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Getting started with Anki

Lector can push vocabulary straight into Anki, and ships frequency-ordered decks you can study there. If you've never used Anki, this page gets you from zero to your first review. Already an Anki user? Skip ahead to connecting it to Lector.

What is Anki?

Anki is a free, open-source flashcard app built around spaced repetition. It has been around for over fifteen years and is a staple for language learners and medical students — anyone who needs to commit a lot of facts to long-term memory. It runs on your computer and your phone, and syncs between them through a free account.

The idea is simple: you review cards (a prompt on the front, the answer on the back), and Anki decides when to show each one again based on how well you knew it.

Why spaced repetition works

After you see a card's answer, you rate how easily you recalled it. Anki uses that rating to schedule the next review: cards you find easy come back in weeks or months, cards you struggle with come back tomorrow. Each successful review pushes the next one further out.

The effect is that you review each word roughly at the moment you're about to forget it — the point where the review does the most good. You spend your time on the handful of words that are slipping rather than re-reading things you already know cold. It's the same principle behind Lector's own cloze practice; Anki just applies it to plain flashcards.

Installing Anki

  • Desktop (do this first) — the free desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux from apps.ankiweb.net. This is where you review, edit, and import decks, and it's the piece Lector talks to.
  • A free AnkiWeb account — sign up at ankiweb.net so your cards sync and back up across devices.
  • Mobile (optional) — AnkiDroid on Android is free; AnkiMobile on iOS is a paid app that funds the project. Handy for reviewing on the go once your deck is set up.

For use with Lector you only need the desktop app. Lector's export talks to AnkiConnect, an add-on that runs inside Anki Desktop, so Anki has to be open on the same machine as your browser when you push cards.

Cards, decks, and reviews

  • Card — one thing to learn: a prompt on the front (say, an Afrikaans word) and the answer on the back (its English meaning).
  • Deck — a collection of cards. You can have a deck per language, and decks can hold sub-decks (Lector's frequency decks are split this way).
  • Review — each day Anki shows you the cards that are due. You reveal the answer, then rate it Again, Hard, Good, or Easy. That rating sets when you'll next see the card.
  • New cards — Anki introduces unseen cards at a capped rate each day (20 by default) so a big deck doesn't overwhelm you all at once.

Getting cards to study

There are two ways to fill Anki with useful cards, and they work well together.

1. Start with a ready-made deck

The quickest start is a frequency-ordered deck for your language — the most common words first, so early study pays off fastest. Browse the reference data page and pick your language: Afrikaans ships Lector's own deck, and the other languages link hand-picked, free community decks on AnkiWeb.

For a downloadable deck (an .apkg file, like the Afrikaans one), import it into Anki Desktop:

  1. Download the .apkg file from the reference data page.
  2. Double-click it, or in Anki choose File → Import and select the file.
  3. Start with the most-frequent sub-deck (e.g. Core) and work down.

Community decks linked from AnkiWeb open with an Get button that adds them to your account directly — no file to download.

2. Mine your own cards from Lector

As you read in Lector, save the words you look up and push them into Anki with a click over AnkiConnect. These cards come straight from what you're actually reading, so they're relevant and stickier than a generic list. Many people do both: a ready-made deck for the high-frequency core, and mined cards for the long tail of words specific to their books.

Building the habit

Spaced repetition only works if you turn up. A few pointers:

  • Review every day. The schedule assumes it — skip a week and due cards pile up. A short daily session beats an occasional marathon.
  • Keep the new-card limit modest. 10–20 new cards a day is plenty; every new card becomes tomorrow's review, so the daily load compounds.
  • Be honest with your ratings. Press Again when you blank — that's how Anki learns to resurface it sooner.

Flashcards are just the first phase. See the methodology for how a frequency-first vocabulary base feeds into reading and sentence mining — and once Anki's running, wire it up in AnkiConnect setup.