How did/do you build up your vocabulary?

I tried reading a lot of books and realised that it wasthe best, natural, way. In school one of my teachers suggested that I select ten tough words a day, from newspapers or books or television and learn them. That helped a lot in the initial stage. The most important part is your motivation. If we have some strong reason to learn a language, we will see how fast we build up the vocabulary. So, the best thing we can do is to be motivated, to find some strong reason.

Reading books is the best way to improve your vocabulary. When you come across a word you do not know, look it up in the dictionary. Keep a dictionary nearby. My first husband didn't speak much English when he came here. He said he learned English by reading the newspaper.

I have a page-a-day calendar. It gives me a new word and it's definition every day. I have heard the best way to learn a word and how to use it properly is to try and use it at least 10 times in a day. You can always randomly choose a word from the dictionary as well. Which ever way you decide to go good luck!

Some books suggest that by reading lots of publications according to personal interests, one can expand their vocabulary very rapidly and painlessly. The writers of these books explain that when a person reads, he or she may come across many new expressions and new words. They may try to guess the definition of them with the help of the context. When reading is in progress, one should try to notice how the new words are used to convey ideas. After reading 10 to 20 pages, he or she may find out the meaning of the most difficult words with dictionary. If one can read frequently like this, very soon they do not need any dictionary to tackle even the most challenging text books.

I have been building up my vocabulary by reading the bible. I have found alot of interesting words there. Also I get emails from earky to rise from Micheal Masterson ( he runs American Writers & Artist Institution). He has a vocabulary word just about every email. You can visit http://www.earlytorise.com

I build my vocabulary by reading and writing. I usually write with a thesaurus open online, but I also do crossword, logic, word search, and crypto puzzles to stretch my mind. Reading is mostly where new words pop up for me and then I will look them up and see what context they are in.

I'm doing that by reading books, listening to music , and watching movies (everything that seems fun to me) and I seldom write the words like you do... 'cause it's not effective for me.

I built my vocabulary by reading a lot of books. I was also interested in playing with words by trying to learn new words and actually using them. If you have a friend who has a good vocabulary, it would be nice to always converse with that person. There are also a lot of books in the market right now about "vocabulary building" which has illustrations. Practice makes perfect, so to speak. Good luck!

I make it a habit to find a new word everyday.I analyse that word thoroughly and fully understand its usage. I play scrabble which is a great helper in reinforcing new vocabulary words.You can also make flash cards of the new words you have learnt and go through them frequently.Happy vocabulary building!