I would like to start adding pitch accent to my cards. How should I grade the cards once I add pitch accent?

Don't change anything in the grading process. Just have pitch accent information on the back of your cards but don't take it into account when grading yourself.

If you force yourself to recall the target word and its pitch accent at the same time, failure to recall any of the two will result in a failed card. For example, you will have to fail a card if you remember what the word means but don't remember its accent. Piotr Wozniak in his 20 rules basically says not to do it.

If you consider an item that is composed of two sub-items, you will need to make repetitions that are frequent enough to keep the more difficult item in memory. If you split the complex item into sub-items, each can be repeated at its own pace saving your time.

— Twenty rules of formulating knowledge

To learn pitch accents of individual words you should make separate cards. Have a word on the front of the card and its pitch accent on the back.

For example:

If a word has multiple readings, you need to include furigana on the front as well.

Tags: faq, pitch

Japanese Pitch Accent Primer

Correctly accenting Japanese words when you speak is essential for sounding like a native speaker, and in some situations essential for communication. In this article, we will introduce you to the way accents work in Japanese, help you understand how to determine the correct accents of words and sentences, show you some commonly confused word groups, and explain how to look up accents in Japanese dictionaries.

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Pitch accent perception

Below is a list of common words, sorted into categories based on their pitch pattern (heiban, atamadaka, nakadaka, odaka). For the sake of clarity, words whose pitch changes depending on usage/context have been excluded. For each of the four categories, choose the 20 words that you feel you hear most often in your daily immersion.

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Understanding monolingual definitions

A typical entry in a monolingual dictionary looks similar to this:

あした [3] 【明日・朝】 （名）
（１）今日の次の日。
（２）夜が終わって，明るくなった時。あさ。

Every dictionary usually has its own, unique system of notation. On this page I primarily use 大辞泉 as an example. If you need help finding monolingual dictionaries, see the Dictionaries resources section.

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