21 Different Ways To Expand Your Vocabulary in 2021
By: Mathias Barra
Tags: Vocabulary, Language, Productivity, How To, Education

21 Different Ways To Expand Your Vocabulary in 2021

And that’s only part of all the possibilities

Photo by Rima Kruciene on Unsplash

Learning vocabulary in a new language can feel overwhelming. After all, there are so many words to learn.

Yet, that’s an unavoidable step in mastering any language. Polyglots know this so they tackle it constantly. They stay ready to assimilate new words in every possible situation. Sometimes they sit down to study, sometimes they jot down a word to look it up later.

Here are 21 ways you could expand your vocabulary in 2021 (and further).

1. Watch Netflix

You’ve probably already thought of it but let’s start with this one. You already binge-watch shows often. Why not improve your foreign language while you’re at it?

Using a simple extension for your browser, you can watch Netflix with double subtitles. You could watch a Korean show with subtitles in Korean and English. You could also watch an American movie with subtitles in Korean (and any other language too if you want).

Netflix is a great way to relax and be exposed to new words in context. Try it and bring relaxation within your language-learning journey.

Pro tip: if you have Amazon Prime instead of Netflix, you could try this extension for double subtitles too.

2. Write About What You’re Learning

Outside of learning a language, what else are you learning? Are you still a student? Are you working in IT or marketing? No matter what you do, you’re still learning something. That’s a great opportunity to expand your vocabulary on a certain topic.

Write on platforms like Journaly, Italki, or even HiNative about what you’re learning and let native speakers correct your texts. You’ll increase your vocabulary and probably your grammar too.

3. Write a Diary

If you’re at a beginner level, start by writing a diary in the language. Use a dictionary while you do so you can find words you use in your daily life. You can talk about your actions, your plans, or even your feelings.

As time passes, you’ll use the same words again and again, thus remembering them in context. That’s how I learned words like “silence” (고요) or “countryside” (시골) in Korean.

4. Follow Channels for Native on YouTube

Most often, language learners stick to material made for learners in the language for a long time. They think they need to “reach a certain level” before they can dive into content made for native people. Let me be clear: you don’t need to wait.

Look for keywords of your hobbies in the language. Look for “most popular YouTube channels” in the language. Look for anything you could watch. The more you understand the better, but you should also struggle to follow completely if you want to improve. My favorite Korean channel is a version of TED called 세바시 강연.

5. Listen to Podcasts

Find podcasts of interest on whatever platform you use. Some languages will have their own platform offering more choice. If it exists, great. If not, use Google Podcast and you’ll get a good collection of channels.

Listen to the podcast and take a few notes here and there when a word reappears or whenever you feel a word was important in the context. The rule is simple: Nothing is pointless. Whatever you decide matters, matters.

6. Think in the Language

You may think you can’t expand your vocabulary if you’re only thinking in the language but you can. All you need is to force yourself to think for longer periods. Start with one minute and expand to 10 minutes. The longer you last, the more varied the vocabulary you’ll acquire.

Sit down with a pen and an access to a dictionary. Translate the last thought you had in the language and go from there. Whenever you can’t find a word you really want to say, look it up and write it down. Do this regularly and you’ll find all the words you truly need.

7. Talk to Different People

We all have different lives and, therefore, different hobbies. Ask your friends about their hobbies, their work, what they’re searching for. Be interested and listen carefully. Here and there words you’ve never heard or words you forgot you wanted to know will come slapping you in the face. Those are words you should write down to study later.

Every person will give you more vocabulary to learn. Be thankful for their help and keep expanding. Who knows, you might even find a new hobby you enjoy thanks to that.

8. Read What You’ve Written in Your Native Language

You’ve already written tons of sentences in your life and you continue to do so. Those are words you actually use. Find the words you don’t know in your target language and look them up. Try to remember them but don’t overdo it.

If you do this regularly, you will see again and again the same words pop up. You’ll look up once, twice, thrice the words, and one day you won’t have to anymore. That’s when the context will have done its work.

9. Read Books

There’s nothing more straightforward to get context than this. The longer the book the more similar the vocabulary will be. Use that to not only encounter new words, but also remember them for a long time. It may take 10 times the time you’d take if you were reading in your native language, but you’ll remember a lot more.

If you wonder what to read, you can use the following:

Non-fiction → Vocabulary about specific topics

Romance or Young Adult→ Vocabulary about daily life, and feelings

Fantasy or Science fiction→ For higher levels. Vocabulary about varied topics

10. Read Leveled Texts

Those can be hard to find, but they could be the door to exponentially increase your vocabulary and reading skills overall. What I mean by “leveled texts” is similar content written at different levels.

You could read “Mr. Charles killed his dog.” and then “The pressure upon Mr. Charles made him lose consciousness. He woke up after having stabbed his dog.” The overall meaning is the same but the second one is more detailed.

