Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
How to make vocabulary flashcards that you can actually use
Learn words with an example sentence, both directions and audio, and keep new words to a pace your daily reviews can carry.
Learn words in a sentence
A word on its own is easy to forget and hard to use. Put a short example sentence on the card, ideally one you met while reading or listening. The sentence shows grammar, typical partners and register.
For a cloze-style card, hide the word in the sentence: “I need to {{c1::book}} a table for four.” You recall the word in the context where you will use it.
Practise both directions
Recognising a word when you read it is different from producing it when you speak. A reversed card asks for the meaning from the word and the word from the meaning.
Add the production direction once you can recognise a word reliably, so new words are not doubled in your daily load immediately.
Add sound and form
For spoken languages, add audio or a pronunciation guide. For languages with different scripts, include the reading, such as furigana for Japanese or pinyin for Chinese, and test the script you need for your exam.
Typed-answer cards help with spelling: you type the word and see the differences highlighted.
Keep a pace you can sustain
Ten to twenty new words a day is plenty for most learners alongside other study. Each new word brings reviews for weeks.
Spacing matters for vocabulary in particular. In one study, cycling through a single large stack beat drilling small stacks for most learners, even though most of them believed the small stacks worked better.
Try it yourself
Write a cloze card for the phrasal verb “give up” using an example sentence.
Show the answer and explanation
For example: “She decided to {{c1::give up}} sugar for a month.”
The sentence shows the meaning and how the verb is used, and the cloze tests producing it in context.