Last updated on August 25th, 2024 at 08:52 am
Vocabulary is an important part of any language. It’s impossible to communicate properly if you lack a substantial amount of words. If you don’t have enough French vocabulary you won’t be able to refer to other things, actions or events when you want to.
Of course there are some methods that can help you improve your French vocabulary and none of them are actually focused on reading a dictionary and learning every word by heart.
Today we’re going to tell you 5 strategies to improve your French vocabulary while doing something you can enjoy!
1. Learn French Vocabulary While Reading
This one is pretty obvious. Reading is probably the best way to acquire new vocabulary. First of all you have to choose an area of interest that can help you enjoy what you’re reading. Maybe you’re interested in science fiction, technology, love stories, music or history. Once you’ve thought of something you enjoy learning about, select the format you think will suit you best:
- novels
- magazines
- articles online
- short stories
- text books
Don’t look in the dictionary for every word you don’t get at first. Try to get a definition from context and then check if you are right by looking it up. Underlining and taking notes can also help you memorizing.
2. Crosswords helps you discover new French words
With the arrival of technology, these great old school games have been forgotten. This is very sad knowing they’re a great source of new vocabulary. A crossword is a fun way to learn new words, while you’re figuring out one word you’ll get hints for the other ones.
And the best of all is that they come with the definition already! You can compare them to the ones you find in your dictionary as well!
3. Watch French programs with subtitles
This is an excellent way to improve your vocabulary in French. Watching movies, cartoons, video clips, documentaries, everything with French subtitles will allow you to see the written form of the word and listen to its pronunciation at the same time.
You’ll also get some context that will help you guessing the meaning of the word. Leave your mother tongue subtitles in the past and start receiving all the information in French!
4. Play games in French online
You may think this option is only for kids, but we’re afraid to tell you that’s completely wrong. Games have proven to be powerful educational tools that can help people learn valuable things from almost any field you can think of.
There are many games online specifically designed for people to learn new vocabulary on different areas of the language. There are even complete websites devoted to the creation of educational and academic games.
5. Look up for synonyms/words related
This is a great way to link new words to others you already know. Once you’ve learned a new word you can look for synonyms and take notes. Practice the new words adding them in some sentences so you can memorize them easily.
You can link new words to other words that aren’t synonyms. For example, you can choose an area you want to learn more about and write other words related to it. For instance, “cooking” and then look up for different words related to cooking and kitchen items.
Some people like to put sticky notes on different objects of their house so they can read them each time they use them and memorize the names easily!
You want to improve your vocabulary in French quickly? Why don’t you take some French conversation practice via Zoom with one of our native teachers?! Ask for a free trial lesson and have a professional focusing on your weaknesses.
