Each word should ideally have at least two example sentences
Creating good example sentences
- This is a goat
- This is a goldfish
- This is a lamb etc.
These are valid sample sentences (and ultimately the more sample sentences the better), but the sentence "This is a X" could have pretty much any noun in that place, e.g. "This is a pencil/star/bath/bedroom".
Good sample sentences will be more specific to the object
Examples of good example sentences:
- We get milk from cows
- The goldfish has a small bowl
- Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow
Notice here that you can actually remove the noun and maybe make a guess at what the missing word is (e.g. "The .... has a small bowl"), and the nouns are also not replaceable by other things, e.g. you could not say "The goat/lamb has a small bowl".
A simple definition of an object, for example, can be an easy sample, "A bird flies", "A goat will eat anything", "We get wool from sheep". It's a bit harder to think of a good sample like this, but worth the effort.
Create short sample sentences, rather than long
- instead of "dragons are imaginary monsters frequently appearing in medieval stories" make 2 sentences:
- "dragons are imaginary monsters",
- "dragons frequently appear in medieval stories"
- instead of "many birds live in the French countryside and sing happily all year long", make
- many birds live in the French countryside
- birds sing happily all year long
- instead of "a chick is yellow and he is the baby of the hen", make:
- "a chick is yellow" and
- "a chick is the baby of the hen"
We can make longer sentences later, but at the moment I want to get many short sentences, as these are the most useful to the 90% of students for whom many words are new and difficult. Also, even advanced students will get plenty of practise from short sentences.
Special extra phrases for nouns
Special extra phrase for plural nouns
Special extra phrase for verb parts
A verb part should always have the minimal verb phrase demonstrating its use. For example, if the word is "mange" (eat; am eating), then the minimal verb phrase would be "je mange" (I am eating).
Examples
The word "chick" should ideally have at least 5 entries:
- "chick" (the word on its own)
- "a chick" (since it is a noun, with an indefinite article)
- "the chick" (since it is a noun, with a definite article)
- "a chick is yellow" (example phrase 1)
- "a chick is the baby of the hen" (example phrase 2)
The plural noun "balls" should ideally have at least 4 entries:
- "balls" (the word on its own)
- "the balls" (the word with the definite article)
- "tennis balls" (example phrase 1, notice how this is a good example since the noun goes well with the word tennis and could not easily be replaced with another noun, e.g. "tennis goldfish", "tennis cars")
- "he was juggling with five balls" (example phrase 2, notice again how this is a good example and the noun could almost be left out and the person would be able to guess the missing word, e.g. "he was juggling with five [what?]", "he was juggling with five goldfish?!", "he was juggling with five skyscrapers?!" )
The word "eat" should ideally have at least 4 entries:
- "eat; am eating" (the word on its own)
- "I am eating" (the minimal verb phrase)
- "I am eating an apple" (example phrase 1)
- "I am eating a cheese sandwich" (example phrase 2)