Playing in the browser, there is a new game setting, Sentence Text Initially Hidden, which I have long requested. This means you can now attempt to translate the entire sentence in your mind before focusing at the cloze at hand. Thank you very much, @mike !
There is a glitch though: the buttons to switch to multiple choice and to show the first letter are not disabled; pressing either button leads to a blank page.
Thanks for letting us know! This should now be fixed. Please let us know of course if not or you notice any other issues.
I just noticed this setting today and love it! I’d love to see it in the app.
Thank you so much, @mike, for adding this functionality, and @morbrorper, for telling us about it! I’ve switched to using this setting exclusively, and I’m not going back. 
I really like the way this setting lets me (1) start with a simulation of the real-world experience of having to come up with an entire sentence from scratch, knowing only what I want to say in my own language, and then (2) brings me back to the traditional cloze format with the press of a single button. That combination is really powerful. It has the following advantages, not all of which may be immediately apparent:
It gives me the opportunity to come up with non-cloze words before seeing them. Prior to this, I often was in the frustrating situation of seeing a non-cloze word that I wasn’t sure I would have remembered on my own, an occurrence that would upset the spaced-repetition principle of only being reminded of a word when I’ve actually forgotten it.
It gives me the opportunity to guess a cloze word without seeing the text box that tells me how long the word is. (You might think that I could simply choose not to use the option that makes text box size dependent on the length of the word. However, given how often a cloze can be filled with multiple valid possibilities, only one of which will be accepted, I need to enable both length-dependent text boxes and typing color hints, or I’ll end up submitting something that is correct but will be rejected.)
It lets me cross over to the cloze display easily, whenever I want, so I don’t waste time as I would if I had to wait for a timeout before the transition occurred, or if I had to press some complicated sequence of keys.
I do have one suggestion. In addition to providing the Enter key as an alternative to pressing the “eye” button that brings up the cloze format, could you consider making the space key do the same? I often find myself pressing the space key, assuming it will have that effect, but instead it takes me to the bottom of the page (which is never something I want to happen). The thing about the Enter key is that using it when the cloze is displayed indicates that I don’t know the word (since I have the “enter submits empty” option enabled). So in order to avoid the possibility of incorrectly saying that I don’t know the word, I need to always think twice before pressing the Enter key. It would be nice if I could always use the space key, which would either bring up the cloze format (if I’m in the translation-only screen) or harmlessly type a space into the cloze box (if I’m in the cloze screen). I hope that makes sense.
Thanks again!
I recently signed up for Clozemaster and came across this discussion. Thanks to @morbrorper and @alanf_us for highlighting this feature and talking about how they use it. I switched all my practice to this mode.
As an intermediate learner, it made sense to me to simulate the real-world experience of wanting to communicate some idea and figuring out how to say in the target language. I probably don’t get enough speaking practice, so it’s been really helpful for identifying areas of improvement because I realize I make a lot of errors: grammar, conjugation, agreement, etc… I’ve found that recognizing correct words from multiple choice a little too easy, so I also switched to typing.
For now, I’m intentionally “failing” the sentence if I don’t get the full sentence correct. It does mean I’m progressing more slowly through sentences because I’ll often pause and consult other sources (ChatGPT, Google Translate, WordReference, Reverso) to see if my translation is correct / grammatical / idiomatic. I also add notes to the sentence about which things I tend to get wrong, so the next time I see the sentence I can check if I made the same mistake or not.
I thought about trying to create new cards with different clozes for sentences with multiple unfamiliar vocabulary words but adding notes is just faster for me.
If you’re using this method, I’ve love to hear any other tips you have!
What spaced repetition intervals are you using for this “production” method?
I’m currently trying 0 / 1 / 3 / 7 / 13 days for 0 / 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 and I’ve set the 100% mastered interval to: “Use an always increasing next review interval with Hard/Normal/Easy buttons after answering to modify the rate of increase”.
I use 1 / 3 / 7 / 13 / 365 days. I also use the “… always increasing next review interval…” setting.
