Hi,
i’m just started with lingq and now do have a short question. Is it possible to unlingq a word? I created a lingq for a word and after that i created another lingq for the plural of that word and now want to delete the second lingq.
Thx.
1 Like
You can delete the second LingQ by clicking on it in the lesson again and clicking the wastebasket symbol. Alternatively, you can find it in your “Vocabulary” section and delete it from there.
It will not make the word blue (“unknown”) again, but instead it will be displayed as white (“known”). I’d encourage you to keep it, though. LingQ quite deliberately tracks every new form of the word separately because it’s a separate thing to learn. Best practice is to LingQ every word you don’t already know.
2 Likes
Thanks.
but pressing the wastebasket tells lingq to ignore the word. That’s different than knowing the word.
However I follow your advise to lingq both of them.
2 Likes
It’s a “separate thing to learn,” but hopefully the learner gradually understands the language better so that learner can infer the other forms of the word.
If, for example, in Russian you don’t learn to do that, then you have hundreds of suffixes to remember without understanding that most of them are the same suffix but spelled differently.
2 Likes
Oh, you want to make it a known word? Simply click the checkmark 
in that case!
1 Like
Right, but the idea here is that you learn these patterns precisely by encountering words using the correct suffixes etc. – what you want to do is note the way the suffix changes the meaning (e.g. plural, past tense, etc.), not ignore it because you know the root word 
1 Like
Or you know how the language works and seeing the word with a suffix reinforces the grammar you learned.
In Russia you can learn 6 forms or every noun, or more efficiently, you learn the rules that govern nouns and when you see another form of the same noun it reinforces the rules you learned. It’s actually much more efficient that way. It’s why grammar was invented. If you don’t care to learn grammar fine, but learn the patterns you encounter again and again. It’s another way to learn grammar.
Either way to your point, marking every form as “known” reinforces knowledge about that word.
1 Like
I feel like we aren’t arguing about the same thing 
If I recognize the word, I mark it known. If I don’t, or if I feel like I’m liable to forget it, I LingQ it. Sometimes, a suffix or prefix (or some other kind of inflection, like a vowel change) is transparent and I recognize this form of the word right away. And sometimes it isn’t, or I’m unsure. The point of LingQ’s system is that you’re in control – you can mark the word known or save a definition as individually required. But in general, I have found that LingQing is a good default policy in case of doubts. I can always mark it known the next time around.
1 Like
I spent some time now at lingq and it seems that i follow exactly this approach. When I doubt, I lingq the word and if I recognize the word/form of the word i mark it as known.
Thanks for your response.
2 Likes
My general policy has been: LingQ unless I know the word right away, and then advance it in status every subsequent time I recognize it (and decrease if I don’t).
I think newcomers are often under the impression that they should be selective and frugal with LingQs (an idea sadly reinforced by the extremely low LingQ limit in the free version), as if LingQing the word is a commitment to memorize it. But as I’m sure you’re realizing, it’s kind of the exact opposite: by LingQing the word, you spare yourself the effort of memorizing it: it will be tagged yellow and with a translation for your convenience if and when it comes up again
1 Like