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Welcome to my podcast, oscar takes on! today, i'll be talking about how much i love words
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I’ve always loved words in all forms, and i've always liked speaking words, reading words and writing words. and in school, literacy is my best subject. so today, i'll be talking about words
I think words are very important because they help me develop a sense of curiosity. if i hear a word being used in a sentence and i’m not sure what it means, it makes me want to look that word up, and find out what it means. some words can also catch someone else's attention if the word sounds interesting to their ears! and the more descriptive we are when using words, the better we can communicate with other people
I learn new words mostly from reading books. one of my favorite books with amazing vocabulary is called a tale dark and grimm by adam gidwitz. here is just a sample of a few words that i found interesting in the book: eviscerate, magnanimous (mag-na-nuh-muhs), dilapidated (duh-la-puh-deituhd), tentatively, and dejected. do you know what these words mean? did they catch your attention as much as they caught my attention? do you want to look these words up so that you can figure out how use them properly?
As you probably tell, i like to use the dictionary from time to time. i have always wondered how words get in the dictionary? who decides? according to merriam-webster, inc., when a word is used by many people, and they all agree that it means the same thing, it could possibly be noticed by dictionary editors, and they can add it to the dictionary. one way that a word can be used by many people is if somebody writes a book or a story, and they use a word that has never been used before. if people read that book, they'll see that word and maybe they'll start using it. once a person starts using that word, even more people could hear it and it could become a very popular word, and dictionary editors could add it to the dictionary. the dictionary gets updated with new words four times a year
Did you know that every year there are about 1,000 words added to the dictionary? some of the words added to the dictionary last month, in january of 2021, are: asmr, pod, wet market, and second gentleman. do you recognize any of these new words? maybe you've heard them on the news, or maybe you've heard your family members or friends use them? i have never heard the word “pod,” so i decided to look up the definition. the merriam-webster dictionary says the word “pod” means “a small group of people who regularly interact closely with one another but with few or no others in order to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection during an outbreak of a contagious disease” (such as covid-19). interesting, right? more new words will be added to the dictionary some time in march, this year. so look out for some new words then!
I like words so much that i wanted to know what other people's favorite words were. so, i decided to ask this question on social media, and boy, did they have some wonderful words to share! paco's favorite word is “curmudgeon,” which means a bad-tempered person. i know some people who are curmudgeons! kristin wrote “discombobulated” and “cacophony.” a cacophony is like a whole mess of sounds. like when you’re in a city, and there are cars beeping, and music playing, and people talking. that’s what a cacophony is. “discombobulated” is an adjective that means confused. i really like discombobulated, because you can only be discombobulated, you can't be combobulated, just like you can be disappointed, but no one ever says that they are appointed, unless they’re appointed to something. sally said that when she was my age, her favorite word was “plucky.” plucky means brave or bold. someone once called her a “plucky gal” and she really liked that word. kassi's favorite words are “flabbergasted,” which means greatly surprised or astonished, and “gumption” which means resourcefulness or cleverness. miranda said “tchotchke,” which means a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional, kind of like a knickknack. emily's favorite word is “tintinnabulation” (tin-tuh-nah-byuh-lei-shin), and that means a ringing or tinkling sound. chris said the word “sylvan”, and i think this is very interesting because that word, sylvan, is inside of the word “pennsylvania”, and the definition of sylvan is consisting of or associated with woods, and 58% of pennsylvania is wooded. so that's something that i find interesting about that word
How can kids have fun with words? well, there are a few ways. as you read anything—or listen to anything— make note of the words that catch your attention. did you know that you can say a word to your smart phone or tablet, and you can hear the proper pronunciation, definition, and its part of speech? and, by “part of speech,” i mean, is the word a verb, a noun, and adjective, or an adverb? this is very important to know! some online dictionaries will even tell you how to use the word in a sentence
My other favorite activity is kind of “old school” but kind of fascinating. search your house for a dictionary—any dictionary it could be a kids’ dictionary, or dictionary that your parents still have from high school or college. it could be a dictionary from the game scrabble, which i happen to receive as a christmas gift recently. any dictionary will do; the point is to open it up to any page randomly and, without looking, place your finger on a word. open your eyes to see what word you picked. if it's a word you already know, try again until you find an unfamiliar word. once you find a word, first look for its part of speech and read its definition. try saying the word and definition three times until it sticks in your memory. let's try it out now! i'll use my scrabble dictionary because it's new and i've been wanting to check it out. i'm just learning how to play scrabble, so when i have more experience, maybe i'll do an episode on it. here it goes:
One last thing. since i love words, one of my favorite activities is to play mad libs! mad libs is a word game that can be played by one or more people. the goal is to complete a story by filling in the blank spaces where words are intentionally left out of sentences. the words that are left out consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numbers, and so on. the only rule is that you cannot read the story first—that would be cheating! instead, what you do you first is to fill in a word bank on a separate page. for example, the word bank will ask you for a certain number of specific verbs, and nouns, etc. using your imagination, you will come up with a variety of fun and interesting words. after that, you will use your list of words to fill in the blank spaces of the story. then, be sure to read the story aloud! be prepared to hear a funny, wacky, nonsensical story with the words you selected at random. the stories come in a range of themes— some of my favorite mad libs themes are technology, cats, school— and there's even a theme devoted to the book series, diary of a wimpy kid. did you know that mad libs has been publishing books since 1958! that means that they've been publishing books for 63 years! that's a very long time!
I decided to complete a mad libs to give you an example of how these stories sound once you fill in the blank spaces. i'll be reading it in this episode. i've already filled out the word bank using some of the words i got on social media, some of the new words added to the dictionary in january, and some of my favorite words from a book i just read. so, to give you an overview, the word bank asked me to think of:
6 adjectives
5 nouns
1 verb ending in “i.n.g,”
1 part of the body
1 type of animal
And 1 adverb
Ready to hear the completed story? as i read the mad libs, i'll put emphasis on where i inserted a word. ok, so here's the mad libs, titled “dogs vs. cats”
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And that is the end of my mad libs story! if you're interested in doing a mad libs, you can find them in your local bookstore, and some grocery stores sell them. also, you can look for some free printable stories online
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Thank you very much for listen to oscar takes on. if you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to me so you never miss out on an episode. thanks for listening, and i'll see you in the next episode! bye!!