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Vocabulary Development

English Language · WAEC and JAMB · SS2 and SS3

Section B of the objective paper is almost entirely vocabulary: nearest in meaning, opposite in meaning, and words associated with a given field. A strong vocabulary also lifts the expression mark in the essay, which is the largest single mark in Paper 2.

What you need to know

  • A synonym must fit the SENTENCE, not just the word. Cheap and inexpensive both mean low in price, but 'a cheap trick' cannot become 'an inexpensive trick'.
  • The replacement must also keep the same part of speech. If the tested word is an adjective, the answer is an adjective, which immediately removes one or two options.
  • Many antonyms are built with prefixes, and the prefix is fixed by the word: unhappy, impossible, illegal, irregular, dishonest, misunderstand. There is no general rule, so learn them in pairs.
  • Suffixes change a word from one class to another: -tion and -ment make nouns, -ous, -ful and -able make adjectives, -ly makes adverbs, and -ise or -ify makes verbs. Know the family: decide, decision, decisive, decisively.
  • Latin and Greek roots unlock unfamiliar words: bene means good, mal means bad, chron means time, bio means life, graph means writing, aud means hearing, dict means speak, port means carry. A malevolent man wishes you evil.
  • Collocation is which words go together by habit. You MAKE a mistake, a promise and a journey; you DO a favour, homework and business; you COMMIT a crime; you TAKE a decision or make one; rain is heavy, not big, and tea is strong, not powerful.
  • Phrasal verbs change meaning completely with the particle: call off means cancel, put off means postpone, look into means investigate, turn down means reject, bring up means raise a child or mention a topic, and give in means surrender.
  • WAEC asks for words associated with a given field, so build lists by register. Law: adjourn, plaintiff, verdict, acquit, bail. Medicine: diagnose, prescribe, discharge, relapse, ward. Banking: deposit, overdraft, collateral, interest, statement. Farming: fallow, irrigate, harvest, pesticide, yield.
  • Confusable pairs are examined repeatedly: principal and principle, stationary and stationery, advice and advise, affect and effect, loose and lose, cite and site, complement and compliment, altar and alter.
  • When the tested word is strange to you, use the context signals around it. Words such as but, however and although tell you the meaning is opposite to what came before, while for example and such as tell you an illustration follows.
  • Idioms must be taken whole, not word by word. To be at loggerheads is to be in disagreement; a storm in a teacup is a fuss about something trivial; to bell the cat is to take on a dangerous task on behalf of others.
  • Learn a word with the preposition it takes, because that is often what the question is really testing: deprive of, accuse of, blame for, confide in, insist on, result in, succeed in, object to.
  • Keep a vocabulary notebook of ten words a week with a sentence of your own for each; words learnt in isolation disappear before the exam, while words used in a sentence stay.
  • Formal and informal words are not interchangeable in the essay. Kids, guys, stuff and a lot of belong in conversation; children, people, materials and many belong in a letter to the Chairman of your Local Government.

Key terms

Synonym
A word with the same or nearly the same meaning as another in a given context.
Antonym
A word opposite in meaning to another.
Collocation
The habitual pairing of particular words in English, such as heavy rain or make a promise.
Register
The variety of language, including its special vocabulary, used in a particular field or situation.
Phrasal verb
A verb combined with a preposition or adverb whose meaning differs from the meaning of the verb alone.
Affix
A letter or group of letters added to the beginning or end of a word to change its meaning or its part of speech.
Idiom
A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from the ordinary meanings of its separate words.

Worked examples

Choose the option nearest in meaning to the word in capitals: 'The governor made a CONCILIATORY speech after the protest.' A. angry B. lengthy C. appeasing D. boastful

  1. Read the full sentence for context: the speech comes AFTER a protest, so its purpose is to calm the situation.
  2. Break the word down. Conciliatory comes from conciliate, meaning to win over or to pacify.
  3. Test each option in the sentence. Angry and boastful would worsen a protest, and lengthy says nothing about attitude.
  4. Appeasing means calming or pacifying, which matches both the root and the context.
  5. Confirm the part of speech: conciliatory is an adjective and so is appeasing.

Correct the collocation errors in this sentence and explain each: 'He did a promise to his father, but the big rain made him do a mistake.'

  1. Check each verb and noun pairing against standard usage.
  2. A promise is MADE, not done, so 'did a promise' becomes 'made a promise'.
  3. Rain in English is heavy, not big, so 'the big rain' becomes 'the heavy rain'.
  4. A mistake is MADE, not done, so 'do a mistake' becomes 'make a mistake'.
  5. Rewrite the whole sentence with all three corrections.

The mistake to avoid

Candidates pick the option that matches the dictionary meaning of the word in isolation, without checking that it fits the sentence or keeps the same part of speech. The second trap is translating directly from the mother tongue, which produces 'big rain', 'do a mistake' and 'off the fan'.

In the exam

Substitute your chosen option back into the full sentence and read the whole sentence before shading the answer; if it sounds odd, it is wrong. For 'words associated with' items, think of the complete setting first, such as a courtroom or a hospital ward, and the right register usually announces itself. Never leave a vocabulary item blank, since there is no penalty for a wrong shade.