Fun Ways to Memorize Spanish Words
The number one question today was "considering quitting the language." Most people quit because they can't remember, and I have a few fun sayings to memorize words. Example: Behind Detrás What is the last two letters of detrás? What does the last two letters look like that is another word for behind (the bottom way). Tomorrow Mañana It's funny how today is a woman's world, but tomorrow is a * *odd (referring to the mark on the n) man's world** world, Ana. First Primera When painting, you always use a primer first.You didn't? A!!! (Ah, but primera isn't spelt primerah, it is primera) On Top Encima The book is on top, so you can see, Ma (encima). PLease post some of your own! Please explain well, because what makes sense in your mind may confuse someone else. Over-explaining is better than under explaining.
21 Answers
I confuse the words for "spoon" ("cuchara") and "knife"("cuchillo"), so I picture the l's in "cuchillo" as 2 knives.
I try not to do too much of this, though. You really can't think that way or you will be on the third step of translating something in your head when the speaker is 10 sentences past. But anything that can help remember words or phrases, until you've got them memorized is helpful.
Funny if you haven't studied etymology. Words like manufacture have the same root, and no one think they are funny.
Funny, I was under the impression that the word manufacture stemmed from the words manu - a hand (ablative case of manus) and fact?ra - a making (from the verb facere - do, act, make); meanwhile, the word mañana, if I am not mistaken, stems from the Latin word mane - morning, early, early in the morning. When prescribing medicine, this term is still used today (sig codes) by physicians: mane—in the morning.
On the other hand, words with similar roots to the word manufacture would be manual, manubrium, manuscript and manifest. Meanwhile, Spanish words that share this root would be mano, manufactura, manual, manejo, manejar, manifestar and manejable.
I have two objections to the general thrust of the thread. !) inventing and learning a mnemonic for a single word seems like a doubling of effort. Why not just remember the word (along the lines of what Lorenzo said)? The other is more general. On the whole, language learning is about learning phrases (patterns of sentences/utterances) than about vocabulary (in isolation).
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs can, of course, be learned in isolation. However, the emphasis should be on learning phrases since they are, in fact, the building blocks of conversation. When you have the phrase in mind, substituting a noun, verb, adjective or adverb is fairly mechanical but coming from the other direction: constructing a phrase out of its individual grammatical elements is much more prone to error.
Really the only thing I do to associate words is to try to match them with the English word that might have come from the same root. I say might have, because I am not lazarus, so my guesses are guesses. So there are the obvious- mano and manual, the less obvious- feo and fetid (I do not know if they really are related, but it works for me) and the more obscure - volar and volant, árbol and arboreal (knowing biology really helps since most of the vocabulary is Latin based).
I really agree with DR 1980 that the goal is instantly knowing the word, not just being able to figure it out, if you are really trying to learn the language and not just pass a class. For me, with words like delante and detrás, I find that success comes with a huge number of repetitions done as quickly as possible so that it comes out right, without thought. I have idly thought about rigging up an electroshock device (for any mistakes) to speed up the learning process, but am not sufficiently technically adept.
I actually find some of the words that are very similiar to be challenging in a different way, in that I find myself disinclined to study them enough to have confidence in using them. I actually did challenge my wife to find a word in English that ended in "ity" that I could not find a related "idad" word for in Spanish (she won with serendipity). This kind of learning game can be a fun way to learn words, but you have to watch for where the meanings do not overlap precisely.
I think games such as naming everything you can see, describing your actions to yourself with everything you do, etc. actually can be more fun.
Finally the key is repetition, I think KevinB said in one thread that you do not learn anything until you have said it 16 times; I am not convinced I can do it that quickly.
You know, some folks find they are helped by these little games and word associations, others aren't. So I think this is a good thread for those who find it helpful. The problem with these little mind tricks is that they are, by and large, connections my by us as individuals, and draw on our life experiences, perhaps something memorable that's happened to us, so something that might be helpful to one will be totally lost on another.
If nothing else, it's interesting to see how others' minds work, and it also shows the unbelievable lenghts that some of us go to try to get a new language to "stick". So, if it works for you, go for it. If it doesn't, don't pick on folks that do. Just my opinion.
Read the rules. You are supposed to be encouraging!
Being encouraging (providing "courage" ["heart"]) does not mean indiscriminately praising any and all statements made in a/any thread. That's "flattery" rather than "encouragement". Corrections, contrary opinions, and alternative constructions/translations/explanations are all welcome.
