Start Learning a Word a Day

If you want to boost your “random” Spanish vocabulary, learning a word a day is a great low-energy activity. You’ll never know when these words will be useful! Best of all, it’s something you can get sent to you, and you can do from the comfort of your own home!

Whether you’ve been learning Spanish for 5 minutes or 5 years, learning just one word a day will give you an extra 365 words in a year. That will surely add up!

Benefits of learning a word a day

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There are many benefits to learning a language that you’re probably already aware of, but what you may not know are the benefits of boosting your vocabulary with random daily words. Here are just a few:

1. They come to you. Many, many websites have subscription services that will send you a word every single day right to your email, making this a low-commitment activity. Search around and see which ones work best for your level. Some of them have explanations and definitions in English, which is great for beginners, whereas others have descriptions in Spanish for advanced learners.
2. Learn words you never thought you’d need. In school and with your friends, you tend to learn conversational or common words that people use every day. However, word-a-day subscriptions try not to repeat, which is why you get very unique words. I’ve seen general terms, colloquial terms, and even specific historical terms.
3. See patterns you’ve been practicing. You’ll see many different suffixes, prefixes, verb tenses and more grammatical components in new contexts. You’ll start to make even more connections between word families with these unique words.

What to do with these words

Once you have a word of the day, you could do as much or as little with it as you want. Here are some ways you can use the words every day so you can commit them to memory:

• Keep a journal. This could serve as your own personal unique dictionary with new words. You could write the English translation, or a description in Spanish, along with a sentence that contains that word.
• Draw it out. If you’re creative, you could draw what the word represents. Some of these might be easier than others, but depending on your art skills, this could be a fun challenge!
• Use them with a friend. Sharing them with a friend and trying to find a way to use these words every day will help you memorize it, or at least recognize it later.