I Changed My Mind on PhrasePump - Its Amazing

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I Changed My Mind on PhrasePump

I’ll be honest—I was pretty critical of PhrasePump when I first tried it. At the time, I hated the idea of being limited to Cloze-style SRS cards and found the whole feature cumbersome. But recently, I gave it another chance, and I’ve completely changed my mind. I absolutely love it and I’ve abandoned Anki in favor of LR’s built in system.

Resetting and Rethinking My Approach

A big turning point was when I decided to reset all of my Known and Learning words on Language Reactor. It took some effort to rebuild, but this reset gave me a fresh start and a chance to test a theory I had about using PhrasePump more effectively.

The key? Frequency lists.
Language Reactor prioritizes words by frequency, so you’re always targeting vocabulary that truly matters for comprehension. At my intermediate level in Japanese, I focus only on sentences I mostly understand—where I know about 98% of the words and only 1–2 are new. This approach makes a huge difference. If you try learning from sentences packed with unknown words, you won’t make real progress. And unless it’s a word I already know well but just want to reinforce, I ignore anything that isn’t suggested.

How I Use PhrasePump

Here’s the workflow that has been working for me:

  • After immersion (watching an episode, for example): I head to PhrasePump and practice what I’ve added.
  • If I already know the word well: I play the audio and test listening comprehension.
  • If I don’t know the word: I use Cloze recall and push myself to remember it.

Once I can consistently recall the word, I keep repping it with audio until I’m confident. At that point, I mark it as Known. If it doesn’t stick, I just delete it and wait until it naturally reappears in immersion, then tackle it again with new context.

This level of control is what I love most. Unlike Anki, which often feels rigid, PhrasePump lets me decide when a word is fully learned.

Modes and Use Case Suggestions

  • Quiz mode: I use this strictly for items I’ve already saved.
  • Suggestions mode: I treat this separately, letting it fill gaps in my vocab with frequency-based items.
  • Practice mode: I don’t use it often, but when I do it’s great for low-pressure listening practice. To me, it feels like “free practice” since it doesn’t affect SRS unless I choose to save the word.

Separating these modes keeps my study sessions clear and prevents new words from sneaking in unexpectedly.

What I Still Wonder About

One thing I’d love clarity on: when I mark a word as Known, does PhrasePump continue scheduling it in SRS, or is it done? Personally, I prefer the latter—I want full control, and so far that’s how I’ve been treating it and that’s how it seems to work. More time will tell if what I’ve marked known comes back up at some point.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve written off PhrasePump in the past, I recommend giving it another go. My initial complaints about Cloze-only cards are gone—I now see the value. With the right approach, it’s a powerful tool for building vocab and comprehension.

Language Reactor team: this feature has huge potential. I’d love to see more guidelines and official tips on how to use PhrasePump effectively. Even without them, though, I’ve found a system that really works, and I think others can benefit from it too.

SUGGESTION

Please add a “Delete” option directly on the Cloze card to remove it from SRS. Right now, I have to either search for it in my Saved list or use the dictionary to delete it, which is a bit cumbersome. Having the ability to quickly delete a card while reviewing would make the process much smoother—especially for the use case I’ve described here.

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Hello @CPUB0T,
Thank you for sharing your experience — it is very inspiring. Our team are glad to hear that you managed to change your opinion about PhrasePump and found it to be a useful tool.

Yes, you’re right about having a “delete card” feature would be very useful.
At the moment, it’s only possible to remove saved phrases during practice in PhrasePump. (Just click on the Star icon to uncheck it when practicing in the PhrasePump section)

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I’ve already passed on this suggestion to the team, and we’ll definitely consider it for future improvements.
Thank you so much for your feedback!

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Hi,

I really enjoyed reading about how you’ve been using the Phrase Pump function in the Language Reactor App—it was very inspiring! You seem to use it so effectively. I’ve tried using it a couple of times myself, but I feel like I’m not making the best use of it yet. I didn’t quite understand everything from your explanation, so I would be really grateful if you could explain it to me in a simpler way.

I also noticed that it seems to repeat the same word list. Could you please let me know how I can add my own new words to Phrase Pump?

Thank you so much for your help!

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Sure! Let me explain how I use PhrasePump in a simpler way.

The main mode I use is Quiz.

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At one point, I had thousands of saved words and phrases, but because I didn’t use PhrasePump much, it became overwhelming. Many of the items were old and didn’t feel connected to what I was currently watching. So I deleted everything—Known, Learning, and Saved phrases—and started fresh.

This reset made a huge difference. Now, I’m very careful about what I add to PhrasePump. I only save things I know I’ll want to review there.

Why this works

PhrasePump uses Cloze cards. That means the target word is hidden, and you have to recall it from the sentence and its context. These cards are more challenging than traditional “flashcards” that just show you the word and meaning. Because they’re harder, I only choose sentences where:

  • I understand almost everything already.
  • There are just 1–2 unknown words or grammar points.

This keeps reviews manageable and effective. If you try to learn from sentences with too many unknowns, it quickly becomes overwhelming.

My process

  • While watching a show, I don’t try to save every new word.
  • Instead, I look for sentences I mostly understand, but with one word I want to learn.
  • That sentence becomes a Cloze card in PhrasePump.

Then in Quiz mode, I:

  • First try to recall the word just by reading the sentence in the target language (without checking the translation).
  • If I can’t remember, I glance at the translation and try again.
  • If I still can’t recall, I listen to the audio for extra help.
  • When I recall the word without relying on audio, I mark OK. If not, I choose Forgot.
  • If a card keeps giving me trouble after multiple attempts, I simply delete it. That way, I’ll naturally encounter the word again later in immersion, with fresh context.
  • Once I can recall a word easily and naturally, I mark it as Known.

