Plan Sentence Building

Plan: building sentences by reasoning

Source of truth: this wiki page.

Written 2026-10-05.

When a sentence is offered is set by words-rules-sentences.md: only once its words and rules are known, phrasebook cards aside. This plan is how it is then built.

What the owner asked

Sentence-building by reasoning (Language Transfer): give an English sentence; learner builds it from known pieces.

add this once user learns to build sentences

On where the sentences come from, the owner answered:

for en native decks, a set of english sentences, of different types, active/passive voice, direct/indirect speech, conjugations, etc, include some hard ones. for other native language decks, same thing for them.

Then, on cloze:

also, show cloze options. for sentence building. put the meaning on top, then leave out one word in the sentence and let users fill that. in script or in ISO transcription.

What exists

• Word order (Ask.rearrange) puts a sentence card's own words in order. The learner never builds a sentence they have not seen.
• Grammar is taught in tables and in sentence cards, along the path.
• Every deck today teaches from English, so the English bank comes first. Bengali and Hindi speakers learn from English decks for now (owner's ruling in ADR-0037).

What it takes

1. A bank of sentences per native language, starting with English:

   • each with a permanent id;
   • its type: statement, question, negative, command; present, past, future; continuous, perfect; active or passive; direct or indirect speech; conditional; relative clause; comparison;
   • the grammar steps it needs;
   • a difficulty, with some hard ones that combine types (a passive in reported speech).

   About 200–300 sentences to start.

2. Each course answers the bank: for each sentence, its translations into the language, every accepted order, with reading and IPA. These are in a file per course, keyed by the bank's ids.

   • The validator checks that every word in an answer is taught earlier on the path, so the learner builds from known pieces.
   • A sentence a course cannot yet answer is left out.

3. When it appears: once the learner has learnt to build sentences, after the path's first sentence-grammar unit. Each sentence comes once every grammar step it needs is taught.

4. How it is asked: the English sentence is shown; the learner writes the sentence:

   • typed, or with tiles from the known words, as the word-order plan makes them (word-order-tiles.md);
   • or by speaking, where the phone can hear the language.

   Graded against the accepted answers, with the mistake explained (explain-mistakes.md).

5. Cloze, a step before the whole sentence:

   • the meaning, the sentence in the learner's language, on top;
   • under it the sentence in the language learned, with one word left out;
   • the learner fills the gap, in the script or in ISO Latin letters, by the Script / Latin letters switch, as typed answers do;
   • graded as a typed answer for that one word;
   • the gap is any word the learner has learnt (owner's choice), so the sentence is an item of its own, asked again with another gap.

   It needs no bank: every sentence card and every example sentence a deck already has can be asked this way.

6. Scheduled as a production pair of its own, so it is reviewed. Under the skill model (done: ADR-0034), a sentence is produced in Write.

7. Tests for the bank, the validator's known-words check, unlocking by grammar step, grading with free word order, and cloze: one word left out, the gap filled in the script or in Latin letters, and graded as that word.

To decide

• Cloze:
  • typed only, or also chosen from a few words as its easier grade: settled (owner, 2026-10-08, #235): cloze is chosen as its easier grade and typed as its harder one (ADR-0034);
  • whether it comes before the bank's sentences, from the first sentence cards, or with them.
• Typed, tiles or spoken, or each in turn as the sentence is learnt.
• How many bank sentences per grammar step.
• The format of the bank and of a course's answers. A new file kind needs the owner's answer (AGENTS.md).

Estimate

Part	Hours
The app: the bank, unlocking, the drill, grading	4–6
The English bank, 200–300 sentences	4–6
Answers for the eight courses, about 1–2 hours per 50 sentences	32–96

Banks in other native languages come once decks are taught from them. Confidence: medium for the app, low for the content.

See also: Roadmap · Plans-Index · Home