Scott’s tips. Can you use them while learning a new language?

William does not spend his days knee deep in textbooks. His evenings are not spent in language classes. In reality he works from a repertoire of quirky “Language Hacks” among them are budget travel, unconventional word association techniques and the rejection of the inhibiting “ready culture”. “Ready culture” is the assumption that there is a benchmark for when you are “ready” to start speaking. But when is the moment? Once you are able to understand a film or to read a book in your new language? Once it is not a problem for you to recite your new language’s grammar rules? Or simply the point at which you can say “hi”?

William, who has become fluent in 8 languages, believes that to be successful, all language learners need to be confident to start speaking from day 1. You are unlikely to recognize every word of even your native language, let alone in Dutch, Spanish or German, so just dive in and try to enjoy the opportunity to communicate with new people and get acquainted with a new cultural background!

Are you ready to become reasonably chatty?

For many of us who’ve spent days trying to learn a new language, this sense of readiness being prescribed by tutors, or by our own hesitation, obviously resonates.

An ideal starting point is to look at the hundred most commonly used words of the language you are learning. In English the first 25 words make up about 1/3 of all printed text, whilst the entire 100 comprise half of all written material.

In any case, it’s often not so easy to know how a word is pronounced, and this can make us nervous when using it in public! That is why below you will find 25 most commonly used words in English. Find their meanings and transcription first. This is the right way to enrich your vocabulary.

the

example: “The white goat is old.”

of

example: “There are lots of irises in their garden.”

and

example: “She and Mike have already gone.”

a

example: “Mary took a shower.”

to

example: “My sister has listened to him.”

in

example: “It snows a lot in Sweden.”

is

example: “It is cool here.”

you

example: “Can I do it to help you?”

that

example: “Ann noticed that I was extremely exhausted.”

it

example: “It is rainy today.”

he

example: “Meet Tony, he is my boss.”

was

example: “It was awfully cold yesterday.”

for

example: “These flowers are for you.”

on

example: “He is sitting on my chair.”

are

example: “We are friends, and we are so happy.”

as

example: “Mike coughed as she moved closer to him.”

with

example: “She came home with her niece.”

his

example: “He showed me his new football.”

they

example: “I want to visit my grandparents. They are both old.”

I

example: “I am proud of myself”

at

example: “We had lunch at 2 o’clock. We ate at a lovely restaurant.”

be

example: “You will be glad.”

this

example: “This is my old bike. It is still cool.”

have

example: “I have already had some ice-cream.”

from

example: “The bus from Brest to Paris leaves at 10am. I had to travel from 10am until 2pm.”