Introduction

The French language is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other languages d’oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France’s past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

A French vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person’s language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a French language.

1. Know Your Cognates

Make a list of French/English cognates (words that sound the same and share the same meaning in both languages). Once you’ve identified some cognates you’d like to learn, write them on a piece of paper in two columns (one for French and one for English) and quiz yourself by folding the piece of paper vertically in half. Test your ability to produce both the English meaning and the French word. Make flash cards for the ones you don’t know, and after quizzing yourself with the flashcards, do a final test with the paper again, making sure you are able to give the French equivalent of the English word.

2.  Practice With Your Textbook

Most language-learning books have illustrations to introduce vocabulary. Looking at the illustrations, try to describe them using the vocabulary you already know or have studied, and then read the captions underneath the pictures to see how well you did. Notice how the vocabulary words are used in context.

3. Three is a Magic Number

If you’re really struggling to retain vocabulary words, write each French word three times in French and once in English. Then write the French word again without looking back at what you have just written. Check to see if you have written it correctly.

4.  Listen and Repeat

Often you can find digital recordings of vocabulary words, pronounced in French and in English (either as part of your textbook or independent of it). Try listening to these once, then repeat each word in French while listening to it a second time. There are many great French videos on YouTube that can help you memorize vocabulary and practice listening and speaking.

5. Repetition is the key

Sometimes it happens with most of us that we learn French words so fast and quickly and suddenly we forget it in about 2-3 days. So, as I mentioned, ‘Repetition is the key’. When you learn words you must repeat them daily for 15-20 min.

Only 15-20 minutes Daily can do what 2 hours of continuous study can’t do. Daily small parts of study can’t make you bored and you also have sufficient energy for the repetition of old words.

6. Do it Daily

Make it a regular part of your day. The key to learning vocabulary rapidly is studying it regularly. It doesn’t have to be a long time; just a few minutes, each day, can make a huge difference in your retention of the words you learn. Studying vocabulary sporadically isn’t as valuable because you may forget the words if you don’t review them frequently and consistently.