Inspiration
A practical method for building vocabulary from the words you actually use — not from a generic frequency list. Developed by Ameer Corro while learning French; template saved at Vocab Mapping Template.xlsx.
Observations
What patterns come up when you map your own speech? Which category (nouns, verbs, modifiers) turns out to be thinnest in your target language?
Overview
Vocab Mapping is a data-driven vocabulary building method that starts with your speech, not a textbook’s word list. The core insight: the most useful vocabulary to learn is the vocabulary you already use in your native language — words and phrases that are guaranteed to come up in your actual conversations, because they already do.
Instead of working through a generic frequency list, you record yourself speaking naturally, extract your most-used words and phrases through frequency analysis, and translate those into your target language. The result is a personalized vocabulary deck that reflects how you actually talk.
The 6-Step Workflow
Step 1 — Record your speech Record yourself speaking naturally throughout the day — talking through your thoughts, having conversations, explaining things. Use Otter.ai for automatic transcription. Aim for enough material to generate meaningful frequency data (30–60 minutes of natural speech is a good starting point).
Step 2 — Extract your most-used words and phrases Paste your transcript into Voyant Tools — a free text analysis tool. Export your most frequent single words as a TSV file, and your most common multi-word phrases (expand to at least 4 words for meaningful results).
Step 3 — Categorize and clean the word list Sort extracted words into three categories:
- Nouns — people, places, things, concepts
- Verbs — actions, states, processes
- Modifiers — adjectives, adverbs, intensifiers
Use the AI categorization prompt (in the template) to do this efficiently. Review the output manually — AI occasionally miscategorizes. Discard function words (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions) — they’ll appear most frequently but aren’t useful to target explicitly.
Step 4 — Refine phrases into sentence frames Some extracted phrases will be incomplete or unnatural. Use the AI phrase-cleaning prompt to:
- Keep fully meaningful sentences as-is
- Fix minor cutoffs where the meaning is obvious
- Convert useful partial structures into reusable sentence frames (e.g., “I would want to learn ___”)
- Discard fragments that can’t be meaningfully completed
Step 5 — Translate Use the four AI translation prompts (separate prompts for nouns, verbs, modifiers, and phrases) to translate your personal word list into your target language. Each prompt is designed to handle:
- Gendered nouns with correct articles (der/die/das for German, etc.)
- Multiple meanings with context notes
- Idiomatic phrases that don’t translate literally
- Regional variations where relevant
Verify translations with a native speaker or trusted resource where possible.
Step 6 — Export to flashcards and vault
- Add words to Anki (or your flashcard system of choice)
- Verify pronunciation via Forvo.com
- Graduate finalized entries into the vault using the Word template (
Wortschatz/) and sentence frames into Satzsammlung notes
How It Connects to the Vault
The Vocab Mapping spreadsheet (Vocab Mapping Template.xlsx) is a processing pipeline — not a permanent home for the data. Once words are translated and verified, they move into the vault’s existing language structure:
| Vocab Mapping output | Vault destination |
|---|---|
| Translated nouns, verbs, modifiers | 01 Areas/Languages/German/Wortschatz/ — one note per word using the Word template |
| Sentence frames | 01 Areas/Languages/German/Satzsammlung/ — grouped by theme using the Sentence Theme template |
| Complete phrases | Same — added to a relevant Satzsammlung note |
This keeps the spreadsheet as a working tool and the vault as the knowledge system.
Why This Works
Personal relevance beats generic frequency. Generic word frequency lists (like the top 1,000 words in a language) give you words that are common in the language overall. Vocab Mapping gives you words that are common in your conversations — a smaller, more targeted set that pays off immediately in real speech. → Language Learning (Personal Relevance Encoding)
You’re activating vocabulary you already use. In your native language, these words are automatic. The task is not to learn a new concept — just to learn a new label for a concept you already think in. This significantly lowers the encoding overhead. → Passive to Active Vocabulary
Phrases and sentence frames are more useful than isolated words. The PHRASES & FRAMES sheet captures how you actually structure thoughts — not just what words you use, but how you deploy them. A sentence frame like “I would want to learn ___” is immediately usable in conversation in a way that the word “learn” alone isn’t. → Circumlocution
It serves all four strands. The output feeds Strand 3 (vocabulary study) with personally relevant material, and the sentence frames directly support Strand 2 (meaning-focused output) by giving you ready-to-use structures. → The Four Strands
Limitations
- Requires a reasonable amount of English speech to generate useful data — works best when you talk a lot naturally; harder if you’re a quieter speaker
- The process is front-loaded: recording, transcribing, analyzing, and translating takes meaningful time the first time through. The payoff is a highly efficient vocabulary set.
- The VOCABULARY LIST.csv in Downloads suggests this process has been run at least partially for German — worth checking what’s already been captured there vs. what’s in the vault
Book Angle — Words Connected
Vocab Mapping is a strong practical tool recommendation for the vocabulary chapter of Words Connected. The pitch is clean: before you memorize a single word from a frequency list, spend one day mapping your own speech — because the best words to learn first are the ones you already use.
It also reinforces the book’s core argument: effective language learning is built around your life, not a textbook’s. Vocab Mapping is that principle made operational. → Words Connected
Related
- Topics: Language Learning · Passive to Active Vocabulary · The Four Strands · Circumlocution · Extensive vs Intensive Reading and Listening
- Resources: Vocab Mapping Method (Ameer Corro)
- Areas: German · Languages
- Projects: Words Connected