How To Choose Exactly The Right Foreign Word

English has many words with more than one meaning – for example: ‘can’ – to be able to; tin receptacle. Many foreign language words also have multiple definitions. How can you ensure that you choose the correct one? Mistakes can be embarrassing!

Instead of searching for a single word, prepare a list of synonyms (words that mean close to the same thing).

========== The Word ‘Can’ ==========

If you want to find the word that means ‘can’ as in ‘to be able to’, your list might be something like this:

can

able

capable

Now, if you search for ‘can’ in foreign language dictionaries, you might discover the following in the English-[Foreign Language] section:

* German *

B