Flashcards

Summer is a good time to organize your flashcards, or make the flashcards you might have missed throughout the semester. The act of writing them out yourself and putting them in order helps you to memorize the contents. Separate them by categories that make sense to you. Many students use half of a notecard for each flashcard, in order to save on paper. Some students illustrate them, either with their own drawings or with something from a magazine or web page. This is a good idea because images can also help you remember things. Review your flashcards regularly. If you have a partner who can work with you, quiz each other, or play games. You can also play games yourself, or create sentences. Some games you can adapt for flashcards would be Go Fish (with categories replacing suits, like "ar," "er," and "ir" verbs and vocabulary, or vocabulary for the home, travel, etc.), Memory, Pictionary, or whatever else you can think of--be creative! Create sentences by taking a card out of each category and creating a silly sentence, then changing that sentence to the past, to the future, to the progressive, changing only the verb. The more you do these things, the more you'll remember. And don't forget--always speak out loud! Pronouncing words and sentences helps you remember, and learning a language is all about memory. You can also play any regular card game with a normal deck of cards just to practice numbers, or create a board game of your own using your flashcards as the game cards.
Here is some card-playing vocabulary that may be helpful:
los naipes     the cards
barajar     to shuffle
Me toca.     It's my turn.
Te toca.     It's your turn.
una carta     one card
repartir     to deal
¿Cuántas cartas?     How many cards?
ganar     to win
perder     to lose
hacer trampa     to cheat
tramposo/a     cheater
Poner las cartas/los naipes en la mesa.     To lay your cards on the table.
Suertudo/a.     Lucky you!
picón/picona     bad loser
Felicitaciones     Congratulations
el as     the ace
el rey     the king
la reina     the queen
el jack (pronounced "yac")     the jack
corazones     hearts
diamantes     diamonds
tréboles     clubs
picas     spades
el dos de corazones     the two of hearts
el tres de diamantes    the three of diamonds
You get the rest...
el juego de mesa     a board game
el espacio     a space
la ficha     a game piece
tirar el dado     to roll the die
la cárcel     jail
regresar     to go back

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