Introduction

It is not easy to know how to start learning new words in a language that is not your native one.Most second-language learners depend on a favorite dictionary to get a quick translation of an unknown word;  however, dictionaries are full of words that you may never need to use, or even to understand. How do you know which words to learn first?

One of the purposes of this book is to acquaint you with the English words that are most frequently used in the United States today—the words that people use every day with their family, friends, coworkers, and  other people in the community in general. Presented here is a basic vocabulary of more than fifteen hundred words that have been carefully chosen because of their  frequent appearance and usefulness in daily  life. Once you have learned these words and mastered the structures in which they are used, you will be well equipped to add new words to this list, and you’ll gradually continue to increase your working  vocabulary.
The words of a language can be divided into two groups: content words and function words.Content words in English are either nouns—words that name people, places, things, or abstracts;adjectives—words that  describe nouns; verbs—words that describe the actions of nouns; or adverbs—words that describe how an action is performed. Function words are those that form a structure that enables us to put the content words  together to make sense. English function words include, for example, words such as a, the, of, for, and and—words that would be difficult to draw a picture of or to define in a word or two. Both types of words are  extremely important for communication in any language.

The second purpose of this book is to provide practice in using content words within the frame work of the function words that go with them. By practicing these two types of words together you will be not only learning  new vocabulary but also using it correctly, enabling you to form meaningful sentences with a variety of individual words.
There are six sections in the book: Part I: Nouns, Part II: Adjectives, Part III: Verbs, Part IV:Adverbs, Part V: Technology, and Part VI: Numbers. Each of these parts contains a number of units, and each unit consists  of special vocabulary for a certain topic and extensive exercises to practice it.