Reading-Based Learning — LingQ, Lute, Readlang

Reading is among the highest-leverage activities at intermediate level — you control pace, can stop to look up words, and absorb sentence patterns in volume. The core tool shape: import any text, click any word for a definition, mark words "known" / "learning" so the app shows you which sentences are at your level. See also Bilingual Reading for the Fumadocs-wide overview.

Cross-links: Comprehensible Input · Anki Deep · Sentence Mining · Yomitan · Edu / Language Learning.

★ ★ The Steve-Kaufmann standard — LingQ

• ★ ★ LingQ — paid (~$13/mo) + limited free; the long-running default. Steve Kaufmann's app.
  • Vast user-uploaded library across ~30 languages.
  • Click any word, get translation, mark known / learning. The app tracks your "known word count" — Kaufmann's signature progress metric.
  • Audio + text together; podcasts + ebooks built in.
  • Mobile + web.
  • Honest weakness: paid; UI is dated; not OSS.
  • When to pay: you've tried free alternatives and want the curated library + audio sync.

★ Free OSS — Lute

• ★ ★ Lute — free OSS, self-host (Docker / pip). https://github.com/LuteOrg/lute-v3.
  • The LingQ alternative for OSS-aligned learners.
  • Self-host; you own your data.
  • Import text from epub / web / paste; click-to-translate via your choice of dictionary.
  • Word status tracking (1=new through 5=known).
  • SQLite database; portable.
  • Anki export.
  • Active 2024-26 development; Lute v3 is the current iteration.
  • Honest weakness: no built-in audio sync (LingQ has it); needs your own dictionary set up.

★ Free browser — Readlang

• ★ Readlang — free + paid Premium; web + Chrome extension.
  • Click-to-translate on any web page.
  • Auto-generated SRS for words you looked up.
  • Free tier is generous.
  • Honest weakness: solo-developer maintenance; smaller library than LingQ.

Other readers

• Beelinguapp — paid + free; iOS/Android; side-by-side bilingual texts + audio. Beginner- friendly but limited library.
• LingoPie — paid + free trial; same idea but for video / TV; click-words-in-subtitles.
• DuChinese (Mandarin) — paid + free; graded Chinese reader; the standard for HSK-level reading.
• Du Reader (Mandarin) — competitor.
• Story Learning by Olly Richards — paid graded readers in 10+ languages.

Browser extensions for general web reading

• ★ Toucan — free Chrome extension; "immerse" English-language sites by replacing occasional words with target-language equivalents. Beginner-friendly passive vocab boost.
• ★ Language Reactor — Chrome ext; primarily for video subtitles (see Listening) but has a web-page reading mode.
• ★ Yomitan — see Yomitan; pop-up dictionary for any web text. JP gold-standard, growing for other languages.
• 10ten Reader — Yomitan alternative; JP only.
• Readlang Chrome ext — see above.
• Mate Translate — paid; nicer UI than Google Translate's built-in.

★ Reverso Context — context examples

• ★ Reverso Context — free; web + browser extension. Searches a parallel-sentence corpus to show "this word in real context". Indispensable for figuring out which translation actually fits your sentence.
• Linguee — similar; merged into DeepL.
• Tatoeba — free; sentence corpus; less polished but OSS data.

Bilingual ebook tools

• Calibre — free OSS ebook manager; Calibre + bilingual ebook plugin generates parallel-text epubs.
• Epubor — paid; ebook conversion + DRM removal.
• Klu / Bilingua — paid bilingual ebook generators.

Public-domain bilingual text sources

• Project Gutenberg has many side-by-side classic translations (free). See Public Domain.
• Wikisource in target language — free; classics in original language.
• EuroParl corpus — multilingual parallel-text from EU parliament; free; for advanced learners + corpus linguists.

E-reader reading

• ★ Kindle / Kobo built-in dictionary + Word Wise + Translate — free; tap a word for meaning. The single most underused feature for casual language readers.
• ★ KOReader + StarDict / Wiktionary plugins — free OSS; offline dictionary lookup on any Kobo / Boox / Kindle running KOReader. See KOReader.
• Plato (Kobo) — alternative reader with dictionary support.

How to actually use these

• Start with graded readers at A2-B1; native books at B1+ with Lute / LingQ.
• Don't look up every word — only words that block comprehension; underline rare-but-novel ones for later mining.
• Re-read at higher levels — extensive reading (skim) and intensive reading (slow + lookup) are both useful.
• Mine 5-15 cards per session into Anki — see Sentence Mining.

Pick this if…

• You want curated content + audio + clicking and you'll pay: LingQ.
• You want the same shape, free + OSS + self-host: Lute.
• Browser-only, fast, free: Readlang Chrome extension.
• Mandarin specifically: DuChinese (graded) + Pleco-as-dictionary on browser.
• Japanese specifically: Yomitan + ttsu-reader / mokuro for manga.
• Toddler-easy beginner: Beelinguapp side-by-side.