Plain English Stories cover current events and trending topics. By listening to stories, you get exposure to new concepts and words in English. But many times, you won't know what those words mean.
When you encounter an unfamiliar word in English, you can either:
Stop reading and listening, break your attention, open a new browser tab, look up the word in a translator or bilingual dictionary, find the correct definition among multiple possibilities, return to your place in the article, and resume reading or listening.
I'm tired just thinking about that! ~JB
Try to guess the definition based on the context, though you won't always guess correctly.
To help you understand more, and to make listening with Plain English more enjoyable and educational, we include translations of about 100 words and phrases per episode into 9 languages.
How it works
In the transcript of any Story or Expression, just hover your mouse over a highlighted word or phrase to see the translation into the selected language. This video shows how it looks on desktop:
Available languages
Translations are available from English into:
Spanish
Chinese
French
Portuguese
Italian
Japanese
German
Polish
Turkish
All episodes starting from Episode 278 have translations into these languages. Earlier episodes may have fewer languages available.
Where to find them
Translations are built into the transcripts of every Story and every Expression.
First, choose a Story (click here for the full library) or an Expression (click here).
Then, find the section that says "Learn." The tab called "Transcript" should already be selected.
On the line below, select one of the nine supported languages:
What to do
After you've selected your language, look for words and phrases highlighted in blue.
Translations begin after the introduction to the Stories, so you may have to scroll a bit.
If you're on a computer, hover your mouse over a highlighted word to see the definition
If you're on a phone or tablet, tap the highlighted word to see the definition
Here is what it looks like:
About the translations
The translations are generated using a customized artificial intelligence engine that takes into account the tone of voice and context of the paragraph. This is better than a simple translation engine or dictionary because it gives you the correct translation for the context in which you see or hear it.
A disclaimer
The translations are intended to aid your understanding of the English word or phrase. They are not intended to be a perfect translation or a study tool. In other words, the translations will give you enough correct information to understand the English word, but:
They may not perfectly match the original tense that was used, especially since different languages use tenses differently
Articles (the / der-die-das) may or may not be included or perfectly translated
For languages that have a subjunctive, gendered language, cases, or other grammatical structures that differ from English, the translation will be an approximation
They may not perfectly match a corresponding expression or phrase and they may not take into account regional differences (Mexico vs Spain, Brazil vs Portugal, etc)
Find a mistake?
The translation process includes several checks and redundancies; however, errors are possible. If you find an error in the translation, send us a note and we'll correct the translation for future readers.