Contextual strategies involve using familiar words and ideas to discover the meanings of new words. Understanding how ideas are joined to produce sentences and paragraphs will also help you discover the meanings of new words.

The last set of strategies involves using what you know about letters and sounds to discover how to say new words. You could ask another person how to say a new word, or you could look in a dictionary; but using phonetic strategies can make this task easier.

Sometimes not possible to guess the meaning and use of a new word. For challenging words and phrases, the dictionary is the best tool for determining their exact meaning, pronunciation, and use.

Homonyms and Idioms

Homonyms and idioms can be confusing. The words “there”, “their”, and “they’re” sound the same, but they have different spellings, meanings, and uses. The word “there” refers to a place. The word “their” is used to show possession, and the word “they’re” is used as a contraction for “they are”. These words are called homonyms. Dictionaries may list homonyms for words that are frequently confused.

Idioms are words or phrases. They have specific meanings that are often different from the meanings of the individual words. For example, the idiom “Lets not reinvent the wheel” means use the existing solution rather than wasting time trying to discover another solution to the same problem. It has nothing to do with making wheels. Dictionaries often have explanations for common idioms.