I used this for my Japanese thanks to NHK Easy News and this was what helped me reach a whole new level in the language. Try it.

11. Learn Another Language

…From the language you’re learning! Obviously, this isn’t a good tip if you’re still a very beginner but if you’ve been learning for half a year, you can already give this a go.

Not only will you review and expand your vocabulary, but you’ll also make the language become a true part of your life. It won’t be a “language you learn” anymore. It’ll be a “language you use”. That’s a change you should always thrive to make.

12. Study for a Language Test

Duh. I know. Who wants to do such a boring task? Language proficiency tests may have their flaws, we can’t deny they use real vocabulary and create situations we might not have thought of on our own.

If you can, apply for the test and study for it. If you can’t, do as if you applied and do tons of mock tests. Then review your mistakes, and learn the vocabulary you didn’t know.

13. Get a Language Tutor

Having a tutor can help you with everything related to language-learning, not just vocabulary. When you struggle, they are here to support you and help you keep improving.

You’re your own teacher, though. No tutor can make you remember new vocabulary. They make you discover words you didn’t know you wanted to learn. They steer you toward resources full of such opportunities. They make you use the vocabulary you’re about to forget so you remember it for longer.

14. Revisit an Old Textbook

Even if you’ve already finished an entire textbook, you’ll have forgotten words. You’ll have skipped some explanations written in the language you’re learning. You’ll still encounter words you’ve never seen.

Revisiting an old textbook isn’t just about expanding your vocabulary. It’s also about seeing how far you’ve come. On top of expanding your vocabulary, you reinforce what you already know and get a boost of confidence.

15. Look Around You

This works best when you live in the country of the language but you can also do it anywhere else with a bit of effort. No matter where you live, there are posters on the walls, ads in the street, or just indications for directions. Learn from those.

If you’re in the country, you can find the words you don’t know with the glimpse of an eye. If you’re outside the country, you can start appreciating all those ads again by turning them into translation challenges. If you can’t translate them, then you’ve got at least one new word to look up.

16. Listen Around You

This is quite close to the above tip but for this one, you use your ears instead of your eyes. If you’re in the country speaking the language, listen to other people’s conversations and find what you don’t understand. If you’re a beginner, no need to write them down, the words you first need to remember will come up all the time.

If you’re not in a country that doesn’t speak the language you can first look if there’s an area where people from that country gather. For mainstream languages, there’s usually one. If you can’t find one, just listen to conversations in your native language and whenever you hear a word you’d like to know in your new language, look it up.

17. Read an Audiobook

Read a book while you listen to its audiobook version. This will force you to learn to read faster. You’ll associate the pronunciation with the writing. You’ll also learn new words along the way. Don’t hesitate to press pause to look up some words in the dictionary.

For me, this was especially useful for Japanese. Due to the use of Kanji — Chinese characters used in Japanese, — I often either knew the pronunciation of a word or how to read it, but not both at the same time. This task helped me bridge this gap.

18. Explain Something

This comes back to an idea mentioned earlier. The vocabulary you need is already in your life. What you watch, read, or listen to, shows what words you need to learn. Finding them is the first step but it’s when you need to explain them to someone else that you truly master them.

Try to explain — even to a non-existent audience — something and you’ll find your weak spots. You can then work on them and reinforce the new vocabulary in your next try.

19. Find an Anki Deck With Cloze-Deletion

I’ve talked about Anki before but, to summarize, it’s a space-repetition software. It brings back flashcards when you need to see them, in order to strengthen your memory. The best decks are the ones you make on your own because you can create your own context.

But if you want to go outside of your boundaries, you can look for any good deck with cloze-deletion cards. These are usually cards with sentences missing one word. That will help you get context and force you to develop your skills for recalling words from your memory.

20. For Languages With Ideograms Only

If you’re learning a language with an ideographic writing system, like Chinese or Japanese, you can expand your knowledge through one character. Pick one and find as many words using the same one. You should use the dictionary to grow a large list of words. Then try to make sentences with them.

For example, if we take the character 連 from 連絡 (Renraku, “to contact”) in Japanese, we can discover terms like 連携、連想、連合、連休 (in order: “cooperation”, “association”, “union”, “consecutive holidays”) and many more. As you can see, they all have the underlying meaning of “connection”.

21. For Languages With Cases Only

For languages with cases, like German, use the same word in other cases. Oftentimes, you’ll need to change the sentence’s meaning and use new words as well in the sentence. You, therefore, learn both the original word’s new case and another word. Two birds, One stone.

For instance, if you want to learn the genitive form for the word “Mann”, you could create the two sentences below:

The man has a suitcase → Der Mann hat einen Koffer.

I take the man’s suitcase. → Ich nehme der Koffer des Mannes.

Change the suitcase to something else in the second sentence and you get a new word to learn.