I use Anki to study vocabulary, among other things, and I have found that there are often pairs of words that I will mistake for each other. Is there a built-in way to indicate this to Anki so that I can specifically isolate the pair of problem cards? If not, are there other strategies for distinguishing between two similar words?
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Cards that you forget much more frequently than normal are known as “leeches”.
Anki will automatically add the “leech” tag to them after a while (8 lapses by default) and depending on your settings may automatically suspend them too.
There are a few ways to approach them (some mentioned in the linked manual page), but a couple I would recommend are:
1. Try to come up with mnemonics for the words
Sometimes coming up with a silly little story, mental image etc. for the word can make them stick in your mind better than just rote memorisation.
2. Suspend one of the cards for now.
This will stop Anki from showing you the card until you unsuspend it.
You might find it easier to remember just one of the words without the other one interfering.
Once you have a strong memory of the first word you can try re-introducing the other word.
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Make a card containing both words, focussing on differences in spelling/meaning or simply some visual discrimination.
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I agree with @ferophila on making a card focussing on the differences.
You might also be interested in a script to randomly shuffle those words in the combined card: Randomly change the order of two values on front
Thank you @rossgb, @ferophila, and at vaibhav (It doesn’t let me mention three users at once for some reason) for the helpful replies. I will try coming up with a mnemonic to distinguish the two cards, and make a new card for that purpose. I’ll also take a look at the script you sent.