Feedback - General

[GregX999]

I have another suggestion, that might be too much of a pain to implement, but I think will greatly help with an issue I’ve been having, and I’ve seen a few others comment similarly. That is the issue of memorizing the correct answer after just seeing the first few characters of the sentence.
For example, if I see this question…

As soon as I see 風邪 I instantly know I need to use つもりはなかった because I had gotten it wrong enough in the past I’ve seen it so many times, and there are no other sentences that start with 風邪.

So, my suggestion is to use the same basic sentence “template” for a handful of grammar points. For example, 風邪を＿＿＿＿(blah blah blah) [引く] could be used for:

• 風邪を引くつもりはなかった。
• 風邪を引きたくない。
• 風邪を引かなくてもいいよ。
• 風邪を引くと、みそしろを食べたい。
• 風邪を引くなら、学校に行かないで。

You get the idea right? It would force me to read the sentence and think about what I need to answer. Especially those last two where I need to think about the difference between と and なら.

[xBl4ck]

No idea what to do on that one without the hint.

[mrnoone]

Hey

We have changed the translation so it will be easier to choose the correct answer

[xBl4ck]

Isn’t the casual hint here wrong?
Also, that one was kind of confusing because you had to infer the conjugation from the Japanese sentence alone.

I wish the translation was something like “I was unable to find it and I am sorry” so I knew that you’re expecting the te-form at the end.

I can kind of figure what you’re trying to do with those, as they make you think about sentence structure more, but personally I’d like to move through my reviews as fast as possible and practice this kind of thing out in the wild.

[Kai]

• With て＋いく, sounds like speaker must do it of own volition - because of inconvenient consequences
• With なる, sounds like speaker was told to do it, or is expected to do it - implies a sense of obligation

I’d say this actually ties into the distinction between ～ことにする and ～ことになる!
The former means, “I’ve decided to ______,” while the latter means, “It’s been decided that ______.” する indicates volition from the speaker here, whereas なる indicates that the decision was made by others (typically by authorities; possibly by society in general).

Taking this a little bit further, to quote Imabi: “～ことになっている shows that the decision has been made for you. It is equivalent to ‘am to.’ It is also important in describes rules, traditions, etc.”

 

(Also, for all instances of にする or になる, the word “こと” isn’t actually necessary; we just need a noun to attach to. If you’re deciding between nouns, you can say “すしにします” for example, to say “I’ll have sushi.”)

[MissDagger]

While I have you here, I have been playing with how the hints for the various “must” grammar points display. @jamie Do either of these appeal to you?

I just saw this version of one of these reviews this morning and because it showed from the start, I barely glanced at the actual the sentence and still knew what I was to put in. I do not have any brilliant ideas for how to hint at which must to use, but might it be possible to only show the “[つける --> て + いく]” with the translated answer, instead of right off?

[jamie]

• With て＋いく, sounds like speaker must do it of own volition - because of inconvenient consequences
• With なる, sounds like speaker was told to do it, or is expected to do it - implies a sense of obligation

I think it’s better to have hints that don’t reveal the answer like these above: own volition / was told to / casual instead of giving て＋いく immediately. It will associate “must + own volition” with て＋いく

Another similar thing happen with “seem”: そう、にみえる、ようだ
I’m having a hard time answering without revealing orange hints to get “low confidence”, “some confidence” or “high confidence”. The problem is, all hints will be revealed before getting to these. Maybe move the degree of confidence to the blank spot?

[mrnoone]

This is great idea!

[conan]

I just started reading “A Dictionary of Basic Japanese” and in the あいだ section, it mentions the differences in meaning depending on whether or not a に is present after it. (With に the event takes place sometime during, without に it takes place the entire time throughout.) I didn’t really see any sentence examples on Bunpro without に, so it be cool to see that expanded some day to really hammer in the difference

[Kai]

(With に the event takes place sometime during, without に it takes place the entire time throughout.)

Ah, so it works exactly like the distinction between まで and までに then. Nice!

[conan]

Finding consistencies when learning something is like heaven ;o; Less to memorize–hooray! x’D

[xBl4ck]

I can’t seem to find the ない + と + だめ／いけない／ならない (must) grammar. Seems a bit odd since all the other “If I don’t ~ won’t be good” ones have their own grammar points

[mrnoone]

Yes this is on to do list

[GregX999]

This review question (and probably other ones testing this grammar point) need to have a hint saying “humble request”.

I kept trying different ways to say “please do something” but never thought to use that one. Very frustrating.

…

Edit: After seeing the question again, I see that “[humble request]” is actually in the blank space, but it disappears once you start typing. I’ve gotten frustrated with that before too - it’s easy to miss and and then you don’t see it once you’ve hit your first letter. I’ve been thinking about suggesting that those hints be moved back down underneath.

[GregX999]

I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not, but in this review:

There is no [きこえる] after the sentence.

[Pushindawood]

@GregX999 Thank you for your feedback on how the hints should be displayed in reviews. We will see what we can do to hopefully alleviate some frustration. Thank you for your patience as we continue to tinker with how the hints are displayed.

There is no [きこえる] after the sentence.

This one is actually intentional. We decided to include 聞こえる alongside other potential verbs (even though it is not the potential form of 聞く) to draw attention to its frequency of use. You will almost always use 聞こえる to describe something that is audible. We felt that including [聞こえる] in the hint would give too much away. We would like to know your thoughts on this decision. Cheers!

[GregX999]

Re: 聞こえる
I think having some reviews with 聞こえる (and also 見える) are a great idea, but that said, I think they should maybe be their own grammar point, not mixed in with the potential verb grammar point. They could be combined into a single grammar point (along with other verbs like that… are there any?)

[xBl4ck]

I’m in the “I like my hints”-camp, but this one really bothers me because it’s so unique. I haven’t encountered any that are like it so far. I only glance at the verb and already know what youre asking.

[Pushindawood]

I think they should maybe be their own grammar point

Thank you for your suggestion. We will add that to our to-do list. Cheers!

@xBl4ck Thank you for your feedback. I have removed the “volitional” portion of the hint from these items and added additional answers that will throw a warning rather than marking you incorrect (たべるとおもいます, etc.). Hopefully these reviews will now be less bothersome! Cheers!

[xBl4ck]

I’m in the “I like my hints”-camp, but this one really bothers me because it’s so unique. I haven’t encountered any that are like it so far. I only glance at the verb and already know what youre asking.

Hopefully these reviews will now be less bothersome!

Oh wow, I didnt even realize how grumpy that sounded. Maybe I shouldn’t be posting those right after getting out of bed! Sorry, didnt mean to be rude
Thanks for your work