Frequently Asked Questions

Berlingvo is an online platform for learning German. The service is built for those learning German for life, study or work in Germany — at levels A1 to B2.

Spaced repetition flashcards, multiple training modes, a test builder and study groups — all available in the browser from any device.

Main sections (top menu):

• My materials — all your materials in one place: decks, articles, lessons, trainings, tests and courses.
• Library — public materials from users and the Berlingvo team.
• Groups — study communities for collaborative learning.

Profile and account:

• Profile — your streak, XP, level and public page.
• Settings — interface language, native language, account and privacy settings.
• Notifications — alerts about new materials in groups and about test grading.
• Pro subscription — plans and subscription management.

Trainings and the Smart Deck are available from the “My materials” section.

A deck is a collection of cards grouped by one topic — for example, «Professions» or «German verbs of motion». A deck can contain words (with articles and grammatical forms) or phrases (sentences and expressions).

1. Go to My materials and click «Create deck».
2. Enter a name, description and level (A1–C2).
3. Choose the type: words or phrases.
4. Configure visibility and save.
5. Add cards manually or upload from CSV.

Yes. AI can fill a deck with cards on a chosen topic — handy when you need to build vocabulary quickly without filling in every card by hand.

The feature is available to teachers, moderators and administrators — it is being rolled out gradually, so it may not appear for you right away.

How to start:

1. Create a deck and choose its type — words or phrases.
2. Turn on “Generate cards with AI”.
3. Describe the topic or context (for example, “verbs for a job interview” or “food at a restaurant”).
4. Choose the number of cards: 15, 30 or 50.

The deck is created as a draft (unpublished): review and, if needed, edit the cards first, and only then publish it.

The quality of the result depends on how you phrase the topic: the more precise and specific the context, the better the word selection. AI features have usage limits — see the Artificial intelligence section for details.

• Title and description — what the deck is called and what it's about.
• Type — "Words" (with articles and grammar forms) or "Phrases" (sentences and expressions).
• Level — CEFR level from A1 to C2.
• Target language and translation language — German and Russian by default; the translation language is also used by the AI for hints and explanations.
• Tags — keywords for search and filtering.
• Allow copying — other users will be able to clone the deck for themselves.
• Allow collaboration — enables co-authoring and editing according to access rights.
• Who can edit cards — owner only, co-authors, or all group members.
• Privacy & Visibility — who has access and whether the deck appears in the library.

For a word-type card:

• German word and translation
• Article (der / die / das)
• Plural form
• Infinitive, past tense, irregular verb flag
• Example sentence and its translation
• Image and pronunciation audio file

You can add cards one by one or upload several at once via import CSV.

Most card fields can be filled in automatically with the ✨ button next to the "Word" field. See the Artificial intelligence section for details.

Co-authors are users with card editing permissions. The access level is set in deck settings:

• Owner only — only the creator can edit.
• Co-authors — the owner and added co-authors.
• Group members — all members of the linked group.

1. Open the deck and click «Import from CSV».
2. Select the file on your computer.
3. Review the preview — the system will show new cards and existing duplicates.
4. Confirm the import. Duplicates are skipped automatically.

All six columns are required (order doesn’t matter):

Delimiter: comma, semicolon or tab — the system detects it automatically. Encoding: UTF-8.

For phrases only two columns are required:

• term / фраза / phrase — the phrase itself
• translation / перевод — translation

You can optionally add example_sentence and example_translation.

• «Missing columns» — check the header names in the first row of the file.
• «File is empty» — make sure the first row contains headers and the file is saved as UTF-8.
• «No cards were added» — all rows were duplicates or required fields were not filled in.

Privacy works the same way for every type of material — decks, articles, lessons, tests and courses:

• Private — available only to you.
• Public — available to all users; only such materials appear in the Library.
• Group — available to members of the linked group.

• Open — visible to everyone, anyone can join without an invitation.
• Closed — hidden from search, joining by invitation only.
• By invitation — visible in search but joining by invitation only.

Only a material with "Group" privacy (and linked to that group) can be added to a group directly.

A material with "Private" privacy can reach a group without changing its own setting only by being included in a course — which in turn has "Group" privacy and is linked to that group. Group members get access to such a material through the course.

In general, a material of any privacy, once added to a course, becomes available according to the course's own privacy settings.

Berlingvo uses the SM-2 algorithm. Cards you know well are shown less often; difficult ones more often. After a correct answer the interval grows: 1 day → 6 days → further multiplied by an ease factor. A wrong answer resets the card to 1 day.

Besides the automatic modes, you can create your own training for any material — we call it an exercise. You write the questions yourself: single or multiple choice, filling words into gaps, assembling a sentence, free text input.

An exercise is always attached to a specific material and comes bundled with it — it opens from that material's page and doesn't exist on its own.

The Smart Deck is your personal review hub. It is a system deck: it is created automatically, visible only to you and does not appear in your material list or in the Library.

It gathers words you added on the fly from lessons and quick lookup, cards that are due for review, and words you got wrong in trainings. You can open it from the “My materials” section.

