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What are good ways to learn vocabulary in Spanish?

What are good ways to learn vocabulary in Spanish?

5
votes

Hi all,

I have been learning Spanish for about a year and have enjoyed the grammar a lot. In fact, I am on my way to being able to speak perfectly with the words I know. Unfortunately, my vocabulary is limited. I am sure that the internet would provide me with many ways that I can learn new words, but what I am after is advice from someone who has experienced learning Spanish. Do you have any advice?

¡Gracias!

1975 views
updated Oct 9, 2017
posted by TheObjectPronoun

4 Answers

4
votes

I will echo something that Polenta said about whole sentences.

Duolingo is a very good site for learning basic vocabulary in whole sentences. They have several different techniques.

  1. See an English sentence and type the Spanish.
  2. See a Spanish sentence and type the English.
  3. Hear a Spanish sentence and type the Spanish.
  4. See several pictures and choose the correct Spanish word.
  5. Hear an English sentence and say the Spanish into the microphone.
  6. And a few more, but you get the idea.

One thing about Duolingo....they don't really teach grammar there. There are a few, very short lessons that you can read, but basically you are only learning by example. Because of this I recommend you start with a more structured course. I started with the free SpanishDict video course which you can find under the main menu - Learning Spanish. It's the one with a picture of the pretty teacher - Paralee.

Memrise is a flashcard site with hundreds of flashcard sets available. One of the good things about Memrise is that they have many lists like "Top 1000 Spanish Verbs" "Top 5000 Spanish words, etc." They also have "Spanish Idioms" and lots of stuff with complete sentences.

Once you have some basic vocabulary memorized I highly recommend that you start reading Spanish. The Spanish Wikipedia (Enciclopedia Libre) is a great place to start. Pick any topic that interests you...sports, famous people, cities, countries. Find the English WIKI article and then click on the left hand side to find the Spanish version.

Start with something that you are very familiar with in English. For example I am an avid golfer. So I read the Spanish WIKI about golf, the U.S Open, the British Open, Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods and probably 50 other golf-related articles. Since I already knew all about these things in English, I was able to learn Spanish golf-related vocabulary and vocabulary dealing with people and places just by context.

Next I started reading about cities, states and countries. I started with the Chicago, the state of Illinois and the United States. Then I read the Spanish articles about every other U.S. state and maybe 25 cities. Then I read the articles about every Spanish speaking country and their major cities. Because I had already learned the vocabulary dealing with geography, culture, weather, economics, demography, etc. from the U.S. cities and states, it was pretty easy to read about Latin American countries and cities. Of course there was a lot of new vocabulary also dealing with native tribes, history, local customs, foods, etc. but it wasn't overwhelming because I had already read about that type of thing in places that I was familiar with.

My favorite tool for learning how to speak Spanish is Mango which is available for free from many libraries. There are hundreds of lessons and you can use it on your computer, tablet or smart phone. Basically you have to talk Spanish. There are basic conversation courses as well as more advanced courses dealing with medicine, law, business, libraries, computers, etc. You can record your voice and the system will give you a percentage grade - i.e. 30% - keep trying, vs. 90% - well done. This forces you to speak Spanish sentences at least as rapidly as you normally as you speak English right from the beginning. In later lessons the speed goes up --- not quite to native fast-talking Spanish, but pretty close.

Also, I highly recommend Lengalia. This is a site created by some Spaniards. It costs $99 per year. There are probably 300-400 hours of lessons...written, audio, video, etc. Great grammar lessons, several thousand test questions, etc. It starts out with simple stuff but it progresses to advanced grammar and audio and video at the lightning speed of real-life Spanish. Much of the audio and video is real-life stuff from television or YouTube. A lot of the text is from newspaper and magazine articles or books. In the beginning there are English translations available...but not right next to the Spanish...you have to click on an icon to view the English version. As the course progresses, the English disappears. You only read and listen to the Spanish and all of the questions and answers are in Spanish. It's a good idea to just listen to the Spanish first to see how much you can understand. Then read the text while listening to the audio. This forces you to read fairly quickly. The listen to the audio by itself. They have hundreds of texts including a lot of dialogue and almost every text has audio. The website is so well done that everything works fine on the internet browser of a smart TV, which is quite rare in my experience with other learning websites.

At the most advanced level you might watch an economist being interviewed about current conditions in Venezuela. This is a real-life interview that occurred on Venezuela television. If you started with this as a beginner you might not understand a word. However, because you were given so much practice with simpler topics at slower speeds in earlier videos, once you get to this you can understand the main ideas. You are given a test about the content of the video and amazingly, you can get most of the questions right!

Also, I love to go to a couple of nearby Mexican restaurants. I like to go for lunch at 2:00 or so when they are not busy. I go in with a plan regarding what I want to practice talking about and prepare some statements and questions, which I practice and memorize ahead of time. These are just to get the ball started. 80% of what I say after that is "off the cuff" which is much harder of course, but after awhile you get better at it. This really forces you to think in Spanish. The waiters and waitresses know me and offer suggestions and corrections. It's a fun way to learn and they really enjoy helping out a gringo who wants to learn their language.

Finally, I teach Mexicans how to speak English. (volunteer / ESL) About 70% of the time we are talking English, but many times, in order to explain something, we talk in Spanish. I've even been invited to weddings and parties where I was the only gringo present and I could practice my Spanish with the other guests.

