How to use English dictionaries in the Antimoon way

When you have something on your mind that you want to express in English, you have to compose an English sentence. Sometimes you can do it correctly without help - for example because you have already learned how to express such things. And sometimes you need to get help - because you still haven't learned how to express such things.

There are two sources of help:
(1) teachers (more generally: other people),
(2) dictionaries (more generally: other collections of sentences).

If you have a dictionary, then you can consult it at exactly the moment when you are composing a sentence. But a teacher is not so easy to consult. You have to meet her or write an email to her. It is harder to consult a teacher than a dictionary. It is my suggestion that learners should have a dictionary easily available all the time - especially when they are composing sentences.

I wrote "a dictionary" many times. But this phrase is confusing. It does not fully reflect my idea. There are better and worse dictionaries. "a dictionary" may be useless. It depends on the dictionary.

In my life, I have used many dictionaries. Perhaps 10. And I still collect new dictionaries. So, one of my ideas is: use many dictionaries.

It is not easy to "use a dictionary". It is a phrase that I often write on Antimoon, but this is just a phrase. Behind it, there is a whole Art of Using Dictionaries. Perhaps I use dictionaries differently than most people. And when I write to them "use dictionaries", I mean "use dictionaries like I do", but they don't know how I use them, so my phrase may be useless, just like DETECTOR suggests in one of his/her posts on the forum.

I want to share my way of using dictionaries with Antimoon readers. I invite everybody to join this topic and demand more information and specific advice and more details from the Antimoon webmasters. Please help us get our ideas out of our heads.

I have one idea how I can present my way of using dictionaries for composing sentences. You can post your problem to the forum. Write the (incomplete, incorrect perhaps) sentence that you are trying to write so that I know what you mean. Then I'll try to find the solution to your problem by consulting my dictionaries. And I will quote from the dictionaries and draw a conclusion for you. I will not answer your question on the basis of my own knowledge - that would be useless from the viewpoint of teaching you how to use dictionaries. I will only present how I use dictionaries to solve your problem.

Perhaps it will turn out that many problems cannot be solved with the help of dictionaries. Perhaps it will turn out that Antimoon is misleading its readers. I don't know. Let's try.

I want to compose such sentence:
My hand clock has broken down because I have forced it when [cause it to work by turning a little button on it]
Can you help me?

(Tom, Michal Ryszard Wojcik:

Can you delete the preceding two "false alarm" messages? I've just learned the Tab key enters a message, and doesn't perform the expected Tab function! Can you delete this "meta talk" portion of this message and leave the balance? An Edit feature would certainly be nice, for those of us who are a bit careless with our spelling...)

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Alexey:

I could give you simpler English, but I believe you wish to say:

"My watch has broken because I've OVER WOUND it"

and this is exactly how we would say this in good American English. To WIND a watch is to TURN the small "knurled" pin which extends to the exterior of the watch on one side. That TURNS the spring, which gives power to the watch. (You can think that "to wind" means "to turn." They have similar meanings.)

If you WIND your watch's spring TOO MUCH, then it may break. When we say OVER Wind we mean to wind TOO MUCH. "Over" and "too much" have similar meanings here.

We say the verb "to wind" is "irregular." That means it changes its form when we use it to talk about the past, as you are doing in your example. When we use this verb in the "past tense" we don't say "I WINDED my watch." We say, "I WOUND my watch."

We spell this past form of this VERB, "to wind," exactly in the same way as we spell the NOUN which we use to talk about an injury, which we sometimes call a "wound." We also use that same "injury" word as a VERB! Here's an example of "WOUND" as a verb, meaning, "to injure":

I can say, "Did he CUT Alexey with his knife?! Did he WOUND Alexey?!"

Now here's an example of WOUND as a noun, meaning an injury:

"Yes, he did cut Alexey! Alexey had a very deep knife WOUND, and he was taken to the hospital!"

When we say both the VERB and the NOUN which mean "to injure" and "an injury" we say both of them the same way, as "WOOND."

