Enrich German Vocabulary in Google Sheets with OpenThesaurus and GPT-4.1-mini to Japanese

Who’s it for

Learners, teachers, and content creators who track German vocabulary in Google Sheets and want automatic enrichment with synonyms, example sentences, and basic lexical info—without copy-and-paste.

How it works / What it does

When a new row is added to your sheet (column vocabulary), the workflow looks up the word in OpenThesaurus and checks if any entries are found. If so, an LLM generates a strict JSON object containing: natural_sentence (a clear German example), part_of_speech, translation_ja (concise Japanese gloss), and level (CEFR estimate). The JSON is parsed and written back to the same row, keeping your spreadsheet the single source of truth. If no entry is found, the workflow writes a helpful “not found” note.

How to set up

1. Connect Google Sheets and select your spreadsheet/tab.
2. Confirm a vocabulary column exists.
3. Configure OpenThesaurus (no API key required).
4. Add your LLM credentials and keep the prompt’s “JSON only” constraint.
5. Rename nodes clearly and add a yellow sticky note with this description.

Requirements

• Access to Google Sheets
• LLM credentials (e.g., OpenAI)
• A tab containing a vocabulary column

How to customize the workflow

• Adjust the If condition (e.g., require terms.length > 1 or fall back to the headword).
• Tweak the LLM prompt for tone, length, or level policy.
• Map extra fields in the Set node; add columns for difficulty tags or usage notes.
• Follow security best practices (no hardcoded secrets in HTTP nodes).