By Royane Real

Why should you try to increase your vocabulary?  For one thing, when you have a bigger vocabulary, you will sound smarter to other people.  Not everyone wants to sound smarter all the time, but there may be times when being smarter can be an advantage.

For example, when you are applying for a job, the person who is doing the hiring may prefer hiring someone who seems to be intelligent.  Having a good vocabulary and using it effectively is one of the best ways to show others that you are intelligent.

If you want to be a writer and express yourself creatively, it helps to have a bigger supply of words in your mental vocabulary.  Even if you choose not to use all the words you know, it is nice to know those words are there if you want to use them.

If you are attracted to someone who is very smart, they are more likely to respond favourably to you if you have a good vocabulary.  Having a good vocabulary is often an easy way to impress other people, as long as you really know what the words mean, and you use them correctly.

Have you ever wondered how many words you know?  A few years ago, I figured out an easy way to measure the size of my vocabulary.  Why not try out this simple method to see how many words you know? 

Estimating the size of your vocabulary is a lot easier than you might think.  The good news is that you won’t have to sit down and spend days and days making a list of all the words you know.

Here is my method to estimate the size of your vocabulary.  Simply go to a bookstore and look through their collection of dictionaries.  The dictionaries will probably say on the front cover how many words the dictionary lists.  For example, one book cover might say something like Student Dictionary – 20,000 words.  Or another book might say, College Dictionary – 60,000 words.

Take a look inside one of the dictionaries.  Do most of the words look familiar?  Ask yourself if you already understand the majority of the words on the pages.  Or does most of the vocabulary in the book consist of words you don’t know? 

If you know most of the words listed in the dictionary that lists 20,000 words, then you know at least 20,000 words.  Take a look at a dictionary that has more words in it. 

If you look at a dictionary that lists 50,000 words and it turns out that you know most of the words on any given page, then you probably know at least 50,000 words.  If you look at a dictionary that has 60,000 words, and it turns out that there’s a lot of words you don’t know, then your vocabulary will be under 60,000 words.

If you know 50,000 words, congratulations!  That’s a lot more words than the average English speaking person uses.  In fact, some studies have shown that the average English speaking person only uses about 2,000 or so words on a regular basis.

That’s not very many words when you consider that the English language has about 700,000 words! 

Most people don’t need to have hundreds of thousands of words in their vocabulary, but using only 2,000 words is probably too few.  If you only use a few basic words, you might want to make an effort to try to learn more words and improve your vocabulary.

If you want to improve your vocabulary, you can do it very cheaply, or you can buy some good programs to help you learn new words more effectively.  Learning new words to improve your vocabulary can be fun, and it can make you smarter.

This article was written by author Royane Real.  You can learn more ways to improve your brain power in my book How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative   Download it today at http://www.lulu.com/real   

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Wordmaster

Improve your word power and vocabulary

By Denis Waitley

Wordmaster uses the science of word order, suggestopedic music, and male/female voices to insure YOU get the most in vocabulary building in the least time with minimum effort.

• 500 words presented in 5 word units for easy learning, and exposing you to over 2,000 words

Discover more about this program at  http://nightingale.directtrack.com/z/11559/CD1323/ 

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