[askthereception]

One issue I have with Anki is that for every new format of cards I try, it takes about a year to know whether it works better or not.

For instance, I have taken a different approach to vocabulary since I found that single words (e.g. in French) were sometimes hard to recall after a very long time. I now almost always use a cloze sentence, and ideally the sentence I encountered the word in, so that I combine active recall with remembering the context, which usually settles the issue of multiple possibilities. However there is no way of knowing how this will work out in the long run. Does anyone have telltale signs that indicate if a card, although you may do well for months, will not do well past the, say, 1yr threshold?

[Fnoord]

You need to rehearse content or it will fade. However, if you know the answer 2 days later still, then it is in your long term memory (I saw a graph yesterday -probably from HN- where the recall percentage plummeted throughout the day but then stayed relatively stable). Anki has support for precisely this feature. When you start the card, you get to see dots in a color for a short while. This tells you how you perform on the card.

That being said, your question is specific to language (French in your example, but could just as well be code). Due to the complexity and possibilities you may not be able to recognize/cope with different combinations or situations.

[jeffwass]

I’ve wondered about a similar approach myself, since singular words are often hard to recall when needed, and don’t convey the subtle difference in usage between synonyms.

I also find repeatedly alternating between the foreign language word and native meanings to be jarring.

How do you choose your sentences? I mean, you mention using the sentence in which you encountered the word. But what is your source, eg. newspapers or adult-level novels?

[askthereception]

My source is any novel/non-fiction or newspaper article I would be reading when encountering the word. I usually copy the sentence, maybe trim it a bit, and cloze on the word. The hint I give depends on the word, sometimes an English translation, sometimes a definition in the language itself, or sometimes a cognate word in a different language I know.

An additional benefit is that I remember the content of books more easily, since I am passively reminded of passages through Anki. This means I can put aside a book for months and get back into it without problems.

A problem, though, is that because I only use active recall of the word, I sometimes can't remember the meaning of the word when I encounter it, especially when the context is different. This can be quite subtle. E.g. I might put in "aborder" (to approach) in the context of "how would you _approach_ this question", but then when I read somewhere "the man was approaching" I would recognize the word, but be unable to make sense of it.

I have been trying to remedy this by sometimes choosing a more typical example sentence (from a dictionary or something) rather than the encountered one, which could be too poetic. But as I remarked, with all these changes it is hard to measure the effect in the long term.

[kd5bjo]

For my language cards, I don’t have any English on them at all. They’re all Cloze deletions from either books or a dictionary, or sometimes declension tables.

I wrote more detail a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19666638

[tuomosipola]

I tried using Anki for learning Ancient Greek words. Didn't work for me. I need the context and then deciphering the meaning becomes a challenge, which will be rewarding. Going through piles of word-for-word cards is dull.

I guess the best way is to read as much as one can, which is obvious in hindsight. Easier said than done, though.

[tminima]

For context, I use a basic card and add the context with the word itself. Eg.

front- define: comonotonic (probability theory, comonotonicity)

back- perfect positive dependence between the components of a random vector