Study a text sentence by sentence
Study mode shows one sentence at a time so you can translate words, translate the whole sentence, and save new vocabulary to a deck.
Study on any text opens a focused reading mode that shows one sentence at a time instead of a wall of text.
You need to be signed in, since translating and saving both require an account.
Before you start
The intro screen shows the reading time, word count and sentence count, then offers:
- Start reading, or
- Continue from sentence {n} if you've read part of it before.
Your position is remembered, so a long text can be worked through over several sittings.
While reading
Each sentence appears large and centred. From there you can:
- Tap any word to open the translation popover and translate it, save it to a deck, or mark it as known.
- Translate sentence to get the whole sentence at once.
- Play audio, if the text has generated audio.
- Move with Previous and Next, or swipe on a touchscreen.
Words are colour-coded as you work: ones you've translated, ones you've saved, and ones you've marked known.
In Text Settings you can turn on Highlight known words and Highlight unknown words so those categories stay visible while you read (the K and U shortcuts toggle the same options). Text size runs from Extra small to Extra large.
On the text page itself, Generate Audio creates spoken audio for the text. If audio already exists, the button becomes Regenerate Audio.
The header shows Sentence {current} of {total} with a progress bar, plus controls for zoom and fullscreen.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
→ or Space | Next sentence |
← | Previous sentence |
T | Translate the sentence |
P | Toggle pinyin (Chinese) |
K / U | Highlight known / unknown words |
+ / - | Zoom in and out |
F | Fullscreen |
Esc | Exit |
Finishing
The last sentence offers Finish, and you get a summary: sentences read, words translated, words saved, and time spent. From there you can Read again or go back to your texts.
Getting the most from it
The temptation is to translate everything. Resist it - try to get the gist of each sentence first, and only translate the word that's actually blocking you. Words you had to work for are the ones worth saving to a deck, and they're the ones that will stick when they come back in spaced repetition.