MAKE YOURSELF UNDERSTOOD!

It’s impossible to know all the words in the language you’re trying to learn. A strategy that can help you make yourself understood is to describe the word you don’t know but want to use.

Strategies you can use:

You can describe the word: It has four legs and you sit on it. (a chair)

You put one foot in front of the other and keep doing so for some time. (walk)

You can tell what it does or what happens: You open it to enter a room or a building. (a door)

When you put potatoes in a pot with water and heat them to 100 degrees Celsius. (boil)

You can describe what it isn’t: It isn’t late, it is … (early) It isn’t long, it is … (short)

You can say what kind of word it is: Nouns – words for things, animals and places. (bread, cat, London) Verbs – activities, things that you do. (laugh, breathe, play) Adjectives – how things look, feel, smell, taste or sound. (good, loud)

Practise describing these words in pairs: eat horse start happy red brave

Do you want to practise more? Your teacher has more information.

Describing words is a great way to work with new words. Make it a habit of doing this with your classmates from time to time.