You've learned all the basics.
You practiced grammar rules till your brain hurt. You memorized lists of vocabulary and phrasal verbs. You've climbed from beginner to intermediate level in your target language. And you've steadily improved your speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.
Then you hit a wall, and you can't seem to improve further.
What happened?
Once you have learned all the essentials of any language, the next step — whether from beginner to intermediate, or from intermediate to advanced — is exponentially more difficult.
The main reason: As you attempt to have more complicated conversations, you quickly realize you do not know as many words as you require.
Speaking with Clarity
For language learners like yourself, it's a daily frustration to ask or reply to questions using words that are extremely simple compared with the words you know in your native language.
In terms of numbers, Beginners (A1/A2) know about 1,000 words. Intermediates (B1/B2) can recall as many as 4,000 words, and Advanced speakers (C1/C2) know upwards of 16,000 words. That's quite a jump between levels.
Beginners can discuss many topics, but are not able to describe them with much nuance or complexity.
For example: What's the difference between —
I am angry.
I am miffed.
Quite a lot. "Angry" means a general feeling of displeasure or antagonism. "Miffed" is much less strong. It means a slight annoyance, usually not expressed outwardly.
Which adjective you choose will give the listener a very different opinion of what you mean.
Words to Learn First
So, here's the question: Which words do you need to know?
A good place to start: Learning common descriptive words is the quickest way to speak in a clearer and more understandable way.
For example, How often do you see your friend Delilah? Which word best describes your reply?
You can use specific time-related words: daily, weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.
Or you can choose from a wide range of non-specific words that describe frequency: rarely, occasionally, intermittently, periodically, regularly, frequently, often, constantly, etc.
You don't have to stop there. Descriptors are not just adjectives and adverbs. Nouns and verbs also describe.
Noun: What type of book are you reading? Is it fiction or nonfiction? A bestseller, or literature? Murder mystery, sci-fi, or adventure?
Verb: To get to work, are you: walking, sauntering, strolling, running, jogging, skipping, hiking, wandering, or striding?
How Many Is Enough?
Most people are in a big hurry to improve. But you don't need to learn 100 words a day. Besides being impractical, learning so many words would be exhausting, and you are unlikely to remember all of them.
Learning a language like English is not a sprint. It's a multi-year marathon that's best accomplished by walking at a slow, steady pace.
I recommend the Atomic Habits method: Start small. Like ten words a day. That's a good daily number.
How long does it take to study ten words? Twenty minutes, maybe. That includes finding the words and memorizing them. You can certainly devote twenty minutes a day to learning something new. (Eating breakfast can take longer than twenty minutes.)
To be honest, the number of words is not important. What is critical about 'starting small' is making a promise to yourself: I will learn ten words a day. Every day. Without fail.
It's a small daily long-term investment in something you feel strongly about. Like going for a walk, or reading a few pages of a book each day.
Which ten words? Choosing them can be done in one of two ways.
First, get a small notebook (or use a phone app) and write down any random words you learned today. Mark the date, and make a list. If it's more or less than ten words, you're good. More than ten —a bonus!
Or second, choose based on the topic. Pick a common word, and Google a list of synonyms. Choose 10–12 from that search result.
Once you choose your words, look up the definition of each one. Memorize the word and definition as best you can.
How to Remember New Words
Remember: Each daily list of words needs a date at the top. Here's why: Memorizing these words is only the first step.
The best way to remember these words in the long term is to say them repeatedly. But that's not always practical. Not every word you learn is useful all the time.
So let's steal a concept from advertising: "effective frequency." That's the idea that an advertisement must be seen a minimum number of times to be remembered. (I had a marketing teacher who said 'three times' was a good minimum.)
So, every day, open your notebook. Look at the words from five days ago. For how many words do you remember the meaning?
Whichever words you have forgotten, look them up again. Remind yourself of the meaning, and memorize them again.
Then look back ten days. Same process. Look back fifteen days; then twenty days. Just review the words. Do you remember all the words and what they mean?
Waiting for time to pass — five days is a good amount — allows you an opportunity to see if you really remember them. If you don't, take a moment to re-read the definition.
And each day exposes you to a rolling number of words to learn and remember. You should probably remember all the words after the fourth time you review, but take as many times as you need.
Of course, try to use these new words while speaking or writing as much as possible. That will reinforce them in your memory.
Learning requires repetition. Here's one way to learn — and reinforce your memory about — a new group of words every day.
Tom Penketh was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has been teaching English for more than ten years. Previously, he worked as a journalist and managing editor. He spent several years in the movie business as a lighting tech.
Learn more about his English classes at TomsTutoringNYC.com. Please read Tom's extensive collection of original poetry on Medium.