Toisto 0.0.12

Toisto is a command-line app to practice languages.

Toisto

Command-line app to practice languages. Toisto is Finnish and means reiteration, playback, repetition, reproduction.

Toisto is alpha software at the moment. It comes with a limited set of words and phrases in Dutch, English, and Finnish.

User guide

How to install

Make sure you have these prequisities installed:

• MacOS (needed because Toisto uses the say command for text-to-speech),
• Python 3.10 or newer, and
• pipx.

Install Toisto as follows:

$ pipx install Toisto

If you have already installed Toisto and a newer version is available, upgrade Toisto as follows:

$ pipx upgrade Toisto

How to use

Start Toisto as follows, giving the language you want to practice and your language as arguments:

$ toisto fi en

To practice a specific topic, pass it as follows:

$ toisto fi en --topic colors

Add --help or -h to get help information:

$ toisto --help

Example sessions

$ toisto fi nl
👋 Welcome to Toisto v0.0.8!

Practice as many words and phrases as you like, for as long as you like.
Hit Ctrl-C or Ctrl-D to quit.

Toisto tracks how many times you correctly translate words and phrases.
When you correctly translate a word or phrase multiple times in a row,
Toisto will not quiz you on it for a while. The more correct translations
in a row, the longer words and phrases are silenced.

Translate into Dutch:
Punainen
> rood
✅ Correct.

Translate into Dutch:
Harmaa
> bruin
⚠️ Incorrect. Please try again.
> grijs
✅ Correct.

Translate into Finnish:
Paars
> violetti
✅ Correct.

Translate into Finnish:
Groen
> virea
⚠️ Incorrect. Please try again.
> vihrea
❌ Incorrect. The correct answer is "Vihreä".

How it works

Toisto quizzes you repeatably on words and phrases in the language you want to practice. At the moment, Toisto has the following types of quizzes:

• Translate a word or phrase from your practice language to your native language or the other way around. For example, if your native language is English and you're practicing Dutch, Toisto can ask you to give the English version of "Maandag" (which is, you guessed it, "Monday") or ask you to give the Dutch version of "Friday" (which is "Vrijdag").
• Give a singular version of a plural, or a plural version of a singular. For example, what is the plural of "Talo" (meaning house in Finnish, and the answer is "Talot") or what is the singular of "Huizen" (meaning houses in Dutch, and the answer is "Huis").
• Change the grammatical person from and to first person, second person, and third person. For example, when asked what the second person of "Ik eet" (meaning "I eat") is, the correct answer would be "Jij eet" ("You eat").
• Change the grammatical gender from female to male or the other way around. For example, what is the male version of "Zus" (which means "Sister" and the answer is "Broer") or what is the female version of "Vader" (which means "Father", making the correct answer "Moeder").
• Change the comparative degree of an adjective. For example, what is the superlative degree of "Aardig" (which means "Nice", and the answer would be "Aardigst").

For each quiz, Toisto counts how often in a row you answer it correctly. So each quiz has its own streak. When you answer a quiz correctly multiple times, Toisto will silence the quiz for a while. The longer the streak, the longer a quiz is silenced. This starts at a few minutes, but then increases rapidly when you keep answering correctly: a streak of 13 correct answers silences a quiz for 24 hours, a streak of 18 silences the quiz for 10 days, and a streak of 20 silences it for 20 days. The maximum amount of time a quiz is silenced is roughly three months.

When you stop the program (hit Ctrl-C or Ctrl-D), progress is saved in a file named .toisto-progress.json in your home folder.

Further documentation

• The Toisto software documentation describes the inner workings of Toisto, including the format of the topic files.
• The Toisto developer documentation provides information on how to develop, test, and release Toisto. This is aimed at people who (want to help) develop Toisto.