips from the right margins, I ended up with a not entirely smooth version of the dictionary (annoying).

A common notebook in a cage. 96 sheets. LLC "BG" Review

After completing the cutting work, I wrote the letters of the English alphabet in order on the resulting ladder on the right edge of the notebook.

I immediately highlighted the vowels with a marker for clarity.

• Word in English.
• Transcription.
• Translation of the word into Russian.

I must say that this was the longest stage of the work. It was necessary to draw more than 300 lines, which took me about two hours (I did it in breaks).

I really hope that this dictionary will serve my daughter and me for many years; we will add new words and rules to it.

It is better to choose a notebook for such a dictionary without margins, but, as I wrote above, the choice of notebooks with a large number of sheets in stores is not large.

I will deduct a point for the error in assembling the notebook; clear lines and the softness of the cover were important to me.

Previously, it was difficult to imagine learning a foreign language without a special dictionary, which the student filled out independently. Today, students have different opinions about maintaining a personal dictionary. Some people consider keeping a dictionary an absolutely useless activity; others, on the contrary, are a necessity. Let's figure out what are the advantages of maintaining a dictionary and how to maintain it correctly.

Advantages of maintaining a dictionary:

1. A dictionary helps to systematize work on expanding your vocabulary.
2. By writing down the words that you are learning today, for example, it will be easier for you to find them after a while.
3. It happens that a learned word flies out of our heads at the right moment. And when we try to find the word we need on the Internet, the online translator gives us a synonym instead of the word we need. The same can happen with the search for the necessary phraseological units, phrasal verbs and set phrases on the Internet. If we have all the learned terms and phrases written down, it’s easier for us to navigate them, especially if they are divided into topics (but we’ll get to how best to keep a dictionary a little later).
4. When we write down new terms, we remember them faster because rote and visual memory comes into play.

In essence, a dictionary is a convenient tool that helps us quickly learn new vocabulary and take it from a liability to an asset.

How to keep an English dictionary to remember words

At school, we divided the notebook into three columns (or bought a ready-made dictionary notebook): in the first we wrote down the word in English, in the second - the transcription, in the third - the translation. However, this method actually did not help much in learning new vocabulary.

How many of these words can we remember today?

This dictionary was regularly updated with dozens of new words that we had to learn for the dictation in the next lesson. However, after that same ill-fated dictation, new terms disappeared somewhere from memory without a trace. The fact is that this method was focused exclusively on cramming. We learned words, but we didn't learn how to use them correctly. So it turns out that after 10-11 years of studying English at school, we can understand a little English, but we ourselves cannot connect two words.

In fact, the fact that we kept such a dictionary was not of much use, if there was any at all. Therefore, we propose to consider more effective methods of maintaining a personal English dictionary.

The first option is a thematic dictionary:

1. Many people find it much easier to remember new vocabulary if it is divided into thematic groups. Therefore, we recommend dividing them by topic when studying words. Dedicate several pages to each topic. For example, three pages of the dictionary for the topic “weather”, three for the topic “airport”, three more for stable phrases with the word “get”, etc.
2. If you are comfortable reading the transcription, write it down next to the words (or above the words) whose pronunciation is difficult for you to remember.
3. Write down the meaning of the word/phrase. If your level of language proficiency allows, write an interpretation in English. At the same time, we still recommend that you look at the translation of the word (if necessary, write it down next to the English interpretation). This is to make sure you understand the word correctly. It happens that the interpretation does not accurately convey the meaning of the word, so to be on the safe side, it is still better to look at its analogue in your native language.
4. If a word has many meanings, write down a few of the most frequently used ones. This will avoid confusion if you later encounter the word in another context.
5. — Find and write down examples of the use of a word (phrase) to understand how it can be used. In this case, it is advisable to write down 2-3 examples so that you can see what shades the word takes on in context. If you have written down several meanings of a word, write down an example of use for each of them.
6. If you have already reached the Pre-intermediate level, also write down idioms with the word you are studying.
7. Also write down several synonyms and antonyms for each word. This helps to build an associative series. For example, you learn the word tight-fisted and write greedy as a synonym for it. When you need to remember a learned word, an associative connection may automatically arise in your memory: “The term I needed was a synonym for the word greedy…. Oh exactly, tight-fisted!” You can also create figurative associations and write them down as verbal clues. For example, take the same word - tight-fisted. It can be associated with Scrooge, both McDuck and the main character of A Christmas Carol. Therefore, next to the word you can write the name Scrooge. If you wish, you can draw a picture; this technique helps many.

