Why can't I learn basic (function) words first? (the verb "to be", prepositions, conjunctions)?

Modified on Mon, 22 Sep, 2025 at 9:21 AM

The main reason is that studying a word does not mean acquiring it. In addition to that, traditional language learning has a mistaken idea about what the “basics” are when acquiring a language. To know why these words are only acquired later on, check out the answer to the question Don’t I need to learn the basics of the language before consuming input?.

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