I don’t treat these as strict rules. I go by feel. If a word doesn’t stick or just doesn’t feel like the right time to learn it, I delete it without stress. This keeps reviews light, low-pressure, and enjoyable. I try to pickup new things just by watching, but when something sticks out to me, I mark it for learning :slight_smile:

Other modes

  • Suggestions: I use this sometimes. It shows words by frequency, which can help fill gaps.
  • Practice: I rarely use it, but it’s fine for light listening without adding to SRS.

So in short:

  • Resetting gave me a clean slate.
  • I only add high-value sentences I mostly understand with high frequency words.
  • Quiz mode is my main tool, with Suggestions as an occasional helper.

That’s the system that finally made PhrasePump click for me.

BONUS
Frequency
You can quickly check a word’s frequency by opening the popup dictionary:

Near the top, you’ll see something that looks like a progress bar. It’s not very intuitive (and honestly, I think the LR team could improve this), but it does show the frequency rank.

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For example, the word above is #1 in frequency—that means it’s extremely common and absolutely worth learning.

Here’s another example:

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This word is ranked #4606. Notice how the progress bar is almost full, but the word itself isn’t very common. Since I won’t see it often, I usually skip learning it for now.

:point_right: Rule of thumb: Focus on words with lower numbers (high frequency). The higher the number, the less often you’ll encounter it.

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I really appreciate your detailed explanation—it’s very helpful! Let me see if I understood correctly: your suggestion is to reset the words in Phrase Pump and then choose high-frequency words, especially those that show a low number.

I also wanted to ask—how can I add specific words or phrases I want to study into Phrase Pump?

And one more thing—I noticed you mentioned that you’re learning Japanese. So am I! :blush: Could you suggest any resources for learning Japanese that you’ve found useful?

Thanks again for sharing your process. It really inspired me!

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PhrasePump

Resetting my words was something I needed to do for myself—but also because of how PhrasePump works. If you’ve added a lot of words or sentences with multiple target words, PhrasePump will usually try to prioritize the most frequent ones first. Because of that, a full reset may not be necessary for everyone. The system does a decent job, though it isn’t perfect.

SRS as a Supplement

In my case, SRS isn’t the main focus of my Japanese learning—it’s just a supplement. I don’t want to spend hours grinding cards every day. My priority is watching anime, TV shows, and reading things I actually enjoy, and I just want SRS to support that. Resetting gave me a clean slate and cleared away the clutter, so now my deck only reflects what really matters. Instead of wrestling with a backlog of overwhelming words, I can keep reviews light, stress-free, and let SRS stay in its place: a tool to back up my immersion, not dominate it.

Focusing on Frequency

I recommend higher frequency words because you’ll see those most in your immersion and will have more chances to “acquire” them. While, rarer words take more effort to learn, because they just aren’t as frequent.

Language Acquisition Theory

For more on Language Acquisition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AvgL1xPboI

Adding Your Own Texts

You can also use My Texts to add specific sentences you want to study. Just mark a word as “learning” within anything you import there. It’s not the most efficient way—I think pulling things from immersion is better—but if it’s an article or text you’ve already seen in context, it’s still useful.

Recommended Material by Level

Beginner: CIJ (Comprehensible Japanese) has some excellent starter material.

Intermediate: Anime is great—Toradora!, BOFURI, and Clannad are some of my favorites, mostly slice-of-life.

Advanced: Japanese video games and visual novels are fantastic. The Tales series is a lot of fun, and Steam has plenty of visual novels. Just make sure you pick ones with both audio and interface language available in Japanese.

Various Recommendations

It’s awesome you’re learning Japanese! So much cool culture and content to keep you immersed for a lifetime!

I really wouldn’t focus too much on “learning tools.” I use plenty of them myself, but they can easily turn into distractions. Honestly, with the internet, you already have just about everything you need to study and enjoy Japanese!

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I’m new around here, but i wanted to jump in cuz ur post resonated a lot. I’m still at the stage of experimentin, but i’ve noticed that when I use frequency lists the way u describe, the words i actually see pop up later in immersion stick way faster. It feels like less brute force and more “catching” the vocab when my brain is primed for it

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That’s exactly it—you said it perfectly. When you’ve already been “primed” by frequency lists, the words are so much easier to catch in the wild. It stops feeling like brute force memorization and becomes recognition with context, which makes them stick much faster.

And the best part is, you’re learning what actually matters most. The Pareto Principle applies here: roughly 20% of the highest-frequency words will cover about 80% of everyday communication. That core 20% becomes your bedrock foundation—once you have it, everything else builds on top more naturally.

I’ve noticed the same thing myself—when a word I studied shows up again in immersion, it feels familiar instead of brand new, and I’m more primed to learn it in new contexts.

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Really helpful stuff!

Though also really crazy to be basically responding to chatGPT.

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My name may be CPUB0T, however, I’m not an AI bot :slight_smile:

I do use AI to help style and separate things into a more readable and understandable format, but make no mistake, these are my use-case ideas and real feelings towards PhrasePump. AI isn’t writing these for me, but just like in the software-engineering business, AI can be a good side-kick if used correctly.

I’m a real person who really uses PhrasePump, daily now. I still think it has its weaknesses, it is still an SRS after all, but its greatest strength is I get to determine when I’ve learned a word. I highly recommend trying it out based on some of the things I’ve suggested.