Draw up so-called mind maps.

This method is suitable for people who have the best developed visual memory. To do this, write down the topic word in the center of the page. For example, weather. And draw arrows from it, at the end of which write down what the weather might be like: sunny, rainy, and so on. Using this method, you can learn not only new words, but also grammatical structures. At the same time, on the back of the sheet, write down several sentences with the words you are learning. Alternatively, you can keep a separate notebook for examples of use.

Word blocks

Another way to maintain a dictionary is to write down vocabulary in blocks, the words in which are not thematically related to each other. This method is suitable if you often learn new vocabulary from films, books and articles. So, when watching a movie, it will not be very convenient to look for a page with the topic you need. It will be much easier to write down just words and phrases on one page.

1. Allocate several pages per block of words. The block must include the quantity
2. When writing down a word, write down its meaning and transcription, if necessary.
3. Under each word (phrase), write down the sentence in which you met it. Then check how the word might be used again and write down 1-2 other examples of its use. To do this, you can use Google search or dictionaries like http://context.reverso.net/.
4. Also, if these are expressions from a film, you can write down an explanation of the situation. For example, the hero said the phrase that you learn when he was angry when he saw that his money was missing - write it down like that. This will be your “beacon”. Having remembered the situation, it will be easier for you to remember the phrase itself.
5. Next to each block of words, write down the dates they were repeated.
6. On the next sheet of paper allocated for this block, write down phrases and words in English. And while repeating, write down the translation or interpretation of them. On another sheet of paper, come up with your own examples of use. Then write down the meaning of the words or phrases you are learning, but in Russian, and the next time you repeat them, try to remember them yourself in English.

When maintaining a dictionary in blocks, you can (and even need) to use the methods that are described in maintaining a thematic dictionary. That is, write down synonyms, word associations, antonyms, etc.

Dictionaries can be kept both in paper and electronic versions. For example, create a “dictionary” folder on your computer, in which you can create several documents (each document on one topic). Or one document divided into several sheets.

Although, when writing by hand, new vocabulary will be remembered faster, and it is much easier to find everything in one notebook than in several documents in an electronic folder.

Such methods of maintaining a personal dictionary of a foreign language are convenient and effective. They help to systematize the vocabulary being studied and memorize it faster. All you have to do is choose the method that is convenient for you.

The new school encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language, created by the St. Petersburg State University team, differs from others primarily in its design. Gradients, a selection of photographs and articles, as if scribbled with a marker by a diligent schoolboy, are the work of designer Zhdan Filippov. But the design is closely related to the concept of the dictionary, which the creators propose to read “like a book.” Daniil Trabun talked with Sergei Monakhov and Dmitry Cherdakov about why it is necessary to publish a dictionary on paper in the era of hypertext and how to make educational literature not boring.

Sergey Monakhov

Associate Professor, Department of History of Russian Literature, Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University

Dmitry Cherdakov

Senior Lecturer, Department of Russian Language, Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University

How did it happen that, on the one hand, this is the official dictionary of the Russian language, approved by all authorities, and on the other hand, it is, let’s say, daring? Fresh and free in a way.

Dmitriy: The idea to create such a dictionary was born at St. Petersburg State University back in 2009. The main question here is why make a new dictionary at all if there are already others, right? That's right, there are encyclopedic reference books, including those intended for schoolchildren, focused on the school course of the Russian language. But this help function in itself was not enough for us. In addition to fulfilling this important role, we wanted the dictionary to become a kind of textbook and even a book for reading. It was not just a source of information, but also contributed to readers’ understanding of the information it conveyed. This idea of ​​combining functions was embodied in different ways - both at the text level and in the design solution itself.

Can you tell me more about the book to read? Still, one turns to the dictionary only when it is really needed.

Sergey: Yes, yes, this is such a common idea. The dictionary is on the shelf, they go up to the shelf, open the book, look at the right word, and put it back. We wanted to do it differently. Figuratively speaking, not a dictionary on a shelf among other books, but an open dictionary on the table, a book for every family. Our dictionary consists of two parts. The first is the actual corpus of encyclopedic articles. The second body contains pointers that help the reader navigate this information space. In addition to the traditional alphabetical and terminological indexes, the dictionary contains a tree-like thematic index, in which articles are arranged hierarchically with different levels of nesting according to the degree of generalization of terminological material. Understand correctly, no one expects that a person will open a dictionary and start scribbling from the letter A until the end until he finishes reading it. But he can, by turning to our terminological tree, form an idea of ​​the linguistic context that exists around the phenomenon that interests him, and read a whole cluster of articles related to each other.

