Anne of Green Gables: 40 words to know before you read it
The 40 words L. M. Montgomery uses again and again in Anne of Green Gables that are outside the 4,000 most common in English. Learn them first and the opening chapters read much more easily. Each comes with its pronunciation and a sentence from the book.
splendid/ˈspɫɛndɪd/47× in the book
Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about?
brook/ˈbɹʊk/40× in the book
Thomas Lynde—a meek little man whom Avonlea people called “Rachel Lynde’s husband”—was sowing his late turnip seed on the hill field beyond the barn; and Matthew Cuthbert ought to have been sowing his on the big red brook field away over by Green Gables.
asylum/əˈsaɪɫəm/38× in the book
We’re getting a little boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia and he’s coming on the train tonight.”
gable/ˈɡeɪbəɫ/36× in the book
But the spare room was out of the question for such a stray waif, so there remained only the east gable room.
picnic/ˈpɪkˌnɪk/35× in the book
He felt as he had once felt in his rash youth when another boy had enticed him on the merry-go-round at a picnic.
brooch/ˈbɹoʊtʃ/34× in the book
Marilla wore her amethyst brooch to church that day as usual.
thrill/ˈθɹɪɫ/34× in the book
I know because of the thrill.
orphan/ˈɔɹfən/30× in the book
… of course,” said Marilla, as if getting boys from orphan asylums in Nova Scotia were part of the usual spring work on any well-regulated Avonlea farm instead of being an unheard of innovation.
lane/ˈɫeɪn/29× in the book
To be sure, the long lane made it a good deal further.
wicked/ˈwɪkəd/28× in the book
Mrs. Spencer said it was wicked of me to talk like that, but I didn’t mean to be wicked.
delight/dɪˈɫaɪt/28× in the book
You don’t know how delighted I was.
dreadful/ˈdɹɛdfəɫ/27× in the book
I guess that’s why I’m so thin—I am dreadful thin, ain’t I?
orchard/ˈɔɹtʃɝd/27× in the book
The sun was coming in at the window warm and bright; the orchard on the slope below the house was in a bridal flush of pinky-white bloom, hummed over by a myriad of bees.
temper/ˈtɛmpɝ/26× in the book
“A terrible worker and driver,” Mrs. Peter was said to be; and discharged servant girls told fearsome tales of her temper and stinginess, and her family of pert, quarrelsome children.
recite/ɹəˈsaɪt/26× in the book
Then all the other little girls recited a paraphrase.
spare/ˈspɛɹ/25× in the book
… however, was spared the ordeal of speaking first, for as soon as she concluded that he was coming to her she stood up …
puff/ˈpəf/24× in the book
“But I’d be ever so much gratefuller if—if you’d made just one of them with puffed sleeves.
pity/ˈpɪti/23× in the book
My, but I pity him, that’s what.”
blossom/ˈbɫɑsəm/23× in the book
At last they lingered on one away to the left, far back from the road, dimly white with blossoming trees in the twilight of the surrounding woods.
spell/ˈspɛɫ/23× in the book
But if you call me Anne please call me Anne spelled with an E.”
anyhow/ˈɛniˌhaʊ/22× in the book
She couldn’t be left at Bright River anyhow, no matter what mistake had been made …
exclaim/ɪkˈskɫeɪm/21× in the book
“Dear, dear,” she exclaimed, “you’re the last folks I was looking for today, but I’m real glad to see you.
clasp/ˈkɫæsp/20× in the book
She leaned back in the buggy, her thin hands clasped before her, her face lifted rapturously to the white splendor above.
awfully/ˈɑfɫi/20× in the book
“It sounds awfully disrespectful to just say Marilla,” protested Anne.
geometry/dʒiˈɑmətɹi/20× in the book
By the end of the term Anne and Gilbert were both promoted into the fifth class and allowed to begin studying the elements of “the branches”—by which Latin, geometry, French …
twilight/ˈtwaɪˌɫaɪt/20× in the book
Below the boughs the air was full of a purple twilight and far ahead a glimpse of painted sunset sky shone like a great rose window at the end of a cathedral aisle.
gasp/ˈɡæsp/20× in the book
“Spelled with an E,” gasped Anne, who, tremulous and excited as she was, was determined there should be no misunderstanding on that important point.
cherry/ˈtʃɛɹi/20× in the book
… but the east one, whence you got a glimpse of the bloom white cherry-trees in the left orchard and nodding, slender birches down in the hollow by the brook …
lily/ˈɫɪɫi/19× in the book
I think it must have had honeysuckle over the parlor window and lilacs in the front yard and lilies of the valley just inside the gate.
fairy/ˈfɛɹi/19× in the book
And then Katie Maurice would have taken me by the hand and led me out into a wonderful place, all flowers and sunshine and fairies, and we would have lived there happy for ever after.
hollow/ˈhɑɫoʊ/18× in the book
… knitting “cotton warp” quilts—she had knitted sixteen of them, as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voices—and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound up the steep red hill beyond.
cordial/ˈkɔɹdʒəɫ/17× in the book
But there’s a bottle half full of raspberry cordial that was left over from the church social the other night.
ambition/æmˈbɪʃən/17× in the book
That is the height of their ambition.
bough/ˈbaʊ/16× in the book
A huge cherry-tree grew outside, so close that its boughs tapped against the house, and it was so thick-set with blossoms that hardly a leaf was to be seen.
spruce/ˈspɹus/16× in the book
Beyond it was a hill, green and feathery with spruce and fir; there was a gap in it where the gray gable end of the little house she had seen from the other side of the Lake of Shining Waters was visible.
birch/ˈbɝtʃ/16× in the book
… whence you got a glimpse of the bloom white cherry-trees in the left orchard and nodding, slender birches down in the hollow by the brook, was greened over by a tangle of vines.
fir/ˈfɝ/16× in the book
On the right hand, scrub firs, their spirits quite unbroken by long years of tussle with the gulf winds, grew thickly.
raspberry/ˈɹæzˌbɛɹi/16× in the book
… toothsome, raspberry tarts reposing there were divided among ten girls how many bites each girl would have.
delightful/dɪˈɫaɪtfəɫ/16× in the book
It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?
sensible/ˈsɛnsəbəɫ/16× in the book
I’d ruther Jane or Mary or some sensible name like that.
Pronunciation: ipa-dict (MIT), from Wiktionary.
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