One of my activities for today was making flashcards for adjectives. A few days ago I made flashcards for verbs and used them in a way that got me speaking and creating a lot of sentences. So today I wanted to repeat the activity with adjectives.

Reviewing Earlier Lessons

I have stopped doing new lessons on Duolingo because the lessons have moved on to the past tense. I decided that I need to learn the material from previous lessons before going on to something completely new.

Today I reviewed the lessons for professions and adjectives. For many of the words I can recognize them when I see them in a sentence, but I want to learn them well enough to use them myself.

Making the Flashcards

I chose eleven adjectives:

  • open
  • closed
  • good
  • bad
  • easy
  • difficult
  • hot
  • cold
  • tired
  • beautiful
  • important

These are words that I can imagine using in everyday conversations.

For each flashcard I wrote the Greek word on one side. On the other side I wrote several sentences that used the word. Some sentences came from my Duolingo lessons, and others I asked ChatGPT to generate.

I also wrote the opposite of each word on the back, such as:

  • easy – difficult
  • beautiful – ugly

There is no English on the flashcards, so I need to have enough clues on the back to jog my memory if I cannot remember the meaning of the word.

Using the Flashcards

To practice, I first looked at the Greek word and tried to say three or four sentences using that word.

I am still struggling a bit with this because I do not yet have a good grasp of the noun genders. After attempting my own sentences, I read the sentences on the back of the card. Then I created more sentences using those written sentences as a guide.

Using Substitution Drills

One way I generated more sentences was by using substitution drills.

For example, on the back of the hot flashcard I had the sentence:

The coffee is hot.

I read that sentence and then substituted other adjectives:

  • The coffee is cold.
  • The coffee is good.
  • The coffee is bad.

This turned out to be a really helpful activity.

The written sentence reminded me of the gender of the noun, which made it easier to choose the correct adjective ending. It was also helpful to repeat many sentences using the same noun.

In Greek there are three different words for “the” in the singular, depending on the gender of the noun. Repeating the same phrase again and again — “The coffee… The coffee… The coffee…” — helped reinforce the pattern.

What I Learned

This turned out to be a very helpful speaking exercise. By combining flashcards with substitution drills I was able to generate a large number of sentences and become more comfortable using the adjectives.

The focus was on producing sentences, not just recognizing words.

If you want to read more about how to use substitution drills, see the article:
Substitution Drills.

If you want to read more about how to use flashcards using only the target language, see:
Using Flashcards Without Translation.