Memory palace for learning a language: vocabulary that sticks

A memory palace helps with the hardest part of a new language: the words. You turn each word into a picture with the keyword method, a word in your own language that sounds like it, and place that picture at a spot along a route you know well. One palace per language, one spot per word. This guide explains the method, what the research found, worked examples for Spanish and French, a trick for grammatical gender and a review schedule.

New to memory palaces? Start with memory palace: how to build one, step by step.

The keyword method in two steps

In 1975, Richard Atkinson and Michael Raugh at Stanford University described a way to learn foreign words in two links:

1. The sound link. Find a word in your own language that sounds like part of the foreign word. This is the keyword. It does not have to sound like all of it.
2. The image link. Picture the keyword doing something with the meaning.

Their own example: the Russian word zvonok means bell and sounds a bit like "zvahn-oak". The keyword is oak. Picture an oak tree with little brass bells instead of acorns. When you hear zvonok, the oak comes back, and the oak brings the bells.

A good keyword, according to their criteria, sounds as much as possible like a part of the foreign word, makes an image that is easy to form, and is different from the other keywords in your list.

What the study found

Fifty-two Stanford students learned 120 Russian words over three days, 40 a day. One group got a keyword with each word; the other group learned the words in whatever way they wanted. On a test of all 120 words the day after the last session, the keyword group had 72 percent correct and the other group 46 percent. The authors chose Russian on purpose: a language the students had not studied, with few words that resemble English.

Why put the keywords in a palace

The keyword links a sound to a meaning. The palace adds three things:

• A place for every word. The image is not floating somewhere; it is at the gate, in the hallway, on the stairs.
• Separate languages. One palace for Spanish, another for French. The words of one language do not mix with the other.
• A route to review. Walking the route is a ready-made test: at every spot, recall the word before you check it.

Inside a palace you can give each theme its own stretch: food words in the kitchen, travel words on the way to the station, clothes in the bedroom.

Worked examples: Spanish and French

Each example below opens in our generator with the words already on their spots. The keywords are for English speakers.

1. Spanish words with keywords

A first palace for Spanish. Each spot holds one word: the Spanish, the meaning, and the English keyword that sounds like it.

1. Front gate: pato = duck (keyword: pot)
2. Cypress avenue: carta = letter (keyword: cart)
3. Forecourt fountain: mesa = table (keyword: mess)
4. Front door: perro = dog (keyword: pear)
5. Entrance hall: caballo = horse (keyword: cab)
6. Grand staircase: pan = bread (keyword: pan)

At the front gate, a duck is stuck head first in a cooking pot. In the cypress avenue, a cart overflowing with letters rolls between the trees. At the fountain, a table covered in a terrible mess. Say the Spanish word aloud each time you picture the scene.

Open this palace in the generator

2. French words with keywords

A separate palace for French, so the two languages never share a spot. Same idea: word, meaning, keyword.

1. Front gate: le livre = the book (keyword: liver)
2. Cypress avenue: la pomme = the apple (keyword: pom-pom)
3. Forecourt fountain: le chapeau = the hat (keyword: shampoo)
4. Front door: le poisson = the fish (keyword: poison)
5. Entrance hall: la clé = the key (keyword: clay)

At the front gate, a book that bleeds when you open it, because a liver is pressed between the pages. In the cypress avenue, apples with pom-poms hang from every tree. If you also want the gender, add a fixed tag: every le word is on fire, every la word is frozen in ice.

Open this palace in the generator

Grammatical gender: build it into the image

Languages like Spanish, French and German give every noun a gender, and the article is often what learners forget. Put the gender in the picture with a fixed tag that you use for every word: masculine words on fire, feminine words frozen in ice, and for German a third tag for neuter, for example made of rubber.

There is some evidence for this. In a 2015 study in Language Teaching Research with 283 participants learning German nouns, colours, voices, images and a combination were compared as memory aids for gender. Images that showed both the meaning and the gender of a noun gave the best results.

A review schedule

• Recall before you check. Walk the route, say the foreign word at each spot, and only then look. In a 2006 study, students who tested themselves remembered more a week later than students who reread.
• Space it out. The same day, the next day, a few days later and a week later. Short walks are enough.
• Go both ways. Once from the foreign word to the meaning, once from the meaning to the foreign word.
• Use the word. Say it in a sentence or write it in a message. Once a word comes back on its own, you no longer need the image.

Where it does not help

The keyword gives you the meaning, not the pronunciation, the spelling or the grammar. Listen to the real word from a native speaker or a dictionary with audio, and practise grammar separately. And do not make images for words you already recognise: save the effort for the words that keep slipping away.

Our free memory palace generator places up to 20 words on 20 spots in a villa, with a test at the end and a link to share with a study partner. It runs in your browser and nothing is stored on our side. For more ready-made lists, see ten memory palace examples, and for exams, memory palace for studying.

A new language often comes with a trip, a stay abroad or friends in another country. For those moments we built The Memory Palace. It is not a memory trainer: you do not memorise anything with it. It is your own 3D palace for your own memories: your photos, recordings and stories each get a room you can walk through. Private by default; you invite family and friends when you choose. The free memory palace generator is a separate tool for the classic technique. The app is made by a small team in Leuven. Have a look at the app.

Sources

• Atkinson and Raugh, An application of the mnemonic keyword method to the acquisition of a Russian vocabulary, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 104 (1975) 126-133, reprint at UC San Diego: rca.ucsd.edu/reprints/An%20Application%20of%20the%20Mnemonic%20Keyword%20Method%20to%20the%20Acquisition%20of%20a%20Russian%20Vocabulary_Journal%20of%20Experimental%20Psychology%20Human%20Learning%20and%20memory_1975.pdf
• Atkinson, Mnemotechnics in second-language learning, American Psychologist 30 (1975) 821-828, ERIC record: eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ123584
• Dias de Oliveira Santos, Can colors, voices, and images help learners acquire the grammatical gender of German nouns?, Language Teaching Research 19 (2015) 473-498, ERIC record: eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1065542
• Roediger and Karpicke, Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention, Psychological Science 17 (2006): profiles.wustl.edu/en/publications/test-enhanced-learning-taking-memory-tests-improves-long-term-ret