Unless the translation is very short, I don’t generally try to produce the full sentence in my mind before pressing the “eye” button. Instead, I mentally try to come up with the rarest words (the ones most likely to be the cloze). And if I’m trying to get through my review queue quickly, I will press on the “eye” button before trying to produce any words.
Thank you! That makes sense.
Personally, I fear that restarting every cloze I fail from scratch would slow me down too much, so when I fail a cloze I will reset the percentage to the same as it was, and hope to fare better next time.
If I find that I persistently fail a cloze, I will make it a “favorite”; I use the Hands-Free mode to run through my favorites at the end of the day, until I think I know them, and next day I clear the list.
Re my intervals, I have made them a lot longer than the defaults, in order to cut down on the number of reviews per day.
I generally don’t think only four or five exposures to a cloze is enough for life-long retention. Therefore, I will very seldom mark a non-trivial cloze as “fully mastered”.
I used to restart clozes that I failed. It seemed clumsy and I sometimes fly through my reviews. So I stopped that. I created a new collection for words that I have difficulty remembering. (Why can I remember French for puppy but not kitten?) I never mark any cloze as fully mastered, I will have to think about that.
I have played with the review times. shorter, longer, etc. I don’t know that I have hit on the perfect times for me.
Ah, interesting. I like the idea of resetting it to the same level it was.
I agree with you that 4 to 5 exposures is probably not enough time for lifelong retention! That being said, when I think about how I improved my English grammar and vocabulary as a kid, I spent a lot of time reading, and I haven’t done that for French. So I was thinking about doing more reading in French, instead of only relying on Clozemaster for my exposure to these words.
I considered graded readers, but then I figured maybe I should try and read children’s or YA books that were from French publishing companies, so I did a search for “livres des enfants”: livres pour des enfants - Google Search and got pages like: https://www.gallimard-jeunesse.fr/conseils-de-lecture/7-12-ans-l-age-des-premieres-sagas-et-des-romans-longs-pour-lecteurs-confirmes.html
I’ll probably look for e-book versions of these as I like the built in translation mechanisms on my phone or computer. I’ve found that even going through something like “Le Petit Nicolas” is quite challenging for my current level!
I need to get more practice with output / production, so playing Clozemaster in Vocabulary Mode with Text Input with Sentence Text Initially Hidden is great for that, but definitely the way I was using it, it was pretty slow to get through sentences. It also highlighted several weaknesses for me: using the wrong verb when conjugating the passé compose, incorrect placement of adjectives/adverbs, improper agreement, not remembering how to conjugate the conditional / subjunctive / imperfect / futur simple, etc… But I’m thinking I might want to address those issues differently (probably by just doing some grammar exercises and also reading / listening more in French to just gain an “ear” for what is correct – the same way I speak English, I just know if it’s right or wrong)
I’m currently now trying out Clozemaster in Listening Mode, Translation only visible after answering, with Transcribe mode. It doesn’t really test my recall or grammar knowledge (as the voice tells you the answer!) but it is helping my listening knowledge, which I think might be helpful if I want to try listen to more content in French. I have found it helpful for learning to hear grammatical constructions I’m less familiar with, (inverting the verb and the subject for question asking, reflexive verbs, etc…).
I intentionally “fail” the card if I don’t know what the phrase means upon first listen, to try and simulate what it would be like listening to a real conversation. I’m still using the 1x speed, but I switched between the fr-fr Google français voice and the Clozemaster voices. I like the Google voice a little bit more, but sometimes it doesn’t pronounce things as clearly, for instance “Ils vivent dans une petite ville”, the Clozemaster voice says “Ils vivent” (with a nice emphasis on the last “v”), but the Google voice pronounces that last v softly, so on first listen I think its “Il vit” and not “Ils vivent”
If people have any suggestions for drilling grammar, that’d be great!
You mean the brain icon that sets the review interval to something like 100 years from now, right?
Just a quick note - the space key should now work the same as enter.
It does indeed. Thank you so much!
Could we get this setting in the app as well, please? 