18,896 HSK sentences

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
We don’t support this yet (“cloze testing”) but we have added support for it in 4.0. (Can draw from a pool of sentence flashcards or from all dictionary examples)
 
Hi Leguan,

I am late to this conversation but I am very much interested in what you describe right here. That is, uploading your list as a flashcard list but lacking the pinyin hint in the blank space where the word should be. Is it possible to filter that pinyin out in excel quickly without brute forcing the entire 23k list?

Thanks.

Hi hoakma,

I'm not sure if it's possible. For the flash cards, I guess it is just a matter of replacing the Pinyin with blanks (or say underbar characters, etc. for better readability).

But, I'm not sure if Pleco has a test type that allows you to type the answer. (The fill in the blanks option seems to require use of handwritten entry using Plecos handwriting recogniser) Anybody else know if Pleco has such an option?

Just to be sure I understand correctly, do you mean you don't want to see the Pinyin at all. Rather you want to directly see the English translation as the hint?
BR
 

leguan

探花
Hi Leguan,

I am late to this conversation but I am very much interested in what you describe right here. That is, uploading your list as a flashcard list but lacking the pinyin hint in the blank space where the word should be. Is it possible to filter that pinyin out in excel quickly without brute forcing the entire 23k list?

Thanks.

Hi Forrest,
Yes, it is certainly possible to convert any of my or Shun's flashcards to the following format:

Simplified Character Headword: The Chinese word to be tested (ex. 输入法)

Mandarin Pronunciation: The pinyin of the word to be tested (e.g. shu1ru4fa3)

Definition: The contextual sentence that will be presented to prompt you to enter the Chinese Word to be tested (e.g.:
此___也适用于这个版本.
The input method also works with this version.


A flashcard test would be performed as follows:
1. The Definition above is presented to the user.
2. The user handwrites the Chinese characters for the missing word using the English sentence to know what Chinese word is missing in the Chinese sentence.
3. If the user needs a further hint they can press the show pinyin button and try again to write the Chinese word.
4. The Chinese word is shown to the user and the user self scores (or is scored by Pleco in the case Pleco's "Fill-in-the-blanks" testing mode is usesd)

A brute force conversion of the flashcards could be performed as follows:
a. Combine the Mandarin Pronunciation and Definition fields into one blob as the Definition field. e.g., in the example above the Definition field would be transformed from "The input method also works with this version." to "此shu1ru4fa3也适用于这版本.\nThe input method also works with this version."
b. Replace each pinyin syllable in the Definition field e.g. "shu1", etc. with an underbar character, etc. . e.g., in the example above the Definition field would be transformed from "此shu1ru4fa3也适用于这版本.\nThe input method also works with this version." to "此___也适用于这版本.\nThe input method also works with this version."
c. Remove the Chinese characters from the Mandarin Pronunciation field leaving just the pinyin. e.g., in the example above the Mandarin Pronunciation field would be transformed from "此shu1ru4fa3也适用于这版本." to "shu1ru4fa3".

It could also be done by modifying the original Excel VBA script to produce the above required output, or in the case of Shun's flashcard sets by modifying his Python scripts.

Before going further with this could you please confirm if the above format is what you are thinking of?

One point to bear in mind is that, as per my earlier response above, Pleco does not currently offer the facility to "type" Chinese Words as answers to flashcard tests. So manually scored handwriting, or Pleco's "Fill in the blank" testing (which also requires handwritten input) would still be the basis for inputing answers.

Another point to consider is that the value of the English and Chinese sentences may be less for cases where the Chinese word can be unabiguously translated from the English word without the full English and Chinese sentences as context.

Even bearing the above points in mind, given that conversion of the flashcards to the above format in my Excel spreadsheet does appear to be fairly straightforward, I would be happy to explore further the possiblity performing such a conversion if the above format and functionality is what you are looking for. If you would prefer to use Shun's flashcards, either adaptation of Shun's shared Python scripts or a separate brute force implementation in Python are also possible approaches to realize such a new format.

