Reading and lookups
The word popup
Clicking a word anywhere on Lingaku, in the app or on a page with the extension opens the same popup. It shows what the word means and records that you looked it up.
- Website
- Mobile app
- Browser extension
Opening and closing it
Click a word to open its popup. On a narrow screen it opens full-screen. Ctrl+click or Shift+click opens the word’s dictionary page instead. Esc closes the popup.
Definitions
The popup shows the dictionary entries for the word, in the order set under Study options → Dictionary (see English meanings and monolingual definitions).
A conjugated word gets a box under its headword: the dictionary form, the form in the text, and each step between them, such as passive causative → formal た-form. Each step opens the grammar point that explains it, in its own popup.
A number is read as one word together with its counter and what is attached to it, such as 6本, 約3万円, 第3回目, 令和8年11月10日, 15:30 or 03-1234-5678. Its popup opens with a number box above the entries. The box shows the pattern, with a letter for each number (A年B月C日), every part of the number with its reading, and sound changes such as ほん → ぽん on the part they change. Under that come the whole reading, other ways to read it, what the number means, in the language you read Lingaku in, with digits and dates written as that language writes them, and the grammar points that explain the pattern. For a year in a Japanese era it adds the Western year and a link to the era on Wikipedia.
Point at a part of the number to find its line in the list.
The level you set in a number's popup belongs to its pattern's grammar point, so 6本 and 3本 share one level. With kanji readings shown, a long number's reading is split into groups: さんまん over 3万 and ごせんえん over 5千円. Every kind of number it reads has an example under Numbers, dates and counters.
Below the words come the kanji in it and names written the same way. The book icon beside a headword opens that word's full page, so a conjugated form that could come from two verbs links to both. The arrow next to it folds the entry away.
Grammar in the sentence
When Lingaku recognizes grammar in the sentence around a word, the popup gets a Grammar tab. It covers the whole sentence, not just the word you clicked. Conjugation lists the steps of every conjugated word in it, and Patterns lists the other grammar points, such as ～てから.
Point at a grammar point, or move to it with the Tab key, and the sentence at the top of the tab shows where it is: the grammar itself is highlighted, and the words it attaches to or connects are underlined. Click it to open the grammar point in its own popup: a short overview of what it means, its structure, the explanation, your level for it, and a Progress tab. The book button at the bottom opens its full page.
One word can belong to several grammar points. に, for example, can mark a place, a time or the person something is given to. Lingaku cannot always tell which one the sentence uses, so it shows them together: the word, then a link for each meaning. Pick the one that fits.
Lingaku only finds the grammar points it knows how to spot, so a sentence can hold more grammar than the list shows.
Signed in, each grammar point shows your level for it, and the list starts with the points you know least; among those, the rarest come first. Opening a grammar point counts as looking it up: it marks a New point Seen.
Your level and suspending
Signed in, the popup has the five level buttons N, S, F, K and M (New, Seen, Familiar, Known, Mastered). A marked button is the level Lingaku suggests. Choosing one sets your level for the word everywhere. See Levels and progress.
The pause button suspends the word: it stays at its level but is left out of reviews. Press it again to unsuspend. A word that needs attention has a flag button; clicking it dismisses the flag.
At the bottom of the popup is the word as it was recognized, with a book icon that opens its dictionary page in a new tab. Signed in, the bar also shows how many times you opened the word and links to its lookup history.
What a lookup records
Each time you open a popup while signed in, Lingaku saves the lookup with the page and the sentence it came from. Opening a word’s or character’s dictionary page counts the same way. Words you look up often come first in your reviews. The first lookup also marks a New word Seen. Your lookups are listed on the Lookups page.
Adding a word to a deck
Each entry in the popup has an add button. It adds the word to your main deck as a card with its reading, its first meaning and the sentence you found it in. The menu next to it adds it to any other deck of yours, or sets which deck is the main one.
Lingaku