Thread: how do you memorise words?

i just thought of a new idea. try to think of the russian word and then imagine people and objects that represent each letter. here's an example of one i just learned.
(because the word means 'feverish the first thing i imagine is a sick guy led in bed and then lined up next to the bed the following')
л
и a girl i know called Lina

х
о a girl i know who is a bit of a slut (or a choir)
р

а
д-- a devil with comic fork (rpresenting the russian word for hell)

о--- a pair of sunglases (ОЧки)
ч

н--- a pair of knees
ы
й

seems quite good. what methods do you guys use?

How would you memorize this word?

удовлетворительный
satisfactory

Or, my favourite. Достопримечательности

That's too much to remember for me. I just pick one image per word. Or a word that sounds like it like...

слизъ = slime so I think of a sleazy slimeball.

потерятъ = to lose something so I think of Harry Potter looking for something. like that.

Originally Posted by Biancca

потерятъ = to lose something so I think of Harry Potter looking for something. like that.

Ah! So you admit that you do have a thing for Mordan?

Originally Posted by DDT

Originally Posted by Biancca

потерятъ = to lose something so I think of Harry Potter looking for something. like that.

Ah! So you admit that you do have a thing for Mordan?

That's why she turned from blue to green! It all makes sense now!

I'm pretty sure Mordan has dropped off the face of the earth.

And Pendragon too. I wish he would come back I need help with French again.

I'll be happy to help you with your French

Hey kalinka_vinnie,

It seems like you erase messages as often as I do hahaha.

Originally Posted by DDT

Or, my favourite. Достопримечательности

человеконенавистничество beats your word.

Originally Posted by Biancca

Hey kalinka_vinnie,

It seems like you erase messages as often as I do hahaha.

Never underestimate the power of the delete button!
Now the rest of the forum can wonder what we are talking about

Originally Posted by saibot

Originally Posted by DDT

Or, my favourite. Достопримечательности

человеконенавистничество beats your word.

That's a cool word Saibot. I've got to memorize that one.

I already have "Достопримечательности" memorized. That is also a cool word.
I think somebody posted this word before.

Mates, you should not memorize these words. Just divide them into basic parts: Человек(man)+о(-o- is used for conjunction words)+ненавист (ненависть hate) + ничество (the suffix ничество - ness/-city) so человеконенавистничество is kinda "mankindhatenessity". You can also make the same words by yourself - русскоязыкоизучающее интернетосообщество, for example.

I am going to need some help with this word.
This is one of the top 3500 most commonly used Russian words so I think it is useful to know. Anyone have any idea how to memorize this monstrosity.

широкораспространённый = widespread

широко = wide, extensive, broad
распространённый = accepted

Originally Posted by Lt. Columbo

i just thought of a new idea. try to think of the russian word and then imagine people and objects that represent each letter. here's an example of one i just learned.
(because the word means 'feverish the first thing i imagine is a sick guy led in bed and then lined up next to the bed the following')

Interesting method...I've seen a commercial site using the same idea...but I don't think it's a good idea for me, for my language study. It forces me into always thinking in English/English concepts and then translating in my mind back and forth between English and Russian.

I think the best method is to associate something directly into Russian...think in Russian, not in English. Understanding word roots is very helpful for this. I'm certainly no expert, but this method is better for me.

My 2 kopeks.

Originally Posted by kwatts59

...
широкораспространённый = widespread
широко = wide, extensive, broad
распространённый = accepted

Распрастраненный не ассоциируется у меня с accepted. Cо spread, distributed да.

Мне кажется, что уделять очень много внимания заучиванию, зазубриванию отдельные слов не очень продуктивно. Конечно, это у всех по-разному. Для меня главное, чтобы слово выглядело или звучало знакомо. Тогда я его узнаю, когда следующий раз встречаю. Если смысл предложения понятен и без этого слова, хорошо. Если нет, тогда лезу в словарь. Бывает, что за одним и тем же словом, приходится ходить несколько раз. Обычно, ищу перевод слова только тогда, когда мне уже надоело его не знать.
Для начинающих, на мой взгляд, наверное лучше всего учить слова в составе небольших предложений. Так, например, как они даны в детских словарях, с короткими примерами употребления.
Маша сидит за столом. Стол в комнате. В машиной комнате ещё есть кровать, шкаф и книжная полка.

memorizing words is the thing i hate the most about learning languages. gah, i hate sitting for hours trying to get hundreds of words into my head, and then ending up remembering only half of it
personally for me the best way of learning those is the 'natural' way. like i read something, check it in the dictionary and most of the time remember it. but then again, thats only possible when you already know the language quite well.
the first stadium, its a nightmare - for me at least.

It is difficult to study words without context. I find examples of context via Google (Google knows all). This is of great help. I do not know how people learned without the internet.
Anyway, I am only studying the post popular 3500 words since it is not necessary to learn words that are not frequently used. I find that I already know the majority of the words in this list from music, text books, the internet etc. Also, I think it is not necessary to completely memorize the word, but just to recognize it when I hear it or read it. As long as I am exposed to a word and have some familiarity with it, that is good enough for me right now. In time I will learn.