However, when we say the "past tense" of the verb "to wind" we don't say "WOOND," we say "WOWND." We say "WOW" in that "past tense" form of the verb "to wind" in just the same way that we express surprise, when we say "Wow! That Alexey is very smart! He must be a genius! I've never seen anyone so smart!" We also say "Wow! It's really hot today!" or "Wow! This food is too spicy for me!" We use that same sound when we speak the "past tense" of the verb "to wind," and when we say:

"My watch has broken because I've OVER WOUND it."

Jeff Hook
New Jersey, USA

Thank you Jeff! It can be usefull for me.
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Michal Ryszard Wojcik:

Can you show how will YOU USE DICTIONARY IN YOUR WAY to compose aforementioned setence? or such thought:

'Today [I feel good, I have no doubts, I feel at ease] and want [to go to ski] with my friends'

Ah me!

(I'm "wreaking havoc" in this forum!) Michal Ryszard Wojcik offered to demonstrate his dictionary-based method, Alexey "took him up on his offer," and then I "barged in" with a completely irrelevant response to Alexey's reply to Michal Ryszard Wojcik.

Hence, I apologize and I'll now withdraw so Michal Ryszard Wojcik can reply to Alexey.

Jeff Hook

To Michal Ryszard Wojcik:

I simply don't understand, what is the matter? You started this topic, and you are ingoring it. Maybe the sentences I wrote are too primitive?

I don't understand this thought:
{ 'Today [I feel good, I have no doubts, I feel at ease] and want [to go to ski] with my friends' }

It seems to me that it is composed of four unrelated parts:
(1) I feel good.
(2) I have no doubts.
(3) I feel at ease.
(4) I want to go skiing with my friends.

Now, every part could be investigated individually.
For example, it could be investigated whether it should be perhaps:
(1a) Today I'm feeling good.
(1b) Today I'm feeling well.
(1c) Today I feel well.

Alexey, did you ask me four different questions at the same time?

I am writing a sentence, perhaps asking a question at a time.
here is my incomplete sentence, correct it by using your dictionary.

- to be ensured your whole goofy family, i am not kinda of guy that you people are trying to keep me in your pocket. I will speak the truth infront of the audience during my petition. I will get hell of you kinda people from this
beautiful world because you people are black hallmark of sins.
your right place is under the 5 feet of earth.

( make this sentence grammartically correct with the help of your dictionary).

Mohammed Asad Khan, you wrote: "i am not kinda of guy that you people are trying to keep me in your pocket."

You used the word "kinda". I looked it up in two dictionaries:
(1) Collins COBUILD 2001 (it's recommended by Antimoon: http://www.antimoon.com/how/cobuild-review.htm),
(2) the Cambridge Online Dictionary (available from the Antimoon page: http://www.antimoon.com/words/_index.htm).

This link http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=kinda*1+0 will take you to the entry for "kinda" in the Cambridge Online Dictionary.

There you will see that the word "kinda" is used in writing to represent an informal way of saying "kind of". Examples:
I kinda hoped we'd be able to meet up some time this week.
I was kinda sorry to see him go.

Collins COBUILD 2001 gives:

'Kinda' is used in written English to represent the words 'kind of' when they are pronounced informally. Examples:
I'd kinda like to have a sheep farm in New Mexico.
He looked kinda cool but kinda young.


The conclusion for Mohammed Asad Khan is that he cannot write "kinda of". He has two good ways: "kinda" or "kind of".
I drew this conclusion on the basis of two observations:

(1) None of these examples contain "kinda of". They only have "kinda".
(2) The pronunciation of "kinda" given in those dictionaries is similar to the way "kind of" would be pronounced.

Michal: You, Go Boy!

to be ensured you -- This sentence does not exit. When I wrote this sentence to a native speaker, he pointed out and replied me that
" you can either use like this - I ensure or I assure. " you can use this word in any english sentence but not like that.

- That's totally my own sentence instead of " I ensure you"

I thought I could you use that way because I heard a simple sentence many times over channels like this:

- I go ( Active)
- I'm gone ( Passive) -( most frequently used by native speakers).

- I ensure you ( Active)
- ------------ (Passive) (could you figure out it with the help of your dictionary).

to be ensured is my passive saying of " I ensure you"