How to Improve Your Vocabulary in French

Stumbling across words in the dictionary and then arbitrarily writing their meanings down is a sure way to forget them. While a high school student learning French, I would try to improve my French vocabulary haphazardly. However, I later found that to effectively learn new French words, I had to change how I learned vocabulary. Here are a few tips that will help enhance your French vocabulary:

1) Buy a good dictionary or use online dictionaries

For those with the greatest zest for modern language study, buy a collegiate dictionary. Collegiate dictionaries have more advanced words than dictionaries intended for high school students, so you can stay ahead of the curve learning new French words. If you cannot buy a collegiate French dictionary you can find one at your local library.

2) Invest in vocabulary notebooks to categorize words

It is easier to remember words that share something in common. Therefore, simply purchase cheap, everyday notebooks and write down words in categories. For instance, try to write all the words that fall under the categories: traveling, occupation, clothes and body parts into their specified categories/notebooks. Choose a study schedule and stick to it.

3) Remember to study the articles attached to the new French words

It makes no sense knowing French words without studying their articles; articles will inform grammatical content. For example, writing the sentence: 'He has a white beard' in French will require you to know the article: UNE barbe (beard) (Feminine). This will then tell you that the adjective 'white' needs to be feminine. So, you would write: Il a une barbe blanche.

4) Read widely and as often as you can

You can improve your French vocabulary by reading simple stories in French or listening to tapes. Be voracious! A very good and often overlooked source of new vocabulary is in the instruction manuals for household appliances, items etc. Most instruction manuals come in English, Spanish and French (in my region). Use them.

5) Use free online translation tools

Free online translation tools can help you to cheat French class. Not only are free online translation tools an efficient way to translate huge chunks of text at a fast rate, they are also a good source of learning new French words. One of the benefits of free translation tools is that they allow you to translate an entire web page into French or any other foreign language. So you can very well translate news sites such as CNN and BBC into French, print their news stories in your language and French and learn the new vocabulary from this.

6) Vocabularies extend beyond nouns

When students think of vocabulary the instinct is to assume that only nouns are involved. Instead, vocabulary includes nouns as well as other parts of speech such as prepositions, adjectives, verbs etc. Try also to categorize new words under these headings in notebooks.

Here are 10 words under the category body parts that you can study:

une cheville- ankle
une poitrine- chest
un tympan- eardrum
une rotule- kneecap
un palais- palate
une rate- spleen
une amygdale- tonsil
un intestin- intestine
un globe oculaire- eyeball
un front- forehead