<p>you start using them in everyday sentences. then people look at you weirdly.</p>
<p>...at least more than usual ^.^</p>
<p>i use "obfuscate" on a regular basis. </p>
<p>does anyone else have this quirk? at least in my honors english class, we refer to them as "ms. mountain words". every unit she would start drilling them into our minds by saying it during lectures in class. you wouldn't be able to know what she was talking about unless you've learned the words. it was annoying, but it worked!</p>
<p>Yes. Don't hate it. Appreciate it! Except I don't have the advantage of a teacher who uses words that we /should/ know. Except my spanish teacher. She will NEVER speak in plain english... v_v which has caused for a lot of late homework assignments.</p>
<p>No way. If you are using the "big words" so excessively, you must be using some of them wrong. Considering the nuances between synonyms, the simpler words are almost always better fitting. But if you're using your newly-learned vocabulary so much for the sake of learning.. o.k., I guess.</p>
<p>Lookit! "bombastic" "pompous" That's what I'm talking about. Hehe. As long as you don't use dominion inplace of regular old authority when you're talking to someone like me who doesn't read, you're a-okay.</p>
<p>I have a certain fondness for twisting the English language around my proverbial little finger, and delight in setting off occasional displays of verbal fireworks, much to my company's distraction. I've only ever skimmed a SAT vocabulary list, finding that most of the words were already familiar. I've been called pretentious, even arrogant, but such is the life of a compulsive reader.</p>
<p>Usually, though, you wouldn't be able to distinguish my speech from that of any other high school girl--save for the conspicuous presence of immaculate grammar.</p>
<p>(In case it isn't obvious, this entire post is self-parody. I really am pretentious, and my relationship with language is pure maudlin romanticism. ;) )</p>
<p>My mom always tells me reading helps vocabulary, but I still don't understand how. I can't imagine many people read with a dictionary by them and stop and look up every word!</p>
<p>I find you can usually figure them out through careful contextual analysis. ;)</p>
<p>In other words, the placement of the word within the sentence, and within the context of the plot, usually provides some clues as to its meaning.</p>
<p>I agree with thisyearsgirl. But sometimes, I feel writing some words down in a vocab notebook is helpful (better than those notorious SAT vocab lists).</p>
<p>GSun - Yeah, i hear they're manufacturing word-of-the-day toilet paper. Soon to be delivered to high schools all around the world.</p>
<p>i love using big words, don't get me wrong. its just that sometimes i want to use the common word, but all i could think of is a "big word" -- like gregarious!! haha, i laughed when i read that on here- another ms. mountain word.</p>
<p>sometimes using big words with friends gets really fun, especially when another person is around and becomes esoteric.</p>
<p>whoops!! i typed exactly what i was trying to avoid. </p>
<p>sometimes using big words with friends gets really fun, especially when an vocabulary-deficient person joins the conversation. then our jokes in relation to our vocabulary become esoteric.</p>
<p>does it make more sense now? i've been away from english class too long. lol</p>
<p>I like using big words but my friends arn't as smart as me so they just give me a blank look.. so there's not much of a point using them in front of them.</p>
<p>But I don't know many big words. I still consider 'abhor' a big sat word haha</p>
<p>The SAT words aren't that big. Most of them are fairly common, the sort you'd encounter just by reading a moderate amount. What's fun is finding really obscure words in the dictionary. (Am I the only one who reads dictionaries for fun?)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Am I the only one who reads dictionaries for fun?
[/quote]
I do... In fact, I read a book about the dictionary fairly recently--The Professor and the Madman: Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. Fascinating book, really. :D</p>