learn/study/revise/practise/teach
When I ask my students how they spent the weekend or previous evening, they often say, "I was learning," or "I learned." Let's leave the the difference between the past simple and the past continuous for another issue. Anyhow, by the verb learn the students mean what should correctly read study/prepare/revise for school/exams.
learn = to gain knowledge or skill by studying or from experience
Today we learnt/learned how to use the second conditional.
study = to spend time learning by going to school, reading, etc.
Peter studied English at university.
revise = to prepare for an exam by going through the subject matter which will be examined
I have to revise irregular verbs tonight.
practise = to do an activity in order to improve your skill
We practised telephoning in today's English lesson.
teach = to give lessons to students; to help somebody to learn something
Mr Johnson taught us some useful everyday expressions yesterday.
schoolwork/homework/task/exercise/assignment
In the second group there are nouns connected with school activities. Please remember that homework is an uncountable noun, so you always do your homework, never homeworks, even if you have a lot of different tasks to do. Another thing - homework is compounded from home and work, which means that you should never do your homework at school. (That's not so obvious, though, if you regard homework as a part of your schoolwork...)
schoolwork = work that students do at school or for school
I was ill for two weeks so I've got a lot of schoolwork to catch up on.
homework = work given by teachers for students to do at home
Our English teacher always sets us a lot of homework.
task = an activity designed to achieve a particular learning goal, especially in language teaching
Now, class, your task will be to practise the dialogue.
exercise = a set of questions that practises a skill or tests your knowledge
Do exercises one and two for homework.
assignment = a task that students are given to do, such as a project, an essay, etc.
We have to do an assignment on the global warming.
lesson/class/classroom
One of the most common mistakes about school vocabulary is this one: "We have seven hours on Tuesdays." In fact, it is seven lessons or seven classes that the students mean.
lesson (1) = a period of time (usually 45 minutes) in which students are taught something
We have four English lessons a week.
lesson (2) = something that is intended to be learned
The course book is divided into twelve lessons.
class (1) = a lesson (1)
I'm taking extra conversation classes this school year.
class (2) = a group of students who are taught together
My daughter is in class 9K.
classroom = a room where a class of students is taught
We have a well-equipped English classroom.
educate/bring up
These two verbs both relate to the training of children and young people. Whereas educate implies the intellectual and cultural training in a school environment, bring up is mostly used for the moral and social training that children receive at home.
educate = to teach somebody over a period of time at school, university, etc.
My daughter was educated at the local grammar school and then at Cambridge University.
bring up = to care for a child, teaching him/her how to behave properly, etc.
Mark was badly brought up - he's so naughty and rude.
The related nouns are education and upbringing.
Which is worse - a bad education and a good upbringing, or the opposite?
illegible/unreadable/incomprehensible
These adjectives are all used to say that something is difficult to read; however, their actual usage differs.
illegible = difficult or impossible to read because of bad handwriting or printing
I can't read this at all - her handwriting is completely illegible.
unreadable (1) = too difficult or boring to be worth reading
After one hour I gave up reading my new book as it was totally unreadable.
unreadable (2) = illegible
incomprehensible = impossible to understand
Some of these books might be incomprehensible to casual readers.
Well, I hope you found this article neither unreadable nor incomprehensible. See you.
