linguafolks vs LingQ
frlisez n'importe quoi à votre niveau exact
LingQ imports the web and tracks your words. linguafolks rewrites the same page to the level a test measured you at.
LingQ is a reading-and-listening system built around importing your own material and tracking every word you meet.
LingQ and linguafolks start from the same conviction: that you learn a language by reading things you actually wanted to read, not by completing a curriculum somebody else designed. Both let you bring in outside material. Both keep a record of which words you know. If you have used LingQ and liked the premise, you will recognise most of what linguafolks does.
The difference is what happens to the text once it arrives. LingQ hands you the article as written and gives you excellent tools for surviving it: click a word, get a meaning, mark it known, move on. The article does not change. If it is three levels above you, it stays three levels above you, and you get through it one click at a time.
linguafolks rewrites it. A one-minute vocabulary test produces an estimated number of words you know; that number sets the difficulty of every text you are handed afterwards. The article comes back written at that level, with the original next to it so you can see exactly what was simplified and check yourself against it.
Three things LingQ doesn't do
- Simplify makes one version, not your version
- LingQ added a Simplify feature in November 2023. It produces a single generic beginner-friendly rewrite, is gated to intermediate and advanced lessons, and staff on LingQ's own forum have put a roughly 3,000-4,000 word ceiling on it. It is one output, the same for everyone who asks for it, because there is no measured level to tune it to.
- Nothing measures where you actually are
- Your level in LingQ is a side effect of how many words you have marked known, which counts everything you have ever clicked rather than what you would recognise cold. linguafolks measures directly: fifty words, ten of them invented to catch over-claiming, producing a vocabulary-size estimate and a CEFR band placed to Lower, Mid or Upper.
- No mnemonic imagery
- Words you do not know go back into review as words, and review is where most reading apps quietly lose people. In linguafolks a word becomes an anchor you already know that sounds like it, fused with the meaning into a single scene, and drawn.
One minute, then a real number
estu nivel, medido
Fifty words, forty real and ten invented to catch over-claiming, give an estimated vocabulary size and a CEFR band placed to Lower, Mid or Upper. Everything downstream reads that number. And it keeps moving: each word you confirm you have learned is added, so the level follows you without a retake.
Read anything at your exact level.
frlisez n'importe quoi à votre niveau exact
The text is rewritten to sit within reach, hard enough to grow and easy enough to finish, with the original beside it so you can see what changed and check yourself against it. Tap any word to find out what it means and keep it.
FrenchLe café se trouvait quasiment déserté à pareille heure. Des effluves de café chaud imprégnaient la salle. Quelques clients s'entretenaient à mi-voix près de la devanture.
Elle tergiversa longuement avant de passer commande. Le serveur patientait près du comptoir, sans hâte aucune. Elle jeta finalement son dévolu sur un chocolat chaud et une part de tarte.
Il consigna la commande d'un hochement de tête. Au-dehors, la pluie ne faisait que commencer. Elle ouvrit son livre et fit abstraction du reste du monde.
EnglishThe café was almost empty at that hour. A smell of hot coffee filled the room. A few customers were talking quietly by the window.
She hesitated a long time before ordering. The waiter waited by the counter, in no hurry. She finally chose a hot chocolate and a slice of pie.
He noted the order with a nod. Outside, the rain was just beginning. She opened her book and forgot the rest of the world.
FrenchLe café était presque vide à cette heure-là. Une odeur de café chaud remplissait la pièce. Quelques clients parlaient tout bas près de la fenêtre.
Elle a hésité longtemps avant de commander. Le serveur attendait près du comptoir, sans se dépêcher. Elle a enfin choisi un chocolat chaud et une part de tarte.
EnglishThe café was almost empty at that hour. A smell of hot coffee filled the room. A few customers were talking quietly by the window.
She hesitated a long time before ordering. The waiter waited by the counter, in no hurry. She finally chose a hot chocolate and a slice of pie.
Words that stick
ptaprenda vocabulário mais rápido
Every word gets an anchor, something you already know that sounds like it, fused with the meaning into a single scene, and then drawn. If it makes you smirk, it is doing its job.
baleine
means whale
FrenchballerinaA graceful ballerina twirls on stage, her body morphing into a massive whale mid-leap.
pays
means country
FrenchpayA traveler at a border checkpoint paying gold coins to enter a vast, sprawling country.
raser
means shave
FrenchrazorA gleaming razor blade shaving off a thick beard in one smooth stroke.
Where LingQ wins
No product is better at everything, and a comparison that pretends otherwise is worth nothing to the person reading it.
What LingQ does better
- A far larger library, and years of refinement in the import pipeline.
- Word-state tracking across everything you have ever read is genuinely excellent.
- Many more languages than the six we cover.
- A large, long-established community with shared lessons and courses.
Where linguafolks falls short
- Grammar exercises exist in French and English only. The other four languages have reading and vocabulary.
- There is no audio and no speaking practice anywhere in the product.
- We generate texts rather than curate them, so there is no hand-edited library to browse.
- Six languages: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and English.
- It is a new product, without the years of polish the established apps have.
Plainly, then
Choose LingQ if
- You want the biggest possible library and the most languages.
- You are already comfortable enough that untouched native text is the right difficulty.
- Tracking every word you have ever encountered is the feature you actually want.
Choose linguafolks if
- Native text is still too hard and you want it met halfway rather than annotated.
- You would rather be measured than guess your own level.
- You want the words you missed to come back as pictures, not as more words.
Questions
- Is linguafolks a LingQ replacement?
- For reading arbitrary material at a level that fits you, yes. For breadth of library and number of languages, no. LingQ is much bigger and older, and we cover six languages.
- Does linguafolks import from a URL like LingQ does?
- Yes. Paste a link and you get what the page actually says, rewritten to your measured level, with the original alongside.
- How is the placement different from LingQ's known-word count?
- A known-word count grows every time you click something. A vocabulary-size test samples across frequency bands and corrects for over-claiming, so it estimates what you would recognise without help.
Find your level first.
It takes about a minute and needs no account. Whatever you decide afterwards, you will at least know where you actually are.
Claims about LingQ were checked in August 2026 against the company's own published material. Either way, check theirs before you decide. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.