McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Objectives: This chapter will help you use the dictionary to: Look up the spelling of words Find the syllable divisions in a word Pronounce an unfamiliar word Obtain further information about words Part Three, A Brief Guide to Important Word Skills Using the Dictionary

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The dictionary is a valuable tool. To take advantage of it, you need to understand the main kinds of information that a dictionary gives about a word. Look at your dictionary to find the following information: Spelling and syllabication Pronunciation Parts of speech Meanings Other forms of the word

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Spelling The first bit of information, the dictionary entry itself, is the spelling of the word. At times you may have trouble looking up words that you cannot spell. Be sure to pronounce each syllable in the word carefully and write it down the way you think it is spelled. If you still cannot find it: Try the other vowels. If you think it is spelled with an e, try a, o, i, u, and y Try doubling consonants

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. If you think a word has the letter or letter combination in the first column that follows but you can’t find the word in the dictionary, try looking at the letter or letters in the second column. ck, s er, rere, er fv, ph g, jj, g ie, eei, ie kc, ch oou sc, z, sh sh, chch, sh shuntion, sion yi, e

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Syllabication The second bit of information that the dictionary gives, also in the boldface entry, is the syllabication of the word. The syllable divisions help you pronounce a word and also show you where to hyphenate a word as needed when writing a paper.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Pronunciation The dictionary offers information on the pronunciation of the word. Use the pronunciation key in your dictionary as a guide to pronouncing different vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u). Find the pronunciation key in your dictionary, and see how to interpret the symbols, and figure out how to pronounce the words.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The symbol looks like an upside down e. It is called a schwa, and it stands for the unaccented sound in words such as ago, item, edible, gallop, and circus. More approximately, it stands for the sound uh- like the uh sound speakers may make when they hesitate in their speech. Uh could represent the schwa sound, as well as The Schwa

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Accent marks Some words contain both a primary accent, shown by a heavy stroke, and a secondary accent, shown by a lighter stroke. Parts of speech The dictionary offers information about the part of speech, using abbreviations. v. = verb n. = noun adj. = adjective pl. = plural sing. = singular

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Principal parts of irregular verbs Regular word forms add -es, -ed, and -ing to the stem of the verb. When the verb is irregular, the dictionary lists its principal parts. Present PastPastPresent tense tenseParticipleParticiple writewrotewrittenwriting beginbeganbegunbeginning

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Plural forms of irregular nouns Regular nouns form the plural by adding -s or -es The dictionary supplies the plural forms of all irregular nouns. apologyapologies wifewives passer-bypassers-by

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Meanings When there is more than one meaning to a word, the meanings are numbered in the dictionary. In many dictionaries, the most common meanings are presented first. The introductory pages of your dictionary will explain the order in which meanings are presented.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Etymology Etymology = the history of a word. Many words have origins in foreign languages, such as Greek (Gk) or Latin (L). Such information is usually enclosed in brackets and is more likely to be presented in a hardbound desk dictionary than in a paperback one.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Usage labels As a general rule, use only standard English words in your writing. If a word is not standard English, your dictionary may give it a usage label, such as informal, nonstandard, or slang.