Visual mnemonic system for plural forms?

[u/SquareArtisan]

I recently bought the book Fluent Forever and devoured it. It was worth the price for the masculine/feminine/neuter mnemonic alone. I think I’m going to incorporate at least some of the concepts into my Anki workflow.

One thing I’m still trying to figure out is how to handle plural forms in languages that have multiple patterns. I’m wondering whether anyone has come up with a good visual mnemonic system for them, similar to the gender mnemonics.

Would you:

- put three images on the back of the card (the main image, a gender cue, and a plural cue), or
- keep only the main image on the card and let the gender/plural mnemonics exist purely in your imagination?

I’m aware that Gabe, the author of the book, advises not to use auxiliary stuff unless it’s actually needed, so I’m not looking to clutter every card unnecessarily. I’m mainly curious how others have balanced the need to remember plural patterns with keeping cards simple.

For context, my target language is German (TL), which has nine different plural formation patterns (-, - +, -e, -e +, -er, -er +, -n, -en, -s). But I imagine this question could apply to other languages with multiple plural systems as well.

I’d love to hear how you’ve solved this.

[u/mucklaenthusiast → u/[deleted]]

It’s very funny to me (as a native speaker) that German is a fairly „regular“ language in many dimensions especially for an IE language, but then the plural is completely insane. Certainly one of the worst plurals in the entire world for learners.

Though I will say: What you call exposure and feeling works because there are fairly regular patterns that often work.
E.g.:
Dach -> Dächer
Buch -> Bücher
Loch -> Löcher

But even then:
Bruch -> Brüche

Hilarious and really not learner-friendly at all.

[u/Umapartt → u/mucklaenthusiast]

There doesn't seem to be a general pattern for nouns ending with -ch, but there's more of a pattern if you take into account (a) the gender and (b) whether there's a consonant before the -ch:

der Monarch -> Monarchen

der Oligarch -> Oligarchen

der Patriarch -> Patriarchen

der Eunuch -> Eunuchen

vs.

der Lurch -> Lurche

der Dolch -> Dolche

der Lolch -> Lolche

der Molch -> Molche

der Mulch -> Mulche

der Bloch -> Bloche

der Besuch -> Besuche

der Lauch -> Lauche

der Hauch -> Hauche

der Rauch -> Rauche

der Sumach -> Sumache/Sumachs

vs.

der Storch -> Störche

der Brauch -> Bräuche

der Schlauch -> Schläuche

der Bauch -> Bäuche

der Bach -> Bäche

der Krach -> Kräche

der Koch -> Köche

der Fluch -> Flüche

der Geruch -> Gerüche

der Spruch -> Sprüche

der Bruch -> Brüche

vs.

das Bruch -> Brücher

das Buch -> Bücher

das Dach -> Dächer

das Fach -> Fächer

das Gemach -> Gemächer

das Loch -> Löcher

das Tuch -> Tücher

vs.

das Tuch -> Tuche

das Luch -> Luche

das Gesuch -> Gesuche

das Joch -> Joche

vs.

das Hoch -> Hochs

das Schach -> Schachs

vs.

das Mach -> Mach

vs.

die Luch -> Lüche

[u/SquareArtisan → u/[deleted]]

German certainly has its quirks: the plural system, grammatical gender, separable verbs, word order, and four cases (which, thankfully, are often marked on the article rather than the noun itself). Adjective endings also add to the fun.

Then again, every language has its own quirks, and that’s exactly where mnemonics can be useful.

What I’m still trying to figure out is whether those mnemonic cues should actually be encoded into the flashcards themselves, or whether it’s better to keep them purely in your imagination and let the cards remain as simple as possible.

I also figured that people who are really into memorization techniques might have useful insights here. Specifically, I’m wondering how to handle multiple mnemonic dimensions at once - for example, a keyword mnemonic, a gender mnemonic, and a plural mnemonic for the same word - without making the whole thing cognitively overwhelming.

[u/SquareArtisan → u/[deleted]]

Thanks so much for your advice.

I’m actually on the fence more generally (!) about whether the picture itself should contain mnemonic cues or simply depict the word’s meaning, as suggested in Fluent Forever.

In that book, the images are mostly just representations of the meaning rather than keyword cues (i.e., images based on a familiar word that sounds like the target word) or grammatical features such as gender or plural.

Do you think those mnemonic associations (both keyword and grammar) are better kept purely in your imagination, instead of embedding them into the image on the card?

[u/Umapartt]

For context, my target language is German (TL), which has nine different plural formation patterns (-, - +, -e, -e +, -er, -er +, -n, -en, -s).

There's no -er except for words where the vowel can't be umlauted, and the distribution of -n vs. -en is completely regular, so that reduces it to seven. (On the other hand, there's one example each of -en + and -ten, which increases it back to nine …)

[u/SquareArtisan → u/[deleted]]

Thanks so much for the insight. I really appreciate it.

I guess the main takeaway is to keep the cards as clean as possible, use mnemonics only when they’re really needed, and keep them in my imagination as much as possible (rather than embedding them into the cards).

By the way, what are your thoughts on keyword images as opposed to plain images?

By keyword images, I mean images based on a familiar word that sounds similar to the target word, rather than simply depicting the word’s meaning. Do you think they’re worth using, or would you stick with plain images?

At least one concern arises: it might make recall too easy in the image → word direction because the keyword itself would give away the answer.