Download B Using Dictionaries Effectively - KEATS

King’s College London Pre-Sessional Programme
Self-Study: Using Dictionaries
Dictionaries can be monolingual (one language) or bilingual (two), and paper or electronic.
Bilingual dictionaries are obviously easier to use than monolingual, but they can be misleading.
While you may prefer an electronic dictionary, some higher education written examinations forbid
their use, so it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with a paper-based dictionary.
Dictionaries provide more than just the meaning of a word. They can also tell you about:
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any irregular forms of a word
the grammar of the word
the collocations of a word
the spelling of a word
the pronunciation of a word
the word class of a word
related words of different word classes (word building)
TASK
Look at the following sentences. In each, there is a mistake in the use of the word in bold. The
correct use of the word can be found in any (good) dictionary.
1. The perspectives for success in the preliminary sections of the bilateral talks are
encouraging.
2. The supplicants kneeled on the hassocks and entreated God to pardon them.
3. The foreman suggested the apprentice joiners to sandpaper the surfaces.
4. I congratulated the conscientious objector for his courageous and principled stand against
the war.
5. The onset of the disease is characterised by high fever, while the nasal passages may be
blocked with snot.
6. The practise of acupuncture is no less controversial than its theory.
7. Traffic congestion can exacerbate the problems of motor pollution, moreover it can
sometimes become so extreme that gridlock ensues, leading to city-wide paralysis.
8. The longness of the text was a problem.
ANSWERS
TASK
Look at the following sentences. In each, there is a mistake in the use of the word in bold. The
correct use of the word can be found in any (good) dictionary.
1. The perspectives for success in the preliminary sections of the bilateral talks are
encouraging.
-perspectives is being used wrongly here. It has a different meaning. It would be better to use
prospects.
2. The supplicants kneeled on the hassocks and entreated God to pardon them.
-kneeled should be knelt. It is an irregular verb
3. The foreman suggested the apprentice joiners to sandpaper the surfaces.
-suggested is not used with to do, but with that. Here the word grammar is wrong. The correct
grammar is: The foreman suggested that the apprentice joiners sandpaper the surfaces.
4. I congratulated the conscientious objector for his courageous and principled stand against
the war.
-congratulated does not use/collocate with (go with) for but with on. The sentence should read:
I congratulated the conscientious objector on his courageous and principled stand…
5. The onset of the disease is characterised by high fever, while the nasal passages may be
blocked with snot.
-snot should be mucus. Snot is an informal word; mucus is the formal equivalent. Here, the
register of the word is wrong.
6. The practise of acupuncture is no less controversial than its theory.
-practise is spelt wrongly. It should be practice (practise - with an s – is the verb).
7. Traffic congestion can exacerbate the problems of motor pollution, moreover it can
sometimes become so extreme that gridlock ensues, leading to city-wide paralysis.
-here, there is a problem with word class. As moreover is an adverb rather than a conjunction,
it should be used after a full stop or semi-colon here rather than a comma. Therefore:
Traffic congestion can exacerbate the problems of motor pollution. Moreover it can…
OR
Traffic congestion can exacerbate the problems of motor pollution; moreover it can…
8. The longness of the text was a problem.
-This is a problem with word-building. The noun of long is length.