about getting the exact word in english

Miguel Ángel Muñoz Lobo is a young learner of English from Madrid in Spain. Read his poem which is about what it is like to find the exact word in English. Have you ever felt the same way?

Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.

Read the poem and then try this comprehension activity followed by a vocabulary activity. Finally try some writing yourself.

About Getting The Exact Word In English

Only when you've felt what it's like:
The wind whistling on your face
And stepping unshod on wet green grass
And wearing warm gloves on a cold day
And have eaten the very first bite
Of a huge purple grape,
Only then will you know what it is like
To grasp the exact word and make
What you want to say better
All this happens of a sudden
And then it is again
That anxious moment of search
Which flows into that moment
When you can clench
The exact word again
And so goes language
As a vicious circle that holds you.

Miguel Ángel Muñoz Lobo

With kind permission of the poet, previously published in Poetry as a Foreign Language, edited by Martin Bates, White Adder Press, 1999

Your turn

The poet compares his pleasure at 'getting the exact word' to some simple physical pleasures. One of these is feeling 'the wind whistling in your face'. Can you think of other sensations that give pleasure? Write some lines celebrating the sights, sounds, tastes, smells or feelings involved. You can base it on a situation, such as early morning, or compare the sensations to a mental process as Miguel Angel does.
Send us your poem.

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