Understanding Common Words

Understanding Common Words

Use familiar words to understand a sentence.

Use the sentence

  • Read the whole sentence.
  • Think about what the word means there.

Try a replacement word

  • Put a simple word in its place.
  • Check that the sentence still makes sense.

Examples

Example 1

  1. Sentence: “The baby is tiny.”
  2. Tiny means very small.
  3. The baby is very small.

Example 2

  1. Sentence: “Please shut the door.”
  2. Shut means close.
  3. Please close the door.

Practice Questions

  • What does “large” mean?
    Answer: big
    Large means big.
  • What does “quick” mean?
    Answer: fast
    Quick means fast.
  • What does “begin” mean?
    Answer: start
    Begin means start.
  • What does “silent” mean?
    Answer: quiet
    Silent means quiet.
  • In “The cup is empty”, what does empty mean?
    Answer: nothing inside
    An empty cup has nothing inside.
Start the interactive Understanding Common Words lesson → ← Back to Functional English