Index card question for languages

[Hunter's Moon]

I take Italian and in Italian there are groups of irregular verbs.

 

They need to be memorized because they don't follow the usual patterns.

 

Anyways, since they're a groups, for example like:

 

essere, to be: sono, sei, e, siamo, siete, sono

 

They all have separate meanings like: Io sono; I have, Tu sei; you have, etc, etc.

 

Would you put the whole group of essere on one card, or give them separate cards so your children could memorize Io sono is "I have" and Tu sei is "you have" or would you want your children to know that they're in the same group? The first one is always "I", the second is always "you", the third is always "he, she", etc so would you group it? If it doesn't make sense you can ask and I'll try to clarify.

 

I'm just curious how you would do it in your homeschool.

[Whereneverever]

For elementary aged kids I'd do separate. For middle school + I'd do it all on one.

[Guest TheBugsMom]

Personally I would keep them on one card with the vocabulary word and meaning as the header and the I, You, he, she, and so on in order as a list. If you want to get more detailed you could write each one in a different color(the I form is in red, the you form is in blue) and keep the color code for everything.

[Hedgehog]

We haven't done this yet.. but.. from my memory of revising French and German at high school, I would put a single tense conjugation of one verb on one card, so that the conjugation for that tense is complete in the student's mind. For example:

 

1st card - etre, present tense

 

je suis

tu es

il/elle est

nous sommes

vous etes

ils/elles sont

 

2nd card - etre, future tense

 

je serai

tu seras

il/elle sera

nous serons

vous serez

ils/elles seront

 

3rd card - etre, imperfect

 

etc. etc.

 

HTH

[skueppers]

I think it depends on how you learn. What works for me is to make up a fill-in-the-blank sentence with whatever I'm trying to learn as the blank part. I write the whole sentence on the other side of the card, perhaps with an explanation of the grammatical issue at hand. In the case of this sort of thing, I would possibly refer to a chart of the entire conjugation after I did a card that used that information, as I do find it helpful to think about these things in groups.

 

I never use cards that are different languages on each side, because translation isn't my goal.

[Hunter's Moon]

Thanks everyone, I was thinking that's how it should be.

[Hunter's Moon]

I think it depends on how you learn. What works for me is to make up a fill-in-the-blank sentence with whatever I'm trying to learn as the blank part. I write the whole sentence on the other side of the card, perhaps with an explanation of the grammatical issue at hand. In the case of this sort of thing, I would possibly refer to a chart of the entire conjugation after I did a card that used that information, as I do find it helpful to think about these things in groups.

 

I never use cards that are different languages on each side, because translation isn't my goal.

 

That is interesting.

 

So, you would put on side 1: Io ___, Tu ___, Lui/Lei ___, Noi ___, Voi ___, Loro ___.

 

Side 2: Io sono, Tu sei, Lui/Lei e, Noi siamo, Voi siete, Loro sono

 

Interesting idea. I think I'll give it a try.

 

I was going to put the whole thing on the front side and translation on back but I like this idea better.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

It helps me to learn the entire conjugation together. I always put them in the same order. So no matter if it is German or French I always have;

 

infinitive form of verb written at the top

I We

You (you-all)(you formal) smooshed on top of one another on one line

He He-group

She She-group

It They

 

Then I just put the translation of the verb on the back. Since I already know what order the conjugations are in, I don't need that. When it is time to recall them, I can easily recall the entire set.

 

I tried just doing one form per card, but then I had a hard time remembering entire conjugations together.

 

I also tried not using translated cards, because translation isn't my goal either, but for me it didn't work. I needed the translation to learn it good, and now that I know things through and through I'm not translating, just understand right away.

 

ETA: I think it is just a matter of finding what works for each person. I've seen others cards in my language classes, and everyone has a different system. I'd play around with the suggestions offered here and see what works and what doesn't.