How to improve your vocabulary: 6 tips for language learners

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After five months in South America, followed by several months self -study, I finally have the Spanish grammar under control. I have now focused on vocabulary, which is much more fun. As part of my efforts, I have put together six tips on how to improve your vocabulary together with useful tools that will help you at any point. If you have successfully improved your vocabulary in a foreign language, share your secrets in the comments below.

1. Collect a list of relatives

In linguistics, a cognate is a word that is very similar to another. There are hundreds of relatives that are shared by English and the Romanesque languages ​​(Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian). Many of them are "perfect relatives" (ie words that are written exactly and have the same meaning), while many others are almost perfect.

English - Spanish: Examples of perfect relatives

  • Tier - Tier
  • capital - capital
  • culturally - cultural
  • Director - Director
  • doctor - doctor

English - Spanish: Examples of almost perfect relatives

  • Attention - atención
  • celebration - celebration
  • dramatic - dramatic
  • Perfect - Perfecto
  • secretary - secretariat

Collecting a comprehensive list of cognates will show how much vocabulary you already know - before you even started learning! In the first step in Google, search for "English [Spanish] Cognates" and replace "Spanish" with the language of your choice. Save this in a index card app like Quizlet.

don't worry if you do not learn a Romanesque language. Many other languages, including Russian, Japanese and Bengali, have "borrowed" words from English and integrated into their vocabulary, so that despite the different writing, they will probably already know a few words.

alt = "How to improve your vocabulary"> dream time The same against the same: collecting relatives shows how much vocabulary you already know

Bonus tip: Check the importance of cognates that you encounter during everyday reading before adding you to your list, since it could be false friends (ie words that sound similar, but not the same thing). For example, Embarazado in Spanish does not mean "laying" how one could assume, but pregnant.

2. Translate the '300 immediate views'

dr. Edward Fry, Author of [Easyazon_link Identifier = ”1576907570 ″ Locale =” Us ”Tag =” ATBo0c-20 ″] 1000 Instant Words, found in 1996 that only 300 words make up about 65 % of the total written material in English. Download his list with 300 immediately visible words and work on translating the words into the language you learn. Save the translations in quizlet and call them up regularly.

That does not necessarily mean that you understand 65 % of the total written material in your new language (you need grammar!), But you will get a good start. Perhaps you would like to sort them in verbs, nouns, prepositions, etc. to facilitate your learning.

3. Use word facial configuration

memorizing is not always effective when learning language. Sometimes they have to use abbreviations or tricks to remember certain words. Here the word conflict comes into play.

First, consider what you remind you of the foreign word. How do the syllables sound? How do you remember? Then try to bridge that with the meaning of the word. The Spanish word sacar means, for example. "Sacar" sounds like "sack" and "car". So if you imagine getting a garbage bag out of your car, it may help you remember that Sacar means "bring out".

4. Learn sentences; Not just words

Our mother tongues are so easy because we not only recognize words, but also hundreds of common phrases. We process them as a unit and not as individual words. They range from prosaic sentences like "How are you?" And "I go very well" to colorful like "an ax to grind" and "at dawn". The learning of sentences has two advantages: firstly, it adds words context that are otherwise difficult to remember, and secondly, it enables them to recognize word blocks, which makes the overall understanding more fluid.

consider to keep a separate quizlet set for phrases so that you can not only add everyday subtleties, but also idioms and proverbs.

5. Use the virtual immersion

The best way to improve your vocabulary is to immerse yourself in the language you learn. This will not always be possible physically, in this case you have to rely on the virtual immersion. Try the following websites.

alt = “How to improve your vocabulary: Reading woman on the water”> Dream time Use Alexa to identify top websites in the language/region of your choice

Listen

: Visit Tunein to find radio stations in the language of your choice.

Read

: Use Alexa to identify top sites in the language/region of your choice. You may have to filter out all search engines and social websites, but there is an idea of ​​interesting content pages.

View

: Use YAbla to watch videos in the language of your choice. Foreign language films are also a good way to improve their vocabulary. As mentioned in the language tools for lazy learners, simply search in Google for "IMDB: Highest Rated X-Language Feature Films", with "X" being replaced by the language of your choice.

speak: Visit Italki to find foreign language teachers for just $ 5 per hour. Also consider to join a local Meetup group. Internations, a global community of expats, organizes over 4,000 events all year round and offers a great way to find new friends who speak the language they learn.

Of course it is important to dedicate time to proactive learning. We recommend duolingo and regular exercises with quizlet.

BONUS TIP: Save your foreign language articles in Pocket to read them in your free time, or install the Google Translate and DIIGO extensions to translate articles and save versions for later reference online, as described in language tools for lazy learners.

6. Question difficult words

If you start, it is okay to skip words that you do not understand, but as soon as you have achieved the level B1 of the common European framework for languages, it is a good exercise to further question it.

When I read and translated an article on BBC World, for example, I came across the word "Embargadora", for which I did not find a translation, not even in the regular or infinitive form. As a beginner, I would have been based, but instead I asked for a translation on the Q&A page Quora and received some helpful answers. Admittedly, we rarely use words that we don't even find in the dictionary, but is not one of the reasons for discovering new words why we learn a language at all?

A complete list of common English words can be found in 1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling by Edward Fry.

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