Language Center
The Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology
English Advice Sheets
DECIDING WHICH WORDS ARE WORTH LEARNING
V2

How do I decide which words to learn?

This is an important question. There are a lot of words in English compared with many other languages, and it is impossible to know them all - even native speakers frequently meet words they have never seen before in their reading.

Look at any page in something you're reading at the moment (e.g. a newspaper or book) - how many words on the page do you not know?

Even if there is only one word on every page that you do not know, it will slow down your reading a lot if you have to stop to look up a word in the dictionary every page. And with 3 or 5 unknown words on each page ...

Luckily, though, not every word needs to be looked up and remembered:

  1. some words can be guessed from the context;
  2. many words are not common - you may not meet them again for years (if ever) - and are therefore not worth learning;
  3. some words are common or important, and are therefore worth learning.

Here are some steps that may help you decide if a word is worth learning:

  1. Try to guess the meaning. If you can guess the meaning, carry on reading. If not, go to step 2.
  2. Does the word seem important? (Check in a bilingual dictionary. Is the meaning given an important one?) If not, carry on reading. If it is, go to step 3.
  3. Is the word common? You can check this by looking in the COBUILD English Dictionary (new edition) and seeing how many black diamonds are next to the word. The chart below may help you decide if the word is worth learning:
5 diamonds
 In the most common 700 words of English. You know it already.
4 diamonds
 In the most common 1,900 words of English. If you don't know the word already, you should learn it, as it's very common.
3 diamonds
 In the most common 3,400 words of English, which make up the vast majority of English. Well worth learning.
2 diamonds
 In the most common 6,600 words of English. You may want to learn it if you already know the first three levels.
1 diamond
 In the most common 14,700 words of English. Not very common. Is it important or interesting to you? If not, you may want to ignore it (unless you know the first four levels).
0 diamonds
 Not in the most common 14,700 words of English. Probably not worth learning, unless it is important or interesting to you.

Note
The introductory leaflet in this series is the leaflet Learning Vocabulary (V1).

This advice sheet is part of the Vocabulary series of leaflets supporting independent language learning, produced by the HKUST Language Center SAC team. This leaflet written by Richard Pemberton, 1997. Version 1. If you copy from this leaflet, please acknowledge the source. Thanks.

©Copyright 2004 Language Center, HKUST. All rights reserved.