Do you want to know about Active and Passive Vocabulary in English Language?
What is active and passive vocabulary? A learner's passive vocabulary is the word that can be understood by most of the meaning of the words which are learnt with the meaning but are not used in day today communication. It may be in speaking or writing. This can be compared with active vocabulary where learners improve vocabulary with the meaning to use in day to day life of communication. So, most of active vocabularies are highly used in day to day life and passive vocabularies are known but not regularly used, in this section, It is comprehensibly understood that we can utilize both active and passive words. Moreover, The active words are very common and majority of language speakers are expressible to communicate in their real life situation. The passive vocabularies are apparently seen in competitive platform of English entrances. Passive words are less frequent than the active words.
Let's take up some of the examples of active and passive vocabulary. Active vocabulary refers to the words we already know, understand and use in language. Passive vocabulary refers those words where meanings are known but not used regularly it may be more formal and literal in contextual comprehension.
We can recognize the meaning in most of the books or on social media but are not frequent in communication. We can also view one more area of active vocabularies through informal words and some of semi-formal words which are mostly useful in day to day life of speaking and writing.
To improve language ability, one has to consider active vocabulary in the beginning of learning language later on, one can focus on passive vocabulary for advancement. Active vocabulary are easy to make sense and one can pronounce without much efforts that is why, it is spontaneous in language and very common in verbal and written communication. Those who are advanced language proficiency level. The learners can learn active and passive both to standardize language proficiency level. It is also seen that most language learners have an extensive passive vocabulary whereas it can help them appear competitive entrance or any of English examination to showcase English language efficiency standard.
We can see some example to better understand.
Active: hate, abhor Passive: abominate
Active: leave Passive: relinquish
There are most of idiomatic expressions which are very active in literature and communication. It sounds quite natural at the time of using in speaking and writing. There are other part of idiomatic expressions which are from passive that may not be easily understood by listeners or readers. So, in English, we can notice most of the English words, it maybe phrases, one word substitution, idioms, synonyms or antonyms...etc all belong to active and passive usage. There are other way to analyze it that active and passive vocabulary can be learnt to use in literature or communication as per its requirement. Most of passive vocabulary may disturb the reader mind to catch the meaning of the context, in fact, it is highly recommended to use passive vocabulary in those area where formal approaches are highly respected. It is also keenly observed that most of jargons or terminology are considered as Passive Vocabularies. Moreover, people form same profession use frequently their jargons and make professional terms more active in communication.
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