There is one more point that makes the dictionary a “reading book”. In addition to the main text, in our articles we provide inserted essays of two types - some more or less extensive quotes from fiction or scientific literature, illustrating the concept that is revealed in the article, and on the other hand, additional, popular science, short texts , which allow - again, right? – present the phenomenon of interest to the reader in a broader context.

About registration

Zhdan FILIPOV, dictionary designer:“I wanted several pieces to be friends according to the image [in the dictionary]. For this to be WordArt- real, terrible, but refined. So that only a thin shadow of presence remains from him. Plus Lazar Lissitzky and a gradient from the 80s jacket. In general, it's like a presentation in Word or Excel, but it is a little more accurate, in general. It looks fun - like a dictionary, but also fun. Fun dictionary. At some points it looks crooked, askew, but everything is completely conscious and exactly as it should be in this case. Cheerfully, boldly, but formally we followed all the rules. I think, that's how it should be"

Zhdan Filippov talks about how the design of the dictionary was created

The design immediately catches your eye. How did the team that was responsible for the selection of articles and the structure of the dictionary work with the designers? As I understand it, this should be quite a close collaboration?

Sergey: The design work began when the text was ready. Initially, even at the stage of creating articles, illustrations were selected, but Zhdan Filippov rejected most of these pictures, saying that they were no good - neither in their quality, nor in their, so to speak, conceptual integration, that it was just some kind of vinaigrette , hodgepodge and so on. Zhdan proposed an unusual solution - to make the illustrative series in black and white, and the text itself in color. Color the text, highlighting different information flows in it: quotes, links, lists, concepts, inserted essays, names of writers and titles of works. It is clear that in a bunch of books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias there are such “cellars” with color filling, but this is completely different. There color is marginal and marks marginal, peripheral things. And for us this is the main aesthetic technique. When Zhdan proposed this idea, I remember this moment - like an insight, a divine insight.

In parallel with working on the dictionary, we also worked on the layout of a textbook on the Russian language for grades 10–11. As far as schoolchildren are concerned, this is the same age level addressee. The layout of the textbook was made by Dima Barbanel, with whom, like Zhdan, we met when we were working on the Hermitage magazine, and since then we have been collaborating from time to time. What I mean is that these two layouts, textbooks and dictionaries, can, if desired, be seen as two opposites. In the sense that Dima just added a huge number of completely different styles, including simply terrible, illustrations to the textbook; placed them in such reservations, on separate spreads, separated them from the text and gave them the opportunity to explode the reader’s eye and brain. And Zhdan harshly threw everything away. There would have been no happiness, but misfortune helped - it became clear that we had no pictures, and an idea came that I still like - creating such a special textual expressiveness.

Dictionary spreads

About questions in the dictionary

Dmitriy:“Why are there six cases in the Russian language? Take, for example, “talked about the forest, walked in the forest,” both here and there are prepositional cases. Why suddenly the prepositional case - although there are different endings, different questions, different prepositions, and nothing in common at all? It's worth thinking about. And there are a lot of problematic questions of this kind - questions that, in high language, awaken thought, encourage a person to become interested in something, and not be content with the most meager information."

If you go to a bookstore today, it seems that not many original textbooks are coming out.

Dmitriy: Are you talking about textbooks now?

About the educational literature that modern schoolchildren consume, to narrow it down somehow.

Dmitriy: I can only talk about the Russian language. Russian language textbooks are both structured and traditionally designed. Of course, this is boring, and we, of course, wanted to move away from this boredom a little, but proportions and measures are very important here. We must remember that learning is not entertainment, no matter how much one would like it to be, and traditionalism, maybe even some kind of rigidity, has its advantages. We all learned from these “boring” textbooks; the Russian educational and methodological tradition has accumulated a wealth of experience, a rich arsenal of techniques for teaching the Russian language. Perhaps, in some sense, this experience needs some new presentation - yes, and so we tried to do it.