By the way, in my opinion there is nothing wrong with doing the SpanishDict video course, starting Duolingo, Mango and Memrise at the same time. There are all free and they all start with the easy stuff and progress to the more difficult. By doing some of each every day you can basically practice the same type of material in three ways. Watching video, doing flashcards, writing and speaking. You're less likely to get bored if you do this. I would hold off on Lengalia until you have completed the SpanishDict Video course and Duolingo. Lengalia moves quite quickly off of the basics into more advanced stuff and completing the other courses first will prepare you for the Lengalia challenge.

By the way, you might notice that I didn't mention spending hours and hours practicing verb conjugations. In my opinion, it is much more useful to learn these by practicing them in full sentences with Duolingo. The are websites for practicing verb conjugations but I think that is too much like work and you can learn them by writing complete sentences and enjoy the process much more.

Oh, I almost forgot...start posting original material here on SpanishDict and ask for corrections. You can do this almost immediately by writing very simple stories or even a list of Spanish sentences. You can also participate in our various games. My favorites are the Spanish Word of the Day and the Picture of the Day. You can write something, while using the dictionary to look up words you don't know. The same day you post, you will receive corrections from advanced learners and native speakers.

updated Oct 9, 2017
edited by DilKen
posted by DilKen
How good! - polenta1, Jul 30, 2017
That's great advice. Thanks for your support. - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 30, 2017
Great post mate. - ray76, Jul 31, 2017
6
votes

I think it depends how you learn. For example visual learners like to imagine a picture of the word. I haven't yet used flash cards but it seems a good way to get through targeted vocabulary and others use Memrise and Duolingo.

I write down words that are new and where possible the phrase or sentence they were in. As my vocabulary has expanded I prefer phrases. I look at the word regularly and may try to make sentences with it ,- I have sometimes used a word in a sentence in my Spanish class. Gradually you look at it less maybe once a month then hopefully it is fixed. I do put some words on my computer for easy access but I find the initial physically writing it down is part of the learning. Sometimes you will look a word up and just know in the next year you are unlikely to use it. I do not try and learn those words but occasionally one will stick. You need to expand your vocabulary so don't want to waste time on words you do not need.

Connectors are really useful, they make your words a sentence.

I have fixed some useful vocabulary by just enjoying listening to music, si yo fuera rico - if I were a rich man helps with subjunctive imperfect or Ojala que llueva cafe a catchy song full of the subjunctive.

I can link to some posts here about music if that interests you though you may not be trying to tackle the subjunctive.

I find 10 repetitions makes most things stick.

Edit:

This is written by the Pueblo Institute Mexico 20,000 words in 20 minutes.It is a large resource, but for now check out the cheat sheet which shows patterns in words and should help you improve your vocabulary. In class we will often be given say a noun and be asked to write the verb adverb etc. You learn how the different parts of speech are formed.

cheat sheet

here are two previous answers

answer 1

second one has some music suggestions

Music

Finally I recommend Veintemundos a free electronic magazine. On its site there is a tool and tips for learning vocabulary [which I havent tried] I do however, read the magazine and listen to the videos

[revista][4]

[4]: http:// http://www.veintemundos.com/en/

updated Oct 9, 2017
edited by Mardle
posted by Mardle
Thank you very much for your response. I do think that music may be a good idea, and I would love to see some posts about it. Thank you for your advice! - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 30, 2017
You may want to remove this as best answer and just give me a vote. Sometimes if a post shows you have found a best answer others don't answer and you miss other input. Eg the many Americans on the site aren't up yet. - Mardle, Jul 30, 2017
If after a day or two it does turn out to be the best answer then fine. - Mardle, Jul 30, 2017
I'm new to SpanishDict so thank you very much for not just being selfish and grabbing up the opportunity of getting best answer. Much appreciated! - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 30, 2017
I have answered similar questions often, as have others. One thing try and say things out loud. You are getting your mouth ears and brain used to new sounds. - Mardle, Jul 30, 2017
I gave you a vote. - polenta1, Jul 30, 2017
Thanks for the edit; those links are going to be really helpful to me. - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 30, 2017
The last one hasn't linked properly but just search for Veintemundos. - Mardle, Jul 30, 2017
Ok. - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 31, 2017
5
votes

I'm going to tell you what a teacher told us one day:

If you want to learn vocabulary, never use lists of words. Put them in sentences, in a context.

Also remember that even in our mother tongue the knowledge of vocabulary is not always the same. There is active vocabulary that we know how to use very well and passive vocabulary that we recognize and understand but we are far from using it correctly.

The knowledge of new vocabulary is then a process that takes steps but we have to begin with something even if it's only understanding.

updated Oct 9, 2017
edited by polenta1
posted by polenta1
Great advice! - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 30, 2017
Best advice ever , I also use "memrise .com. - ray76, Jul 31, 2017
4
votes

I am an English teacher. I found that a visual perspective helps immensely.

My students were quite unable to learn verbs...so I created flashcards for them on this site. The result was immediate. You not only have the visual effect but also a competition with other learners. Some of those flashcards are full of my students fighting for a higher score....they learnt the verbs in no time at all.

On this site you can actually create you O W N flashcards. You can also check flashcards created by other people.

if you wish to have a look at my list of flashcards, please click on the link below, there are flashcards created for learners of English and learners of Spanish.

Flashcards Heidita

updated Oct 9, 2017
posted by 006595c6
Ya miré Heidi. Mira que eres trabajadora. - polenta1, Jul 30, 2017
That you very much. I will try that. - TheObjectPronoun, Jul 30, 2017