This is especially true of language learners trying to figure out how to learn English, which has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. Learning vocabulary takes patience, but you can speed up the process if you take a methodical, scientific approach. Too many people just pore over lists of words and try to memorize them, when they could instead learn new words through use.

In this article, we’ll walk you through a few scientifically-proven methods on how to learn new vocabulary. First, let’s go over just how many vocabulary words you’ll need to know.

Mnemonics is a great solution. Create vivid associations. This will allow you to remember even words that are difficult to pronounce. There are special learning resources where you can find all kinds of mnemonic techniques for memorizing English words. However, it’s better to create such associations on your own, because our associations and emotions are very individual.