Keyboard shortcuts
Control the PlayLingo player from a hardware keyboard on iPad or Mac — play and pause, move between lines, repeat, auto-pause, loop, slow mode and microphone.
FreeChecked September 15, 2026
With a keyboard connected to your iPad, or on a Mac, you can control the player without touching the screen. Shortcuts use single keys, no modifiers.
How to use
- Connect a hardware keyboard (for example, a Magic Keyboard) or open PlayLingo on a Mac.
- Open a video.
- Press the keys below. The first time, Lingo shows a short tip about them.
Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause. When a line is done in an exercise — go to the next line |
| Enter | Next line, when the current line is done in an exercise |
| ← | Previous line |
| → | Next line |
| R | Repeat the line |
| A | Turn Auto-pause on or off |
| L | Turn Loop on or off |
| S | Turn Slow mode on or off |
| M | Start or stop the microphone in Speak mode |
| Esc | Close the video |
The keys do the same as the buttons on screen. See Playback controls.
Common questions
The keys don’t do anything
Make sure a video is open and the player is on screen — shortcuts work only there.
M does nothing
The microphone key works only in Speak mode and only when the microphone is allowed. See Speak mode.
Can I change the keys?
No, the shortcuts are fixed.
Related guides
- Playback controlsPause, step line by line, repeat a sentence, auto-pause after each line, loop a phrase, slow the video down and hear a line read aloud in PlayLingo.
- Speak modePractice speaking with shadowing in PlayLingo — the video pauses after each line, you repeat it out loud, and on-device speech recognition checks every word.
- Devices and languagesWhich devices PlayLingo runs on (iPhone and iPad with iOS 18+, Mac with Apple Silicon, Android 9+), why it needs internet, and which languages you can learn.