Perhaps, introductory statements like "Nice try but ..." as opposed to "You should say ..." are perceived by some as more "encouraging" but the simple fact is that in learning a new language you will make tons of mistakes (the only alternative being to say nothing which some people do out of fear of making mistakes but that is not the road to language competence). You will make mistakes and the kindest/most encouraging people are those who will take the trouble to provide corrections.
I don't think I've ever seen a reply that said "That's a really stupid answer/opinion" although I've certainly seen ones that stated that "Nobody would say that."
Example: Behind Detrás What is the last two letters of detrás? What does the last two letters look like that is another word for behind (the bottom way).
That's one way. The other is to think of "trans-oceanic" (over or behind the ocean), transmit (trans- = over + mittere = send), transfer (trans- = over + ferre = carry), transcribe (trans- = over + scribe = write, escribir), tranport (trans- = over + portare = carry),...
Tomorrow Mañana It's funny.
Funny if you haven't studied etymology. Words like manufacture have the same root, and no one think they are funny.
Funny, I was under the impression that the word manufacture stemmed from the words manu - a hand (ablative case of manus) and fact?ra - a making (from the verb facere - do, act, make)
What I meant is that "manufacture" in English and "manfufactura" in Spanish have the same root. I wasn't comparing "manufacture" and "mañana", but I can see why you thought that after re-reading my post.
Don't piscina pool. Piscina is the word for pool
The first Spanish phrase I ever learned was one of the only ones my mother still remembered learning in school. She used to say, "Lo ciento - I'm sorry you have a low seat." To remember how to say she was sorry, she was told that 'lo ciento' sounded a bit like 'low seat', and she would feel sorry if someone had to sit on a low seat. It's a bit silly, but she still remembers after all these years!
About my statements to Lazurus-
I only posted a segment of my private message to him. I address it more. I was in a bad mood then., 
But now I'm 
I see what he wrote was okay, it wasn't as you guys pointed out, flattery but did offer opinion. he wrote, "Funny if you haven't studied etymology. Words like manufacture have the same root, and no one think they are funny." By reading it differently, my mistake, I edited it and thanked him in a message about awaring me about this, he got a totally different meaning. I felt, and this is MY opinion, that he was trying to upgrade himself, and belittle me by pointing out his education. I'm an A student, okay?!!?! Straight A's. I'm 15! Really!
Read the rules. You are supposed to be encouraging!
(I have no idea how you all put boxes and formatting in your answers)
I agree entirely with what Samdie had to say in his response.
This is a language learning site. I am here to learn through interaction. If there is no feedback, what is the point. When I type something in Spanish, I would far rather have some one say "no, you are wrong, it needs to be like this" than to ignore an error, and have me discover a month later (when I have learned more) that I put something stupid down and no one bothered to tell me (teach me). The efforts that people make here to correct things are greatly appreciated, and I fully recognize that it takes time and effort on their part.
Likewise with concepts, if you are not willing to entertain a difference of opinion, why post that thought. I learn from the input of others, and if at the end of the discussion, my viewpoint is altered somewhat, then it was a gain. If it is a viewpoint that I am not willing to argue about (or change), I just don't post it.
It's a bit of a mystery to me, why there are some words which 'go in' immediately and stay there, and others that I have to look up countless times before they stay.
It doesn't seem to matter whether they are long or short, and there are some words for which I can find no 'link' with the English word at all, however tenuous, and yet they are retained, for example I heard 'murcielago' once and it's been with me ever since.
Occasionally I will try to give my brain a little reminder, however I have to wonder why it will remember the reminder and not the actual word....
for example.... I have trouble remembering 'foca' for seal, and I have to say to myself...."Now there's a big f***a of a seal over there!"
I just keep carrying on, and am grateful for every word that I remember when I need it! 
I only took a few years of Latin classes in high school, but that little bit of knowledge seems to help me tremendously with associating English and Spanish words. I chose the language over Spanish, because I did not want to be like "everyone else." It's ironic to realize that now learning Spanish is something that I'm rather passionate about. 
In learning Spanish, I simply revert back to my old routine of flipping through hundreds of flash cards. The only flaw in this method is its lack of stimulation. "Hell is repetition," but repetition is the key to memorization.
I remember being taught a phrase in grammar school like "A red Indian. . ." in order to help us learn how to spell "arithmetic". I never did learn the phrase and found it easier to just learn how to spell the word. Most tricks for learning Spanish have the same problem for me: they are just another thing to remember, often harder than the original word/phrase/grammar rule was to learn. I guess we all learn in different ways.
