Any good tip you could share?
Do you use any mnemonic to help yourself memorize or differentiate words which have similar meaning or look alike? For example, I try to remember the spelling of the following groups of words well but it is not easy for me to do so.
lavar, llevar, llover, lluvia
nieve, nueve, nuevo, novio
How do you overcome any group of words which confuse or trouble you very much?
6 Answers
I sometimes try ways to connect the words with their english meanings. So:
lavar is to vash ;
llevar is to carry - two els in the first, two rs in the second;
llover - to rain all over ;
lluvia - the rain at UVa (University of Virginia, to Americans).
Sometimes, though, it's quicker just to read the words out a whole bunch of times, or write them out, until they sink in.
For remembering the distance for demonstrative pronouns, (ese, este, aquel etc.) This little saying from my PowerPoint has helped me. If it has a t, it's close to me.
Then for verbs, I like to come up with words that relate to the verb and that might have a similar sound. Like pedir which means to ask for, or to request. So I like to use the word petition to help me remember what it means because petition petition can mean to ask for or request in a way, but both words sound similar at the beginning. Then with the verb ayudar, which means to help, my Mom and I have this little joke about a Norwegian (yes, I am from Northern MN) who asks another Norwegian "A you dar?" like are you there. We were just being funny, but after that whole thing happened, I knew I would not forget that one, and so far I haven't. grin I hope all of that made sense, and can help you.
For me "tricks" are not effective--only practice.
I agree with LittleMike, with the exception that if I have one particularly troublesome word I can sometimes come up with a mnemonic to tide me over until the practice suffices.
But for big groups like you mention such as ¨lavar, llevar, llover¨ (and why not llegar y llamar too) those simply don´t work for me.
I struggle with some similar groups sometimes too (sentar and sentir, especially in first person, siento which I let confuse me) but in general, it always seems to work out after I quit trying so hard. The words you really need will automatically come to the fore and be noted, just through reading or talking.
I remember words by listening to music, once I've heard a word enough times in songs I'll always remember the context.
Hola, LittleMike, bailarina95, and Roger,
Don’t get me wrong. I am not cutting corners, but I believe it’s no harm to know some effective and efficient ways to learn things, including a new language. In my opinion, good methods can prevent us from wasting lots of time on groping for the right way to go. Everyone has his or her learning pace. Some people learn very quickly but others don’t. If you were a teacher, how would you teach your students with different levels in the same class? Good teachers won’t give up those who learn slowly, so they will try every possible way to help those left behind, and mnemonics is one of the feasible ways to improve the learning effect.
When I was in middle high, my math teacher taught us how to differentiate trigonometric functions like sine, cosine, tangent by using each of the first letter shape of the three words respectively and till now I still remember it very clearly. By the way, is there any young kid around you who has a problem to tell principle from principal? Maybe you could tell him/her this way-- "A princiPAL at a school is your PAL, and a principLE you believe is a ruLE." It may work for him/her so that he/she won’t confuse any more.
As for learning through songs, it is a very good way to do so. One of my English teachers taught us sentence patterns by finding songs for us. For example, how did she teach us the expression “All/What sb have/has to do is V”? She found the song “All I have to do is dream” for us. We learned it not only quickly but also happily and wouldn’t make a mistake like “All I have to do is dreaming” or “All I have to do is to dream.”
If everyone can chip in with some learning tips here, we can help each other learn Spanish better. I would like to introduce a video lesson which may help beginners remember the Yo form of some common irregular verbs of preterit.
Spanish Lesson - Preterite - Irregulars - Song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFUAWMMdE7c
Now, would you please tell me what kind of sentence patterns or grammar do you learn from the songs you listen to? Or any other learning tips you use?
