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Table of Contents

Cloze Exercises

Choose the appropriate word from the drop-down box in order to complete sentences using the most common words from the Academic Word List.

• AWL Most Common Words 1
  
• AWL Most Common Words 2
  
• AWL Most Common Words 3
  
• AWL Most Common Words 4
  
• AWL Most Common Words 5
  

Test your knowledge of homonyms by choosing the appropriate word from the drop-down box.

• Homonyms - Exercise 1
• Homonyms - Exercise 2
• Homonyms - Exercise 3
• Homonyms - Exercise 4

Collocations

• Collocations of "problem"

• Adjective-Noun Collocations 1
• Adjective-Noun Collocations 2
• Adjective-Noun Collocations 3
• Adjective-Noun Collocations 4

• Common Collocations 1
• Common Collocations 2
• Common Collocations 3

Choose the appropriate word from the drop-down box in order to complete the sentences. Collocations are the same as in the matching exercises, but they appear in complete sentences in this set of exercises.

• Common Collocations 1
• Common Collocations 2
• Common Collocations 3

• Activity 1 - Common Collocations 1--3 This activity contains the three collocation exercises above in drag-and-drop form. Click on a number in the left column, and the exercise will appear. This exercise is off site. To return here, use your browser's back button.

Definitions

• Academic Word List Most Frequent 1 Match the words with the definitions.
• Academic Word List Most Frequent 2 Match the words with the definitions.

Word Formation

• Adjectives ending in -ly Students are often confused by adjectives that end in -ly because they resemble adverbs of manner. Here is a list of some of the most common -ly adjectives.
• Nouns ending in -ship Definitions of common nouns that end in the suffix -ship.

In the following series of linked exercises, the student practices the noun, verb, and adjective form of the verbs given by filling in the blanks in the table.

There are sometimes two possible answers for a blank, and the exercise can check only one. If you get an error, try another possibility or click the "Show Correct Answers" button.

• Word Families 1
• Word Families 2
• Word Families 3
• Word Families 4
• Word Families 5
• Word Families 6

Usage

• Call, Call For, Call On, Call In
• Former, Formerly, Latter

• Confusing Words

Interactive Crossword Puzzles

• Instructions for Interactive Crosswords
• Crossword 1
• Crossword 2
• Crossword 3 Uses words from Group 1 of the Academic Word List.
• Crossword 4 Uses words from all groups of the Academic Word List
• Crossword 5 Uses words from the first thousand most common.
• Crossword 6
• Christmas Crossword

Vocabulary Games (Interactive)

Hangman

Play Hangman with the most common words from newspapers. You have to guess the word before Bones is hanged. Turn on your speakers.

Word Search

Find the hidden words. Vocabulary taken from the most common words of the Academic Word List.

Picture Quizzes

Choose the word that corresponds to each picture.

• Fruit Quiz 1
• Fruit Quiz 2

• Tool Quiz 1
• Tool Quiz 2
• Tool Quiz 3

• Vegetable Quiz 1
• Vegetable Quiz 2

Drag and Drop Games

Academic Word List Most Frequent 1 (Flash)

Drag the words onto the blank in order to fill in the sentence. Definitions appear below each sentence.

Academic Word List Most Frequent 2 (Flash)

Ten more words from the Academic Word List.

Adjectives ending in -ly

Drag and drop the ten -ly adjectives in this exercise onto the appropriate blank in each sentence.

Jigword Games

Academic Word List 1 (Flash 7)

Drag the definition to connect it to the corresponding word from the Academic Word List (Group 1 words). If you press "New Game," you will get a new mix of words. Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

Concentration Games

Concentration 1 (Flash) - Adjective Opposites

Remember where the opposites are and match them!

Concentration 2 (Flash) - Collocations of "problem"

  Find the pairs that have approximately the same meaning.

Adjective-Noun Pairs Concentration (Flash 7)

Match the adjective with the corresponding noun. Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

Academic Word List Concentration - Group 1 (Flash 7)

Match the word and its synonym from the Academic Word List (Group 1 words).If you press "Start," you will get a new mix of words. Use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page.

Scrambled Word Games

Scrambled Verbs 1

Unscramble ten verbs from the third 500 most common words.

Vocabulary Games (Paper)

• AWL Most Frequent - Word Search 1
• AWL Most Frequent - Word Search 1 - Solution

Word Lists

• Dolch List [220 Basic Sight Words in Alphabetical Order]
• Dolch List [220 Basic Sight Words by Frequency]

• Horn List  [100 Most Common Words in Alphabetical Order]
• Horn List  [100 Most Common Words by Frequency]

Note: The following four lists of the 2,000 most common words were compiled using the General Service List.

