Objective

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to arrive at meanings through context clues.

How do you know the meaning of new or difficult words in the text that you read?

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Context clues
Context clues are words before or after the unfamiliar word that give you an idea of what that word means.

Example
The trainer showed us how to train a dog using hand gestures. For example, pointing a hand in any direction will
tell the dog to go there and putting one hand palm downwards tells him to lay down.

Explanation:
In the above sentence, we may be unfamiliar with gesture, but the words that follow it explain what gestures are.
The words For example, give us a mental signal that an example of the unfamiliar word follows. So we can say
that gesture means “moving the hands (or other body parts) to say something without speaking.”

Examples often use clue words as signals for unfamiliar words. For example, for instance, such as, and like are
common clue words.

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Definitions:
Looking for context clues can help you. In the following sentence, the bold-faced phrase is your clue that a
definition for the underlined word will soon follow.

Example:
She did not have the capital to put up the hair salon,
that is, she needed a lot of money to buy everything she needed to start the business. But she could not come up
with that amount.

Explanation:
Phrases like that is and that means are context clues that tell you to look out for a definition.

Description:
Descriptive words help you to figure out the meaning of a word if there are no example or definition clues in the
text. For this type of context clue, you will need to use your background knowledge of the topic and the English
language. In the following passage, descriptive words are given for the bold-faced word.

Example:
Her haggard appearance bothers me. Her face is thin, she looks tired like she has not slept at all, and her eyes
are full of worry.

Opposites
Opposites help you understand unfamiliar words by presenting them as the opposite of other words. Look out for
clues like but, however,
and except.

Example:
It was a somber party at first, but it soon became festive when the performers arrived to entertain the guests.

Explanation:
In this example, you have two unfamiliar words that are
opposites. You can easily figure out what they mean using the bold-faced words.
Objective
This lesson aims to teach you the approaches in decoding context clues.

What are context clues?

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Context Clues
Context clues are words or phrases within the sentence that give you the hint or clue to help you understand the
meaning of difficult words.

There are several ways to spot context clues:

Definition of the words within the sentence

Example:
If you need the blueprint of this building, you can ask the engineer who actually designed the building's plan.

Explanation:
The word blueprint, although a little bit difficult to understand was aided in the sentence by the definition context
clue. The definition of blueprint is a plan for a building.

Example:
The novice employee is reading the company's rules and regulation from the bulletin board since he is
relatively new in the office.

Explanation:
The word novice, although a little bit difficult to understand was aided in the sentence by the definition context
clue. The definition of novice is new.

Comparing and Contrasting words in the sentence

Example:
The onset of the disease is gradual, it could develop in a year or two.

Explanation:
In this example, the word onset is compared to a gradual disease, so we can guess that the meaning of onset is
develop.

Example:
Although I loathe extreme sports I had to try surfing for once because my brother loves it.

Explanation:
In this example, we can see contrasting phrases signified by “although”, so we can guess that the word loathe
must be a contrast to love.

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Synonyms or Antonyms within the sentence
Example:
My father hopes that his business will be lucrative or profitable someday.

Explanation:
In this example, we can guess that lucrative is the synonym of profitable.

Example:
My younger brother is very enthusiastic about our coming holiday but my grandfather is not excited about it.

Explanation:
In this example, we can guess that enthusiastic is the antonym of not excited.

Cause and Effect

Example:
Metro Manila was flooded after three days of torrential rains.

Explanation:
In this example, we could guess that torrential rains caused the flood, so torrential must mean strong or violent.

Example:
The Titanic capsized because it hit a large iceberg.

Explanation:
In this example, we could guess that the Titanic has an accident so it capsized, capsized must mean, overturned.

Examples within the sentence

Example:
There are many habits that are hazardous to your health such as smoking and consuming too much alcohol.

Explanation:
In this example, the hazardous habits are smoking and consuming too much alcohol, therefore, hazardous must
mean, dangerous or bad.

Example:
Mr. Ramos has an eye for aesthetic things such as beautiful paintings and vivid photographs.

Explanation:
In this example, aesthetic things are beautiful paintings and vivid photographs, so, aesthetic must mean, artistic.

Objective
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to determine the meaning of the word based on how it is being used in
a sentence.

Do you know what context clues are?

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Context Clues
Context clues are the words in a sentence that help us figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. It is often
helpful to ask the question, “In order to make sense in the sentence, what would this word have to mean?”
Clues to look for:
Sometimes the author will define the word or give you a synonym (word that means the same thing).

Example:
It was an idyllic day; sunny, warm, and perfect for a walk in the park.

Explanation:
The word idyllic is defined in the next part of the sentence by providing synonyms such as sunny and warm.

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Clues to look for:
Sometimes the author will give you an antonym (word that means the opposite thing) or a word that means you
would be looking for the opposite (but, however, yet, in contrast).

Example:
My seatmate had a lot of anxiety about the exam, but I had no worries about it.

Explanation:
The word anxiety in the sentence is defined by giving the opposite of what it means, which is no worries about it.
Therefore, anxiety means having to worry about something.

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Clues to look for:
Sometimes the author will give you an example to show the meaning of an unfamiliar word. This might be
introduced by words such as, for example, to illustrate, such as.

Example:
Projectiles include those items that are shot forward such as a cannon shell, bullet, or rocket.

Explanation:
The word projectiles based on the examples given in the sentence means something that is shot from a weapon.

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Clues to look for:
Try to use clues from the structure of the sentence. It may help to determine what part of speech (noun, verb,
adjective, adverb etc.) the word is.

Example:
The team was elated when they won the trophy.

Explanation:
The word elated in the sentence is after the linking verb was. Therefore, it is an adjective describing the subject,
team. How would you describe a team when they won a trophy?

Tips
 It is often helpful to ask the question “In order to make sense in the sentence, what would this word have
to mean?”
 Look for clues within the sentence, the previous sentence or the next set of sentences.