On the very first lesson I noticed for the word “Sie” which actually means “You” only come up with “She”. Had I not know that “Sie” also meant “You” I could have had a lot of problems down the line.
Also the dictionary is very poor, the way it’s set out, and never actually seems to give you the meaning of the word you are trying to translate.
Seems like LingQ could be great but needs a lot of work.
Matt, LingQ only enables the learner to connect with a variety of third party dictionaries and resources. If you open the “Add Resource” tab you will see quite a selection. Choose the one that you like the best.
For many of the beginner lessons we have translations of the texts into a variety of languages.
There will be cases when the dictionary definition or translation is not ideal, but these problems will resolve themselves as the learner reads and listens to more of the language.
My understanding was that the purpose of the “hint” dialog box was to simply provide a small clue as to the definition. Often I’ll use one of the suggested hints from the blue pop-up, but when I see two similar definitions and a third that is somewhat different, I will often use Google Translate and Wiktionary (both available from the “Search Dictionary” option) to find it’s definition and perhaps create a better hint for myself if need be.
My point is just that the “definitions” aren’t supposed to be exact, as you should work out a more concise definition yourself as you encounter the word more and more in context.
You are quite right skillian. I thought the question had to do with our dictionaries. Yes our User Hints are convenient in that they are immediately available and reflect what other members have chosen. However, depending on context, they may not be applicable in which case you either choose the google translate Hint or look things up in a dictionary.
I also fully agree that any dictionary meaning is only a hint, and that we have to gradually discover the full scope of meaning of a word and how it is used, through a lot of exposure in listening and reading.
It is worthwhile exploring the other resources available, including grammar resources, google search, etc. You can copy from there and paste things into your Notes section.
I thank you for your replies, I am very new to LingQ and I am only just learning what it is all about. What I do love about LingQ is it seems to be the first of it’s kind. I have lots of software and books etc but nothing that provides writing set out the way it is in LingQ.