Modes overview
Watch, Understand, Listen, Build and Speak — PlayLingo’s modes turn the same video into listening, sentence-building and speaking practice. Here’s when to use each.
You don’t need separate exercises: the video you’re watching is the exercise. Pick a mode, and the same video trains a different skill.
How to switch modes
- In the player, tap the round mode button in the side controls.
- Or, before starting, tap the mode row under the Watch button.
- Tap ⓘ in the mode sheet for a short explanation of each mode.
The five modes
| Mode | What you see | Good for | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watch | Subtitles and translation, no pauses | When you just want to watch, or the video is hard | Free |
| Understand | Subtitles without translation; Show Translation reveals it. Pauses after each line | When you get most of it | Free |
| Listen | No text; tap a word or the eye button to reveal the line. Pauses after each line | When you understand text easily but not the sound | Free |
| Build | The video stops after each line; its words appear shuffled and you tap them in order | When you have 10–15 minutes | Free daily lines, then Pro |
| Speak | The video stops after each line; you say it out loud and words light up as they’re recognised | When you’re alone and can speak | Free daily lines, then Pro |
Build
Each chip is one word. Tap them in the right order; a wrong chip just bounces back, with no penalty. Long lines show a window of words at a time.
Speak
Speak mode is shadowing with any video. See Speak mode.
Exercise sessions
In Build and Speak you practice a portion of lines — 10 by default (5, 10 or 20 in Exercise Settings). At the end you see how many lines you assembled or said, and can do more or go back to watching. Finish at the top ends the session early.
Exercise Settings also let you skip very short or very long lines, set words per line for Build, and show or hide the translation.
Learning in reverse
Pick a subtitle track in your native language, and the modes flip: you read, build or say the translation in the language you learn, while hearing speech you already understand. The reverse modes are Read, Build, Speak and Translate.
Free or Pro
- Watch, Understand, Listen, Read and Translate are free.
- Build and Speak give you free lines every day — 10 of each by default. The mode card shows “Free today: N more”. After that, the modes need Pro.
- Watching time in any mode counts toward the free daily energy. See Free and Pro.
Keyboard shortcuts
With a keyboard (iPad or Mac): Space play/pause, ← / → previous/next line, R repeat, A auto-pause, L loop, S slow mode, M microphone in Speak.
Common questions
Why does the video stop after every line?
Auto-pause is on — it’s the default in Understand, Listen, Build and Speak. Turn it off in the player controls, or switch to Watch.
Why don’t words light up in Speak mode?
Your device can’t recognise this language, or the speech model is still downloading. You can still record yourself and listen back, and the line counts. See Speak mode.
Related guides
- 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.
- Subtitles and translationWatch YouTube with two lines of subtitles — the original and a translation into your language — and switch the translation or original on and off.
- Free and ProWhat you can do in PlayLingo for free every day, what the daily limits are, and what PlayLingo Pro adds.
- How practice worksWords you save in PlayLingo come back as flashcards with the video clip, scheduled by FSRS — the spaced-repetition algorithm used in Anki.