How to learn new words in German? How to learn words correct | Learn German with Leo🦁

How to learn new words in German?

How to learn words correctly and most importantly: which words you need to learn first. What is the first hundred, one thousand you need to know in order to speak and understand the interlocutor?

Everything is very simple. Here is a rough study sequence:
× Learn to read
× Learn basic grammar
× Translate
× Listen
× Talk

In order for words to be well remembered, you must be able to read them!

When you read a word, you kind of write it in your head, sometimes you say it out loud too. Have you noticed that very often a word appears in front of your eyes, you see it pop up in a written form and is it enough to just to pronounce it?

If you have just started building vocabulary, then start reading texts where there is simple and easy grammar, without difficult tenses and any prepositions and their mergers with articles. (Just like my Short German Stories)

When you read, you must clearly understand why the sentence is constructed this way, you must be able to identify grammatical structures. Otherwise, your entire reading will be reduced to the constant decoding.

Read what interests you personally.

In this case, it will be completely your field of interest and reading will be enjoyable, and the foreign language itself will not be "excruciatingly painful".

All words must be from your field. These are the words that you use every day in your language (even explicit ones). The problem, however, is that it is difficult for an ordinary person to stop the endless stream of thoughts in his head and understand what words it consists of.

To simplify this task, do not be lazy and after reading this post, write a short story in your mother tongue about how you get to work or what do you do in your free time!

Firstly, you will stop thinking in all directions at once and you will be able to somehow collect all your thoughts in one place.

Secondly, you will see what phrases and words you use in your mother tongue.

Practice writing your thoughts for at least a couple of days and you will immediately notice which words you use the most. Many words in your text will be repeated and they should be learned and used in a conversation in the first place. This means that you need to start with them.

It is very useful to watch TV series in German, preferably with subtitles. When you listen and read, you have 2 channels of perception. You saw a new word - do not be lazy, look at its meaning in the dictionary and then the meaning of the whole phrase will become clear. It's even better if you create your own sentence with the new word.

The flashcard word study method is more suitable for those who need to take an exam and master the correct words for the exam. For level A1 - create your own vocabulary list. The problem is that these words are not always made for you, so it is difficult to remember, and often not used.

And in order not to grind your teeth on foreign language study, you must clearly understand for what purpose you need it.

The goal of learning any foreign language is to speak it.

And if you are still learning words but don’t speak, then you are using an ineffective method. The language must be spoken, not silent. And believe me, 2-3 thousand words are enough for normal communication. The rest will grow in the process of communicating with foreigners.