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Vocabulary Strategies: How to Learn New Words That Stick
Level: B1 · 5 minutes · All Learners
💡 Today’s Idea
The most effective vocabulary learning uses: context (words in sentences), spaced repetition (review at increasing intervals), and collocations (words that go together).
📖 From My Experience
I learned French to C1 as an adult — starting at around 35, in France, with a French wife. I made a mistake that most adult language learners make: I studied words in isolation. A list. Maison, maison, maison. Nothing. When I started reading real French — news, books, menus, government letters — and writing down words in context, the retention was completely different. I still remember contester (to contest, to challenge) because I read it in a legal document that mattered to me.
📚 4 Strategies That Work
- Context first: Read the word in a sentence. Understand it from context before looking it up.
- Collocations: Don’t learn make — learn make a decision, make progress, make a mistake.
- Spaced repetition: Review today, then tomorrow, then in 3 days, then 7, then 30.
- Use it now: Write one sentence using the new word within 5 minutes. Use it in conversation today.
✏️ Try It! (2 minutes)
Pick a new English word you learned this week. Write:
1. A sentence using it in context.
2. Two collocations (words that go with it).
3. Set a reminder to review it in 3 days.
🎯 Quick Quiz
Which is the best way to learn a new word?
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification.
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