I have recently received an email from a colleague, an EFL teacher in Israel, about how her students find it difficult differentiating between near-synonyms. I repost here my reply alongside the original email with the author's kind permission.
Dear Renee,
First of all, it's great to know that you use concordance software. I wouldn't give pupils 10 collocations for each word as it is a bit overwhelming. In the early stages I would give them 3-4 common collocates and/or examples for each noun. I know it's generally difficult to put a finger on them but unfortunately with many near-synonyms the difference is purely collocational.
According to www.just-the-word.com, the most frequent noun collocates of the adjective routine are check, maintenance, test and operation. Perhaps I wouldn't give operation at this stage but stick to the first three as they all have to do with checking something for no special reason - just because you have to do it. I think based on these collocates, a generalisation can be made as to how it's used. I'd say of the three adjectives, routine has the most restricted use as it goes only with a handful of nouns.
For usual I would provide the following examples on the board:
It's ____er than usual
(October is warmer than usual this year)
As usual, he arrived late.
If you always meet your friend at the same you can say "let's meet at the usual time"
Intuitively, I thought usual is the most common of the three but according to this tool www.wordcount.org
Regular is used in:
on a regular basis
at regular intervals
regular customer
You also need regular exercise to stay healthy and fit
I am sure the students would also be familiar with the term regular verbs :)
(These examples are from the Longman Dictionary)
It's difficult to extrapolate a rule here but perhaps you can point out that we use regular when we talk about something that you do every week / every month - it has to do with time intervals.
I know students like the safety of cut-and-dried rules but unfortunately knowing the difference between near-synonyms is often simply knowing what goes with what. Likewise, in Hebrew there are also words that may seem identical to English speakers, for example different Hebrew words for picking fruit/vegetables. Ask learners to imagine they had to explain the difference to an English speaker and why one goes with olives and another verb with oranges. They'd be stuck. They would find that the difference between them is not their denotational meaning but rather how they are used, i.e what they go (=collocate) with.
Does it help in any way?
Do you think my answer was helpful?
Postscript
My article Lexical Density in English in Modern English Teacher 2012, vol 21(1) addresses the issue of synonymy in more detail.
For more concordance tools and online dictionaries see Essential Lexical Tools on this blog.
Image credits
Both images are licensed under a Creative Commons Licence [CC-BY-NC-2.0]
Hi Leo, I wonder
whether you can help me. Do you know any place on the web where I can compare
the meanings of near synonyms? I've used the concordance type sites which give
me lots of collocations, but that isn't what I want. It doesn't help my pupils
to give them 10 collocations for each word (e.g. regular, usual, routine) some
of which are identical. I need to be able to put my finger on a general rule(s)
like, one is for people and the other is for abstract ideas (I know this
example is irrelevant to those particular words) Thanks for any help you can
provide. Renee Wahl
Dear Renee,
First of all, it's great to know that you use concordance software. I wouldn't give pupils 10 collocations for each word as it is a bit overwhelming. In the early stages I would give them 3-4 common collocates and/or examples for each noun. I know it's generally difficult to put a finger on them but unfortunately with many near-synonyms the difference is purely collocational.
 |
| Photo by USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) on Flickr |
According to www.just-the-word.com, the most frequent noun collocates of the adjective routine are check, maintenance, test and operation. Perhaps I wouldn't give operation at this stage but stick to the first three as they all have to do with checking something for no special reason - just because you have to do it. I think based on these collocates, a generalisation can be made as to how it's used. I'd say of the three adjectives, routine has the most restricted use as it goes only with a handful of nouns.
 |
| Photo by @sandymillin via eltpics |
For usual I would provide the following examples on the board:
It's ____er than usual
(October is warmer than usual this year)
As usual, he arrived late.
If you always meet your friend at the same you can say "let's meet at the usual time"
Intuitively, I thought usual is the most common of the three but according to this tool www.wordcount.org
Regular is used in:
on a regular basis
at regular intervals
regular customer
You also need regular exercise to stay healthy and fit
I am sure the students would also be familiar with the term regular verbs :)
(These examples are from the Longman Dictionary)
It's difficult to extrapolate a rule here but perhaps you can point out that we use regular when we talk about something that you do every week / every month - it has to do with time intervals.
I know students like the safety of cut-and-dried rules but unfortunately knowing the difference between near-synonyms is often simply knowing what goes with what. Likewise, in Hebrew there are also words that may seem identical to English speakers, for example different Hebrew words for picking fruit/vegetables. Ask learners to imagine they had to explain the difference to an English speaker and why one goes with olives and another verb with oranges. They'd be stuck. They would find that the difference between them is not their denotational meaning but rather how they are used, i.e what they go (=collocate) with.
Does it help in any way?
Do you think my answer was helpful?
Postscript
My article Lexical Density in English in Modern English Teacher 2012, vol 21(1) addresses the issue of synonymy in more detail.
For more concordance tools and online dictionaries see Essential Lexical Tools on this blog.
Image credits
Both images are licensed under a Creative Commons Licence [CC-BY-NC-2.0]
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