The Smart Deck is split into two tabs:

• New — inbox: words you have just added and not yet sorted into your decks.
• Review — cards and materials that are due; cards you got wrong in training land here too and are shown first.

Each tab has a counter showing how many words or materials are waiting for your attention.

“New” is the inbox: a temporary store for words you added on the fly. The idea is to not lose words and sort them out later at your own pace.

• Select one or several cards and move them to one of your decks.
• Delete unneeded cards or clear the whole inbox at once.
• Sort the list: newest first, A → Z or Z → A.
• Start a quick review straight from the inbox.

The list is paginated, 20 cards per page. Moved words keep living in the deck you placed them in.

The section gathers everything due today and is split into two parts:

• Cards — cards that are due by SRS, plus mistake cards (shown first, with the hint «Difficult cards are shown first»). Answer «Remember» / «Don't remember» right in the list or start card mode with the «Review» button.
• Materials for Review — lessons, articles, tests and trainings you completed earlier. Review ladder: after 5, 14 and 30 days. Mark “Reviewed” or “Not relevant”.

The “All reviewed” and “All done” buttons close the section at once; your spaced-repetition progress is preserved.

There is no separate «Mistakes» tab anymore. A card you got wrong in training automatically goes into the «Review» section and is shown first in the «Cards» list — so you can work on weak spots without waiting for the SRS due date.

For such a card to stop counting as a mistake and drop back into the normal order, answer it correctly three times in a row — progress is shown by a counter on the card. One wrong answer resets the counter.

The «All reviewed» button clears the entire review list; the cards themselves stay in their decks.

There are three ways, and all of them put the word into the “New” section:

• Translation mode (Smart) — turn it on and tap a German word right in the lesson text: a translation opens, and the word is added with one button.
• Quick translation — the “Smart” button opens a panel: type a word in German or your native language and press “To Smart Deck”.
• From the translation popup — the translation popup card has a button to add the word to the deck.

Adding is idempotent: if the word is already in the Smart Deck, no duplicate is created. Translation, article, plural and example are filled in automatically.

Любую карточку можно вручную отправить в Умную колоду — это удобно, когда хочется закрепить конкретное слово, не дожидаясь, пока подойдёт его срок.

• In a deck — open the card's “···” menu and, under “Smart deck”, choose “To New” or “To Review”.
• During training or while flipping through cards — нажмите кнопку «+ Smart» в левом верхнем углу карточки и выберите действие: «В Новое» — слово попадёт в раздел «Новые», чтобы вы позже разложили его по своим колодам; «В Повторение» — карточка сразу станет доступна для повторения по интервальному алгоритму.

Повторное нажатие ничего не ломает, а само слово остаётся в своей исходной колоде.

Translation mode is a toggle: when it is on, any German word in the lesson text becomes clickable. Tap a word and a compact card opens with the translation, transcription, grammar and an example, plus a pronunciation button and a button to add the word to the Smart Deck.

By default the mode is off so it does not interfere with reading. You can turn it on and off with the “Smart” button. In the quick-lookup panel the translation direction switches between German and your native language.

Yes. Every card in the “New” section has an editor where you can:

• Edit the fields — translation, article, plural, example and its translation.
• Upload an illustration — an image for the card (JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF up to 5 MB).
• Regenerate all — the AI re-fills the translation, article, plural and example from the German word.
• Re-voice — re-create the audio pronunciation if it sounds wrong.
• Report — flag a problem (wrong translation, bad audio, wrong article, irrelevant example) for moderation.

The speaker-icon button pronounces the German word. For nouns the article is spoken together with the word (e.g. “der Tisch”) so you memorise the gender. Once voiced, the text is cached, so replaying it is instant.

If the pronunciation sounds wrong, open the card in the editor and press “Audio” — the audio will be re-created. You can also report the card choosing the reason “Bad audio”.

Training is an infinite cycle of card review with no grading. A test is a structured set of questions with a final result, score and optional timer. A test is taken once per attempt.

Checked automatically:

• Single correct answer (radio buttons)
• Multiple correct answers (checkboxes)
• Fill in the gaps — type in missing words
• Fill in the gaps — drag & drop from a word bank
• Write a word (free input)
• Assemble a sentence from words (drag & drop)

Manually graded task:

• The student writes a free-form answer
• You can attach a photo, audio, or YouTube/Vimeo video to the task
• The teacher grades it manually

Manually graded tasks are only available in tests with the "Individual review" mode.

Yes — for manually graded tasks. In the test constructor ("Individual review" mode) the question card has four tabs:

• Text — additional text prompt.
• Photo — upload JPEG/PNG/WebP up to 5 MB.
• Video — paste a YouTube or Vimeo embed code.
• Audio — upload MP3/OGG/WAV up to 20 MB.

Media is shown to the student above the answer field during the test.

• No Timer — the student answers at their own pace.
• Overall timer — N minutes allocated for the whole test.
• Per-question timer — N seconds allocated per question.
• Both timers — run simultaneously.

1. Go to Tests → Create test.
2. Set a name, timer settings and access.
3. Add questions from the library or create new ones.
4. Open access by link or through a group.

