DICTIONARY SKILLS dknri skls Group members 1 2

DICTIONARY SKILLS / dɪkʃənri skɪls/ Group members: 1) 2) 3) Lui Chai Ying Mohd Iszwan Bin Isnin Yong Fee Sim

What is dictionary? • Reference book containing words, usually arranged in alphabetical order. • It gives information about their meaning, pronunciation and uses.

7 Special Forms 6 Part of Speech 5 1 Guide Words WHAT ARE THE DICTIONARY SKILLS? 2 Headwords Accent Marks 4 phonetics symbols 3 Syllabication

1 Guide Words • Different dictionaries have different numbers of guide words on the top of each page. • At the top of each page of the dictionary, there is one GUIDE WORD. • The first word is the same as the guide word at the top of that page • Using alphabetically order, you will find all the words. • Example: ü Page 588 in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary shows the first word is same with the guide words, “forgive”.

2 Headwords • The words you look up on a page are printed in bold type. • Example: “Rubber” (on page 1292). It is written in bold type and found toward the middle of the right hand column.

3 Syllabication • Words divided into syllables by placing a dot ( • ) or slash () between them. • Knowing where to split a word correctly • Examples: ürab·bit üre·flec·tion üpre·sen·ta·tion

4 Phonetic Symbols • symbols that follow the headword and are set off with slashes (/) • Help to pronounce words correctly • Most consonants are pronounced only one way • Example: “Can you tell me what is the first sound is in fish? ” “It’s /f/”

5 Accent marks • It tells you to put a little more stress on the syllable that follows the accent mark than on the other syllables. • Examples: husband – primary stress / ˈhʌzbənd / continue – secondary stress / kənˈtɪnjuː / presentation – tertiary stress / ˌpreznˈteɪʃn /

• The short forms printed in italics are useful. Here’s a simple explanation. 6 Parts of speech • Some words can be used in several different places in a sentence. • This means that the word can be used as a noun, a word that names a person, place, or thing, or it can be used as a verb describe an action. • Examples: ü The light is not bright enough. (nounnaming a thing) ü I always light the oil lamp when power goes off. (verb-shows an action) ü Mary usually decorates in a light style. (adjective- describes something)

• The part of speech abbreviations are listed here. Continue… ü n. . . . noun ü pron. . . pronoun ü adj. . . . adjective ü adv. . . adverb ü vb. . . . verb ü conj. . . conjunction ü prep. . . preposition ü interj. . . interjection

• Some words in English are inflected. 7 Special Forms • If a word has some special forms, they are listed after the part of speech. • Examples: ü What is the plural of “tomato”? (tomatoes) ü What is the past tense of “rise”? (rose) • If a word has more than one acceptable spelling, it is also listed here. • Usually the preferred spelling is given first.

References • Anonymous. (2008). Retrieved 25 June, 2012 from http: //www. tlsbooks. com/dictionaryskillsreview. html. • Anonymous. (1998). Dictionary Skills. Retrieved 26 June, 2012 from http: //www. nald. ca/library/learning/ academic/english/diction/module 1. pdf. • Barry & Scholes, A. ( 2001) Collins Junior Dictionary Skills. London, England: Harper Collins Publisher Ltd • Wright, A. (1998), Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.