Sergey: In other disciplines, they now publish quite colorful, bright textbooks, but there is, so to speak, a subject basis for some attractive visual solutions; with the Russian language, for obvious reasons, it is much more difficult.

Dmitriy: This is not a movie or a cartoon, and no matter how strong the influence of the visual component in modern culture is, we should not forget that in the beginning there was the Word and the basis of everything - this is the text. The trouble with modern culture is precisely that everything has fallen into pieces, you know? Everything has fallen into pieces, and to insist on this disintegration of the whole, to emphasize it even more, so to speak, to present it as something so entertaining, in my opinion, is not necessary. It’s important to slow down a little here.

A Russian language textbook for grades 10–11, developed by the “Workshop”: Dima Barbanel, Sergei Fedorov, Ilya Korobov, 42 artists, 11 photographers. For the textbook, 2 fonts based on Romanovsky were developed, and Humanist was also redone

In times of hypertext, why do we even need a book? Especially if it is a dictionary, which seems easier to consume as an application on a phone or website.

Dmitriy: Because for very, very many people, a book is a book. Even those who have already been fully integrated, so to speak, into the space of Internet culture, still treat the book as something more valuable, significant, if you like. And this opinion cannot be ignored. For so many people who are influential in one way or another in our world, a book on the table is the result. There is one more aspect here - I just talked about this fragmentation, disintegration, alternation. A book is some kind of independent object, purely materially independent, you know, which you can pick up, put in a closet, go to the kitchen, and so on. It again counters a little bit with this general fragmentation that I was talking about, and in this sense the cultural function of the book is important.

Sergey: We are very pleased with this book, but we are not fixated on it; we are now actively working on a dictionary website and a mobile application for iOS, which should be released in early November. Everything there will look similar to the book, but at the same time different. You see, the book is the core. Around it, many other things are already being built and growing. We have done special channel on YouTube, a kind of video supplement to the dictionary, we specially recorded, in my opinion, a total of 45 videos - short interviews with wonderful modern linguists.

Dmitriy: Basically, these are people who are not part of the team of authors, but they talk about scientific problems raised in the dictionary. In fact, it’s extremely interesting to listen to - if the dictionary was written mainly by St. Petersburg scientists, then in this video collection there are mostly Moscow specialists, and this creates a certain volume, including geographical one.

Text

The new school encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language, created by the St. Petersburg State University team, differs from others primarily in its design. Gradients, a selection of photographs and articles, as if scribbled with a marker by a diligent schoolboy, are the work of designer Zhdan Filippov. But the design is closely related to the concept of the dictionary, which the creators propose to read “like a book.” Daniil Trabun talked with Sergei Monakhov and Dmitry Cherdakov about why it is necessary to publish a dictionary on paper in the era of hypertext and how to make educational literature not boring.

Associate Professor, Department of History of Russian Literature, Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University

Senior Lecturer, Department of Russian Language, Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University

How did it happen that, on the one hand, this is the official dictionary of the Russian language, approved by all authorities, and on the other hand, it is, let’s say, daring? Fresh and free in a way.

Dmitriy: The idea to create such a dictionary was born at St. Petersburg State University back in 2009. The main question here is why make a new dictionary at all if there are already others, right? That's right, there are encyclopedic reference books, including those intended for schoolchildren, focused on the school course of the Russian language. But this help function in itself was not enough for us. In addition to fulfilling this important role, we wanted the dictionary to become a kind of textbook and even a book for reading. It was not just a source of information, but also contributed to readers’ understanding of the information it conveyed. This idea of ​​combining functions was embodied in different ways - both at the text level and in the design solution itself.

Can you tell me more about the book to read? Still, one turns to the dictionary only when it is really needed.

Sergey: Yes, yes, this is such a common idea. The dictionary is on the shelf, they go up to the shelf, open the book, look at the right word, and put it back. We wanted to do it differently. Figuratively speaking, not a dictionary on a shelf among other books, but an open dictionary on the table, a book for every family. Our dictionary consists of two parts. The first is the actual corpus of encyclopedic articles. The second body contains pointers that help the reader navigate this information space. In addition to the traditional alphabetical and terminological indexes, the dictionary contains a tree-like thematic index, in which articles are arranged hierarchically with different levels of nesting according to the degree of generalization of terminological material. Understand correctly, no one expects that a person will open a dictionary and start scribbling from the letter A until the end until he finishes reading it. But he can, by turning to our terminological tree, form an idea of ​​the linguistic context that exists around the phenomenon that interests him, and read a whole cluster of articles related to each other.

