CadentiaGuide · Spaced repetition for speaking
Anki is great for recall. Speaking needs one more step.
If you use Anki, you already believe in spaced repetition, and you are right to. The catch is that a flashcard asks you to recognise or recall a word in your head, and conversation asks you to build a sentence out loud with someone waiting. Here is how to close that gap, with Anki or without it.
See which mistakes would become your cards. Pick a language:
Free speaking check: one question, about two minutes, no account needed.
Credit where it is due
What Anki does better than almost anything
Anki schedules each card just before you would forget it, so a few minutes a day keeps thousands of words alive. It is flexible, it works offline, it is free on desktop and Android, and its community decks cover nearly every language. Many fluent speakers built their vocabulary with it.
For vocabulary, kanji, verb tables, anything you need to recognise or recall on demand, it is hard to beat. If it is working for you, keep using it.
Where it stops
Why a good deck still doesn’t make you speak
A card gives you a cue and asks for an answer you check in your head. Speaking gives you no cue: you start from an idea, find the words, put them in order and say them at speed. Remembering “la fenêtre” when you see “window” is a different act from producing “j’ai ouvert la fenêtre parce qu’il faisait chaud” in the middle of a story.
There is also the question of which cards. A deck you download, or one you write in advance, is a guess about what you will need. The sentences you actually get wrong when you talk are a much better list, and you only find them by talking.
If you keep using Anki
Five ways to make your deck work harder for speaking
Answer out loud
Say the answer before you flip, in a full sentence. It is slower, and it is the point.
Cards from your own mistakes
After every conversation, add the two or three things you got wrong, as sentences, not single words.
Cloze, not translation
Hide the hard part of a real sentence (the tense, the preposition) instead of asking for a word in isolation.
Produce, then compare
For sentence cards, say your own version first, then check it against the back. Note the difference.
Fewer new cards
Twenty new cards a day can eat the time you would have spent speaking. Trade some of it.
Side by side
Anki and Cadentia, for speaking
They do different jobs. This is the honest comparison.
Anki
- You choose and write the cards (or download a deck)
- Any subject, any language, fully customisable
- Works offline; free on desktop and Android
- Excellent for vocabulary and recognition
- Cannot hear you speak, so cannot tell you what you got wrong
Cadentia
- Cards are made from the mistakes in what you said out loud
- Each card is your own sentence, with the fix and the rule
- You say the answer, then grade it: Again, Good or Easy
- The same mistake comes back in conversation with Cadi, not only on a card
- Narrower: speaking practice in six languages, not a general flashcard tool
Plenty of learners use both: Anki for vocabulary, Cadentia for turning that vocabulary into sentences you can say.
From mistake to card
What a card made from your own speech looks like
You said the left-hand version while talking. The card asks you to produce the right-hand version, and the conversation later gives you a reason to use it.
- Ho visto lui ieriL’ho visto ieriItalian puts the object pronoun before the verb.
- Me gusta los librosMe gustan los librosGustar agrees with the thing that is liked: plural books, plural verb.
- Je vais visiter ma grand-mèreJe vais rendre visite à ma grand-mèreVisiter is for places; for people, French uses rendre visite à.
Questions
Does Anki help you speak a language?
Indirectly. It keeps vocabulary in memory, which you need to speak. It does not train you to build sentences out loud at speed, so on its own it rarely leads to speaking. Answering cards out loud and adding cards from your own spoken mistakes helps a lot.
Does Cadentia use spaced repetition?
Yes. Each mistake becomes a card on a spaced schedule, and you grade yourself Again, Good or Easy, the way you would in Anki. The difference is where the cards come from, and that they also come back in conversation.
Can I export my Cadentia cards to Anki?
Not today. Your cards live in Cadentia’s Review.
Should I stop using Anki?
No need. If your deck is working for vocabulary, keep it. Add speaking on top, and consider moving your own mistakes into whichever tool you review most.
Do I have to make the cards myself?
Not in Cadentia. They are made from what you say: the fix, the rule, and your own sentence as the example.