Everybody is different, even when learning a language (and we love this fact at escuela habla 🙂 ), and today we’d like to help all of you who are interested in improving or  increasing your vocabulary, especially in Spanish. In our last blog entry of learning tips of escuela habla, word combinations, we provided you with some ideas on how to better understand some expressions, as well as with some resources to look them up. This time we’re going to focus on another vocabulary aspect: how to work on the vocabulary of the language you’re learning.

How many words do I need to know?

In Spanish, for instance: the latest version of the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la lengua (the Spanish dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish language) has 93,111 words. Obviously, you cannot learn all the words in this dictionary :-D. Neither can you manage only with a hundred words, as it is clearly said in this interesting article: «100 words of English: How far can it get you?».

The recommended amount of words is close to what it’s said in ads like «Learn a language with a thousand words!», because you will need a minimum of 1,500 words to be able to communicate. From them on, you would get better at expressing yourself and understanding other people, at specifying things… An average speaker normally uses approximately 20,000 words (and he/she can understand around 40,000 words), so this could be a good goal, for a start, when learning a language (like Spanish 🙂 ). But calm down, hehe, we know this is process that works step by step.

Where shall I start?

In this first blog entry on how to work on your vocabulary we’ll focus on its organization and how you can make the most of your vocabulary notes. As you may know…

WORDS DON’T WORK ON THEIR OWN.

They belong to a word group. E.g. what do gato, vaca and pajaritos (cat, cow and birds) have in common? ─ they are animals. What about comedor, bombilla and horno (dining room, bulb and oven)? These three words belong to a semantic group, that is, a group of words connected by their meaning. In this way we can say that the first group of words belongs to the semantic group of animals and the second one is part of the group of household goods.

Don’t write down words any old how; it’s better to group them together in small glossaries according to their semantic field: feelings, jobs, furniture, living beings… Words are often like Russian dolls: you can include some of them inside others, or in more specific or abstract fields, you choose!

Besides, grammar is REALLY important. Even if you know hundreds of words, nobody is going to understand you if you start your speech by saying something like: niña morder perro (girl bite dog). Remember some words have a complete different meaning depending on their grammar structures, so be careful:

If you’re studying Spanish, you should write down every noun together with its masculine or feminine article: LA casa (the house, feminine), EL animal (the animal, masculine).

Besides, both in nouns and adjectives, you should specify somehow their gender change: gato/a, vaca/toro (cat, cow/bull) or put any mark if the word doesn’t change at all: pájaro\ (bird).

Regarding verbs, it’s also good to get used to writing them down adding some notes. We’ll give you some tips:

• To add the preposition or pronoun if the verb needs them: depender DE, arrepentirSE (to depend on, to regret).
• Include some notes next to verbs which have a «special structure», for example:
  • gustarLE algo(S) a alguien (to like). In this way you will know that the verb gustar needs a pronoun and the subject is not usually a person.
  • interesar (to be interested in) [=gustar]. Once you know how this kind of verbs work, you can have them as models for other similar verbs.

Words work in a context. Now that we know that words are interconnected and that we have also to take into account their grammar structures, do you think it’s necessary to understand each and every word in a text? The answer, of course, is no.

Especially at the beginning, you should try to understand the global meaning of texts. Trying to understand every word can drive you mad!

It can be useful, though, to find and write down words of the same semantic field. Since all texts have a topic, there should be a lot of words from that topic. Why don’t you focus on these words and make the most of them?

We hope to have helped you a little! Next month we’ll give you some more tips on vocabulary, don’t miss them! Besides, we’ll appreciate your ideas or comments 🙂

let’s practise!:

• There are some underlined words throughout the text: can you find the relationship between them? 😉
• Would you like to find out how many words you know, both in your mother tongue and in other languages? In Papel en blanco you’ll find out how to calculate it! (Only available in Spanish)
• Now that you’ve read this article in English, would you dare to read it in Spanish? 🙂 Here it is: ¿eh!, trucos: trabajar el vocabulario (primera parte)

Leave your comments on our facebook wall!

related schedules:

• ¿eh!, trucos: trabajar el vocabulario (primera parte).