The constructor auto-saves changes with a ~1 sec delay. Wait for the save indicator before closing the tab.

An individually reviewed test contains tasks that cannot be checked automatically: essays, text translation, image description. The student submits answers, and the teacher manually grades each question and leaves comments.

To take this type of test, you must confirm consent: your answers will be sent to the teacher.

After submitting your answers, the result page will show 'Pending review'. Once the teacher completes the review, you will receive a notification. The result page will show your score, per-question comments, and highlighted text annotations.

Yes. In the test settings, the teacher can select 'Only once' — retaking the test is then not possible. If you try to take the test again, you will be redirected to your first result page.

By default, the number of attempts is unlimited.

On the review page, the teacher selects text fragments with the mouse and marks them with a color: red (error), yellow (note), or green (correct). The highlights are saved and displayed to the student on the result page.

A course is an ordered sequence of materials: articles, lessons, decks, tests and even other courses. The author assembles the course in a visual builder by dragging elements and sets the order in which they are completed.

1. Go to the Courses section and click "Create course".
2. Set the title, level, language and privacy mode.
3. Open the editor and add items: articles, decks, tests, trainings, lessons or nested courses.
4. Drag items to set the order and, if needed, override an item's title.
5. Publish the course and, if you wish, share it with a group.

A material with any privacy setting, once added to a course, becomes available according to the course's own privacy settings. That is, anyone who has access to the course also gets access to the decks, articles, tests, trainings and lessons inside it — even if they were private on their own.

So add only materials you're willing to show its participants to a public or group course.

1. Go to Groups → Create group.
2. Set a name and privacy mode.
3. Invite members by link or name.
4. Open the material you need (a deck, article, lesson, test or course) → the “Groups” section → pick a group.

1. Open your deck, article, test, lesson or course.
2. Set the material's privacy to "Group".
3. Find the "Groups" section (or the "Share with group" button) and select the groups you need.

You can only share your own materials or ones you have rights to. After adding it, all group members receive a notification about the new material.

Only a material with "Group" privacy is added to a group directly. A private material can reach a group without changing its setting only by being included in a course with "Group" privacy.

On the group page, click the «Report» button (flag icon) in the upper right corner of the header. Select the reason and add a description if needed. The report will be reviewed by the moderation team.

Individual materials (decks, articles, cards) can be reported straight from the material page — there is a “Report” button there as well.

XP (experience points) are awarded for completing a training session, passing a test, fully completing a lesson and meeting the daily goal. Total XP determines your level; daily XP is used to calculate the streak and is displayed on the dashboard.

The level is calculated from total XP — the more you study, the higher the level. The daily goal is the amount of XP you want to earn each day; it’s set in your profile. Reaching the goal awards bonus XP.

Type a German word and click the ✨ button next to the "Word" field. The AI suggests the translation, article (der/die/das), plural form, an example sentence and its translation. You can edit the fields by hand, and regenerate the example (up to three times).

For phrases the article and plural are not filled in — only the translation and example.

Yes. AI features have per-user daily limits that reset at midnight UTC:

• Card autofill — about 50 times a day
• Text-to-speech (TTS) — about 100 times a day
• Dictionary lookups — about 200 times a day

To use AI you need a confirmed e-mail. Anti-abuse protections apply (limits per account, IP and device). Premium users get higher limits.

The limits are approximate and may change as the service is tuned.

The Dictionary is a dedicated page at /dictionary. Type a German word (or a word in your own language) and get a detailed card: translation, article, plural, transcription, audio, usage examples and grammar.

You can open the Dictionary from the site navigation. The page works without signing in, but with limitations (see below).

Basic search is available without registration: a guest sees words that are already in the database, but without AI generation of new translations, without audio and without grammar tables.

After registering (free) everything opens up:

• AI translation and audio for any word
• Grammar tables (conjugation, declension)
• Adding words to decks and learning from them

A guest also sees Library decks that contain the word, but «Learn» or «Training» on them can only be started after signing in.

• Article (der / die / das) and plural for nouns
• Transcription (IPA) and audio — for the word and for examples
• All translations into the selected language and usage examples
• Grammar: verb conjugation, noun declension, adjective comparison (for signed-in users, AI-generated on demand)
• The «These decks contain the word» block — public Library decks with this word

German is always on one side; you choose the other language: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic or English.

The ⇄ button flips the direction: you can look up a German word by its translation in your language (XX → DE) or the other way around (DE → XX). The translation language is picked from the dropdown next to the search.

The word card has an «To Smart Deck» button that adds the word to your Smart Deck in one click. Next to it there is a ▼ arrow: it opens a list of your word decks so you can add the word to a specific deck instead of the Smart Deck.

The Smart Deck is selected by default. Translation, article, plural and example are filled in automatically; duplicates are not created.

More about reviewing added words — in the Smart Deck section.

• Re-voice — the button with the speaker-and-arrow icon re-creates the audio pronunciation.
• New translation & example — the regenerate button asks the AI for a new translation and example.
• Report — the flag button sends a complaint to moderators (about the translation, example or grammar).

These actions are available to signed-in users and help improve the quality of the database.