One word many meanings

6 comments

1. I think it is ordered by relevancy, yes. But as someone who has English as a second language, English is no different. Take in, take out, take on, put out, put on, etc 😛

   I think every language has this verb that has many meaning though. As for Japanese, the most versatile one I can think of is 出る

2. context

3. Every word has one meaning with very few exceptions. The problem is that meaning has a spectrum, and almost no two words in English and Japanese share the same spectrum, so English translations of a word can only point in a direction. Just remember in which direction, dont get too caught up on the pointer, and understand the nuance of a word by seeing it in various contexts.

   Very few words can be read in multiple ways, one is used more than the other, remember that one. If the other reading is used often enough, you’ll be forced to remember it anyway (e.g. 明日 read as あした and あす)

   There are homophones, they are different words, learn them separately.

4. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get#English

5. As an English speaker you had to memorize all meanings of all words? Like the word “set”, have more than 400 senses, but you didn’t memorize them, you learned them in context. Learn them in context is the key here.

6. Scenario A:

   1. you are reading something

   2. you see a word you don’t know

   3. you look it up, and you look at which definition makes sense in the sentence you found the word in

   Scenario B:

   1. you are reading something

   2. you see a word you do know, but it doesn’t make sense in the sentence

   3. you look it up, maybe it has another definition that you forgot, or maybe it is in an idiom