⚙️ engine vocabulary
Engine primitives
A course is composition, not code. These are the building blocks English Quest draws on — the same catalog (engine.capabilities.json) the validator enforces and an AI can author against.
Boards — the interactive question UIs
A station's board is the activity a child plays. Each board's generator supplies the questions.
| kind | what it is |
|---|---|
| blendWord | Build a short (CVC) word by choosing its sounds in order. |
| contextClue | Fill the blank in a sentence using context clues — pick the word that makes sense. |
| digraphs | Two letters, one sound: pick the digraph team (sh, ch, th, ck) that spells the sound. |
| figurative | Figurative language: a reminder, then identify or interpret the figure of speech (similes, metaphors, idioms). Shares the RuleQuiz interaction but draws from the figurative collection. |
| findDetail | Find the Detail: read a short story, then answer a spoken wh-question whose answer is stated in the text. Renders via the StoryReader board. |
| firstReader | First Readers: read along to a short decodable story (narrated word by word), then tap the word you heard. Renders via the StoryReader board. |
| grammarAdj | Spot the describing word (adjective). Draws from the adjectives array of the parts_of_speech word bank. |
| grammarDepth | Apply a grammar rule: a reminder, then pick the correct form (subject–verb agreement, pronouns, irregular past, sentence types). Shares the RuleQuiz interaction but draws from the grammar_depth collection. |
| grammarNoun | Spot the naming word (noun) — sorts words by part of speech. Draws from the nouns array of the parts_of_speech word bank. |
| grammarVerb | Spot the doing word (verb). Draws from the verbs array of the parts_of_speech word bank. |
| inference | Read Between the Lines: read a short story, then infer the answer to a spoken wh-question using clues. Renders via the StoryReader board. |
| mainIdea | Main Idea: read a short story, then answer a spoken wh-question about what it is about. Renders via the StoryReader board. |
| pictureMatch | Match a picture to its written word (or vice versa). Core vocabulary recognition. Shows an optional native-language gloss (ru) beneath the word for foreign-language courses. |
| punctuation | Choose the right end mark for a sentence (. ? !). |
| ruleQuiz | Apply a spelling/grammar rule: a reminder of the rule, then pick the word that follows it (Bossy R, Magic E, i-before-e…). |
| sameOpp | Same or opposite? Pick the synonym or the antonym of the given word. Draws from both the synonyms and antonyms collections. |
| sentence | Build a correct sentence by ordering the words (capital first, period last). |
| sentenceRu | Build an English sentence from scrambled word tiles, prompted by its native-language meaning; each tile speaks its word. Foreign-language sentence construction (renders via SentenceBuilder). |
| sightWord | Choose the high-frequency sight word that was spoken — words you learn by sight, not sounding out. |
| soundPattern | Advanced phonics: a reminder of a decoding pattern (vowel team, r-controlled, diphthong, silent letter), then pick the word that uses it. Shares the RuleQuiz interaction but draws from the patterns collection. |
| soundToLetter | Hear a sound, tap the letter that makes it. The first phonics interaction. |
| spellBee | Spelling Bee: a reminder tip, then pick the correctly-spelled word (tricky high-frequency words, homophones, word endings). Shares the RuleQuiz interaction but draws from the spellings collection. |
| vocabListen | Hear a vocabulary word, tap it among choices — the listening counterpart of picture-match. Reuses the vocab bank (incl. the optional ru gloss); ideal for foreign-language listening. |
| wordBuild | Build a word form by tapping its parts in order (walk+ed → walked, un+happy → unhappy). Teaches morphology: verb tenses, plurals, comparatives, prefixes & suffixes. The tray mixes correct parts with distractor tiles; press Check when assembled. |
| wordFamily | Word families: same ending, swap the first sound (-at → cat, hat, mat). |
Views — the lesson visuals
A lesson beat shows a view — the picture Luna talks over. Props configure it.
