Best Practices

Tips for building an effective vocabulary habit with Language Den.

Add a Manageable Number of Words Each Day

The most common mistake in vocabulary learning is adding too many words at once. Every word you add creates future review obligations — if you add 100 words today, they will all come due in a few days and overwhelm your review queue.

A sustainable pace for most learners is 5–15 new words per day. At that rate you can comfortably keep up with reviews without sessions becoming a chore.

Review Every Day

Spaced repetition works best with consistent daily reviews. A short 10-minute session every day is far more effective than an occasional 60-minute catch-up. Missing days causes cards to pile up and makes the SRS intervals less accurate.

If you have a busy day, aim for at least one session rather than skipping entirely — even reviewing 20 cards takes only a few minutes.

Rate Honestly

Language Den’s spaced repetition algorithm depends on accurate self-assessment. Tap Again when you genuinely could not recall the word. Tapping Good or Easy on words you didn’t know will schedule them less frequently and slow your learning.

If in doubt, rate conservatively. It is better to see a word slightly more than necessary than to miss it at a critical interval.

Don’t Skip Flashcard Generation

Words without flashcards don’t appear in review sessions. After adding words — especially after a bulk import — run Word Triage to generate flashcards for each new word. Without this step your vocabulary grows on paper but you never actually practise it.

Use the No Flashcards filter in the Words tab to find words that still need flashcards. See Word Triage.

Use Word Sources to Stay Organised

Attaching words to a source (the book, show, or podcast where you found them) keeps your vocabulary meaningful. You can filter your review sessions and word list by source, which makes it easier to revisit vocabulary from a specific context when you return to that material.

See Word Sources for setup instructions.

Capture Words Immediately with Quick Notes

When you encounter a new word while reading or listening, add it to Quick Notes straight away before you forget the context. Process your notes into full words with flashcards later when you have more time.

This habit keeps you from losing words in the moment while also separating the “capture” and “study” steps. See Quick Notes.

Let AI Generate Multiple Card Types

When adding words with AI mode enabled, Language Den generates several different flashcard types — recognition, production, cloze, listening, and context cards. These test the same word from different angles and build stronger, more versatile recall.

Avoid deleting card types unless they are genuinely not useful for your goals. Having only a recognition card (seeing the word and knowing the translation) is much weaker than also having production and cloze cards.

Use Suspend, Not Delete

If a word isn’t relevant to you right now — for example, very advanced vocabulary you’re not ready for, or domain-specific terms — suspend it rather than deleting it. Suspended words are hidden from review sessions but stay in your collection. You can unsuspend them later when you’re ready.

Deleting a word removes all its flashcards and review history permanently.

Check Your Struggling Words

The Statistics screen shows your top struggling words — those with the most incorrect answers and highest difficulty. Reviewing this list occasionally helps you identify patterns (a particular verb tense, a confusable word pair) that you can address deliberately.

See Statistics.