How important is expanding your vocabulary to you?

[lbuckman]

It isn't important to me to expand my vocabulary. It does happen because I read, but I definitely don't read to increase my vocabulary.

[flyingwillow]

I don't focus on my vocabulary too much, however, I find that I read so much that I know what words mean when I read them from looking at the context on many different occasions, but I have no idea how to say them because I have never spoken them in real life

[Jolijt]

My vocabulary in Dutch( which is my native language) is up to par. I started reading English to improve my vocabulary, writting skills and understanding.
I'm learning something new every day.

[Iggy_86]

We humans are very much confined within the languages that we speak. I would say that expanding your vocabulary is a very important matter. The bigger the vocabulary a person has the better s/he will be at experiencing nuances of reality.

Take the classic example of colors. One person might just see Red, Blue and Green while another might see Crimson, Cardinal, Maroon, Aqua, Azure, Turquoise, Emerald, Shamrock and Mint Green.

Now you tell me which person is living a richer life?

I'd throw in learning new languages into the mix too. Learning a new language is like learning a totally new perspective of seeing reality. Especially if you pick a language that is culturally very different from your mother tongue.

[SheldrakeWriter]

I think it used to be pretty important when I started reading seriously. But by the time I was at university, reading was about so much more than that. I love discovering new words, but saying that the best thing about a book was the number of new words you learnt would be tantamount to an insult.

[Bfrisco]

I love expanding my vocabulary by reading. I've sort of gotten hooked on my ability to highlight a word on my Kindle and watch as a definition pops up on the bottom of the screen! I also like to use obscure words at times, mainly because I like the way they sound.

[prarich]

At one phase of my growing up years, increasing vocab used to be my favorite pastime. I would catch each alphabet and read out the dictionary of all words starting with that alphabet. Tough task but I loved it. reading was another useful way of doing it. I made it a point to find the meaning of the words that were new to me, and also use them in my conversations.

[Amheiser]

I like to expand my vocabulary as much as I can. I like to have words that accurately describe what I want to say. Besides reading, I play a lot of word games. I usually keep a list of words that are new to me when I am reading. Usually I can tell what the meaning is by the sentence, and I don't want to keep stopping if there are a lot of unfamiliar words, so I keep reading and then look up the words after I've finished reading for that day but sometimes I get a dictionary if I can't tell by the sentence exactly what is intended to be said.

[CrescentMoon]

I remember when I was very little, in elementary school, I always envied people with large vocabularies. Whenever we had a reading day in class and the teacher would stop reading and ask the students what a specific word meant, I envied the students who knew what the words meant. I tried to increase my vocabulary by reading the dictionary but it didn't work, I quickly forgot the words meanings. However, once I started reading Harry Potter, I had a dictionary with me. There were so many big words and I looked all of them up. This really expanded my vocabulary a lot, because by reading the words in context, I was able to retain the meanings of the words in my head. Reading really helps.

[Paliden]

It is very important to me but I know I could do more to expand it. I am around young kids all day so I try not to let that affect my vocabulary too much.

[Winter]

It's important to me because otherwise I feel limited. Also, living in a non-English speaking country as a native English speaker, I need not only to improve my vocabulary, but also simply maintain it. Here's a scary thought for any of you thinking of moving to countries where they speak a language different from your own -- you know how they say you never forget your mother tongue? It's not true -- you forget. Not entirely, of course, but things get muddy around the edges.

[dishaprashant]

it is crucially important to expand ones vocabulary since it comes handy at any given point of time. the biggest and the best source of developing vocab is to read books raging from kids stories to fictions to literature. In each of the segment we come across varied words some of which we barely come across in our day today lives. At times similar looking words have different meanings and are used in different forms. Also good amount of vocab learning helps in evolve our oratory skills. so keep reading...

-- 15 May 2014, 04:29 --

it is crucially important to expand ones vocabulary since it comes handy at any given point of time. the biggest and the best source of developing vocab is to read books raging from kids stories to fictions to literature. In each of the segment we come across varied words some of which we barely come across in our day today lives. At times similar looking words have different meanings and are used in different forms. Also good amount of vocab learning helps in evolve our oratory skills. so keep reading...

[book_pig]

I would say reading definitely has. I don't find it important so much as I enjoy being able to use words in different contexts, and understanding other people's way of speaking:)

[Alexandra Bayer]

The only way I expand my dictionary (aside from English class) is to read books I find interesting. Some of the time, I see new words that I hadn't known before.

[dishaprashant]

many a times one to one interaction with people from different age groups and fields and surroundings also help in developing personal vocab..