I’ve been using Anki for 3 months and I have been switching from one type to another. Mostly people recommend using sentence cards, but personally, I end up remembering meaning of sentences and not focus on the word itself, so when I see the word again somewhere else – very often I just don’t remember it! Does this problem go away as you get more familiar with the word even with context? For me, it’s much easier to remember cards WITH the sentences, but because of the problem above, I started again using only a word by itself on the main side, and sentence with it on the back along with translation.
It may sound dumb, but am I making it harder for myself or not? This kind of thing really shows after a couple of months of the word in Anki, so maybe someone with similar experience can help me out, thanks!
6 comments
The sentence card thing is like, 50% of the people recommend it and 50% don’t. So it’s seem like a thing that works for some people and not everyone.
I had the same issue you had with sentence cards, but I may go back to them anyway, not to learn vocab exactly, but to learn how to *use* vocab as an output thing.
So consider them for that purpose. In that case, memorizing the sentence is actually useful because then you can say that sentence to people, and just “slot in” some changes to apply it to your situation.
So not as an input thing to “learn this word” but as an output thing to “use this word”.
I never tried sentences on the front, but the reason I didn’t is that I was afraid that the problem you found would occur.
When learning vocab, I think it is very important to keep the front of the card clean. Just the word you’re learning – and nothing else at all. I found that even Anki tags would interfere as my brain picked up on any available patterns to use (as in “Ah yes, that tag means the word is in this set so likely to be …”).
I have the word and the sentence on the front of my cards but I only read the sentence after I’ve checked the back of the card. Unless the word has multiple meanings.
In that case, I’ll read the sentence before checking the back so that I know which specific meaning I’m trying to remember. I’d find it too annoying trying to think of all the possible meanings for the word otherwise.
Most people I have heard from use the anime cards format, and I do too: [https://animecards.site/ankicards/](https://animecards.site/ankicards/)
I do sentence cards.
I have both just the word and a full sentence underneath on the front. The translation(s) of the target vocabulary is on the back. Since I don’t have a translation of the full sentence, any gaps in knowledge will draw my attention to just the word I don’t know.
Though it might as well be as if I only have vocab cards, since the sentence is only there to add context. If it’s a simple word and it feels like I already know what it means just by looking at the word in isolation, I ignore the sentence (unless it turns out I was wrong).
> but personally, I end up remembering meaning of sentences and not focus on the word itself, so when I see the word again somewhere else – very often I just don’t remember it!
I’ll link to a previous comment on mine about this very same question:
https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/117oswx/daily_thread_simple_questions_comments_that_dont/j9eotag/
I have both sentence **and** vocab on the front of the card. I look at the vocab, if I know it, I pass the card and it’s much faster. If I don’t remember it or struggle, I look at the sentence and see if that helps jog my memory. If it works, I pass the card. If not, I fail and review the card again.
The sentence is there **to help you** remember. You want these hints because anki is supposed to be easy and fast and you don’t want to get stuck making it more painful than it needs to be. 90% of your proper language/vocab/reading acquisition will happen with exposure, not via anki. Anki is just a little bit of extra help. Take all the help you can get, don’t fight against it, don’t worry about it. Literally no one ever ended up in a situation where they can **only** read words if they appear **EXACTLY** as the sentences they trained in anki, because that’s just not a thing. Trust your brain to be smarter than that, our brains are literally made to recognize these patterns and absorb language on their own.
> It may sound dumb, but am I making it harder for myself or not?
Yes, you’re making it harder than it needs to be for yourself. Keep anki easy, smooth, and simple.