Audio stories allow you to listen to a story sentence by sentence.

1. Start a story

Click on the 'Start listening' button in the 'Listen' tab on a story card to start listening to a story. You will see a countdown (which can be disabled in the settings) before the first sentence is shown.

2. Listening to sentences

You can listen to the sentences one by one (figure 1).

The audio will play automatically, unless you're on an iPad or any other Apple device. You can repeat the audio as many times as you like by clicking on the large play button.

3. Answer buttons

Once you've listened to the sentence, you can indicate if you think you understand the sentence. You will see three big square buttons (see figure 2). Click on either 'Yes', 'Maybe' or 'No'. If you have a keyboard, you can also use the shortcut keys 1 for 'Yes', 2 for 'Maybe' and 3 for 'No'.

4. Sentence transcription

When you click on one of the answer buttons, you will see the transcription of the audio (figure 3).

5. Word information boxes

If there is a glossary available for this story, you may also see some underlined words. This means that this word is in the glossary for this story and a translation is available. Click on an underlined word to see its information box (figure 4).

Click anywhere on the information box to close it.

6. Changing your answer

If you answered 'Maybe' and there is a translation available for this sentence in your language, you will see two new buttons appear (figure 5): 'Yes, I was right' and 'No I was wrong'. You can optionally click on either of these to change your answer from Maybe to Yes or No.

7. Translations

After clicking on either of the three answer buttons you will see translations of the sentence if they are available. If there are multiple translations available they will be ranked depending on the users' up- and downvotes.

If there is no translation available you are able to create a machine translation (depending on the source language) by clicking on one of the 'Fetch translation' buttons. In fact, even if there are user translations available, you can always use the automated translation buttons. The automated translations can be up- or downvoted just like a user-submitted translation.

If you selected 'Yes', you will also be able to add your own translation in the translation field below the sentence. (see figure 6). Optionally you can add some notes in the field right below the translation field. Click on 'Submit translation' (or press the Enter key) to save it. Make sure you write it in the correct language! You can edit your own translation by clicking on the pencil button on the right of your translation.

If you selected either 'Yes' or 'Maybe' you can also up- or downvote existing translations. Your own translation is automatically upvoted by you when you submit it.

If you selected 'No' you can see the translations and if none are available, generate a machine translation.

Click on the green 'Next Sentence' button (or press the Enter key) to go to the following sentence.

8. Bullets

Once you've listened to a few sentences, you will notice a series of bullets at the top of the screen (figure 7). This shows you a graphical overview of the last 20 answers you've given, with the most recent one being on the right.

9. Listening context

After listening to at least one sentence in a chapter you'll see the last ten previous sentences of the current chapter appear above the current sentence (figure 8). This is useful for when you continue listening to a story in the middle of a chapter. You can minimize the context history by clicking on the orange minimize icon at the top right hand corner of the context section.

10. Suggestions

Once you've listened to a number of sentences, it is possible that you receive suggestions for further listening (figure 9). The suggestions are sorted by difficulty. For each suggested story you can see the type, the title of the story, the number of sentences and the difficulty score. The suggestions shown depend on the recent answers you have given. If you are doing well, you will be suggested more difficult stories while easier stories will be suggested to you if you are struggling.

On the left an icon shows how the story's difficulty relates to the current story. A green circle indicates a more difficult story (ie you are doing well). One up arrow indicates the story is more difficult, two up arrows mean that the story is much harder. A yellow circle means the difficulty is about the same, while a red circle means the difficulty is easier. Here a down arrow means the story is easier while two down arrows indicate that the story is much easier.

You can skip right to one of the suggested stories by clicking on the blue button. The progress and score for your current story will be saved, but you will not be presented with a results page (see below). Alternatively you can also exit (see below), since the suggestions are also presented on the results page.

11. Stop listening

If you want to quit your listening session click on the red x in the top right hand corner of the screen or press the ESC key (figure 10).

You will then see a confirmation prompt (figure 11):

Click 'Yes' to stop listening, 'No' to cancel and continue listening.

12. Results page

Once you've stopped listening to a story or when you've finished listening a story you will be presented with a results page. There are several sections on this page:

Finished: If you have finished the story you will see a 'Finished' message together with two recommendation buttons (figure 12). Click on either one of these buttons to recommend this story to other listeners (or not).

Answers: A graphical representation of your answers (figure 13)

Click on 'More details' to see all your answers for the session and the number of translations you have submitted (figure 14).

Points and trophies: You can see the points earned for this session on the left. You receive points for each sentence you read. If you have earned any trophies during this session they will be shown on the right. (figure 15)

Recommendations: You may also see a list of recommended audio stories (figure 16; see 'Suggestions' above for a more detailed explanation). Click on the button to start listening to any one of these stories right away.

Next step: Finally, you'll find several buttons at the bottom of the page (figure 17).

The two last buttons are always visible on the results page: the blue button brings you back to the list with all the stories while the green button brings you straight to the story card for this particular story.

If you've just finished the story you'll see one more button: 'Listen again', which allows you to restart the story.