How much detail you include in your definition will depend on your level and what you yourself find helpful at the time, keeping in mind that this will change over time. The most important thing is that it should be accurate. I know that this may sound odd that I even mention it but I have seen LOADS of definitions in Russian lessons which are not and I am left wondering how people can use any of the vocabulary if they have not defined it properly in the first place. The amount of detail will also vary by the language you are studying as compared with your native language.
For example, in Russian, different parts of speech are recognizable by having different endings.
Verbs are easily distinguished from adverbs, nouns, adjectives. It is thus unnecessary for me to identify a word as a āverb,ā ānoun,ā etc. (A beginning student will not know this but anyone at B-1 level and higher should realize this.) Nouns have three genders which are generally easily distinguishable but some masculine and feminine singular nouns (ending in the so-called āsoft signā Ń) are not readily identifiable by gender in the nominative case. Thus, I will note in parentheses what the gender is if it is not obvious or if it has irregular endings in the plural. I donāt normally identify the part of speech of words unless it is not obvious or there is some ambiguity.
Make sure your translation makes sense. Sometimes a word can be translated in several ways but all donāt make sense in your language in the specific context of the lesson. Choose the one that does. If you want to note that the word has other meanings in other contexts, you can include that in ānotesā or write a note to that effect in the definition but donāt use a definition that doesnāt make sense in that particular lesson.
Personally, I would not include a sentence in the definition. Itās too time consuming and you already have a context for the word in the lesson. Adding too much info will make it hard to do the review exercises. While I have personally seen the unknown word typed into the definition window, this negates the value of the review exercise since the word and its definition appear as an answer on the multiple choice exercises.
In general, include what you donāt know. If you know that the verb is a regular one in the past tense, then donāt include that grammatical information since you want to look at the word and āknowā its meaning in a given context, not think of its grammatical features in your head. However, if the verb form is irregular or it is a tense that is more advanced than you have already mastered and thus are struggling as to how to translate it exactly, then by all means make it a lingq.
Bottom line: the definitions should facilitate your reading and listening more readily, not make learning more complicated. Tailor the definitions to your immediate needs.
Wow, thanks for your time-spending on my question guy.
I agree with you, Iāve seen I am spending too much time making a detailed ādictionaryā when I could just investing my time on getting massive input and eventually reviewing.
p.s.: one of my next languages will be russian, how long have you been studying it? I want to read some great writers (Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and so forth) in their own language.
I love learning Russian and am quite passionate about it but be forewarned, its grammar is much, much harder than any of the Romance languages principally because of ācases.ā In Russian, there are six cases (how a noun, adjective and pronoun functions in a sentence), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), singular and plural and more than one kind of masculine and feminine nouns. In sum, 6 cases times 12 possible gender endings gives you 72 possible endings for every noun, adjective, personal pronoun and demonstrative pronoun (this, that, these, those)! (Adjectives and pronouns must match nouns but the endings arenāt necessarily spelled the same as the nouns of the same gender as they are in Spanish - casa/blanca, muchacho/alto.) Moreover, numbers and proper names also must match in case ending (that is, they must be ādeclinedā) and different prepositions take different case endings in different contexts. (Are you confused yet? ) All of this hard enough when reading but coming up with the correct case when speaking is especially challenging.)
There are other features that add to the difficulty of Russian but the Cyrillic alphabet is NOT one of them provided that you print the words by hand from the beginning. I write in Russian every day and have no problem reading and writing in Cyrillic.
Anyway, learn Russian if you really have a passionate interest but accept that the learning curve will look much different than those for languages which donāt have the grammatical complexity of Russian. Personally I learned the cases and other basic grammar points on my own through various internet sources before I joined LingQ. I now know over 35,000 words and phrases on LingQ and only now can I read some simpler stories of Chekhov with the help of LingQ. I can read some popular magazine articles in Russian without LingQ however. I am pleased with my progress but it has taken way more effort than my learning the other Western European languages that I know. Good luck and enjoy the process!
I like to keep my translations short. I include no parts of speech, no sentence and 1 to 4 words most of the time. If I want a part of speech or verb root form, I will add that as a tag so I can then filter and review by these attributes. I want my translation simple so it will work better when doing review and so I can see quickly what the translation is when reading through my texts. I find too much text is distracting when I click to refresh my memory.
Keep in mind that you can always look at the phrase the word was originally saved from and you can see examples any time by expanding the widget on mobile or on iOS when looking at the yellow panel.
Thanks for a detailed description of the language. It reeeeally sounds complex
But slow and steady! Iāll focus now on Romance languages (I had to google what languages are them lol) cause in my country I could get more job opportunities.
wowā¦ these are the ones that I do not likeā¦ I study Polish and if I have to do what you recommend I would not be able to immerse myself in the readingā¦ I prefer almost nothingā¦ just the basic meaningā¦ For example, ārobiÄ ā means āmakeāā¦ Of course, it is the 3rd person plural for the imperceptive verb ārobiÄā, and it means "they do or make, etc. " It takes too much time to input it, that I would prefer investing in readingā¦ Normally I just go to Reverse, copy/paste the must frequent meaning and move onā¦ There are millions of words to read.
) All of this hard enough when reading but coming up with the correct case when speaking is especially challenging.)