A Frequency Dictionary of Old English

A work-in-progress deck adapted from the book "A Frequency Dictionary of Old English" with permission from the authors. This teaches the 2800 most frequent words in Old English prose. Each card has a word, definition, and example sentence, to which translations, diacritics, and audio are being added. The aim of this deck is to create a file in your mind for each word with its form and basic meaning. It does not aim to teach mastery of each word learned, but rather recognition. Further exposure to Old English will deepen your understanding of the vocabulary and its use. Vocabulary acquisition makes up the bulk of the task of learning any language, and this deck provides an efficient way to learn the vast majority of the vocabulary you will need for Old English. These 2800 words are enough to cover upwards of 98% of Late West Saxon, which will allow you to read without strict need of a dictionary.

The book gives a definition and example sentence for each entry, and I have organized a crowdsourcing project to add diacritics, audio, and translations alongside these. Other new features include noun gender and cognates. I plan on updating this course at least every odd month, so check back later for more progress. If you would like to help out with this deck or give feedback, feel free to message me on Discord @pannakooko. Special thanks to those volunteers who have contributed to this project already.

Tips for using the Deck:

• Please Enable FSRS. It uses machine learning and much superior to the old scheduling system. On Ankidroid, tap on the number of cards next to the deck name, then the 3 bars in the top right to find it.
• Only use the "good" and "again" buttons. "hard" and "easy" are for the old system, and do not work well with the new one.
• Click "good" if you remember the meaning of the word, with or without the sentence.
• You can suspend words you already know.
• Do not assume that the given cognates will have the same meaning as the Old English word. Usually their meanings are related, and the purpose of providing them is to create a link to something already known, when this is needed.

Tips for Learning Old English:

• Start reading. A good place to start is Old English Aerobics. In the Anthology, you can click words to see their meaning.
• Learn the basics of how Old English works. An Introductory Grammar of Old English by Fulk is a good place to start, and he made the book free. OE Aerobics has helpful exercises for learning.

Features Added so far:

• Word Diacritics: 2792/2792 = 100% (woo!)
• Word Audio: 120/2792 = 4%
• Sentence Diacritics: 1325/2792 = 47%
• Sentence Audio: 70/2792 = 3%
• Sentence Translations: 508/2792 = 19%

Here is a link to the book: A Frequency Dictionary of Old English

Here is a printable PDF version of the flashcards: printable PDF