Writing is made up
of words. The first requirement of writing English is to learn some English
words every day to build up your vocabulary -- you may have to know at least a
few thousand words before you can write effectively.
Learning vocabulary
may look daunting to you (you may not know the word daunting,
but most probably you can still guess that it means something like
"difficult"; that is how you learn a new work
by relating it to the context in a sentence), but you have to learn
it cumulatively, that is, learning a few words every day.
Advance / Advancement
Advance,
as a verb, means going forward or making progress; advancement
means promotion.
e.g.
With the advance of winter, days are
growing shorter.
e.g.
To seek advancement in
your career, you need to work extra hard or get a higher qualification.
Observable / Observant
Observable: can be seen or
noticed; observant:
quick to pay attention.
e.g. The solution to
the problem is observable to
many scientists.
e.g. To be a good
scientist, you must be observant of
all the relevant details and data.
Noteworthy /
Noticeable
Noteworthy means deserving
attention; noticeable means
easily seen.
e.g. The candidate's
accomplishments are noteworthy.
e.g. The flaws in
the Governor's character are easily noticeable to
the public.
Pretense / Pretension
Pretense is to make
believe; pretension is
a claim
e.g. She makes
no pretense to
like her mother-in-law. (She does not pretend that she likess her
mother-in-law)
e.g. He made
no pretension to
that award. (He never claimed that he received that award)
All / All of
All is used for
amount, quantity, distance, and length of time.
e.g. all the money, all the way, all day, all night,
All of is used when a
simple pronoun follows.
e.g. all of it, all of you, all of us.
All and all of may
be used when it refers to number.
e.g. All or all of the
employees are satisfied with the new policy.
e.g. All or all of the children in the
family have gone to college.
Ingenious / Ingenuous
Ingenious is
clever; ingenuous is
natural, free from deceit.
e.g. I must say that
was an ingenious way
to fund the project.
e.g. The Mayor's
response to the questions from the reporter was sincere and ingenuous.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen
Lau
