Building a vocabulary that actually sticks.
Most words are met once and lost. Three things separate the ones that stay.
read · 3 min
A word learned from a list survives about as long as the list does. The ones that stay have usually been through the same three stages, and none of them take long.
Meet it in a sentence, not in a column
A word on its own carries a translation. A word in a sentence carries the company it keeps — which preposition follows it, whether it is formal, what sort of thing it is normally done to. That is most of what knowing a word means.
Use it the same day
Recognition and recall are different skills, and reading practises only the first. Producing the word once moves it across.
See it again before it fades
Reviewing something you still remember perfectly teaches you nothing. Reviewing it at the point you have nearly lost it is what makes it permanent — which is why spacing the review matters more than the number of repetitions.
Frequently asked
How many new words a day should I learn? Fewer than most schedules suggest. Five words properly met, used and reviewed outlast thirty read off a list.
Are flashcards enough on their own? They handle the seeing-it-again part well and the using-it part not at all. Pair them with one sentence of your own per word.