Practise sentences with cloze fields

A cloze exercise shows a sentence with one word blanked out, and you fill in the gap. It tests a word in context instead of on its own, which is closer to how you'll meet it when reading or listening.

On Yalango, cloze works on top of a normal deck. Each card keeps its target word and source word, and you add an example sentence in a custom field. The Cloze game then blanks the target word in that sentence.

For example, a Spanish card with:

• Target word: perro
• Source word: dog
• Sentence: Mi perro duerme en el sofá.

is played as:

Mi ____ duerme en el sofá.

dog

Set up a cloze field

1. Open the deck from My Library.
2. Choose Custom Fields at the top of the deck page.
3. Choose Add Field, give it a name such as Sentence, and keep the type as Text.
4. Tick Use for Cloze game.
5. Save.

The field now shows up on every card in the deck, ready for a sentence. If the deck already has a text field with example sentences, just tick Use for Cloze game on that field instead of making a new one.

A few rules:

• Only one field per deck can be the cloze field. Ticking it on another field moves the setting there.
• Only Text fields can be the cloze field. List fields can't.
• Renaming the field later is fine. The sentences on your cards are kept.

Write the sentences

Type a sentence that contains the card's target word. The Cloze game finds the word and blanks it:

• The match ignores upper and lower case, so Perro at the start of a sentence still counts.
• It matches whole words only, so the card car won't blank the start of card.
• Notes in brackets on the target word are ignored. A card with the target go (irregular) matches go in the sentence.
• The sentence needs some words besides the target word. A field that only repeats the word is skipped.

When the sentence uses a different form

Often the sentence needs a conjugated, plural or otherwise changed form of the word. Wrap that form in asterisks and the game blanks it instead:

Target word	Sentence	Played as
go	Yesterday I *went* home early.	Yesterday I ____ home early.
perro	Los *perros* duermen en el sofá.	Los ____ duermen en el sofá.
sehen	Ich habe ihn gestern *gesehen*.	Ich habe ihn gestern ____.

The asterisks are hidden during the game. Mark one word per sentence - if there are several, only the first is blanked. Asterisks only work in the field you marked for cloze.

Chinese, Japanese and Thai

These languages don't put spaces between words, so the game looks for the target word anywhere in the sentence instead of matching whole words. Mark the word with asterisks if it appears more than once and you want a specific occurrence blanked.

No cloze field marked?

If no field is marked for cloze, the game uses the first text field on the card that contains the target word. Marking a field makes it predictable and lets you use asterisks, so it's worth doing.

Faster ways to add sentences

You don't have to type every sentence by hand. When you save a word from a sentence you're reading or watching, you can keep that sentence on the new card:

• The translation popover in texts
• Your Inbox
• Saving words while watching a video

Choose which field the sentence goes into, and tick Use as cloze field if that field isn't the deck's cloze field yet. The word you saved is marked with asterisks automatically, so it works even when the sentence uses a different form.

You can also fill the field when you import cards, or edit cards one by one.

Play the Cloze game

Open the deck and choose Cloze from the list of games.

Each round shows the sentence with a gap and the source word underneath as a hint. Pick the missing word from four options. The wrong options are other target words from the same deck. When you answer, the correct word fills the gap, and your other custom fields are shown if Show custom fields is on in your language settings or the game's settings gear.

Not sure? Choose Don't know to see the answer. It counts as a wrong answer.

On a keyboard, press 1-4 to pick an option, 0 to skip, and Space or Enter to continue. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Cloze updates your vocabulary levels like every other game, and it works offline.

Cloze in Mix

The Mix game includes Cloze for cards that have a usable sentence, up to about 20% of a session. Cards without a sentence get the other games. You can turn Cloze on or off for each language under Mix mode games in Language settings.

If Cloze is greyed out

The game needs at least 4 cards with a usable sentence. If Cloze is greyed out or missing, check that:

• A Text field is marked Use for Cloze game, and the cards have a sentence in that field. When a field is marked, it's the only one the game reads.
• Each sentence contains the target word as written on the card, or marks the form it uses with asterisks.
• You're on a deck. Cloze isn't available for tables.

Using the API

Developers can create the cloze field and fill in sentences through the API. See Custom fields with the API.