Guessing Meanings
from Contexts
Vocabulary Knowledge for Effective Reading
 Look
it up in he dictionary?
 Ask your friend?
 Ask your teacher?
 Try to guess what it means?
What do you do when you find
difficult words in your reading?
Guessing is faster; it doesn’t interrupt
your reading
 Helps your comprehension because you
stay focused on the general sense
 Helps build vocabulary since you are more
likely to remember the words
 Allows you to enjoy your reading more

The best strategy is: try to guess!
Use the context (the text surrounding the
words)
 Use the grammatical structure of the
sentence and decide the word’s parts of
speech
 Recognize the words that connect ideas
(pronoun, synonym, antonym)

How to guess the unknown
words?

When you come to a new country, it is
important to know the zap of the people
in that country to help you communicate
with them.
Zap: language
From the context, guess the
meaning of the underlined word!

You should dry the soggy towel now
because there is sunlight. Otherwise, it
will take a long time to dry.
Soggy: adjective, it means wet
Use the grammar of the sentence
to guess the unknown word