How to make a vocabulary mnemonic when you can’t think of any ideas

In 1975, Raugh and Atkinson formalised the keyword method, a two-step way to help remember vocabulary. The first step is to find a sound-alike word in your native language (I’ll assume English from here on). The second step is to create a vivid mental picture connecting the sound-alike with the meaning of your target word. Nemasis adds a third step for you: putting the mental picture, the target and the definition on a flashcard to make it easier to study.

Step one is often where people get stuck. Some words are gloriously, adorably easy to turn into a visual mnemonic. The Japanese word for “octopus” is tako; it sounds like “taco”, and you already have a visual in your head! But what happens when the connection isn’t so obvious? Here are six suggestions that help me when I want a mnemonic for tricky words.

1. Say it loud, say it slow, say it like you’re three years old, say it in a different accent, say it like you’ve had three beers

Rather than focusing on the spelling, let the sound of the word roll around your mouth and ears. You may just find an English word hiding inside. You are at a huge advantage if you can already speak more than one language: borrow from them all to find your hook.

Saying kambing (“goat” in Indonesian) in increasingly silly voices may land you at camping. There’s our boy, roasting marshmallows by his tent.

2. Focus on one syllable

You may only need the beginning or the end of the word to kickstart your memory. Or, you could collect several English words that start with the same sound and create one vivid scene. For example, the Vietnamese word đan means “to knit”. Imagine a knitter sitting in a dandelion field, with dancers dancing all around them. Perhaps they are knitting the Danish flag. While one of these alone is a weak link to đan, dandelions, dancers and the Danish flag combined may be enough to remind your brain that đan is the word you are looking for.

3. Don’t chase perfection

A mnemonic isn’t a pronunciation guide. Your pronunciation practice comes from your teacher, or your audio guides of choice, like YouTube, movies or songs. Your picture is just the little springboard your brain needs. “Minion” isn’t a perfect match for myinn (မြင်း), “horse” in Burmese. But it is enough. For our picture below though, perhaps we will choose “mint”. A little less ideal, a little more copyright conscious.

4. Let Google Translate “hear” it

Set the input language to English (not auto-detect) and tap the microphone. Say the word as though it were English. You may need to add a few words around it so the microphone picks it up. Then see what “English” it writes back to you. It can give you a sound-alike you hadn’t thought of. This is how I got “concert” for con sư tử, “the lion” in Vietnamese.

5. Split it into two words

Kodok is Indonesian for “frog”. Split into two syllables, you might get “coat” and “dock”. A frog in a trench coat on a dock on a misty evening might be the picture that stays with you.

6. Add clues for tones and gender

If you are learning a tonal language, your memory is under extra pressure! Build the tone into your picture by using a small symbol. Perhaps a bird flying in the corner could represent the rising tone, or a slide for a falling tone. Use colour for gender. You could stick with the cliché of pink for feminine and blue for masculine (and maybe beige for the German neuter). In Italian, latte (milk) is masculine, and notte (night) is feminine, but the words don’t hint at the gender. Colour helps.

When it doesn’t work

Visual mnemonics are brilliant and fun when they work. But they often fall short for abstract words, where the meaning may be hard to squeeze into a picture: words like “although”, “since” or “sometimes”. That is when a memorable sentence may be better than a picture. In Nemasis you can write one in the caption box.

Take the English word “situation”. The Japanese word, jōkyō, sounds almost like “Tokyo”. In Burmese, a-chay a-nay (အခြေအနေ), pronounced poorly, could sound like “itchy knee”. And in Vietnamese, “situation” is tình huống, which might remind you of “tin” and “hung”. Your sentences may be:

• Japanese: “I avoided a difficult situation in Tokyo.”
• Burmese: “My itchy knee caused an embarrassing situation.”
• Vietnamese: “The falling tin was hung up again – dangerous situation averted!” This sentence also references the falling tone and the rising (or up) tone in tình huống.

Close enough is good enough

Mnemonics are an evidence-based memory technique for remembering vocabulary. But you aren’t going to find the perfect sound-alike. Don’t stress; close enough really is good enough. Say it out loud, split it in two, group the first syllable, use your own coded clues and let Google Translate tell you what it hears. If all else fails, write a silly sentence instead.