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Example Sentences

YueMeigui   February 11th, 2011 3:23a.m.

Is it possible to have Skritter randomly change my example sentences?

I know Skritter is supposed to be a writing practice tool but being exposed to the same word in multiple contexts is a good way to remember it.

Furthermore, at least some of the time, I find myself remembering which word goes -there- based mostly on remembering which word goes in that example sentence rather than really remembering the word.

Thomas   February 11th, 2011 5:04a.m.

I like your thinking! But for me Skritter is about moving fast, getting through as many characters or words as you can rather than dwelling on each one because it brings something new.

Also, I think some people like remembering what word goes with which sentence. It would have to be an option and Skritter already has so many of those.

If I'm looking for more context, I often read a few of the example sentences, choose one I like, and move on.

nick   February 11th, 2011 8:34a.m.

Hmm, that's an idea. We had been planning on keeping the voting system that the example sentences have (and that the mnemonics have), where you pick which example you want to see, and that also counts as a vote for it, so that the best ones can rise to the top by default. If we had a ton of high-quality sentences, it might make more sense to randomize, but as it is (and as it probably will be even after we get the user-created sentences and Tatoeba sentences in there), there will probably only be a few good sentences for most words, and the rest of the sentences you wouldn't want to see.

You'll still be able to study the sentences by clicking on the "change" button next to the sentence to see the possible candidates, if that helps any.

Isn't it better to remember which word goes in a target-language sentence than to remember which word goes with an English definition?

jww1066   February 11th, 2011 8:46a.m.

I wouldn't want that, because some of the example sentences are insane, some are ungrammatical, some are poorly translated, and some use the character in a way I don't care about. For all those reasons I often change the example sentence to one that suits me better.

James

WanLi   February 11th, 2011 1:39p.m.

how about make it easy to rotate or modify the example sentence

breakphreak   February 11th, 2011 3:20p.m.

I have some ideas about example sentences and will be happy to summarize them at the right time.

For example, I think that switching might be useful for experienced users, but for the beginners, the main thing is readability, i.e. they should be short and use the characters that were already learned (or at least, as most as possible that were already learned).

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