Word vs. Vocabulary

[Jupiter]

Hi teachers,

In a classroom, I usually see these word written on the white board. And I also see it in text books.

My friends have asked me what is the difference between them? I told them that word is more general than vocabulary, but I'm not really sure.

My question is " What is the difference word and vocabulary?"

Thanks in advance

Jupiter

[Van Khanh]

Hi Jupiter,

Please read:

1/ How about your English vocabulary?
"Vocabulary" here means all the English words that you know and use.

Vocabulary = All the words in a partcular language.

2/ Word: A single unit of language. Words may be in 9 parts of the speech: article, adjectif, adverb, interjection, conjunction, verb, noun, pronoun, preposition.

Ex: "Jupiter" is a word, including 7 letters: j, u, p,i,t,e,r.

K

Ps: How about: used to ask information about sth/sb

[Alan]

Hi Jupiter,

Putting it simply a word is one part of a vocabulary. For example in my sentence:

[Jupiter]

Hi K and Alan,

Thanks for your great explanation.
Which one should I say?

One should learn new word everyday.
One should learn new vocabulary everyday.

Thanks again

Jupiter

[Van Khanh]

Hi Jupiter,

I think you shoud write:

One should learn a new word every day. (a) (a = one)
One should learn new words every day. (a) (general meaning)

everyday (one word) is an adjectif and is used only before a noun.
Ex:This dictionary is for everyday use. (everyday = ordinary, happening every day)

Every + singular noun (countable)is an adjecif and is used to refer to all the members of sth.
So, every day in (a) means all days.

You can also say:

One should learn new vocabularies every day.
One should learn a new vocabulary every day.

only if you are genius in linguistics.

The reason is that vocabulary is all the words in a particular language. So, if you say:

I learn a new vocabulary every day.

that means:

I learn all English words in any fields one day. Another day,I learn all French words in any fields.

Can you do that?

K

Ps: In short:

1.
Vocabulary: All the words in a particular language.
Word: Article (a, an), adjectif, adverb, conjunction, ....
So,

How many words are there in this sentence?

This is an interesting book.

First step: Please list:

Article: This, an
verb: is
adjectif: interesting
noun: book.

Second step: only count.

Article: This, an (2 words)
verb: is (one word)
adjectif: interesting (one word)
noun: book. (one word)

Thus, in this sentence, there are 2+1+1+1 =5 words.

These 5 words is a part of your English vocabulary.(because your vocabulary is all of your English words).

2. This is a kind friend.

Do the same way, you'll know this sentence has 5 words.

"a" in this sentence is an article, so "a" is also a word.

A word can include one or more than one letter.
Ex: "a" in this sentence is a word including only one letter.
"this" in this sentence is a word including 4 letters (t,h,i,s).

Bye
Khanh