- 1). Look for an obvious association between the Spanish words you wish to learn and their English counterparts by mining cognates, or words that share the same root, such as "moneda" (money) or "teléfono" (telephone). To remember that "busy" is "ocupado" in Spanish, get in the habit of thinking, "The phone is occupied" or "Don't bother me, I'm occupied."
- 2). For Spanish words that do not have obvious cognates in English, find an English word that sounds similar. It does not have to connect logically to the word you are trying to learn. For example, Spanish "perro" (dog) sounds something like "pear" or the name "Pierre," and Spanish "prestar" (to lend) sounds like "Presto!"
- 3). Make a connection between the Spanish word and its English soundalike by means of a mental picture that represents the Spanish meaning. To remember "bufanda" (scarf), visualize a woman on a windy hill who says, "Boof! A strong gust of wind blew my scarf ON DA ground." "Prestar" (lend) sounds like "presto," so envision a magician lending you his rabbit and saying "Presto!" as he pulls the rabbit out of his hat.
- 4). Make gender associations. Nouns in Spanish have a masculine or feminine gender that determines the form of corresponding definite articles, indefinite articles and adjectives. The language learning system 200words-a-day.com recommends adding gender clues to your mental picture by color-coding the image, perhaps with pink for feminine objects and blue for masculine objects, including a man or woman in the scene depending on the noun's gender, and imagining a male or female voice reading the word. To remember the feminine noun "pluma" (pen), imagine a woman saying the Spanish word while dipping a plume in a pool of pink ink. To remember the masculine noun "perro" (dog), imagine a man saying "perro" while feeding a pear to his blue French poodle named Pierre, who comments, "This pear is OH so good."
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