Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
Dictionary or translation? Choose the meaning your sentence needs
Use context, word class and examples to choose a dictionary sense, then make a vocabulary note you can actually use.
Decide what you need to find
For an unfamiliar sentence, a translation can give you a first reading of the overall message. To learn one word, you also need to know which meaning is used and how the word fits the sentence. A single translated equivalent can hide those differences.
A learner’s dictionary can provide definitions, word classes, grammar information and examples. Cambridge’s dictionary worksheet explicitly asks learners to use those parts of an entry. You do not need to copy every sense into your vocabulary note.
Keep the sentence while you look up the word
Take this original example: “Please charge the tablet before class.” The surrounding words point to supplying electrical power. In “The café will charge five dollars”, the same spelling refers to asking for payment. A list of translations alone does not choose between them.
Identify the word’s job in the sentence, then read the relevant senses and examples. For Japanese, check the reading in the whole word as well. For Chinese, keep the relevant word or phrase together rather than assuming every character can be translated separately.
Save a small, useful vocabulary note
Use four fields: Word or phrase — Meaning here — Original sentence — My example. For charge, your meaning might be “put electrical energy into a battery”; your own sentence could be “I charge my phone after dinner”. Label the sense instead of storing an unexplained translation.
If pronunciation, a particle, a preposition or a common partner word caused the error, add that detail. Keep a second sense as a separate example when you encounter it. This makes the note easier to test than one card containing a whole dictionary entry.
Check that you can choose the sense again
On the next review, hide the meaning and read the sentence. Explain the word in that context, then compare with the saved entry. If you only remember the translation but cannot explain the sentence, return to the example before adding more cards.
Try a second sentence that changes the meaning. The question is whether you can recognise the change, not whether you can recite every definition. Keep dictionary wording separate from your own examples so you can tell what came from the source.
Try it yourself
Compare “I left a note on the desk” with “Please note the change of room”. Is note doing the same job in both sentences?
Show the answer and explanation
No. In the first sentence, a note is a written message, used as a noun. In the second, note is a verb asking someone to notice or remember something.
The sentence structure helps you choose the entry and sense. Save the relevant meaning with its sentence instead of treating one translation as sufficient for both uses.