How To Remember European Capitals

The capital of Spain is  .......................................... Madrid

The capital of France is ...................................................................................Paris

What are the capitals of Finland, Croatia and Estonia? Georgia? Iceland?

Problem
How do you remember European capitals? I was doing an exercise on capital using Duolingo tiny cards - I'll give you the link at the end. I thought, I'd better record my system for remembering.

Answer
Use letter links. This is my system. I am Angela Lansbury.
OK - let's go!

Country - Capital * Memory Aids and Letter Links
This is how you do it.
France - Paris - * F R AnCe P A RiS

Paris, France and Paris, Texas are easy to remember, no problem for me because I grew up in Europe and lived in the USA.  But I can imagine that somebody from China or Africa or a child under ten might have a problem. Who else would need help remembering Paris, France? People developing Alzheimer's, drunks doing a quiz might have a blank moment. If you are ever teaching, or learning it is a good exercise to show you how to remember by linking words.

What do Paris and France have in common as link letters?  Paris has the letters AR and France reverses the letters as F  RA.  Think of pARis fRAnce.

The initial letters are linked. F and P are both uprights with two horizontals. join the two horizontal bars in the F and you have a P. So thin of  P ar is F ra nce.

paParis ends with a S sound. So does France, although the letter C is used instead. Once you have grasped the fact that English uses an e after C to make the S, sound, in words such as place, palace, police, it is easier to remember that Russian used C on its own as an S sound.  So the Russian word for Russia has the letter C more than once.

You could, of course, just keep repeating: Paris-France, Paris-France. France-Paris. France-Paris. For some reason I find it easy to recall Paris, France, than France, Paris. that's probably because I have heard Paris, France so often but rarely hear France, Paris.

Now, if you are a teacher in a primary school, you can teach your class or an individual who needs help. The same goes for teaching as a home tutor to a Japanese or Korean or Chinese seven year old, a refugee, or anybody.

Now, we are confident that we can teach ourselves and anybody else one common pair, let's look at harder ones.

I woke up tired this morning and before a glass of water I was blank on even things I knew well because my mind was on more serious problems in the day ahead.

