There is a difference between the words you understand when you hear them and the words that arrive when you need them. Lists build the first kind. Almost nothing else does.
Learn chunks, not words
Store phrases whole:
- Not appreciate → "I really appreciate your help."
- Not available → "Are you available on Thursday?"
- Not concern → "My main concern is the timeline."
A chunk arrives complete, with its grammar attached. A single word arrives needing assembly.
Use it within twenty-four hours
A word you say once sticks better than a word you read ten times. Say it in a sentence about your own life, out loud, the day you meet it. Anything else and it stays passive.
Learn words in families
When you meet decide, also take decision, decisive, undecided. One learning effort, four usable words, and you start recognising English word-building patterns.
Space the repetition
Review on an expanding schedule rather than all at once: day 1, day 3, day 7, day 21. The point is to revisit just as you are about to forget, which is when the review does the most work.
Follow your own life
Learn the vocabulary of what you actually do. An accountant needs reconcile, discrepancy, accrual far more than they need the vocabulary of a generic textbook unit on the weather.
Keep the notebook small
Five new items a day is plenty. Twenty a day feels productive and produces a long list of words you have met once. Five a day is 1,800 a year, more than enough to change how you speak.
Ask of every new word: when would I realistically say this? If you cannot answer, skip it.
