Steve was asking what distracts new user and beginners and how to help them. I have two suggestions to improve the LingQs.
Suggestion 1:
In my opinion, one point is the quality of LingQs that they’ll come across. I often come across LingQs that are not in German. But they are in the system as a reference for German. Often they are in a Slavic language. Probably they use German because there are more hints for English in German as in their language and they have knowledge of German?
Provide a system where I can mark hints that are not appropriate or not in the correct
language slot.
Suggestion 2:
Add an option to link to the basic form of the word. That would be the singular for plural nouns, the basic verb form or the basic form of an adjective etc. From that you can add a link to a table with the declination etc.
From the perspective of a German learner those are great ideas.
Being able to save the basic form of the word would be wonderful-along with the definite article-so one would learn the correct gender of the word from the beginning.
I find that not being able to save the infinitive of a verb, when you come across it in one of it’s many other forms, is a large hindrance. Also when I come across a verb with a separable prefix, I would like to be able to save it in the infinitive form, but can’t at this point. Also reflexive verbs are also a sticking point.
We now have a flag in the blue Hint pop up where users can flag any incorrect Hints. This helps up clean up any bad Hints.
We are also looking at how we can prevent this from occurring.
We have added the ability to edit the saved term. You can change the term to the basic form. You can add the prefix to German verbs, or the reflexive form to reflexive verbs etc. Look for the pencil by the term.
We have added some conjugating dictionaries where we know of them, as an option in the dictionary pop up. If you know of more such resources for other languages please let us know and we will add them. We will try to add these. Thanks Vera.
I don’t see a flag in the blue Hint pop up. Where is it? Can you provide a screenshot?
I want to save the LingQ with the form in the text. I think this has some advantages. And therefore a link to the basic form would be very nice. Yes, I know more resources like this. These were only examples. I think there are a bunch of links to dictionaries in the LingQ. Probably you should than separate the links to dictionaries from the conjugation and other further information links.
The flag is to the left of the red button with the white cross in it.
Re conjugations etc., at present we list these resources like Le Conjugueur for French in with the dictionaries. You suggest we list these grammar resources separately. Not a bad idea. We are always concerned not to make things look too complicated. Our LingQ widget is a little busy as it is. What do others think?
Well, Steve, I’m aware of my limited sight, but there is no flag here. I have refreshed the page, logged out and in, and still nothing on the left of the red button with the cross.
What I really would like to have is the version of the word as it is in the text AND the basic word form (to link both in my brain). At the moment I add the basic form and (f) (m) etc. like you to the hint but that is not a proper solution. This prevents me from using the reverse flashcards.
@dooo: I was granted the pencil for all the languages, so why should I not have the flag? I have just found a hint written in Portuguese among other Italian hints and I would like to flag it.
I did not realize it but Michele and Vera were deliberately excluded from seeing the flag for some reason.
Just joking!!
I just spoke to Mark and it seems that only administrators see the flag. Apparently we are experimenting with different ways of de-listing inappropriate Hints and if possible redirecting them to the appropriate language. So please give us a little more time on this one.