Vocabulary Lists Made by ChatGPT
My Trials and Errors
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to use ChatGPT more and more because I get good ideas from other people. Today, I’ll share with you what I tried and recommend for creating vocabulary lists to practice English. I am grateful that a client gave me this idea and I’m glad that it has been helpful for her. I hope it’s helpful for you as well.
Finding Specific Vocabulary Words
When I’m helping people practice pronunciation I want them to use words that they use often in their daily lives for speaking situations in their jobs. It can be difficult to sit and think about what words you use frequently because you’re so used to them and it’s even more difficult to know which words you may not be pronouncing correctly because nobody points it out to you.
To make a good list of words specific to a person’s area of work, I have them read something that’s related to their work, research, or study material. It’s easier for me to identify which words and sounds need more practice and that’s how I get a list started.
I tried using ChatGPT to create lists specific to a field of work and even more specifically for individual vowel sounds. Here’s how it went and here’s what I learned to input in order to get the best results. I tried the same input in ChatGPT 3.5 and 4o and the results were very similar.
Trial and Error with ChatGPT
By Vowel Sound
What I asked for: “Make me a list of the 20 most common words in UX/UI that contain the vowel sound /Ɛ/.”
What I got:
Text
Element
Edit
Menu
Selection
Developer
Template
Interaction
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
Element
By Vowel Sound + No Repetition
Lesson learned, I need to be more specific. So I modified my input: “Make me a list of the 20 most common words in UX/UI that contain the vowel sound /Ɛ/ without any repetition of words.”
What I got:
Text
Element
Edit
Menu
Selection
Developer
Template
Interaction - X wrong vowel
Field - X wrong vowel
Preference
Prototype - X wrong vowel
Refresh
Measure
Feedback - X wrong vowel
Gesture
Element - repeat
Layout - X wrong vowel
Framework - X wrong vowel
Preference - repeat
Element - repeat
By Vowel Sound + Example + No Repetition
Lesson learned, since it’s giving me words that don’t have the correct vowel sound, I tried giving it an example word: “Make me a list of the 20 most common words in UX/UI that contain the vowel sound /Ɛ/ as in the word "head" without any repetition of words.”
What I got:
Header
Element
Menus
Selection
Developer
Template
Interaction - X wrong vowel
Preference
Refresh
Measure
Feedback - X wrong vowel
Gesture
Layout - X wrong vowel
Framework - X wrong vowel
Presenter
Sketch
Prototype - X wrong vowel
Refresh - repeat
Texture
Metric
That didn’t seem to make much difference because it still gave me words that don’t have that vowel sound. So the next time I asked for 30 words so I could eliminate the wrong ones and still get 20 words that have the correct vowel sound.
By Number of Syllables
That made wonder if I should specify I want the vowel I’m looking for in the stressed syllable so I asked for: “Make me a list of 30 words used in UX/UI that contain the vowel sound /Ɛ/ as in the word "head" without any repetition of words. All words must have three syllables. The vowel /Ɛ/ must be in the stressed syllable as in the word "selection."“
What I got:
Selection
Presentation - X wrong vowel
Developer
Interaction - X wrong vowel
Preference
Register
Element
Development
Expression
Detection
Reflection
Detection - repeat
Perspective
Rejection
Collection
Detection - repeat
Reflection - repeat
Perception
Infection
Connection
Detection - repeat
Correction
Expression - repeat
Inspection
Infection - repeat
Detection - repeat
Detection - repeat
Perception - repeat
Perception - repeat
Expression - repeat
Lesson learned, it did fine when I just asked for words with three syllables, but didn’t do well with understanding the stressed syllable.
Most Effective Prompts
Give an Example
If you’re just looking for words with a specific vowel sound, use the IPA symbol and an example word: the vowel sound /Ɛ/ as in the word "head"
What if you don’t know the IPA symbol? Look up a word you know has the sound you want to use, then copy the symbol. Using Dictionary.com is helpful because it will show you how it sounds in regular letters and also IPA symbols. Here’s the entry for “head” on Dictionary.com.
Avoid Repetitions
I tried the phrase, “without any repetition of words,” and still got some repetitions but not nearly as many as I did the first time when I got 12 listings of “element.”
Ask for More Than You Need
Since I know I’ll probably get some repetitions of words and some words that don’t have the correct vowel sound, I asked for more than I needed so I could still get a good amount that I wanted.
Double Check
After all of that, I recommend that you still look up the words it gives you because not all of them had the correct vowel sound, especially when I asked for that sound in the stressed syllable.
That’s good practice anyway since if you ask for words with more than one syllable, you need to know which syllable is stressed. The dictionary will show you with a little line at the top left corner of the syllable that’s stressed. Here’s what it looks like for the word “element”: /ˈɛl ə mənt/. Stress is on the first syllable: EL-uh-muhnt. You pronounce that syllable with higher pitch and stretch the vowel.
Use It
After all of that, is it worth it? Yes. I have lots of books and websites I use to create vocabulary lists based on specific sounds and also by types of jobs. This saved so much time even if it took some editing on my part. If you’re not asking for such specific details like one vowel sound, then it’s much easier to get lists of words that are common to the topic you’re looking for.
As ChatGPT said after each result, “These words are commonly used in UX/UI design and development to describe various elements, components, and functionalities.”
Prompts that Worked Best
Make me a list of the 30 most common words in ____ (insert the topic you want) that contain the vowel sound ___ (insert vowel sound IPA symbol) as in the word “___” (insert example word with that vowel sound) without any repetition of words.”
Make me a list of 30 words used in ____ (insert the topic you want) without any repetition of words. All words must have _____ (insert how many syllables you want) syllables.
Suggestions?
Have you been trying something like this to help you practice vocabulary words that are the most useful for you? Let me know what has worked best for you. I’d love to learn how to get better at this!