Study and review

Levels and progress

Lingaku keeps one level for every word, character and grammar point you meet. Reviews, lookups, reading and your own choices move it, and the level decides how the word is marked in texts and when it comes back for review.

  • Website
  • Mobile app
  • Browser extension

The five levels

LevelLetterMeans
NewNNot studied yet.
SeenSMet or looked up, not learned yet.
FamiliarFRecognised with some effort.
KnownKKnown. Known and Mastered count as known in text statistics.
MasteredMLong-term. Mastered words are not marked in texts.

Set a level yourself with the N S F K M buttons in a popup, on a dictionary page or on a grammar point. In reviews, a card moves up one level at a time as you keep remembering it: to Familiar once it comes back after a day, Known after a week and Mastered after a month. Again lowers it one level, never below Seen.

Suggested level changes

A word you read past several times without looking it up is suggested for a higher level, and the suggested button is marked in its popup. Mark as read at the end of a text offers the suggestions for the whole text at once.

Nothing changes until you confirm a suggestion. The study options can also apply them automatically.

Relevance and the Currently learning batch

Every word gets a relevance rank from how common it is, how often you looked it up, and how often it was in what you read and watched. Recent lookups and reading count more. New cards in sessions come in this order, so the words you meet most are learned first.

The 20 most relevant words you have not graduated form the Currently learning batch. They are ringed in texts. When one reaches Known, the next one takes its place.

Grammar points are ranked the same way: how common they are, how often you opened them and how often they were in what you read. The 3 most relevant grammar points you have not graduated join the batch.

By relevance, in the Learn menu, lists the batch (Currently learning), the whole ranking (Most relevant) and the items you know best (Best known), for words, characters or grammar points. From there you can add an item to the batch, take it out, or mark it Known. Signed in only.

Level & progress, on a dictionary page, on a grammar point or in the popup’s Progress tab, shows where an item ranks, what evidence Lingaku has for it, and its status.

Needs attention

A word you know but start looking up again, a few times over several days, is flagged as needing attention. Its level does not change. Flagged words get a wavy red underline in texts. Dismiss the flag with the flag button in the popup.

Leeches

A card you keep failing (8 Agains by default) becomes a leech. A leech shows a Leech badge in sessions with three choices: Add note, Suspend and Reset (back to New). The tag clears once the card reaches Known again, or when you clear it by hand.

Leeches are never suspended for you; they stay in reviews unless you hide them in the study options. The word list can show leeches only.

Suspending

Suspending a word leaves it out of every study session; it keeps its level. Suspend from a popup, a dictionary page or during a session, and unsuspend the same way.