How to memorize 100 English words a week easily

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Basic set for understanding the language in 10 weeks.

How to choose words to study

Each language has a set of tokens that make up most of everyday speech. Knowing 1,000 words, you will be able to understand 74.5% of non-fiction, 82.3% of fiction and 84.3% of spoken language.

By studying 100 words a week, after 2, 5 months you will be able to understand simple texts and maintain everyday conversations.

Here are the 5,000 most common English words, and the first 1,000. If you are learning a language from scratch, use them to build your basic set. Just write everything down and teach in order.

For those who are already somewhat familiar with the language, the grouping method is suitable. You will spend a little more time creating the list, but it will make your memory work easier.

How to group words

This method will help you create additional links. Even if you forget the meaning of a word, you will be able to navigate by the group to which it belonged.

Words on one topic

This principle of teaching is used in the school curriculum, when a lesson on a certain topic contains a list of new tokens.

• muscle - muscles
• connective tissue - connective tissue
• liver - liver
• kidney - kidneys
• brain - brain
• blood - blood

• lymph - lymph

  Related words

  Choose several words with a similar meaning. Ideally, read examples of their use so that you don't get confused when using them in context. You can find related words.

  • compelling - undeniable, convincing
  • compulsory - required, forced
  • forcible - violent, forced
  • imperative - imperative, required

  • coercive - forced

    Single-root words

    The path for the stubborn and curious. Write down all the variants containing a certain root and find out the origin of the word. This can slow down your learning, but later on you will have an approximate idea of what this token is, even forgetting the exact meaning. Several variants of such lists can be found.

    • jekt - from Latin "to throw"
    • projector - the projector (what throws the image onto the screen)
    • to object - to object, protest (throw an objection)
    • to subject - subject, subordinate (throw under oneself)
    • injection - injection (throw something inside)
    • reject - to reject (to throw away from oneself)
    • interject - to insert (throw between)
    • trajectory - trajectory (the path to be thrown)
    • jettison - to get rid of (throw away)
    • eject - to eject, eject (discard)
    • conjecture - guess (throw guessing together)

    • dejected - dejected

      Different forms of one word

      Even if you’ve learned something well, another form in the text can confuse you. By memorizing all derivatives at once, you will prevent confusion and unnecessary looking into the dictionary.

      • beautiful - beautiful
      • beautifully - beautifully
      • beauty - beauty

      • beautify - to decorate

        Collocations and expressions

        Expressions and phrases are remembered much better than individual words. It also makes it easier for you to recognize what you've learned in the text.

        • moral imperative - moral duty
        • forced displacement - forced movement
        • compulsory labor - forced labor

        • free and compulsory education - free and compulsory education

          Try grouping according to different criteria and find what works for you.

          How to learn new words

          Our memory has some peculiarities, and in order to better memorize new words, you need to use them.

          Apply the card method

          If you repeat a word several times in a row, it is remembered worse than if it occurs after 6–20 other words. This feature is called the lag effect, and many systems for working with cards are built on its basis.

          Cut cards out of paper or create them in the free app. On one side, write a new word or expression, and on the other, a translation or example of use in English. You can add pictures, freehand drawings - anything that will help you remember the desired meaning.

          Repeat a new word once, then place the card at the bottom of the pile and move on to the next. When you return to the first lexeme, it will have time to gain a foothold in your memory, and repetition will make the connection that has arisen even stronger.

          Here are some free options for creating cards:

          When working with cards, you will use another feature of human memory - the distribution effect. Its essence is to periodically return to the learned information when it is about to be forgotten. Remembering the material covered in a day, 10 days, a month, you firmly anchor it in the brain.

          To use this effect, divide your cards into three piles or lists if teaching in the app:

          1. Brand new, just added.
          2. More or less familiar.
          3. Well learned.

          You need to take cards from the first and second groups with you all the time and repeat the words at any opportunity: on the bus, in a traffic jam, at lunch. The third pile can be left at home and returned to it no more than once every seven days.

          Create a 100-word list at the start of the week. They will all be in the first pile. Pick 20 words on Monday, take with you, and study throughout the day. Repeat the list in the evening: if you have learned all the elements, put them in the third pile and leave them at home. If you come across a stubborn word, add it to the list of new ones the next day and repeat with them until it stays in your memory.

          Return to what you learned no more than once a week. If, during one of these checks, you realized that the already known word was completely forgotten, add this card to the new ones and proceed accordingly.

          If you are using an application where you cannot exclude learned words from the list, the first and second categories can be combined - learn everything together, and at the beginning of the next day create a new list.

          Flashcards - Study, Memorize & Improve Vocabulary has an Add to ignored function. It allows you to take turns eliminating words that you remember well, and then bringing them back to repeat the entire list once a week.

          Visualize the meaning of a word

          New lexemes stick to memory much better if you associate them with some way. There are several options for good visualization:

          1. Exaggeration. If it's a subject, try to imagine something global. For example, if you need to memorize the word root, you can imagine a huge tree blowing up the asphalt with its roots and destroying houses.
          2. Traffic. The brain concentrates better on moving objects, so you can make your visualizations a little more mobile. For example, compulsory education can be thought of as a scene from the movie The Wall, where children roll down a conveyor belt and fall into a meat grinder.
          3. Something fantastic and funny. Unusual creative associations are better remembered than standard ones. Turn on your imagination, let these images surprise and amuse you. For example, to memorize the phrase forced displacement, imagine Yoda from Star Wars holding a pillar over Obi-Wan with his Jedi power. His catchphrase will immediately help you: “May the force be with you”.
          4. Emotional. Any emotion, good or bad, is deeply engraved in the memory. For example, to memorize the phrase compulsory labor, you can imagine your parents sending you to your grandmother's summer house, where you had to dig out beds in the blazing sun for half a day. If you come up with an association based on emotion, the new material will surely be well remembered.

          Imagine using the word in life

          This method is more time consuming than simple associations, but gives good results. You can use it for particularly stubborn words that don't want to be memorized.

          Imagine not just an image, but a situation in which you use this word. Visualize in your head how you pronounce it, who you are talking to, what is happening around. For example, you want to memorize the verb to object. Imagine how you are sitting in a meeting, a colleague says complete nonsense, everyone agrees with him and you, overcoming your fear of being misunderstood, say: “I object to that idea” (“I am against this idea”).

          You can not just imagine, but actually act out this scene: say the phrase out loud, add a suitable facial expression and gestures. It may sound strange, but you will surely have fun.

          How not to forget what has already been learned

          In addition to periodically returning to the material covered, you need to practice more in applying your knowledge.

          Improving your vocabulary is important, but this activity alone will not help you learn the language. Try to read more in English: download your favorite book or subscribe to the newsletter of an English-language site. The main thing is that you don't just practice for the sake of learning the language, but are really interested in what you read. Then there will be more progress.

          Watch all the movies and TV shows you love with English subtitles. Emotions are important, remember? Learn your favorite movie phrases, write cool lines from the lyrics.

          If you don't have much time for class, use this method to create new word lists. Download your favorite book or find an article on an interesting topic and read until you have a list of 20 new tokens for the next day or 100 for a week.