The Secret to Remembering Vocabulary

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I will teach you a trick on how to remember vocabulary. So English has the largest vocabulary out of any language. I think it's close to 600,000 words in English. So how are you going to remember so much vocabulary? Well, when I was in China, I created a little trick -- and other people use this trick, too -- that really helped me to remember all the new words I was learning. So in this video, I will teach you this trick.
So what you do -- I have a bunch of interesting pictures on the board -- is any time you come up across a new word and you're learning a new word, you need to make a picture in your head of this word. A good idea is to try to think of other words that sound like this word and imagine funny situations in your mind. So what do I mean by that? Well, let me show you.

The first word I'm going to teach you today is "bald", "bald", b-a-l-d. What does it mean to be "bald"? It means to have no hair, okay? So if you have no hair, you are "bald". How do you remember this word? Well, if you use my trick, you can imagine a word that sounds like "bald" -- maybe "ball", basketball, soccer ball. So in your mind, I want you to imagine a ball. It can be a basketball, a soccer ball -- any type of ball. Now, imagine the ball with a face. Imagine the ball with no hair on top, maybe a little hair on the side, a little hair here, but no hair on the top. Because "ball" and "bald" sound alike, if you imagine this picture for maybe ten seconds, it will help you to remember it in the future, okay? Think "ball with no hair". Okay.

Let's try our second word: "beard". What's a beard? It's the hair that comes off a man's chin -- usually, women don't have beards. So it's the hair that comes down like this. How are we going to remember this word? Well, imagine a man with a beard, and inside the beard is a bird, a little bird, tweet tweet! And what's it doing in the beard? Why, it's drinking beer. Okay? So this little picture is -- don't know if you can see that, but that is beer. So imagine a bird drinking beer. Those two words together -- beer. This isn't beer; this one is. Imagine "bird" and "beer". Together, if you put the words together, they make "beard". A bird drinking beer in a beard. Can you say that fast? "Bird drinking beer in a beard." So maybe, if you picture this for ten seconds, you will remember this word. Okay.

Next word I want to teach you today: "creamed". So what does it mean to be "creamed"? "We creamed you guys." "You guys got creamed." It means someone lost a game very badly. If our team creamed your basketball team, your basketball team lost; our team won. So you don't want to be "creamed". If you get "creamed", it's bad. It means you lost, you lose. So how can you remember this? Well, imagine someone -- maybe somebody you don't like, somebody you play basketball against or some sport. Imagine throwing a bunch of ice cream and it hits their face -- because the keyword "cream", "ice cream". So if you can imagine ice cream on someone's face, it will help you to remember the word "creamed". So imagine that for ten seconds. So think "ice cream on face", "creamed".

[Max_Jacoby]

I've been learning English for almost three years now and I find it very easy to remember nouns. But all other parts of speech are whole different story. And the most difficult part is words with dozens meanings like "smart". It's a very common word and I'm pretty sure anyone know its basic meaning even if (s)he doesn't know English, but check this out:
0. smart girl (clever, intelligent)
1. smart rain (heavy, intensive)
2. smart wine (heady, strong)
3. smart pace (brisk, spirited)
4. smart distance (considerable, great)
5. look smart (elegant, stylish)
6. his eyes were smarting from the dust (hurting)
7. he is still smarting from a put-down (grieving)
8. I hope you'll smart for your carelessness! (pay for)
Yay! That's cool, isn't it? "Smart" doesn't look simple now, huh?

[luisfernandoflores]

She is a special teacher. I like her a lot. I'm learning a lot.

[luckywoo]

"A bird is drinking beer in the beard !"
What an amazing method it is to remember words in simialr pronounciation !

Thank you for your lesson !

[jggwhqc]

I love Emma's way to remember words so it's why learners need a smart teacher to teach them. If you have a good teacher as Emma, you will save time and money for study!

[mcdemetpu]

I can correct you .. right there .. yes English has around 600 000 words but it isn't the largest .. Arabic is .. with more than 12 000 000 words.

[juanmartin]

dearest Emma, every time I watch your videos I am amazed at the clear and straightforward way you have of explaining things!!! I am an ESl teacher myself and I thank you for sharing your videos!!!

[elxlzrw]

English in comparison with some languages like Persian or Hindi is very young, for example, we have around more than 226 million words in Parsi/Farsi.I am a big fan of your lessons Emma.You are one of the motivating teachers I've seen.

[U-]

Arabic vocabulary are more in my opinion.. and thanks for Ur grat video s I have learned a lot.

[natalyak]

Emma, you're just wonderful. I love your way of remembering some words I didn't know such as "condo"...now I understand what it means....THANK YOU!!! And the idea for imaging picture in the head ...I do it all the time...Thank you Emma once again...

[ruxbl]

There are words more dificult to memorize - but is good to know tactics to settle in mind - thanks a lot teacher Emma

[magavigore]

I thing that I have to say this : Arabic holds 12, 300, 912 words, english is the second and it hold 600.000 words ;)

[ChefDerekButt]

The fascinating thing about the english language is that you can express the entire range of human emotions with just one word.

[vasu]

impeccable explaination of how to mug up Innumural vocabs which sometimes sweep out from mind, leaving us to fall in peplexity. We who learn English are blessed to have a teacher like you.. keep going.

[IODKOVSKI]

The most powerful way to learn new words, as for me. More such videos )))

[natanaelpoloni]

Gostei deste modelo de lição, nós ajuda a memorizar as palavras. Parabéns.

[RogerHetfield]

*Awesome video and channel and such a pretty teacher.*

[lamineaim]

since i've discovered this site, i have to admit, i only see your lessons Emma, you're an amazing teacher by your nature, thanks for helping us

[VietTrinhLelmkd]

this is a valid way to learn just for some simple worlds.english has a massive complicated words and sometimes we have to learn by heart the complex phrases that we can not use just this way.

[ukayalbantani]

I remember vocabularies with remember emma's face :-)

[lullybaiownerblake]

In Spanish we say condominio, I will remember this way. Thank you Emma.