Assume you already know the definitions of the words inept and inapt. You start using a deck that asks for the definitions of various English vocabulary including inept and inapt. if a card asks you for the definition of inept and it provides you with the hint “not inapt” then interference won’t occur. But when you come across the word inept in a real setting, there is no hint to help you. So why are hints useful when hints do not reflect real world context for when we have to recall?
Can you provide the exact Front and Back of both your cards?
What exactly is the problem when you see the word inept or inapt in a book? Do you not understand the meaning of the word, when you see it in a book?
Assuming you know the definitions of both inept and inapt, if a card asks you for the definition of inept and it provides you with the hint “not inapt” then interference won’t occur. But when you come across the word inept in a real setting, there is no hint to help you. So why do we use hints when hints do not reflect real world context for when we have to recall?
Repeating your explanation doesn’t help in any way other than adding more scroll space to your topic 
It’s not really clear what you mean by “interference hints”… and who is “we”? You’re free to choose when and what type of hints to add to your notes.
Other than that, constructive feedback regarding unhelpful uses of hints in downloaded decks should be directed at the respective deck creator.
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Actually, the explanations haven’t been repeated 
. See my screenshot.
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It’s really puzzling.
Personally, I think the OP has an excellent memory. The second version omits no facts - there are only stylistic variations. The omission of some words such as “English vocabulary” does not detract in any way from the message. I would have used copy and paste - but I lack any imagination.
I’m bursting to know who’s going to win this battle between the OP and @Andr. Maybe the red-hot pliers are needed again?
Thans.
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I believe “meaning” cards without example sentences should be avoided for the following reasons:
- Words usually have more than one meaning. Examples provide context to see, which meaning of the word is being learned.
- Learning a word’s definition does not teach you to understand, how the word is used. You would be able to retell the definition, but not necessarily be able to build or understand a sentence with that word.
- The natural way of learning a language is how children do it. They listen to lots of sentence examples and gradually build meanings in their heads from them and from context. In my opinion it is the most effective way of learning a language for adults too.
I believe, before starting to learn one should clarify their goals. For each goal one or more card templates should be defined. Since interference hits are possible only with certain types of cards, lets define recommended card templates for different goals and see, which ones might cause interference…
| # | goal | card template | card front | card back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Be able to understand the word when you see it in a book | Example sentence → meaning | inept(=[…]) leadership | not good at doing something |
| 2 | see row 1 | see 1 | He was criticized for his inept(=[…]) handling of the problem. | not good at doing something |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | Blake was intellectually able but politically inept(=[…]). | not good at doing something |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | When it comes to girls, Isaac is socially inept(=[…]) and awkward. | not good at doing something |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | a very inapt(=[…]) comment | an inapt phrase, statement etc is not right for a particular situation |
| 6 | 1 | 1 | In this respect, the oft-quoted cathedral metaphor is not inapt(=[…]). | an inapt phrase, statement etc is not right for a particular situation |
| 7 | 1 | 1 | that his intervention was perhaps inapt(=[…]) or unfortunate. | an inapt intervention, comment etc is not right for a particular situation |
| 8 | 1 | 1 | Yet it is not altogether inapt(=[…]) that the Hymn of Riego became the anthem of liberalism. | an inapt phrase, statement etc is not right for a particular situation |
| 9 | Be able to use the word in sentences | Example sentence cloze + meaning → word | […](=not good at doing something) leadership | inept |
| 10 | see row 9 | see 9 | He was criticized for his […](=not good at doing something) handling of the problem. | inept |
| 11 | 9 | 9 | Blake was intellectually able but politically […](=not good at doing something). | inept |
| 12 | 9 | 9 | When it comes to girls, Isaac is socially […](=not good at doing something) and awkward. | inept |
| 13 | 9 | 9 | a very […](=not right for a particular situation) comment | inapt |
| 14 | 9 | 9 | In this respect, the oft-quoted cathedral metaphor is not […](=inappropriate for a particular situation). | inapt |
| 15 | 9 | 9 | that his intervention was perhaps […](=not right for a particular situation) or unfortunate. | inapt |
| 16 | 9 | 9 | Yet it is not altogether […](=not right for a particular situation) that the Hymn of Riego became the anthem of liberalism. | inapt |
I copied the definitions and example sentences from LDOCE and sometimes modified them.
The other possible learning goals and card templates might be related to listening, speaking and might require pronunciation sound recordings, phonetic transcription, etc.
Please note, that you should not strive to learn the word definition word for word. For card template “Example sentence → meaning” you just have to make sure, your understanding of the meaning of the word in that particular context is correct.
Now the example sentences usually provide enough context to minimize interference, so you would not need any “interference hints”. If you still have interference,
- an effective and simple strategy is to remove the cards that cause interference and create more cards with more example sentences instead.
- another correct and good strategy requires more effort, but improves your language knowledge significantly in the process. The strategy is to modify the card, so it has only one possible answer. You can use various tools for this and get help from experts. For example I suspected that the card in row 10 had two possible answers: inapt and inept. In order to check if it is true, I checked it by searching for both variants in books and came to a conclusion that only “inept” is the correct answer here, so you should not add any interference hints:
If you add interference hint “(not inapt)” for card 10, it could make interference even worse in real life, where, as you said, the hint is not available, because presence of the word “inapt” in the card may build an association in your brain between “handling of the problem” and “inapt”, which is a wrong word for that context.
- If and only if the card may has more than one possible answer and you cannot remove or modify it to avoid multiple possible answers, it is fine to add an answer, which is also correct, but not the intended one as an interference hint. But it is better to apply the other strategies I described above instead.
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