Often the area of meaning covered by one word in the student's language may be wider or narrower than the area of the meaning covered by a corresponding word in English.
This sometimes happens with the naming of colours, where most students would expect an exact correspondence between their language and English.
The borders between the primarily colours of the spectrum are, however, drawn at different places in different languages.
Translation, in fact, is a particularly difficult thing to do well.
It certainly can't be done by matching single words from one language by single words from another.
At first, those computer scientists who attempted to construct an automatic translation machine made this mistake.
The machines often produced nonsense.
3. What, then, is the best way to increase one's vocabulary in a foreign language?
This can be answered in three words.
Firstly, observation, the unknown word should be observed in its context, in other words, the neighbouring words and the grammatical construction should be noted.
A good dictionary should be referred to and examples of the usages of the word should be noted.
Secondly, imitation, the student should use the new word in appropriate contexts, imitating the examples he has noted.
Finally, the repetition, he'll need to practise using the word several times before he's confident that he can use it correctly, in other words, repetition is necessary if the new word is to stick, and especially if it is to enter the student's active vocabulary.