• First 500 Most Common Words       [1--500 by Frequency]
• Second 500 Most Common Words  [501--1000 by Frequency]
• Third 500 Most Common Words   [1001--1500 by Frequency]
• Fourth 500 Most Common Words  [1501--2000 by Frequency]

• Brown Corpus - 2000 Most Common Words 1 [a to dust] PDF
• Brown Corpus - 2000 Most Common Words 2 [duty to lines] PDF
• Brown Corpus - 2000 Most Common Words 3 [lips to roof] PDF
• Brown Corpus - 2000 Most Common Words 4 [room to yourself] PDF

• Common Regular Verbs (PDF file)
  A list of 210 of the most common regular verbs used in newspaper articles.

• Most Common Adjectives for Reading (Alphabetical Order)
  (PDF file)
  A list of over 300 of the most common adjectives from the BNC. These are the most common adjectives found in newspapers, magazines, and other printed sources.
  
  
• Most Common Adjectives for Reading (By Frequency)
  (PDF file)
  Same list as above arranged by frequency.

Vocabulary Links

• Vocabulary Exercises for the Academic Word List 170 exercises designed to help you learn the words in the academic word list.

• Food Preparation Game Drag and drop common cooking terms onto the pictures. Shockwave game from Cambridge.

• WordLearner^TM is a new web site designed to help you learn words in any language. You can manage lists of words, play word games with the words from your lists, access packs of words arranged by topics and more. Word packs can include words, parts of speech, translations and example sentences. You can even use your mobile phone to learn words. Check it out!

• English Regular Verbs is a list of 600 regular verbs in English. Do you know them all?

• Macmillan Glossary of Internet Terms A glossary containing words and phrases related to the Internet.

• Macmillan Texting Terms and Abbreviations A glossary of terms and abbreviations used in text messages sent by mobile phones and e-mails.

• VOA's Special English Word Book is a good dictionary of basic English used on the Special English broadcasts. It also has common expressions.

• The Web Vocabulary Profiler is an excellent tool for checking the frequency of words in a reading text. Just paste your text into the window, click "Do It," and your text will be analyzed according to the frequency of the words in English. The text will be color-coded so you can see at a glance if the words are in the first thousand, second thousand, or in the Academic Word List.

• Levels tests on-line By Paul Nation & Batia Laufer, adapted for WWW by Tom Cobb. You can use these tests to measure the level of your vocabulary. There are tests at the 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 10,000 word levels.

• Lemma Lemma is "a fully functional diagnostic test which will estimate the size of your passive English vocabulary."

• WordNet is a special kind of online dictionary to help you study the meanings of words and their synonyms and antonyms. It also lists structures in which the words are used, as well as their approximate frequency. The different meanings are illustrated with example sentences. An invaluable tool for teachers and advanced students. You can download WordNet here to use on your computer free of charge.

• Word Surfing  has links to vocabulary exercises, games, tests, and more. For learners and teachers.

Word List Links

1. Academic Word List
2. General Service List
3. Irregular Verbs by Frequency
4. University Word List
5. Vital English Vocabulary
6. The 1000 most frequent word families
   The first 1000 most frequent word families developed by Paul Nation at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. It contains the high frequency headwords plus derivative words.
7. The second 1000 most frequent word families
   The second 1000 most frequent word families developed by Paul Nation.
8. Brown Corpus - The First 2000 Most Frequent Words
9. Brown Corpus - The Second 2000-5000 Most Frequent Words
10. Oxford 3000 Wordlist
11. Oxford 3000 Introduction and Sublists
12. The most useful 2000 words in English
13. The First 1000 Most Common Word Families 
    (Text file. To save, Right Click and select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As.")
14. The Second 1000 Most Common Word Families 
    (Text file. To save, Right Click and select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As.")

False Cognate Links

False Cognates or False Friends (Faux Amis, Falsche Freunde, Falsi Amici, Falsos Amigos) are words that have a common form in two languages but a different meaning. They are "false" friends because they appear to have the same meaning in both languages when in reality they do not. Below are links to sites with lists of false cognates.

• English - French False Cognates
• English - German False Cognates
• English - Hungarian False Cognates
• English - Italian False Cognates (List is about halfway down the page.)
• English - Japanese False Cognates
• English - Portuguese False Cognates
• English - Portuguese, Portuguese - English Falsos Conhecidos
• English - Russian False Cognates
• English - Russian False Cognates (PDF)
• English - Spanish False Cognates
• Spanish - English Adjective False Cognates
• Tips for Spanish Speakers who are Learning English
  A site dedicated to the most common errors found among speakers of Spanish who are learning English. Discusses false cognates and confusing words for Spanish speakers.