How To Memorise Vocabulary Words For Good

Here's a question that landed in my inbox recently from John. I bet you've experienced something similar:

“Hi Olly, I have a problem practising new words. Last month I flew into Heathrow, so I learned the Mandarin for Heathrow. Two weeks later I went to see friends at a restaurant near Heathrow, so I used the same word. I won't use it again. How do I make sure I don't forget the word?”

Sound familiar? John's got a word he's learned – he knows it and he doesn't want to forget it. But what can he actually do to make sure that it sticks and that he doesn't forget it in due course? Put otherwise: how to memorise vocabulary words?

You know what often happens: we learn a word and then sure enough, a week later we think “oh what was that word again?” and it's gone.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this post:

Before We Dive In: Is This Word Worth Your Time?

Now John has said that he's not going to use this word again (Mandarin for “Heathrow”, a London airport).

If you already know that you're not going to use this word again, then is it really the right thing to be doing to be spending lots of time and effort actually making sure that you don't forget it?

Possibly not. If it's not a word that you particularly need and you're just worried about forgetting it on principle, then don't worry about it.

You might want to spend the effort that you're going to make to learn this word on things that you are going to need.

But I'm not here to lecture you on what you should and shouldn't learn, so let's talk about the principles of memory.

How To Memorise Vocabulary Words: The 3 Essential Principles

In a case like this, you can't just let nature take its course because that's the big danger in the first place – that you're going to forget the word.

That means you're going to have to put some time and effort into actually making sure you can remember it. To a certain extent, you're going to have to force it.

There are lots of memory principles that you can use to actually memorise a word in the first place, but given that you already know it, there are three things you need to take into account:

1. See it often – You're going to have to see it or come across this word many, many times
2. Use it in different contexts – You're going to have to see it and use it in different situations
3. Personalise it – Make it relevant to you and your life

Let's break those down.

Principle #1: How To Use The Forgetting Curve To Your Advantage

If you've come across something called the forgetting curve, you know that at various regular intervals we start to forget words.

What that means is you have to reintroduce those words or see them again at strategic points to make sure that you don't forget them.

The forgetting curve which shows you at what points your memory tends to fail you. Without getting into too much detail, this is at ever-increasing intervals.

You might forget a word first of all after 1 hour, and then you might forget it again after one week, and then two weeks, and then four weeks, and then eight weeks.

The exact times don't really matter and of course they're different for everybody.

The Spaced Repetition Solution

What you've actually got to do is plan to bring this word back at these regular intervals and have a system for that.

It's all very well for me to say “yeah, you have to bring back this word after two weeks and after four weeks,” but how do you actually do that?

The simplest way of doing this is by using spaced repetition system software. You might be familiar with apps and programmes like Anki, Memrise, or the one that I use which is called Flashcards Deluxe.

What you can do is take the vocabulary that you want to remember and stick it into this spaced repetition system.

What it will do is automatically bring back the words in the form of flashcards for you to review at these strategic points, which is based on the science behind the forgetting curve.

In order to deal with this problem of seeing it often, spaced repetition is your best friend.

Principle #2: Master Vocabulary Through Multiple Contexts

The second memory principle is to see and use this word in lots of different contexts.

Right now you may have heard the word, but what you need to be doing to make sure it goes into your long-term memory is to be using it in lots of natural contexts.

You need to see it, you need to write it, you need to say it, you need to hear it. This is the best way to reinforce it in memory.

Here are some practical things you can do:

Drop it into conversation: If you're having a chat with your language teacher, you could find some excuses to say the word “Heathrow.” You might need to be a little bit creative, but it's usually possible to find an excuse to say a word if you really want to.

Write sentences using the target word: I like to write little sentences using the target word. In the case of Heathrow, I'd try and find lots of different contexts or things that I might want to say about Heathrow and write out some sentences using the word.

What you could do then is give those sentences to your tutor to correct. Something that I like to do is go to a website like HiNative, write those sentences up and have a native speaker correct me.

Then I can read their responses – again, you're starting to read it in context, which all helps your memory.

If that sounds like a bit too much hard work, then you could just:

• Make up sentences while walking: When you're walking around the house or on the street, just make up some sentences using the word “Heathrow” and say them out loud. It might sound silly, but it all helps you to keep processing it and keep bringing it back.
• Use visual reminders: Take the word and stick it on some Post-it notes and stick it on your front door and the fridge so that you keep seeing the word on a regular basis.
• Set calendar reminders: I've done things like set calendar reminders on my email or on my phone so that at random times throughout the month it will just pop up and show me that word again.

Principle #3: The Power of Personalisation In Vocabulary Learning

This is a combination of seeing the word in different contexts and also personalising it – making it relevant to you. There are lots of different things you can do, and this connects directly to making words memorable.

The irony for John is that because he's already been to Heathrow and he's learned this word on purpose and he's obviously got an emotional connection of some kind with it, he may find actually that he doesn't forget the word at all.

Often when they're very relevant to your life like this, words like this do tend to stick. So in John's case, he may find he doesn't need to do any of these things.

A Special Note For Chinese Learners

In the case of foreign words in Chinese, they tend to be a little bit odd, especially for us as English speakers.

I would also encourage you to make sure that you get the pronunciation of this word in Chinese completely right from the start.

Make sure you get that checked with a native speaker because if you want to go to the effort of learning this word, then you want to make sure that you do get the pronunciation right from the start.

How To Memorise Vocabulary Words FAQ

The Bottom Line: No Guarantees, But Better Odds

Ultimately, there is no guaranteed way to make a word stick, but you can increase your chances of memorising it by doing all these three things:

• seeing it often
• using it in different contexts
• personalising it as much as possible

Since this takes a bit of time to do on an ongoing basis, this whole thing begs the question of: what should I be spending my time on?

That's why I always come back to the fundamental question – is this really a word you need to know?

But when you do decide a word is worth learning, these three principles will give you the best shot at making it stick for good.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.