Word of the Week
With its 120th word, Word of the Week has now come to an end. We hope you enjoyed this free feature and that it has given you an insight into the thinking and research behind the English Vocabulary Profile.
All 120 are still available to read in our archive, below. Each Word of the Week in the archive is followed by a link to the full entry for that word on the English Vocabulary Profile. To view the entries, you will need to subscribe to the EVP: to subscribe for free click here.
Word of the week: from
The preposition from has quite a long entry in the English Vocabulary Profile. Four distinct meanings appear to be known at A1 level, and learners continue to broaden their knowledge of the word up to B2, as this entry shows. One additional phrase will be included at C1: from then/that day on, as in They were good friends from that day on. Clearly, learners would be able to understand this sentence at an earlier stage of their learning, but the fact that the phrase with from is rooted in past time makes it more complex to master and use effectively. This illustrates an important feature of vocabulary development at the C levels, where progress is as much about fine-tuning and extending knowledge and use of existing words as acquiring a wider repertoire of new words. The English Vocabulary Profile up to C2 level is likely to contain no more than 7000 headwords in total, of which around 4700 will have already been encountered up to B2 level. However, the C levels will include a large number of additional meanings, phrases, phrasal verbs and idioms.To view the full entry for from on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
Word of the week: eye
The noun eye is known from A1 level in the sense of BODY PART, with further phrases and idioms featuring at higher CEFR levels. Learners appear to know two idioms with eye at B2 level, keep your/an eye on sb/sth and can’t keep/take your eyes off sb/sth. Given that there are fewer than ten idioms included in the English Vocabulary Profile up to B2 level, this is significant. As the earlier Word of the Week entry for foot indicated (see archived entries), idioms connected with parts of the body are commonly taught as a set and may be easier to internalise, as they often echo idioms in the first language: in Italian, tenere d’occhio means keep an eye on and in Spanish, someone who couldn’t take his eyes off a certain person se le fueron los ojos tras la chica! What about your own language? We would love to hear from you via the Feedback button if you have similar examples of ‘shared’ idioms. The English Vocabulary Profile now includes an Advanced Search for idioms, available in the current Preview Version for the letters DJK, where you will find more idioms using the verb keep.To view the full entry for eye on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
Word of the week: charge
The word charge is a noun and a verb, and both parts of speech are included in the English Vocabulary Profile. There are seven meanings included in the entry below and one additional meaning of the noun, CRIME, as in a charge of murder, will feature in the C levels. Learners appear to meet the noun and verb meanings to do with MONEY first, along with the phrase be in charge. Although there is no evidence in the Cambridge Learner Corpus for the verb meaning of ELECTRICITY, as in My mobile needs charging, we have taken the view that this use should be included, as it is such a part of everyday life and is probably more a spoken use.To view the full entry for charge on the English Vocabulary Profile, please click here.
