Free web application for reading foreign language (Lute)

[David B]

Hello everyone,
I recently learned about a useful piece of language learning software called Lute. Lute is a free web application (software that is run through the browser). You can upload foreign language books to it, and look up words quickly using a selected online dictionary. Lute saves words you have already searched to a personal database, so that you can find the definition instantly next time. The database is also a great collection of vocabulary words to learn, and lute makes it easy to create flash cards using Anki (a free computer/mobile flash card app), including context sentences and definitions.


Lute does require some effort to install; there are multiple paths. Here are 3 ways to install it:

1. Ask an AI like ChatGPT. If you are not technically inclined, this may be the best path since it can coach you through it. Additionally you can attempt the 2nd or 3rd method yourself and use an AI/LLM as an advisor



2. Here is the page on the lute manual on how to install:
https://luteorg.github.io/lute-manual/install/install.html

3. Here is a YouTube tutorial on how to install it. This tutorial requires you to install Python and pip, so link 2 is the installation guide for those
Link 1 (Lute itself)

Link 2 (Python & PIP)

(Note, the pip install video has an outdated command at timestamp 3:10, instead go to https://chocolatey.org/install#install-step2 and follow the command at the end of their step 2 )



Lute is useful because it makes it easy to learn new words as you are reading, and it's free. Lute can handle most languages from modern to archaic, but Lute is almost useless if you are trying to read a language that doesn't have spaces between words. If you are willing to pay for a slightly easier experience, you can also look at LINGQ which is very similar, but it has existing dictionaries for each of their languages.

 

[David B]

Here is what it looks like in action.

On the right side I am creating a card for the latin word ego using this dictionary Lute atomatically searched for me.

On the left side is the text of Augustine's Confessions. the highlighted words are words I have created cards for (the color indicates how well i know the word) White words, I totally know. Blue words are words I haven't created cards for.

Halfway down the page is the pop up box for the word "Credens". Since I have a card for it, the definition displays when i hover my mouse over it. You can see (credo) in parenthesis because I marked it as a parent word. Instead of creating words for every declension and conjugation, you can simply select a parent word and Lute displays the definition of the parent word.