I am learning Spanish.
If a word appears that I don’t know and have never seen before, but that I can decipher through logic and deduction, should I mark it yellow?
I think different learners have different criteria about when to declare a word “known”. It’s really up to you and it doesn’t really make a lot of difference. I’d go with Steve’s advice: if you think you can understand the word if you see it again in a similar context, consider it “known”
I am learning Spanish too and if I see a word that I can guess because my native language is English then I do put it as known for example “mathmatacas” I have probably spelled the Spanish word wrong is the same as mathematics very very similar.
I agree.
When I started Spanish, I didn’t really do this, so I only marked known if I was really, really sure; and most times only if I think I could recall it for USE (active vocabulary). However, since I started that way, I kept counting that way. As a result, my recorded word count is several thousands of words lower than my “true” known word count and it grows much more slowly than if I considered it “known” if I could recognize it in context.
When I do my next language project, I will do it this latter/Steve way.
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The good thing is, that this is totally up to you. I’ve experienced that my habbits according this changes with the level that I’ve acquired. In English the criteria for me is that I let the word yellow, if I’m not sure if I would recognize the word without context. At other times the criteria was, if the word was in my active vocabulary.
If we’re talking about words that are obviously related to English words (or another language), I would initially make it yellow, because I would like a couple of reminders that this specific word exists. I have all the time in the world to make it Known later, but once I do that I may not notice it again…
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If I have to spend too time thinking about the meaning of a word, I mark it yellow. Sometimes, if I want more practice on the prononciation, I mark that yellow too. Some words I just like and want to see again In my LingQs. Needless to say, I have a low know word count, but I enjoy my vocabulary.
Thank you, all of what you say makes sense.
In Spanish, a lot of the words in English are similar, so I suppose I “know” a lot of words already 
There are a lot of English cognates in Spanish (words that are spelled similarly) – for example, many, many words that end in t i o n in English exist in Spanish but are spelled c i ó n
instead (note the accent) which indicates that the stress is on the final syllable which is generally not the case in English. However, there are also words that have common Latin roots but don’t mean the same thing – e.g., librería is NOT a library but a bookstore. Both have to do with books but have different meanings. Thus, I recommend that you check out the meaning of any word that that you think you know first (that is, click on the translation). If it is exactly the same as in English, you can mark it known rather than new. However, it is important to note the DIFFERENCES in how the Spanish word is spelled and thus pronounced. For example, matemáticas does NOT have an “h” (no “th” combination in Spanish) and taking note of that will help you recognize other cognates that similarly are spelled with a TH in English (Thomas, theme) but are NOT in Spanish (Tomás, tema). I wouldn’t be concerned about how this affects your “number” of Lingqs. Learning a language is not a contest. The goal is to learn the words, phrases and grammatical patterns of a foreign language so that you can understand when you read, hear others speak in the language and that you yourself use the language correctly. You should click on the words and phrases that best help you to LEARN the language. If turning a blue word yellow then subjects it to several review exercises and you repeatedly SEE and HEAR how differently a similarly spelled word is, then that is valuable. If you don’t need the exercises to help you see the differences, then don’t make the word yellow. Do what is most effective for YOU to learn that particular word or phrase. It may be different for each cognate!
I think this this is a good practical description of how the lingqing/marking process works for a lot of people.
However, a minor dissent: 24,000 known words isn’t a low count. If French is anything like the other Romance languages, its an excellent passive vocabulary “base” for practical fluency and higher than the vast majority of language learners.
When I follow my statistics, known word count is always lowest for the number of lingqs I make or learn.
I can only comment on what I have seen using the platform on a very limited capacity & for a very short period.
I would mark anything yellow even if you can guess what it means. If you have done this from the start then even simple words like a el la los las con etc will appear as yellow and all the unknown words should be blue. Leave them as Level 4 and there should never be words with white background.
It would be good if somebody who knows could comment as to whether that is true.
I found difficulty once I marked words as “Known” and so there was white background all over pages and words that I didn’t know/hadn’t made links for were hidden in the white background, so then it was harder to sort the truly “Known” from “sorry, looks like that didn’t quite work as the program should”
Currently I am considering paying for membership of the program, but still have some reservations about what may have been bugs that I should have reported.
Now that you have cleared your Vocab/Statistics and restarted then I would tend to mark them all by creating Lingqs, but leave all Lingqs as no more than level 4.
Oh okay, I didn’t realize you were talking about your known word goal stats relative to how well you’ve met your goals for linqing, etc.
Because your actual known words count is great for a Romance language.
Same here, Louise, I will keep cognates yellow if I don’t know how to pronounce them or need more pronunciation practice. For Japanese and Mandarin, I especially prefer to initially LingQ all the Kanji and Hanzi vocab.
I am at the expert 2 level, but I don’t feel as fluent as I was hoping to be. I can carry on a conversation in French, but just barely, and it is hit or miss if I understand what is being said to me. On the other hand, my relatively poor French encourages French people with limited English skills to converse with me in either language, so we both have a chance to practice.
In your native language you don’t need to underline or highlight or make an index card whenever you encounter a new word. You learn it in context, perhaps aided by familiar roots and affixes, and you move on. You cannot do that when you are learning a new language at lower levels, of course. There are too many blue words, and because of their number the context may be unclear. But it should be expected to some degree as you get more advanced in the new language.
It’s nowhere as easy as encountering a new English word, but I find more and more that I can recognize many newly-met Russian words from familiar prefixes and roots. As I am now able to read mostly just for pleasure (with Lingq’s help!) I find that my lingq-making habits have changed. If I can understand a sentence I don’t slow down, and blue words get moved to “known” when I turn the page. Sometimes I’ll have to move them back to a lower level when re-encountered. No big deal.
So, anyway, expect the answer to your question to change as you progress with your language. Good luck!