Vortonoto

Topics: Notkesto - Types of Notes

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A Vortonoto (Esperanto for “word note”; pl. Vortonotoj) is the type of note that is used to write down vocabulary (or sentences) that I learn in a specific language.

The purpose of these notes is not only to contain this vocabulary, but also to export it to Anki via the Obsidian_to_Anki Obsidian plugin. Anki is a spaced-repetition program that I use to memorise and practice new vocabulary.

As of August 2023, this export process only contemplates vocabulary and sentences. I additionally use the QuickAdd Obsidian plugin to quickly capture the vocabulary or sentences that go into these notes.

In the future, I plan on writing a blog entry about this whole workflow. I will update this note whenever it’s published, but in the meantime, here’s the basic rundown of how these notes are structured and processed.

Vocabulary §

Vocabulary is written in the following format:

• [word/construction]	[definition/translation]
[example sentence]	[translation of sentence]
[part of speech]	[extra information]

Obsidian_to_Anki captures each of these tables with the following RegEx:

\| • ([^\n|]+)\|([^\n|]+)\|\n\|[^\n|]+\|[^\n|]+\|\n\|([^\n|]+)\|([^\n|]+)\|\n\|([^\n|]+)\|([^\n|]+)\|\n?()()()

For vocabulary, I use a custom-made vocabulary-focused Anki note type with the following fields:

1. Word (front)
2. Definition (back)
3. Foreign sentence
4. Translated sentence
5. Part of speech
6. Extra
7. IPA
8. ID
9. Rank

Notice that the first 6 fields are filled with the contents of each table, while the last 3 are simply left empty (I either don’t need them everytime or fill them within Anki). This is why the RegEx has ()()() at the very end of it.

Sentences §

Sentences are written in the following format:

- [foreign sentence]	[translated sentence]

Obsidian_to_Anki captures each of these tables with the following RegEx:

\| - ([^\n|]+)\|([^\n|]+)\|\n\|[^\n|]+\|[^\n|]+\|\n?()()

For sentences, I use a custom-made general-purpose Anki note type with the following fields:

1. Front
2. Back
3. Extra
4. ID

Notice it’s basically a basic note type on steroids. The first two fields are filled with the contents of each table, while the last two are left empty (hence the ()() at the end of the RegEx).

Metadata §

Vortonotoj are marked by the 🌐 type.

In addition, all Vortonotoj contain the following YAML metadata that Obsidian_to_Anki reads:

• anki-deck, which contains the target Anki deck where every generated note will go
• anki-tags, which contains the desired Anki tags for every generated note