Hi guys,
I noticed you took away the writing and tones practice from complex sentences. I guess it's because they take to much space... but I'm sad anyway, I used that feature a lot :-(

How useful did you find it was to write out the whole sentences? It's something we would consider adding a preference for if many users did want to write out or do tones for whole sentences, but we had initially guessed that not many would.

Do any others want to write out or do tones for whole sentences?

I found it very useful to write the sentences, so I could learn them by heart. I tried to speak the sentence out loud for practice, so the tone exercises were useful too, maybe a little less than the writing. I'd like to add that I found out by chance that the sentence practice was possible, even if it was already something I was wishing for.
I use Skritter a lot to practice the vocabulary from CinesePod lessons, and it would be excellent if I could practice the so called "expansion" sentences (writing reading and definition would be enough I guess).
I hope there are other users wishing for this, in my experience it really helped to memorize patterns and useful sentences.

I would quite like this feature, although I don't come across many sentences. It would be nice if there were some lists full of sentences. (Maybe even lists of example sentences)

We had discussed it on this thread a while back and didn't get any interest in writing/tones for sentences then: http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=237660198 -- I think there might have been a couple other threads on it.

I personally don't like to write sentences and also the tones are less important for me.
I would prefer, if I could chose it on a per-list basis, as I have other lists, where I also would not like to write it.

please be careful with the example sentences!

I have been skrittering for an hour, not paying any attention to the sentences.
And just now I thought of the example sentences cause I dont know how to use the word 组成 in contect.
So I looked at the sentence, read it to my Chinese friend and................ its incorrect.

美国组成五十州。 wrong sentence

美国由五十个州组成。 correct sentence

I am just afraid that most of the learners who dont have access to a chinese teacher who could tell them whats wrong would learn the wrong sentences...

learninglife, you are correct. I told Nick already. Most of the sentences are coming from free sources, which means coming from users. There are a lot of grammar mistakes, especially on 了, 是的 constructions, missing or wrong de, word orders, sentence structure and so on. I also saw quite some sentences from fellow skritterers which were wrong or at least doubtful. I would prefer less sentences, but more meaningful sentences, what means for me in the first place correct ones and really demonstrating the different usages or grammar point.
If you look up 就, you can see hundreds of sentences, but almost all demonstrating similar usage, not covering the wide range this word can be used in. And you cannot go through a few hundred of example sentences.
I would opt for less sentences, but better quality. What do you think? (or is this only my simple minded German engineer mind-set)

I would definitely prefer that. I have come across a few that I thought perhaps were not correct, but I have no easy way of checking it and don't know for sure myself.

The only way to get the sentence quality up is to choose (vote for) sentences that you like, or to create new sentences if there aren't any. If enough people do that, then the sentences which are good will be the ones you see until you go digging into the depths of dubiousness. There is no available source of great example sentences, so let's build one!

Jake has already taken a pass through the example sentences for the most common several hundred words and made sure that the top sentence was good or made a new, good sentence, but there are so many words out there that it'll have to be a collaborative effort.

I am not interested in studying sentences by Skritter at all. Skritter's strong point is that it helps you learning characters and words.

Nick, agree, it could be a collaborative effort. But it's not easy to decide, whether a sentence is right or wrong, because you have no reference like a dictionary for checking.
Anyway, I have a suggestion: could you create a "quality stamp" like "Skritter checked", e.g. change the contributor to that stamp. So then we know, which sentences have been checked and the user, especially those on elementary level, can be sure that they learn the right stuff.
It would also be helpful to have a category on the sentence feedback form to "propose to be a correct sentence", then it could be checked again by Jake or another Baller and get it's quality mark.
This would help over time to get a good quality into the sentences.

the collaborate effort wont work here because in the kindom of the blind the one eyed is king...

it wont work because most of the learners are not native speakers hence lack the knowledge to decide which sentence is correct and which is has probems.

why dont you gusy outsource this problem and pay a native speaker to create proper sentences?

