Starting to teach foreign language, many people wonder: How to learn a language quickly?

Indeed, how can one learn such a rich language, for example, like English, whose vocabulary includes more than 500,000 words? An incredibly huge number! The answer to this question will be: Reduce the vocabulary of the language you are studying to the required minimum!

This can be done and is even easier than it seems at first glance. I will try to convince you of this.

Learn English with Basic English

Just 40 correctly identified, high-frequency words cover about 50% of word usage in everyday speech in any language! And 400 words will cover about 90%.

This is not just idle chatter, these statistics were revealed by the famous Swedish polyglot and author of the book “The Art of Learning Languages” E.V. Gunnemark.
Nevertheless, when we begin to learn a language that is still unfamiliar to us, the need arises to choose this basic dictionary. There are several options on how to do this:

• look into the frequency dictionary
• use phrase books
• resort to computer training programs, etc.

When learning English, you won't need to do any research on your own, because there is already a wonderful dictionary called "Basic English" by Charles Ogden.

The history of the creation of the Basic English language

At the beginning of the twentieth century the need international communication prompted the idea of ​​​​creating a language that would be understandable and easy to learn for everyone. Thus, British linguist Charles Ogden created a new artificial language by simplifying existing English, which was called Basic English(Basic English). Basic is translated as “basic”, but there is another interpretation of the choice of such a name - the decoding of each of the letters, which in translation means British American Scientific International Commercial.

Grammatically new language practically no different from the standard British one. But his vocabulary is only 850 tokens!

Basic English vocabulary

The dictionary includes

• 600 nouns, of which:
  • 400 are general concepts, for example, such as:

  Act - action
  Answer - answer
  Belief - faith
  Earth - earth
  End - end, etc.

  • 200 words - descriptive, that is, those that help describe what surrounds us, such as:

  Baby - child
  Bridge - bridge
  Door - door
  Moon - moon
  Tree - tree, etc.

• 150 adjectives, including:
  • 100 common adjectives, for example:

  Automatic - automatic
  Complex - complex
  Possible - possible
  Medical - medical
  Wise - wise, etc.

  • 50 – adjectives-opposites:

  Bad - bad
  Cold - cold
  Different - unlike
  Small - small
  Wrong - erroneous, etc.

• 100 other parts of speech

These 100 words included only 18 verbs, and the remaining 82 were prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and adverbs.

You are rightly wondering how it is even possible to reduce the English vocabulary so much, turning 500,000 into 850. The answer lies in the fact that in English 300,000 words are terms. Indeed, practice shows that these 850 words of Basic English are enough to express and understand an English speaker when it comes to everyday speech. You won't be able to understand well literary texts, but the first stage of language learning does not require this. The main thing is to start speaking English and understanding it, and this is the first obstacle that needs to be overcome.
Also interesting are the modern revisions, in which the main drawback of Ogden’s dictionary, such as some spontaneity and unsystematic nature, is corrected. Recently, categorized Basic-English dictionaries have appeared.

Basic English program for language learning

Nowadays, computerization has deeply penetrated the spheres of human activity; it is not surprising that it has also affected the learning process. I lead to the fact that the Basic English program was created.
Basic English is a program for learning the basic 850 English lexemes; it makes it possible to learn them quickly and efficiently. Today there are already several versions of the program: 1.0, 1.1, 2.0.
When opening the program, you choose which section of the dictionary you want to learn:

• Objects and phenomena (600 nouns)
• Words that convey qualities (150 adjectives)
• Words expressing actions and movements (100 different parts speech)

Having chosen a section, you begin directly to study. After each word there is a transcription, Russian translation and its correct audio pronunciation below.

After studying, you can also take a test to check your accumulated knowledge. Your choice will be offered testing with or without prompts. You have the opportunity to choose the type of verification between three options: “English-Russian”, “Russian-English” and mixed.
This way of learning starter vocabulary is very effective and interesting.
Good luck!

Download the basic dictionary Basic English dictionary Basic English

Video: Replenishing vocabulary

My English teacher always asked the students in the first lesson: “For what purpose do you need a foreign language? If you want to be a translator, get ready to enroll in the Faculty of Philology. And for basic communication enough to learn 850 basic words and a few rules from grammar.”

Basic English

Skeptics will be surprised, but this scheme works! And its advantage is that you can master a minimum vocabulary in just a month. Don't believe me? Today there is a unique opportunity to test the theory on own experience. Editorial “So Simple!” I have prepared for you those same 850 words, which are quite enough to communicate with a resident of any English-speaking country.

To master basic vocabulary, don’t be lazy and study every day. Be sure to consolidate your knowledge in practice; any person who agrees to examine you is suitable for these purposes.

© DepositPhotos

For more convenience words are combined into groups: objects and phenomena (600 words, of which 400 are general, and 200 are designations of objects); actions and movements (100 words); expression of quality (150 words, of which 100 are general and 50 with the opposite meaning). Each group is shown in the picture. Save and learn now!

850 words for basic English

1. Objects and phenomena (designations of objects)
   If you studied English at school, most of these words are probably familiar to you. Don't try to learn everything at once, learn in alphabetical order. First, read the words with translation 2-3 times a day. Within a week it will turn out that you know 80% of them.

   

   

   

   

   

   

2. Objects and phenomena (general)
   To remember words better, be sure to say them out loud. In your free time, while walking or in transport, try to mentally name the objects around you in English. It would be great if someone tested your knowledge 1-2 times a week.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

3. Actions or movements
   This list includes basic english words, not only verbs, but also pronouns, prepositions and polite phrases. You can study in any order, or draw diagrams with arrows indicating movement or movement.

   

4. Expression of quality (general)
   Adjectives enrich the language so that it does not become too formal. Helps improve memorization next exercise: Take any object or picture and describe it using adjectives. The more words you use, the better.

   

   

   

5. Expression of quality (with opposite meaning)
   To better memorize adjectives with opposite meanings, complete the previous exercise describing an object using antonyms. You can do it differently: write down the word, and after a hyphen - its opposite meaning.

   

With this basic dictionary you can safely go on a journey! And to better understand English and learn to put the necessary words into sentences that take into account the coordination of tenses.

Experts say that. The most important thing is desire, patience and perseverance. Don’t quit after a week, study, be sure to practice colloquial speech, read English texts, watch films without translation, and everything will work out. I wish you success in learning English!

Write to us in the comments how you or your friends managed to quickly learn. And don’t forget to show this useful article to your friends on social networks.

Alexandra Dyachenko is perhaps the most active editor of our team. She is an active mother of two children, a tireless housewife, and Sasha also has an interesting hobby: she loves making impressive decorations and decorating children's parties. The energy of this person cannot be put into words! Dreams of visiting the Brazilian carnival. Sasha's favorite book is “Wonderland Without Brakes” by Haruki Murakami.