Country - Capital (Letter links) (Twice is British English for two times.)
Andorra - Andorra La Vella (AND it's the same word twice, the country and the capital.)
Austria - Vienna (austrIA - vIennA )
Belgium - Brussels  (B E L g i U m - B r U s s E Ls - common letters B E L . . U . Eating Brussels sprouts in Belgium)
Belarus - Minsk ( B - M - I was beaming in Belarus in Minsk)
Bulgaria - Sofia (bulgar IA - sof IA)
Corsica - you won't find this listed in countries because it is a French island. The capital is Ajaccio.
Croatia - Zagreb (croAtia - zAgreb)
Cyprus - Nicosia (Common letters are C and S and  i looks and sounds like y, CS CypruS niCoSia.)
Czech Republic - Prague (Common letters are ERU: czEch REpUblic pRagUE
Denmark - Copenhagen (Initial letters D and C: Washington DC; D enmark C openhagen)
Estonia - Tallinn (Double l and double n. estonNIA - tAllINn I estimate they are tall in Estonia)
England - London (e n g L  a N D - L.ND..)
Finland - Helsinki (fINLand - heLsINki - common letters INL LIN . If I use a dot for the missing letters I see .INL... ..L.IN..)
France - Paris (common letters RA - AR)
Georgia -Tbilisi (Repeated letter I.)
Germany - Berlin (gERmaNy bERliN - common letters are ERN)
Greece - Athens (GrEece AthEns)
Hungary - Budapest (common letters are .U..A.. .U.A....)
Iceland - Reykjavik (Spelling of capital is Y and then J. Letters common to country and capital IA.)
Ireland (Eire) - Dublin (I r e L aN D - D u b L i N)
Isle of Man - Douglas (Common letters are S L O A, iSLe Of mAn - dOugLAs.)
Israel - Jerusalem (But you will probably fly to Tel Aviv.) Common letters iSRAEL jERuSALEm)
Italy - Rome (The Romans roamed from their home in Italy.)
Latvia - Riga (A-A - LatviA- RigA, or IA  IA l a t v I A - r I g A)
Lithuania - Vilnius (N - N; or LI UN - l I t h U a NI a - v I l NI u s)
Malta - Valletta (Double L and double T. Common letters ALT, vowel A twice in the country and twice in the cApAtal; m A l t A, v A l l e t t A, l and t once in the country but twice in capital)
Netherlands - Amsterdam (nethERlANDs - amstERDAM land and dam sound similar; the Netherlands has lots of dams - the capital is Amersterdam)
Northern Ireland - Belfast (northErn Ireland bElfast)
Norway - Oslo (nOrway Oslo - in Norway the pace is slow and the capital is Oslow, or Nice and Slow in Norway and Oslo)
Poland - Warsaw (I went to Poland and saw the war-torn Capital, Warsaw.)
Portugal - Lisbon (Last letter of Portugal is L; first letter of Lisbon is L.)
Romania - Bucharest (After roaming wearing my Roman robes and I needed a rest in Romania)
Russia - Moscow (Common letter S. RuSSia. moScow. The letter s is used twice in Russia, whilst the letter o is used twice in Moscow.)
Sardinia - another popular holiday spot, not a country but an Italian Island. The capital is Cagliari.
Scotland - Edinburgh
Serbia - Belgrade (sERBiA - BElgRAde. I want to be in Belgrade in Serbia.)
Slovakia - Bratislava. (The spelling SLOV or Slav is in the country and the capital. Common letters SLVIA. The Slovaks or Slovakians are going back to Bratislava.)
Slovenia - Ljubljana 
(Common letters are LNN: sLoveNiA and LjubLjANA. Now I can see why I mistyped the capital and put an ia at the end because the country ends in ia but the capital is merely a at the end. The capital has LJ twice. That is legitimate. LJ. However the j is more like a y or a u.  lyublee- arna.
How do I distinguish Slovenia from Slovakia? The first alphabetically is Slovakia with AK in the middle. Slovenia has EN in the middle, both letters later in the alphabet. The capital of )
Spain - Madrid (spAIN - MAdrId)
Sweden - Stockholm  (SS Sweden-Stockholm)
Switzerland - Bern (Mutual letters ER and N. switzERlaNd bERN.)
Turkey - Ankara (but you are likely to fly to Istanbul)
Ukraine - Kiev (Letters K i E in both words u K r a I n E  and KIEv)
United Kingdom - London - United KingdOM - LondON)
Wales - Cardiff - (Common letter is A. We drive by car to Cardiff in Wales where we have a whale of a time because everything is different.)

Capital - Country
Andora Le Vella   - Andora
Amsterdam - Netherlands
Athens - Greece
Belfast - Northern Ireland
Belgrade - Serbia
Berlin - Germany
Bern - Switzerland
Brussels - Belgium
Budapest - Hungary
Bucharest - Romania
Budapest - Hungary
Cardiff - Wales
Copenhagen - Denmark
Edinburgh - Scotland
Ireland - Dublin
Kiev - Ukraine
Lisbon - Portugal
Lithuania - Vilnius
London - England
Madrid - Spain
Minsk - Belarus
Moscow - Russia
Nicosia - Cyprus
Oslo - Norway
Paris - France
Prague - Czech Republic
Reykjavik - Iceland
Riga - Latvia
Rome - Italy
Sofia - Bulgaria
Stockholm - Sweden
Tallinn - Estonia
Tbilisi - Georgia
Valletta - Malta
Vilnius - Lithuania
Zagreb - Croatia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_national_capital_and_largest_cities
If you want to buy a book on memory, you will find lots on Amazon.com
http://amazon.co.uk.
http://amazon.com Type in books.
I just found a book on remembering which I don't' know but it looks good:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Illusion-Remembering-Forgetting-Science/dp/184794762X
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several posts on languages and destinations. Please share links to your favourite posts.