There is one more point that makes the dictionary a “reading book”. In addition to the main text, in our articles we provide inserted essays of two types - some more or less extensive quotes from fiction or scientific literature, illustrating the concept that is revealed in the article, and on the other hand, additional, popular science, short texts , which allow - again, right? – present the phenomenon of interest to the reader in a broader context.

About registration

Zhdan FILIPOV, dictionary designer:“I wanted several pieces to be friends according to the image [in the dictionary]. For this to be WordArt- real, terrible, but refined. So that only a thin shadow of presence remains from him. Plus Lazar Lissitzky and a gradient from the 80s jacket. In general, it's like a presentation in Word or Excel, but it is a little more accurate, in general. It looks fun - like a dictionary, but also fun. Fun dictionary. At some points it looks crooked, askew, but everything is completely conscious and exactly as it should be in this case. Cheerfully, boldly, but formally we followed all the rules. I think, that's how it should be"

Zhdan Filippov talks about how the design of the dictionary was created

The design immediately catches your eye. How did the team that was responsible for the selection of articles and the structure of the dictionary work with the designers? As I understand it, this should be quite a close collaboration?

Sergey: The design work began when the text was ready. Initially, even at the stage of creating articles, illustrations were selected, but Zhdan Filippov rejected most of these pictures, saying that they were no good - neither in their quality, nor in their, so to speak, conceptual integration, that it was just some kind of vinaigrette , hodgepodge and so on. Zhdan proposed an unusual solution - to make the illustrative series in black and white, and the text itself in color. Color the text, highlighting different information flows in it: quotes, links, lists, concepts, inserted essays, names of writers and titles of works. It is clear that in a bunch of books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias there are such “cellars” with color filling, but this is completely different. There color is marginal and marks marginal, peripheral things. And for us this is the main aesthetic technique. When Zhdan proposed this idea, I remember this moment - like an insight, a divine insight.

In parallel with working on the dictionary, we also worked on the layout of a textbook on the Russian language for grades 10–11. As far as schoolchildren are concerned, this is the same age level addressee. The layout of the textbook was made by Dima Barbanel, with whom, like Zhdan, we met when we were working on the Hermitage magazine, and since then we have been collaborating from time to time. What I mean is that these two layouts, textbooks and dictionaries, can, if desired, be seen as two opposites. In the sense that Dima just added a huge number of completely different styles, including simply terrible, illustrations to the textbook; placed them in such reservations, on separate spreads, separated them from the text and gave them the opportunity to explode the reader’s eye and brain. And Zhdan harshly threw everything away. There would have been no happiness, but misfortune helped - it became clear that we had no pictures, and an idea came that I still like - creating such a special textual expressiveness.

You don't know how to keep a dictionary!

How to properly maintain a dictionary for learning a foreign language?

(Remember that you can, and we strongly recommend, read and implement the ideas, life hacks and tips that we publish on our website in the “Articles” section).

Goals of this article:

To motivate readers to learn English through recording vocabulary;

Justify the pros and cons of various ways of maintaining English dictionaries;

Open your eyes to the best method of maintaining an English dictionary;

Most vocabulary notebooks

Let's pay a little attention to what can be purchased in bookstores. Most notebooks or notebooks for recording foreign words contain only 2 columns - the FIRST one is for the original language, the SECOND one is for the language being studied (in our case, English). If you not only read texts in English, watch films and TV series, do exercises, but also record new words in a separate notebook, then, as they say, “Good for you” (well done). But with this method, your English dictionary turns into a warehouse of “unnecessary things,” a kind of balcony on which seemingly necessary things are put away until better times. Want to take it to the next level? Then read on.

How to teach English dictionary at school

Re-read the previous paragraph and mentally insert 1 more column between the two indicated, call it “Transcription” and you will get a typical dictionary that teachers in schools required us to test. It's incredibly boring. I don’t know about you, but I always tried to delay “hour X” as much as possible. By the way, Transcription is the recording of the sounds of one language using specialized symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. But I think you already know. As a rule, what they offer us in stores and at school are good methods, but not ideal. The time of “collision” with a new linguistic unit is negligible. So you write down your precious English words in such a dictionary, imagine that soon you will have to write a dictation on them or answer them orally in front of your friends, and you are overcome by universal laziness. This is because this process needs to be turned into creativity. Make it enjoyable. How? Let me tell you.