As I said before, the example sentences in the ChinesePod lessons are very good and useful. Why not make their sentences available here, aren't you guys partners?
As far as I know there are several users like me using both sites to study Chinese, it would be a really big improvement in my opinion.

thats a great idea!

or pleco. pleco also has great example sentences ...

I miss sentence practice too. Please bring it back! I don't see why anyone would pass up an opportunity to see the words in context. It also helps with grammar, word order and so on.

thinking about it I can't really do it without sentence practice any more. If i can't practice my words in context there's no point in learning them at all.

Ever since I discovered that I can learn sentences here I have been adding them like crazy. I have also been looking for sentences that looked useful, added them and all of the vocabulary that I didn't know. It was an awesome way of discovering new words and also knowing that I can really use them, even if it's only in a very limited context.

I have recently done the HSK 1 exam, but I'm already much more advanced, thanks to my miscellaneous list. I have added more words to it than all of my other lists combined. But not seeing them in context makes them useless.

PLEASE bring sentences back asap.

EDIT: Thank god it's still in the iOS app.

If anyone has any lists of sentences could they point me in the right direction. Save me from spending time creating my own.

There's no special way to add them on the iOS app. Just add them while practicing with the web version and they'll show up when you practice on iOS. At least that's how it works for me.

I'm not completely sure if it brings up the sentences I have added in the last couple of days, but I think so. 试试看。

Is this going to be brought back? I've been looking at a simple way to add lots of sentences quickly. I think I have a reasonable way, which could probably be further streamlined but there is no point if I can't study the sentences.

It's possible that we will bring it back writing practice for sentences, but probably what we'll do is wait for the per-list parts and style controls to be brought back (it's almost ready to go) and then see if it makes sense to just allow sentence writing to be enabled per-list with those while still disabled by default. If people are studying sentences in separate lists, then I think this would work well without an extra preference.

Do try studying the sentences for the reading and definition parts first, though. If we do allow sentence writings back on, then you'll be able to add the writing parts for those existing sentence lists you're studying.

If I have sentences in this format, is there any way to add these along with the English meanings. When I add it detects the sentences but then I have to manually add the meaning. Is there any way to automatically add the English meanings at the same time. Thanks.
我想我是感冒了。
我想我是感冒了。 I think I have caught a cold.
寶寶剛剛睡著了。
宝宝刚刚睡着了。 The baby has just fallen asleep.
這個湯很好喝！
这个汤很好喝！ This soup is excellent!
妳早餐想吃什麼？
妳早餐想吃什么？ What do you want for breakfast?
情人節快樂！
情人节快乐！ Happy Valentine's Day!
沒人喜歡被利用。
没人喜欢被利用。 Nobody likes being used.
他贏了樂透。
他赢了乐透。 He won the lottery.
可以開始了嗎？
可以开始了吗？ Ready to start?
花正盛開著。
花正盛开着。 The flowers are blooming.
他最近很沮喪。
他最近很沮丧。 Recently, he is very depressed.
他們在親嘴。
他们在亲嘴。 They are kissing.
他建了一艘船。
他建了一艘船。 He built a boat.
這本手冊很有用。
这本手册很有用。 This brochure is very useful.
不要胡鬧了！
不要胡闹了！ Stop messing about!
這味噌湯很好喝！
这味噌汤很好喝！ This miso soup is very delicious!
我只信任我母親。
我只信任我母亲。 I trust only my mother.
我喜歡妳。
我喜欢妳。 I like you.
他擁有一間夜店。
他拥有一间夜店。 He owns a nightclub.
彩虹很美。
彩虹很美。 The rainbow is very beautiful.

No 是 in the first sentence needed, 感冒 is already a verb.

I was told both with and without 是 is fine.

Thank you Nick for giving us an update on what you are planning. I hope this is going to work!
Cheers

Okay, sentence writing practice can be re-enabled on beta (along with the per-list part control) and will be launched live on Saturday: http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=327077283

The iOS app update with the example sentences in it is awaiting App Store review, and with any luck, it will go out in the next two weeks.