| kind | what it is | props |
|---|---|---|
| blend | Sounds blending into a word: letter chips appear one by one, then resolve into the whole word ("c-a-t → cat"). | letters: string[], word: string |
| cloze | A sentence with a blank (___), optionally shown filled with the answer. For context-clue / fill-in beats. | sentence: string, answer?: string |
| examples | A category label plus a few example words — used to teach a part of speech (naming/doing/describing words). | label: string, words: string[] |
| letters | A row of letter tiles; the active one lifts and glows. Good for intro/recap beats that point at a set of letters. | items?: string[], active?: int |
| pair | Two words in a relationship: same meaning (=) or opposites (⇄), colour-coded with a label. | a: string, b: string, rel: enum |
| phoneme | One letter in focus: a big letter card plus an example word and picture, with the first letter coloured. | letter: string, word: string, emoji?: string |
| picture | A picture above its word — the core vocabulary visual (see it, read it). | emoji: string, word: string |
| sentence | A full sentence with the capital first letter and the end punctuation highlighted — for building/punctuation beats. | text: string |
| soundboard | Interactive sound wall: every letter and digraph as a tappable tile — tap one to hear its sound. A whole-alphabet "explore it yourself" screen. | |
| team | Two letters teaming up to make one sound (a digraph), shown as letters = sound, then an example word + picture. | team: string, sound: string, word: string, emoji?: string |
Content collections
| id | what it is |
|---|---|
| phonemes | Letter → its sound and an example word. Feeds the sound-to-letter board and phoneme lessons. |
| digraphs | Two-letter teams that make one sound (sh, ch, th, ck). |
| vocab | Vocabulary words paired with a picture (emoji), plus an optional native-language gloss (ru/…) for foreign-language courses. Feeds picture-match + listen-from-vocab. |
| blendWords | Decodable CVC words for sound-blending, tagged with the BLEND_BANDS band they are introduced in. |
| wordFamilies | Word families grouped by rime (-at → cat, hat, mat). Feeds the word-family board. |
| synonyms | Word pairs that mean the same. Feeds the same/opposite board (same mode). |
| antonyms | Word pairs that are opposites. Feeds the same/opposite board (opposite mode). |
| contextClues | Cloze sentences with the answer + distractors. Feeds the context-clue board. |
| sightWords | High-frequency words learned by sight (not sounded out). |
| parts_of_speech | The grammar word bank, role-keyed: nouns / verbs / adjectives. The generator draws from the appropriate array per category. |
| sentences | Model sentences for the sentence-builder board (capital first, period last). |
| sentencesRu | English sentences paired with a native-language meaning (ru) for foreign-language sentence-building. The learner reads the native-language prompt and orders the scrambled English word tiles to build the English sentence. |
| rules | A spelling/grammar rule reminder + a question whose answer follows the rule. Feeds the rule-quiz board. |
| patterns | Advanced-phonics decoding patterns: a pattern reminder + a question whose answer uses that pattern (vowel teams, r-controlled, diphthongs, silent letters). Feeds the soundPattern board. Same shape as rules. |
| spellings | Spelling-Bee items: a spelling tip + a question whose answer is the correctly-spelled word (tricky high-frequency words, homophones, word endings). Feeds the spellBee board. Same shape as rules. |
| wordParts | Morpheme-building items: assemble a word form from part tiles — verb endings (-ed/-ing), plurals/comparatives (-s/-es/-er), prefixes (un-/re-) and suffixes (-ful/-ly). Feeds the wordBuild board. |
| grammar_depth | Grammar-depth rule items: a rule reminder + a question whose answer is the correct form (subject–verb agreement, pronouns, irregular past, sentence types). Feeds the grammarDepth board. Same shape as rules. |
| figurative | Figurative-language items: a reminder + a question identifying or interpreting a figure of speech (similes, metaphors, idioms). Feeds the figurative board. Same shape as rules. |
| punctuationCores | Sentences with no end mark; the punctuation board asks which of . ? ! fits. |
| storyItems | First Readers (recognition): a short decodable story, the target word to hear/tap (q), and word distractors (d). Feeds the firstReader board (StoryReader). |
| mainIdeaItems | Main Idea comprehension: a story + a spoken wh-question (q = rq-* clip key), the displayed question text, the answer (a), and distractors (d). Feeds the mainIdea board (StoryReader). |
| detailItems | Find the Detail comprehension: a story + a spoken wh-question (q = rq-* clip key), the displayed question text, the answer (a), and distractors (d). Feeds the findDetail board (StoryReader). |
| inferenceItems | Inference comprehension: a story + a spoken wh-question (q = rq-* clip key), the displayed question text, the answer (a), and distractors (d). Feeds the inference board (StoryReader). |