About using the appropriate vocabulary

[Roze1234]

I am confused when to use a word. There are several synonyms for a word which is used in a different context. So, how can we know and use that particaular word in a particaular context.

For Eg: Angst has lot many synonyms like Anguish, Torment, Anxiety, Trouble, Sorrow, Worry, Fear.

If i write a sentence for Angst as: Is your son giving you angst with his low grades.

For the same sentence can I use Torment instead of Angst
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[Mister Micawber]

'Angst' refers to a philosophical anxiety about life or the world. 'Torment' is an extremely painful mental anxiety. Neither is appropriate to school grades. You need to learn the meanings of words from a dictionary, not from a thesaurus, and you need to use Google and other sources like CONCORDANCES to see how these words are used.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Roze1234]

Hi, Thanks for your reply. I took the sentence for angst from one of the online dictionary. I did'nt find helpful with the sight CONCORDANCE which you have mentioned. So, please suggest any other web sites or any methods for using the word approriatetly.

[Torsten]

Hi Roze, where did you come across the word? For starters, you might want to read the following Wikipedia paragraph: A concordance is an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts. Because of the time and difficulty and expense involved in creating a concordance in the pre-computer era, only works of special importance, such as the Vedas, Bible, Qur'an or the works of Shakespeare, had concordances prepared for them.

TOEIC short conversations: Customer calls to cancel cable TV subscription

[Mister Micawber]

I don't think that you tried to use it, Roze.

1-- Click 'Clean Sentences Conc (English)'
2-- Type the word you want to search into the left box
3-- Choose the corpus that you want to search (Brown is the best general corpus)
4-- Click 'Submit'.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Torsten]

Here is another example: A CONCORDANCE, as we have said, is a list of all the words used by a particular author, with an indication of where those words are used.

TOEIC short conversations: Employee congratulates co-worker on his job promotion.

[Roze1234]

Hi, Thank you for your answer. I tried as you said and found Angst word but unable to find other words. So, any other source of getting all the words.

[Torsten]

Try the British National Corpus.

TOEIC short conversations: A business man phones to say he will be late for a presentation.

[Roze1234]

Thank you for the information. I have checked this site and i found the words i needed. There were lost many results found for one word and for few sentencens I did'nt understand why the word was used in that particular sentence. So can we find any explanations of using that word for that particular context or sentence.

[Mister Micawber]

No, those are what you will have to learn by experience.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Torsten]

Hi Roze, which sentences are you referring to in particular?

TOEIC short conversations: Scheduling an appointment.