Episode 4: Understanding minimal differences in vocabulary

This time, I'm offering the tools to understand words that may be confusing because of their meaning. Some people may use them interchangeably but not all the time. Something you need to bear in mind is that complete synonymy is almost impossible. For example, 'big' and 'large' are not really synonyms. You can speak of 'a big laugh' but not of 'a large laugh'; likewise with 'high' and 'tall'. 'A tall lady' is possible, but not 'a high lady'.

The list of words I'm analyzing in today's episode are divided in these groups:

need, require, want, demand, call for
advocate, promote, counsel, suggest, tip, guide
steal, rob, burgle, pinch, extort, nick, take, lift, shoplift, embezzle, poach, defraud
luck, coincidence, fortune, fate, destiny, providence
small, tiny, minute, minuscule, microscopic
dirty, filthy, grubby, mucky, grimy, dusty, yucky

Think about the meaning, but also about the context, possible collocations, register (or tone) and connotations (positive or negative). The idea of this exercise is to think critically about vocabulary. After you write down your notes, listen to explain everything. You can also check my study notes for this episode at https://qrgo.page.link/zaZkN

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