English Dictionary from English Seasons

At the ENGLISH SEASONS language school, the issue of replenishing lexical knowledge is taken seriously, responsibly and thoroughly. I would like to note right away that from year to year those who follow the advice of teachers and, in particular, keep the dictionary in the manner recommended below, are always head and shoulders ahead of their “fellow soldiers” and complete what they started.

Our English dictionary contains as many as 4 (FOUR) columns and I would like to dwell on each of them in more detail. Let me say in advance that the first 2 columns should be small (3-3.5 cm), the third column should preferably be 5-6 cm, the fourth 7-8 cm. But it’s better to have an A4 notebook in hardcover and never mind don't refuse.

Column 1 of English dictionary

Word. A lexical unit of the language being studied, in our case, English. This could be a word or phrase that needs to be remembered and subsequently used in spoken English (written or spoken - it doesn’t matter so much).

Column 2 of English dictionary

Transcription. The definition of transcription was given above. The column is not the most important, but not completely useless. Especially in the early stages of studying. At the very beginning of your language journey, you can write down how words are read in Russian letters. Over time, when even the English transcription becomes unnecessary (after several years of study), this column can be removed. You will then have more space. More space for what? Read on.

Column 3 of English dictionary

Values. Yes, yes, it’s ME, in the end and with a capital letter. It is several meanings (if any) of one word that are most likely to help you remember it better. A simple example: the word NAME. Everyone knows that it is translated as NAME. But let's look at the phrase WHAT IS YOUR NAME? - What is your name? And now not a trace remained of the NAME. And if you open a larger dictionary (read about paper dictionaries in our article), then one of the meanings you will find will be NAME. And it is the NAME part, which sounds a little like NAME, that will become a reliable anchor for memorizing a new word. And there are so many such “coincidences” in our languages. All you have to do is dig deeper into the dictionary and show interest. It's exciting, believe me.

You've almost reached the most interesting part. Hold it.

Column 4 of English dictionary

Example. The last largest column, number 4. Creativity and creativity when writing your unique English dictionary begins with it. By example, we mean a certain phrase, a statement that “plays out” the meaning of the word being studied. We don't communicate with each other in separate words, do we? Do you agree? Even people with minimal education try to put their thoughts into sentences. So we recommend that you memorize the sentences right away. Where to get them from? From my head. Can't think of anything? Find an example of using a language unit on the Internet; there are no problems with this in the modern world. Replace 1-2 words there with your own, and now you have an original statement that belongs only to you and no one else will have it.

For some, the above method may seem long. But learning English is not a picnic. This is not a walk down Oxford Street. Rather, it is a brave advance through the jungle, which becomes more and more exciting and interesting over time. The main thing is to have a reliable guide nearby who will protect you from “dangers” and tell you about the rules of behavior in the “wild nature”. With the considered method of maintaining an English dictionary, you get four or even five references to a vocabulary item, a bunch of side-viewed words, and positive emotions from the creative process, which perfectly helps to get rid of stress.

englishseason.ru

English notebook

I suggest starting a new notebook for English classes, in which you really want to make the first entry as soon as possible, by writing down your goals. How much time do you plan to devote to training, what exactly to do, what results do you want to achieve within a certain period of time. And in general, it’s worth noting why you need to learn English in the first place, what is the ultimate goal. This is what you should write down on the first page so as not to lose motivation.

To line up correctly English language learning(especially if you plan to study on your own), answer the questions from the list below. These answers should also be written down in a notebook and checked from time to time to see if you are doing everything:

How often will you exercise? Where and when?

How many words do you need to memorize in a week?

How will you test yourself?

How will you measure your achievements?

Also quite appropriate at the beginning of the notebook would be a calendar and a schedule planner; we talked about them a little earlier.

Next, let's discuss how to write words. I have already mentioned that the best dictionary is the one that does not have a translation into Russian. What to do then, what to do to memorize words? Maybe the following option will suit you (I will describe it using a simple example - it may look a little primitive, but my task is to show the idea). You can do this:

1. When writing nouns, add a plural form; for a verb, check whether it is correct or not.
2. Below, write down any words that will help you remember the translation of what you need. You can write them in columns for better organization.
3. You can use pictures, any diagrams and sketches - anything that is associated with the word being studied.
4. Write down sentences with this word, thereby remembering its use in speech.
5. If possible, write down synonyms and antonyms.
6. Using phonetic symbols, write down the pronunciation. Well, of course, say the word several times.