For further clarity, I have attached two screen shots showing how a flashcard in the above format would look in Pleco in the flashcard test (after showing the full card) and also in the flashcard editing screen - notice that since the English and Chinese sentences appear in the Defintion section, they cannot be shown separately to the user in this flashcard format.

By way of comparison and for your reference, I have also attached screen shots of the full card and editing sceen for the same flashcard in the original format.

Best regards,
leguan

UPDATE: After sending my reply above, I did implement The above described functionality in my VBA code and tried to imagine testing using this format. However, I didn't feel that this new format was as useful for me as the original format - I ended up spending a lot of time reading both sentences and trying to figure out what part or the English sentence was missing in the Chinese sentence. To be honest, it didn't seem to be a natural or productive way to practice Chinese word recall and writing.

I wonder, did I misunderstood the kind of flashcards and practice methodology you were thinking of?
 

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Shun

状元
Hi @leguan and @Forrest McSweeney,

I think that's a very good answer, @leguan. I agree with you that the learning method you described (if it is what Forrest meant) may look good at first sight, but since English and Chinese sentences often have a radically different structure, and the way they apply their vocabulary is also very different, it would feel like too much of a guessing game.

Cheers,

Shun
 

leguan

探花
Hi Shun,
Thank you very much for your kind reply! Yes, lets wait and see if Forrest had something else in mind different from what was my understanding.
I guess it is good to try new things out to see what works and what doesn't - of course some things that work for one might not work for another and vice versa:)
 

Shun

状元
Hi leguan,

you're welcome! I agree, some things are individually different about learning, while others can almost be considered general laws. One such law might be, "Don't overwhelm your brain with too much information at a time." :) (Especially if you're a beginner.)

Cheers, Shun
 

xiaoma

Member
Dear all,

here’s a file of 18,896 quite realistic-sounding HSK sentences, in ascending order of complexity. I imported them from a tatoeba sentence list some time ago. They’re useful for reinforcing one’s feeling for sentence structure and grammatical constructions. They work best with the Self-graded studying mode or even just by browsing through in Card Info.

Caveat: The generated pinyin is sometimes off, and the English often sounds like it hadn’t been translated by a native English speaker.

Hope you like it, cheers, Shun


Edit: The file in message number 24 is ordered by sentence length. I'm also attaching it here.
What’s the easiest way to batch these by 100 at a time so that they are reviewable in groups?

I have this massive resource, but it’s impossible to do all in one go, so I need to group them. All I’m seeing is a super slow method where I’d have to batch them by clicking one by one.
 

Shun

状元
Hi xiaoma,

do you use Android or iOS? You can split up the categories into subcategories of a size of your choosing in Organize Flashcards. I think on Android, you have to tap-hold a category to split it, while on iOS, you can tap the information button to the right of a category name to do the same thing.

In case you run into any further questions, I suggest you first search for "pleco manual" on Google and work through that. If questions remain after that, feel free to ask here.

Hope this helps,

Shun
 

KarlB

Member
Dear all,

here’s a file of 18,896 quite realistic-sounding HSK sentences, in ascending order of complexity. I imported them from a tatoeba sentence list some time ago. They’re useful for reinforcing one’s feeling for sentence structure and grammatical constructions. They work best with the Self-graded studying mode or even just by browsing through in Card Info.

Caveat: The generated pinyin is sometimes off, and the English often sounds like it hadn’t been translated by a native English speaker.

Hope you like it, cheers, Shun


Edit: The file in message number 24 is ordered by sentence length. I'm also attaching it here.
Hi Shun,
Would you be happy for me to use these sentences in an app that I'm making? I can provide you with more details if required. I'm happy to give you attribution for providing the sentences in the app.
Thanks
 

Shun

状元
Hi KarlB,

I'm under the impression that these sentences have been passed around everywhere on the Internet. For example, if you google for any one of these 18,896 sentences, such as this one:

"他喜欢拿他的同学开玩笑。",

you will get about 270 hits from sites such as Memrise, Quizlet, and italki, along with the same English translation. In other words, I have no idea where they originally came from or whom you could ask. My introduction sounded like they were of my creation, which of course isn't the case.

Hope this helps, you're welcome,

Shun
 
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