Connections, connections everywhere

Connections are important, not only on the job market ;-), but also when you're studying vocabulary. Your head really is a lot like a sieve, and the new words are grains of sugar poured through it. When you read through new words for the first time, almost all of them (= all the grains of sugar) except for a few lucky ones will fall through the sieve that is your memory. In order to make them stay in your sieve, or your memory, you have to collect the sugar and pour it through the sieve many, many times. In other words, it is essential to start studying early enough and repeat the words many, many times. But that is not enough: You also have to find connections. Between the new words and words you already know, books you've read, pictures you've seen...anything, really. When several words or grains of sugar "connect", they form a lump that won't fall through the sieve anymore, no matter how hard you shake. What is annoying the kitchen, is very useful when studying vocabulary!

I'm not going to talk about finding collocations or example sentences here. They are already part of my vocab learning strategy and you can read about them in my other vocabulary post. So which other connections are there?

Word family

By "word family", I mean all the words that are "related" because they share a common root. An example could be "compulsion, compulsive, compulsory". But be careful! Sometimes words that seem very similar can have very different meanings. I can help you to try and pack all of these words into one sentence (even better if it is a funny one!) to show their different meanings. Here is one example from my glossary:

"Having a commodious (spacious) house with a commode (a thing that looks like a chair but is a toilet) is a valuable commodity (quality)."

Pictures

I'm sure we all know the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words". Sometimes it's enough when it's worth one. For example, while I was creating the glossary, I was looking for words that are "related" to atom, and I found the word "atomizer". The description I found was: "a device that changes a liquid into small drops by forcing it out through a very small hole" (Cambridge Learner's Dictionary). Sounds very technical, doesn't it? I decided to do a Google picture search, and voilà, an atomizer is actually this simple object: 

Another example, and a question for you: Why do you think there is this picture of the Avengers in my glossary?

Answer: because I like the Avengers? Also, but mainly to remember the meaning of the word "assemble"! :-)

I hope my additional vocab learning strategies inspired you. If you have anything to add, or any more suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!