Below is a couple of pages of what it might look like. I hope you like this approach. Perhaps something does not suit you - no problem, exclude any unnecessary items from the dictionary. I think that the full version of such a recording is especially good for children (after all, they now begin to learn English almost from kindergarten), and these recordings, drawings, and design will be useful for the development of fine motor skills. Well, if you have a handicraft mother, then it’s quite possible to start scrapbooking with your child and make a beautiful dictionary album, spending many evenings together doing this activity.

To have it made, or How to make an English dictionary

The need to learn English sets a new rhythm of life for those who have decided to make drastic changes. Schoolchildren learn a foreign language as it is prescribed in the school curriculum.

Students learn the basics of the language in order to consolidate previously acquired knowledge. Workers in offices and large enterprises strive to “speak” English as quickly as possible in order to advance their careers. Directors of large companies organize corporate English courses for their employees so that each of them can communicate directly with foreign partners. The world of English expands boundaries, opens up new horizons and allows each of us to find a new self.

When learning a language, many are faced with the problem of choosing the dictionary that is most suitable for the job. At school, teachers made strict demands: each student had to have his own dictionary, the words in which would be distributed according to class topics. This approach is good if the student is really studying. Otherwise, compiling such a dictionary takes a lot of time and does not give visible results.

Nowadays, few people think about how to make an English dictionary on their own, because there are a lot of publications that are recognized as the best assistants in learning a foreign language.

If you are just starting to learn English, a Longman or Oxford paper bilingual dictionary will be an essential assistant in your work. You can also find electronic versions of these dictionaries on the World Wide Web.

For those who have already reached a certain level of knowledge, we recommend using monolingual dictionaries, which help you immerse yourself in the language environment and, in addition, teach you to think in English rather than translate. Such dictionaries are called English-English, since they do not contain translations into another language - all definitions are written in the language being studied. Thus, you not only increase the number of lexical units, but also learn the necessary structures for constructing sentences.

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, having a dictionary with you is no longer a problem. Any device that is in your bag or your pocket will be able to translate words, phrases, sentences. You only need to think about the quality of the translation if we are talking about full-fledged designs. In this case, I strongly recommend translating only those words whose meaning you have never encountered. The ABBYY Lingvo dictionary copes well with this task, which not only translates words, but also indicates the tense forms of verbs, helps to find idioms with a given word, and also offers translations of words in various fields of knowledge (finance, marketing, construction, etc.). ).

If you can’t imagine life without using slang expressions, then you can’t do without an online assistant.

But for those who are interested in phrasal verbs, idioms, grammar, tests, I can recommend a wonderful resource.

If you are determined to master the most modern version of English, welcome here, where you will find answers to the most difficult questions. By the way, every day this service publishes several words of the day. So, for example, today you can find out what it is spondulicks, momism, magniloquent, phillumenist, skookum. Agree, you don’t often come across these words in everyday life.

Learn English and let your vocabulary be replenished with new lexical units every day!

How to properly maintain an English dictionary: 2 best ways

According to Mayakovsky, the word is the commander of human strength. Today we want to help you become a little stronger - to properly organize your work with vocabulary. We will tell you how to properly maintain a personal dictionary in order to learn vocabulary quickly and effectively.

Do you need to keep your own dictionary?? Today there are different opinions on this matter: some consider it important, others say that this is just useless scribbling. What's the truth? We believe that maintaining a dictionary is necessary for everyone who wants to have a rich vocabulary. Your personal reference book will simultaneously become a textbook for you, from which you will learn new phrases, expressions and words. In addition, by writing down vocabulary in a dictionary, you activate rote memory, which makes it easier to learn new knowledge.

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Words - so innocent and weak when they are in the dictionary, what a powerful instrument for the creation of good or evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to control them.

Why proper vocabulary management is really important? We believe that the quality of your learning and the effectiveness of memorizing new words depends on this.

