Vocab: keeping words and building flashcards

Once you are in the call it is a tab in the rail, beside Chat and Transcript; before the call it is a card on the lesson page. It lists what this lesson has kept, counts it in its own heading, and every row carries a “Remove”. Nothing in it is collapsed and nothing is behind a toggle.

Language students only — a chess or tutoring lesson screen has none of these tabs.

On the built-in call both surfaces are live: every word of every chat message is a tap target, and the “Transcript” tab does the same for what was actually said. Drag across two or more words to keep a phrase whole, article and all — the way “une cave” is a card and “une” on its own isn't.

The transcript is speech-to-text, so it is imperfect. It says so on the panel and asks you to tap only the words you recognise. When it is reading the saved file rather than live speech it says that too, and a “Check now” button fetches again.

A tap only stages the word: a small chip asks whether to keep it for your student, and its “Keep” is what writes the row. A stray tap costs you a glance and a dismiss, never a card on a student's list.

A word that can't be a card is refused in a sentence rather than silently — a bare article, a lone letter, a meaning with no word in front of it. Once it saves, the chip offers “Undo”, unless the word was already on the list and there is no new row to take back.

There is no chat and no transcript on somebody else's call, so the box inside the bucket — “Keep a word or phrase…” — is the whole capture surface there. Type it, press Keep, and it lands in the same list against the same lesson. The same box is on the built-in call too, for the words that were said but never typed.

It's switched off until the lesson exists: words are kept against the lesson they were said in.

Keeping takes one gesture and never asks for a translation — mid-lesson you have a student waiting. The meanings are asked for at the end, while you can still hear the sentence each word came out of.

The wrap-up deals this lesson's kept words one card at a time: the word under “Kept word or phrase”, the line it was caught in quoted beneath it where there is one, and a “Translation or meaning” box. “Save” writes it and moves on, “Next” sends the card to the back of the queue.

How many are left is on screen in every state, including the last one — a card you pass over twice retires instead of circling forever, and nothing is lost by skipping.

It holds this lesson's leftovers and every meaning-less word from earlier lessons in one queue, each with “Retire” beside it. A word with no meaning is never drilled, so it sits still rather than becoming a bad flashcard.

We fill in the meaning only where you left it blank, an example sentence, and a short note. A meaning you wrote yourself is never overwritten, and everything stays editable afterwards.

Paste words in directly under “Add words” (one per line, “word — meaning” if you want to set the meaning yourself), edit any card, or retire words they've outgrown.

Retiring keeps the review history — it never deletes anything, and “Show retired” brings those rows back into view.

It re-sorts the list by how likely your student is to have forgotten each word right now — that's your warm-up, prepared for you.

You don't have to go looking: on a built-in call, the lesson screen prints the shakiest few under “Words to circle back on” before you start.

We never overwrite a meaning you set yourself, and every card is editable. Cards are rows, not blobs, so your edits stick.

Flip cards in rounds of up to 10 words to answer. A new word is shown first (Next — no grade; up to 5 a round, newest lesson first); from the next day each card gives the meaning and they say the word, then two buttons — Not yet / Got it.

It uses spaced repetition (FSRS): a word they nail comes back in weeks, a word they miss comes back before they close the tab. When nothing is due, practice ends and says so — no infinite grind.

It sits under “Waiting on your coach” in their Practice tab and joins the flip cards the moment a meaning exists. Only you can write that meaning — in the wrap-up, by hand, or with the AI — so the shelf never asks your student to finish your work.

A word heard on the bus is exactly the word worth keeping. It lands on the same list, chipped with their name so you always know it wasn't yours — and it never spends your AI budget, because only you decide whether to write a card for it.

Their additions show up on your lesson screen too, so you'll see them before class.