Memorizing Vocabulary: One Trick

I use this trick to memorize Greek words

Photo by Koushik Chowdavarapu on Unsplash

If you are in the middle of acquiring a new language; you are on the same boat with me.

I’m on my way to master Greek. I need it to engage in meaningful conversations with locals and read modern literature.

My native languages are Indonesian and Javanese, and the only foreign language I’m familiar with is English.

So, it’s undoubtedly true that Greek is so Greek to me.

The alphabet is so foreign for me. The grammar is way more complex than English’s.

But in one way, Greek words are quite uniform.

Many words share a pattern, linguistically called prefix and suffix.

In English, a prefix is like re- in recount, rename, revisit, and review. A suffix is like -ize in stabilize, mobilize, and dramatize.

The pattern is part of the trick I’m about to tell you: spotting the pattern!

Spotting the pattern

This is obvious, but in Greek, you have to master the alphabet first before you start seeing the patterns in the language.

I wrote an article about my confusion and fascination when learning the Greek alphabet here.

Lessons from the Greek Alphabet

But if you learn a language that shares the same alphabet as your native language, you can skip the memorizing-alphabet’s part.

So, you can start by collecting as many words as possible. You can use flashcards or something as simple as notes. I use notes.

Find something similar among all the words you want to memorize. The similarities are most likely either at the beginning or at the end of the words. When you find one, then you find the pattern.

In learning Greek, patterns among words are abundant. It’s unavoidable that you’ll almost certainly spot them.