You, of course, remember how at school we divided a notebook sheet into 3 columns and wrote according to the magic formula “word-transcription-translation”. How many words from this notebook can you remember today? We think that most of them have been safely forgotten, and only the haunting “London is the capital of Great Britain” is firmly stuck in the head. Why does this happen: you study a language at school or university for more than 10 years, but sometimes you cannot connect two words? Maybe because we don’t know how exactly these words can be “connected”. After all, that same “word-transcription-translation” dictionary took words out of context and tried to fix them in memory with the help of mechanical cramming.

As you can see, the good old way of maintaining a personal dictionary is more old than good: it has not justified itself. That is why we decided to offer you more effective methods for maintaining your personal directory. Study each of them and try in practice: this way you will understand which one is most suitable for you.

How to keep a thematic dictionary

A thematic dictionary is a notebook or notebook for recording your future vocabulary - a lexical notebook. Such a notebook should be immediately divided into topics, for example: work, food, feelings, body parts, etc.

It is advisable to allocate 1 page or at least half for each word, depending on the format of the notebook and the size of your handwriting.

What to write in the dictionary

• The word itself and its translation into Russian. If a word has several meanings, it is advisable to write 3-4 different definitions.
• Transcription is optional if you are comfortable reading it.
• The definition of a word in English is appropriate if your level of knowledge is intermediate or higher. This way you will also learn a few more useful words from the definition.
• Words that combine with the word (collocations). Look at the picture with an example, there you see the phrases bad weather, hot weather, weather forecast, etc. These expressions will be better remembered by you than two words separated from each other. In addition, you will never make a mistake in combining words and will never say obnoxious weather.
• Several examples of the use of this word in a sentence, and it is advisable to write at least one example for each written definition of the word.
• Synonyms and antonyms for the word.
• Idioms with the use of this word if your level is not lower than Intermediate and you are going to expand your vocabulary with useful colorful expressions. But you need to adhere to the measure; you should not write out all the idioms that are associated with your word. One or two is enough.
• Picture - optional. This technique helps some people: when learning a word, they draw a picture for it. This way, vocabulary begins to be associated with a certain visual image and is remembered more easily.

How to make mind maps

Mind maps also work great as a dictionary. You can create a mind-map in two ways:

Combine words by topic. This technique will help you organize information and significantly expand your vocabulary on a certain topic. Then your map might look like this.

Making maps of synonyms is one of the most convenient ways to remember several words with similar meanings and diversify your speech. An example of such a map might look like this.

In both cases, do not forget about the context: under the map, write several sentences using the indicated concepts. You can find material for compiling mind maps in textbooks on English vocabulary from our review.

The two methods of maintaining a dictionary that we have described are the most common and effective today. You can use them together. So, keeping the first type of dictionary will allow you to deepen your knowledge on any topic, and the second technique will help diversify your speech.

What is the idea of ​​the “Myefe Personal Dictionaries” service?

The idea of ​​the service is to create personal dictionaries and study words. The concept is a simple and user-friendly interface that allows you to easily and quickly create your own dictionaries, and then learn English words online using a special T-Words simulator for memorizing words.

Why are personal dictionaries needed?

Personal dictionaries in our case are a convenient tool that makes it possible to collect all the words being studied in one place and always have access to them.

There can be many personal dictionaries, so you can assign certain tags (labels) to them to quickly find the desired dictionary.

All English words and phrases in the dictionaries are voiced and have a transcription; you can also edit the translation by adding or excluding some meanings. At the same time, you can create dictionaries of not only English words. The service is available in many different languages.

The main function of personal dictionaries is to help memorize new words and repeat those already learned.

The service can also be useful for English teachers, who can create dictionaries with vocabulary on various topics, and then provide their students with access to these dictionaries for further work with words and phrases.

How to memorize words using the service?

To study words, we have created a special service - T-Words. With its help, learning words will not be difficult. New intuitive interface and intelligent word selection based on scores. All you have to do is press one button - the system itself will select words and exercises. If you want, you can always customize the study for yourself; for this, the interface provides all the possibilities.

And further. In addition to the T-Words service, you can study words directly in table mode. We call this “Fast Learning”. Hide the translation or the very meaning of the word, mix up the words. Everything is easy and simple.

How to create personal dictionaries?

You create an empty dictionary, select the direction of translation, add words, and the system translates the added words. Transcription and pronunciation are also generated for English words.

In addition to new dictionaries, you can copy ready-made dictionaries from the “Thematic Collections”. This is a convenient way to start learning the most common words.

That's it, the dictionaries are ready, the words have been added - it's time to learn them. Welcome!