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Guide · All levels · 5 min read
How to learn Spanish vocabulary so it actually sticks
The short answer
Words stick when you recall them, not just recognise them, and when you review each one just before you’d forget it, at longer and longer gaps. Give each word a short memory hook, learn the most common words first and nouns with their article, and keep sessions short and daily. That’s spaced repetition, and it’s how Huerta works.
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Key points
- Recall beats recognition: type the word, don’t pick it from options.
- Review at growing gaps: hours, then days, then weeks, then months.
- Give every word a memory hook, however silly.
- Learn common words first, and nouns with el or la.
- Ten minutes a day beats an hour on Sunday.
Why words slip away
You learn a word, it feels solid, and a week later it’s gone. That isn’t a sign you’re bad at languages; it’s how memory works. Memories you don’t use fade quickly, and each time you successfully recall one, it fades more slowly afterwards. The trick is to time those recalls well.
1. Recall it, don’t just recognise it
Picking the right answer from four options feels like learning, but it mostly trains recognition. Producing the word yourself, from nothing, is harder in the moment, and that effort is what makes it stay. That’s why Huerta asks you to type the answer.
2. Review just before you’d forget
Spaced repetition brings each word back after a gap that grows every time you get it right. In Huerta the gaps are 4 hours, 8 hours, a day, two days, a week, two weeks, a month and four months. Miss a word and it comes back sooner. After the last gap, it’s yours for good: la cosecha, the harvest.
3. Give every word a hook
A memory hook links a new word to something you already know. It doesn’t need to be clever; it needs to be memorable. A few from Huerta:
| Word | Hook |
|---|---|
| el regalo (present) | Regalo, like regal: a gift fit for a king. |
| tener (to have) | Tener ≈ tenure: to hold something. |
| trabajar (to work) | Trabajar, like travail: hard work. |
| necesitar (to need) | Necesitar, like necessity: what you need. |
4. Learn the right words, the right way
A few thousand words cover most of everyday Spanish, so start with the common ones: hola, gracias, la casa, tener, querer. Learn every noun with its article (el coche, not coche) so you learn its gender too, and see each word in a short sentence, not on its own.
Huerta’s word lists are in exactly that order, with an example and a hook for each: A1 words, A2, B1, B2.
5. Little and often
Ten minutes every day beats an hour once a week, because each day’s reviews land at the right moment. Keep the daily habit small enough that you never skip it, and let new words in slowly: five at a time is plenty.
Practise this in Huerta
These levels teach it, with every word and example reviewed at just the right moment:
Questions
How many Spanish words do I need?
Huerta’s course teaches about 680 words by the end of beginner (A1), 1,300 by elementary (A2), 1,900 by intermediate (B1) and 2,850 by upper intermediate (B2), the most common first. The first thousand or so cover a large share of everyday conversation.
How many new words should I learn a day?
Fewer than you think. Five to ten new words a day, reviewed properly, adds up to 1,800 to 3,600 words a year without burying you in reviews.
Is spaced repetition better than flashcards?
Spaced repetition is a way of scheduling flashcards: each card comes back just before you’d forget it, instead of all at once. Doing that by hand is fiddly; apps like Huerta do it for you.
Keep reading
- A1 · 5 min readEl or la? How to tell a Spanish noun’s genderHow to tell if a Spanish noun is masculine or feminine: the endings that tell you, the exceptions (el día, la mano, el agua) and the habit that fixes it.
- All levels · 4 min readSpain vs Latin American Spanish: what really changesSpain vs Latin American Spanish: the everyday words that change (coche or carro), vosotros and ustedes, vos in Argentina, and the accent.