The least useful way to record language -- The least useful way to record language is in an unorganised list of single words with translations. To know a word you need to know the meaning, connotation, collocation part of speech and most importantly, collocation.
Most beginners know what ‘give’ and ‘hand’ mean and in millions of beginners notebooks all over the world these two words appear with their translations. But this is only tiny part of how words are used. When learning words we should automatically ask not only ‘What does it mean?’ but ‘How is it used?’. Then we can learn that you give
- give someone a hand
- give something a try
- give a good/bad impression
- give someone a chance
It’s not what you know it’s what you can do. There’s no use being able to rhyme off lists of irregular verbs if you can’t use them when you speak.
Watch this video about how to record language in a useful way that will not only help you to know what it means but how to use it.
Why is it you can have a 'close friend' but not a 'near friend'? 'Close' and 'near' are synonyms, so why are they not both possible? Well, there's no real reason why, just that over time people have tended to use 'close' and not 'near'.
