What should we do with abstract words like feelings or academic vocabulary?

Abstract words only make sense in the context of a sentence. Let's take a sentence like: "What should we do with abstract words like feelings or academic vocabulary?" - We have a lot of 'abstract' stuff in this sentence. If we were just using straight vocabulary -> picture cards, we'd be pretty stuck. 

But because we have an example sentence, we can use it to make our abstract words more concrete. The flashcards would look like this (I'll include some possible picture suggestions. Be aware that there are MANY more picture options than the ones I'm including):

"__ should we do with abstract words like feelings or academic vocabulary?" [Picture of fancy question mark]

"What __ we do with abstract words like feelings or academic vocabulary?" [Picture of student writing]

"What should we do with __ words like feelings or academic vocabulary?" [Picture of abstract art]

"What should we do with abstract words like feelings or __ vocabulary?" [Picture of blackboard in classroom]

"What should we __ with abstract words like feelings or academic vocabulary?" [Picture of pencil]

"What should we do with abstract words __ feelings or academic vocabulary?" [Picture of arrow sign]

"What should we do with abstract words like feelings __ academic vocabulary?"  [Picture of slash "/" ]

"What should we do with abstract words like feelings or academic __?" [Picture of lots of words]

The pictures just need to have ANY relationship with the sentence, or with the particular blanked-out word. If you really don't know what to choose as a picture, imagine who the speaker of that sentence would be, and get a picture of them ("boy" "boy talking" "girl asking question" "student thinking" "man looking at camera" "confused girl" "questioning person" "teacher asks question" etc). It's not actually important that you find the perfect picture for a particular word or sentence, but it IS important that you choose A picture. Pictures+Text are always more memorable than Text alone. So try this out, and in time, you'll find that you develop a pretty good feeling for the search terms that will work with more abstract sentences.

Note: As of September 12th 2019, we no longer provide official support for our Anki based pronunciation trainers and word lists. You are more than welcome to still purchase and use them, but the support we are able to offer for these products is limited. For supported languages, these materials are already built into the Fluent Forever app.

Was this article helpful?
1 out of 1 found this helpful