toisto 0.4.0

Toisto is a command-line terminal app to practice languages.

Toisto

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

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

User guide

Prerequisites

Make sure you have these prequisities installed:

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

For some features, Toisto needs a more modern terminal than the default one that MacOS offers. We test with iTerm2. But this is optional, Toisto should work fine with the default MacOS terminal app.

How to install

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 more information about the command-line options and arguments:

$ toisto --help

Example sessions

$ toisto fi nl
 Welcome to Toisto v0.4.0!

Practice as many words and phrases as you like, for as long as you like.

Toisto quizzes you on words and phrases repeatedly. Each time you answer
a quiz correctly, Toisto will wait longer before repeating it. If you
answer incorrectly, you get one additional attempt to give the correct
answer. If the second attempt is not correct either, Toisto will reset
the quiz interval.

How does it work?
● To answer a quiz: type the answer, followed by Enter.
● To repeat the spoken text: type Enter without answer.
● To skip to the answer immediately: type ?, followed by Enter.
● To read more about an underlined word: keep ⌘ (the command key) pressed
  while clicking the word. Not all terminals may support this.
● To quit: type Ctrl-C or Ctrl-D.

Translate into Finnish:
Zij komt uit het Noorden
> hän tuluu pohjoisesta
⚠️  Incorrect. Please try again.
> hän kuluu pohjoisesta
❌ Incorrect. The correct answer is "Hän tulee pohjoisesta".

Translate into Dutch:
Pohjoisessa on kylmä
> het is koud in het noorden
✅ Correct.

Translate into Finnish:
Zij komt uit het Noorden
> hän tulee pohjoisesta
✅ Correct.
Another correct answer is "Hän on kotoisin pohjoisesta".

Translate into Dutch:
Hyvää yötä
> Goedenavond
⚠️  Incorrect. Please try again.
> Goedenacht
✅ Correct.
Another correct answer is "Welterusten".

How it works

Toisto quizzes you repeatably on words and phrases in the language you want to practice. For each quiz, Toisto keeps track of how long you answer it correctly. When you answer a quiz correctly multiple times, Toisto will silence the quiz for a while. The longer the time you have answered the quiz correctly, the longer a quiz is silenced. This starts at a few minutes, but then increases rapidly when you keep answering correctly.

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").
• Listen to a word or phrase from your practice language and type what you hear. For example, if your practice language is Finnish, Toisto may say "Tänään on maanantai" (Today is Monday) and that's then what you have to type.
• 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 "She is" or what is the female version of "He is".
• 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").

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

• More information on why Toisto exists and what the future plans are.
• 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.