The study modes

Training, tests, listening, speaking and flashcards.

A list page offers "Train" as its main button, and the "See the cards" link for flashcards. A conjugation list offers only "Recite" and "Train". "Test" opens the written test, self-assessment and "Custom test", where you choose the mode, the direction, the session length and free practice before starting.

A running session takes the whole screen: the card is centred, and nothing else remains but the "Quit" button (an arrow on a phone) and the session's own controls at the top.

Training — for new cards

This is the mode for cards you have never seen. It shows the answer among four choices first; once you have recognised it, it asks again with no help.

A card leaves the current small batch once you have got it right twice in a row. Missed cards come back within the same batch until they are learnt, and then the next batch starts.

Training does not change the review schedule: see the page on training and the schedule.

Written test — for revising

You type the answer and are corrected immediately. With self-assessment, it is the mode that moves cards up the boxes and sets the next due dates.

Correction is forgiving by default: case, spacing, final punctuation and accents are ignored, and a single-character typo is flagged as "almost" rather than counted wrong. In the language you are learning, a noun must be typed with its article. Settings › Study can stop requiring the article, or require exact spelling and accents; the note under the card always says which rule is in force.

If you disagree with the correction, "Count it as correct" gives you the last word.

Self-assessment — for judging your own answer

Self-assessment is a mode of its own, chosen under "Test" › "Self-assessment" or in "Custom test".

There is no answer box: a card is shown, and you press it (or Enter, or Space) to turn it over. Then you say "I knew it" or "I didn’t know" — with the two buttons, or by swiping the card right for "I knew it" and left for the other.

Both verdicts count exactly as a typed answer does: the review schedule is the same. This is the mode to choose for pronunciation, for a long definition, or simply when typing is awkward.

Flashcards — for browsing

This mode is not a test: it takes you through the whole deck, in the list's own order, with no shuffle, no length limit and no grading. Press the card to turn it over, then "Next card" or "Previous card" — or swipe left and right. On a computer, click the card, and move between cards with the ← → arrow keys.

Nothing is recorded: no answer, no box, no due date, and nothing towards the daily goal. At the end of the deck it offers to start again instead of giving a score.

Listen — to understand by ear

The “Listen” menu on a list page offers two exercises: “Type what I hear”, where you write the word you hear, and “Translate what I hear”, where you type its translation. The word is read even with sound off: it is the question. Answers count as in the written test; “I can’t hear it well” shows the word, and the answer does not count.

Speak — to say the words aloud

The “Speak” menu offers three exercises: “Translate aloud into Spanish” (for a Spanish list), where you say the word from its translation; “Translate aloud into English”, where you say the translation of the word shown; and “Repeat”, where you hear the word and say it again. The browser checks it heard the right word: a word said well counts as a right answer, a word missed is never counted wrong. If the browser misheard you, “I said it right” counts the word as said well.

You need a microphone and a browser that recognises speech: Chrome, Edge or Safari, not Firefox. Your browser transcribes what you say; Kardamone receives no sound. In a path, turn on “Speak” to also say a few new words during the “Listening” station.

Direction and sound

The direction — question to answer, answer to question, or both — is set by the list first. A list set to only one says so and does not offer the other: the reverse question cannot be answered there, or is not the point of the exercise. Where the list leaves the choice open it is made under "Custom test", with a default from Settings › Study. The two directions are tracked separately.

Sound has three settings, in Settings or by pressing the button beside "Quit" during a session. "No sound": nothing is read by itself. "Written with sound": the word you are learning is read once when its answer is shown, right or wrong, and when a new word is presented. "Audio practice": the same, and a track’s session gains a "Listening" station, with a few sentences to understand or to write by ear in place of as many reviews. In all three, a loudspeaker you press always reads the word or the example. Only the side written in the language you are learning is read, never before the answer. Some words of the first lists are recorded by native speakers; the others are read by your device’s voice, and the screen tells you when it has none for that language. The most natural voices are Edge’s and Chrome’s on a computer, with a connection.