After a card is created in Translation mode, flangu generates a set of linguistic metadata for it automatically. This article explains what each field contains, why some cards receive fewer fields than others, and what to do if something is wrong.
For manual cards, metadata is not generated automatically. You can request it from the card detail screen. The fields are identical once generated.
The metadata fields
Each card panel has an icon row at its bottom. Tapping an icon expands a section below the word. The sections described here correspond to those icons.
A panel shows one section at a time. Tapping another icon replaces it, and tapping the same icon again closes it. If a section is longer than the space available, it scrolls inside the panel. The word itself stays visible above it.
Every field describes the meaning of the word that matches the card's translation. If the front is "bank" and the back is the word for a river bank, the definition and examples are about river banks, not money.
Synonyms
The front panel shows 
Synonyms: words in the front language that a native speaker could use instead of the front word, in the same meaning.
Synonyms describe semantic similarity within the same language. They are not translations. Broader terms, narrower terms, technical terms, and merely related words are left out. For example, "monkey" does not get "primate", and "run" does not get "sprint".
For example, if the front word is "fast," synonyms might include "quick" and "rapid."
Many words have no true synonym, especially concrete nouns, names, and numbers. For these, the list is empty.
Alternatives
The back panel shows 
Alternatives: other valid translations of the front word that were not chosen as the primary back.
Alternatives are translations, not synonyms. They represent different but equally correct ways to translate the front word into the target language, or translations of its other meanings. Each alternative is shown with a part-of-speech abbreviation so you can compare the options by grammatical category.
Alternatives use the same form as the main translation. If the translation is a noun with its article, such as "der Hund", the alternatives carry their articles too. See Nouns with articles.
Each alternative also carries a short note in the language you translated from. The note tells you which meaning the alternative has. If you translate "plant" into Spanish and the back is "la planta", the alternatives read:
- la fábrica n. · factory
- la central n. · power station
When an alternative means the same as the main translation, the note repeats that meaning and says how its use differs, when it does: "el carro" for "car" reads el carro n. · car (Latin America).
Sentences and questions have no notes, because their alternatives are other ways to say the whole thing.
During a review, the Alternatives section can sit on the front of the card (for example in a reversed deck). Its notes are written in the language of the back, so they stay hidden until you reveal the back.
Note
Alternatives are also shown as a tappable list immediately after translation on the 
Translator screen, before the card is finalized. Tapping one there replaces the card's back text and regenerates all metadata for the new translation pair. This is covered in Creating a flashcard.
Definitions
Each panel can have a 
Definition: a short explanation of what the word means, written in that panel's own language. The front definition explains the word in the source language. The back definition explains it in the target language.
A definition is one sentence of at most 20 words, written in simpler words than the word it defines. It never uses the word itself. For function words, such as "although" or "on", and for interjections, such as "ouch", the definition explains how and when the word is used.
Not every card receives a definition. The rules that determine this are explained in Part-of-speech and length gating.
Example sentences
Each panel can have multiple 
Example sentences showing the word used in a real context.
Most words get five examples. Each sentence is short (at most 12 words) and shows the word in a different context or grammatical form, such as another tense, case, or the plural. The examples are ordered from simplest to most advanced. Fewer examples are given when more would be repetitive.
The examples are displayed in a carousel. Swipe left or right to move between them. The front and back carousels are synchronized: if you are on example 2 on the front, the back also shows example 2. Each back example is a translation of the front example at the same position.
Inside each sentence, the relevant word or phrase is highlighted in blue. This makes it easy to locate the word in longer sentences. Only the word is highlighted, not its article.
Each example sentence has its own audio. Tap the sentence to hear it spoken.
Note
Free users see one example sentence per side. Additional examples require flangu Pro.
Pronunciation
The Pronunciation section shows a written representation of how the word sounds. The format depends on the language of that panel, so each side of a card can use a different format.
| Language | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Pinyin with tone marks | shìshí |
| Japanese | Hiragana reading, then romaji | じじつ · jijitsu |
| Korean | Revised Romanization of how the word is pronounced | gamsahamnida |
| Thai | Romanization with tone marks | sà-wàt-dii |
| Hindi | IAST romanization | pānī |
| Arabic | Romanization with long vowels marked | kitāb |
| Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian | The word with its stressed vowel marked, then IPA | молоко́ · məlɐˈko |
| All other languages | IPA transcription | ˈtɛkst |
Pronunciation is text, not audio. The speaker icon next to the card word plays synthesized speech. These are separate features and can coexist on the same card.
Part-of-speech and length gating
Each card is assigned a part of speech. This classification, together with the length of the card, determines which fields the card receives and how many items each list can hold.
| Part of speech | Synonyms | Definition | Examples | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noun, verb, adjective, adverb | Up to 3 | Yes | 5 | Up to 3 |
| Pronoun, preposition, conjunction, determiner | Up to 2 | Yes | 5 | Up to 3 |
| Phrase | Up to 3 | Yes | 5 | Up to 3 |
| Idiom | Up to 2 | Yes | 5 | Up to 2 |
| Interjection | Up to 2 | Yes | 3 | Up to 3 |
| Proper noun | None | Yes | 3 | None |
| Numeral | None | No | 3 | None |
| Sentence, question | None | No | None | Up to 2 |
Every part of speech can receive a pronunciation, subject to the length rule below.
Cards classified as sentences or questions do not receive definitions, synonyms, or examples. A sentence does not have a definition in the linguistic sense, and it already shows its words in context. Its alternatives are other ways to translate it, for example a more formal one, and they come without notes.
Cards classified as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or proper nouns are eligible for a vocabulary image. Other parts of speech are not. If your card does not show an image icon, its part of speech is the reason.
Longer entries receive fewer fields. Pronunciation is only generated when both the front and back text are short. Past roughly a sentence's length, a written transcription stops being useful, so it's left out. Entries that are long overall, such as full sentences or passages, are treated as a sentence for metadata purposes no matter how they were classified: they receive a single alternative translation and none of the other fields.
The part of speech is assigned automatically and is not directly editable. If the assignment is clearly wrong, you can report it using the method described below.
The shared translation cache
Translations and their metadata are stored once and shared by all flangu users. When you translate a word someone has already looked up in the same language pair, the complete card appears almost instantly.
Your card keeps its own copy of the translation and metadata. Later changes to the shared entry never change them on cards that already exist.
Shared entries are checked again in the background, starting with entries that were reported or are used often. When an entry is wrong, it is corrected or replaced in the shared cache, and the correction applies to cards created after that. Entries that cannot be fixed automatically are reviewed by the flangu team.
Reporting incorrect metadata
If a definition, translation, synonym, or any other field looks wrong, you can flag it directly from the Translator screen.
On the back card panel, after a card has been created, a small feedback icon appears at the bottom right of the icon row. Tap it to open the report form.
The form lets you select which fields are incorrect and add an optional note. You can flag one field or several in the same report.
After you submit:
- Your report is recorded, and the entry moves to the front of the queue to be checked again. The fields you selected are checked with extra care.
- Your note is read only by the flangu team.
- The card itself is not changed. The metadata on your card stays as-is until you edit it manually.
- If the entry is corrected, the fix applies to new cards. Existing cards, including yours, are not updated automatically.
You can update your report at any time by tapping the feedback icon again and resubmitting. Each user can hold one active report per translation pair.