Just curious, but

[Caffeinated Tea]

How do you all expand the vocabulary of your conlangs? :3

I myself simply translate poems and songs, and if I run across a word I don't already have I make one up (paying attention, of course, to any other words it might be linked to).  

[Henneth Annun]

I make basic roots, then I make a bunch of words based off of those roots. Then I'll go and translate things, and add more vocab from there.

Sometimes though, words just pop into my head, and I use those if they happen to fit. xd  

[Woglinde]

XWraith_LordX

I make basic roots, then I make a bunch of words based off of those roots. Then I'll go and translate things, and add more vocab from there.

Sometimes though, words just pop into my head, and I use those if they happen to fit. xd

That's what I'm doing thus far. (I'm a first-time conlanger. ) 3nodding  

[cinracwil]

Earlier on in my language creation I pretty much only came up with a word when I was writing something in it and realized that I didn't have a word for something I wanted to express in the writing. In more recent years, as I've been learning more about linguistics and grammar, I've also been developing various very useful prefixes and suffixes, and I've also been coming up with words by playing around with the word roots and affixes. I also frequently seek to label things I see or experience in my daily life with words in my conlang, and that is another way that my conlang's vocabulary expands.  

[Homurakitsune]

Well, I come up with some basic stuff first generally. Though, honestly it tends to change with each conlang. In Ijwe I named the grammar concepts as one of the first things. In Niora, I came up with pronouns first. It all depends. But the most fun way for me is translating songs, because I like songs. =)  

[Forgedawn]

You've got a good method there... I can't ever bring myself to go through a wordlist. It has to feel useful.

So I find a passage and translate it. It also helps reinforce vocab you already know biggrin And a writing system, if you're using a different alphabet.

(Oh, why can't the break be longer so I can do all this stuff I want to do... I miss my conlangs sad )  

[spheal 000]

I think translating any form of writing is a good way to do it, it helps you work out what sound good here and what sounds good there and what doesn't sound good at all. Going through a word list can be tiresome, and while it does boost your vocabulary much faster than other methods I don't think it works quite as well.