Colour key
How to read Kilo Lingo
Every colour and line on the site means one thing, and the same thing in every course. Here is each of them, drawn by the same pieces the lessons use. Colour is never the only clue: each one also has a line style, a shape or a word.
On this page 9 sections
Tap a word
A dotted grey line under a word means you can tap it. You get its meaning, its pronunciation and how common it is, and the popup opens its full page. Try it:
, .
Your words: New, Learning, Known
In stories and songs, once you are signed in, each word shows where you are with it. The line style says it as clearly as the colour.
Above a story, the same states are counted. Known and Already known share the green and keep their own icon.
- palabra
- New. Not met yet.
- palabra
- Learning. Met, and coming back on a spaced-repetition schedule.
- palabra
- Known. Remembered over about three weeks of reviews. Reviewing a word before it is due is practice, so it does not move it along. Still checked now and then.
- palabra
- Already known. You told us you know it, so it stays out of your reviews. Mark it Learning to bring it back. It looks the same as Known: you know the word either way.
The green tint everywhere else
Outside stories (grammar lessons, word pages, example sentences) a tappable word gets a soft green tint instead, in six steps that deepen as your reviews show you remember it. No tint means you have not met it yet, or you are signed out.
- palabrajust met
- palabraseen
- palabragetting there
- palabrahalfway
- palabranearly
- palabrasolid
New words in a story
A story sticks to words you have met, with a handful of exceptions where a native speaker would never say it any other way. Those are listed before the text, with their article, gender and pronunciation. Tap one for its popup.
Gender
Wherever a noun is taught (new-word cards, word lists, the popup, word pages, flashcards and worksheets) it comes with its article and a second, solid line in its gender's colour. Each gender has its own line shape too, so it reads in black and white, and the small letter after the word says it again.
Not in story text: there a solid line already means Known, so a story shows gender in the popup and the new-words box only. The colours are the grammar colours below, so a neuter noun is the same green in a German grammar lesson and on its own page.
- der Hund(masculine)masculine. One blue line.
- la maison(feminine)feminine. Two rose lines.
- das Buch(neuter)neuter. One thick green bar.
- el/la estudiante(masculine or feminine)masculine or feminine. Half blue, half rose: the noun takes either article.
- die Eltern(plural only)plural only. A dashed amber line: the noun only exists in the plural.
Grammar colours
Grammar lessons colour a word by what it is doing, with the same colours in every language. Each colour has its own underline, and the part of a word that changes is bold on a yellow highlighter. A coloured box means the forms a page is contrasting. Every coloured grammar page starts with a key like this one.
Pronunciation
Pronunciation is written in IPA between slashes, like /ˈola/, and the speaker button plays a recording. Mandarin shows pinyin over every character, and colours each syllable by its tone.
The tone mark over the vowel is the real clue, and it never depends on colour: if red and green look alike to you, read the marks. Typing an answer in Mandarin never needs characters. Type pinyin or characters - tone marks optional.
- first tone (high, level)
- second tone (rising)
- third tone (low, dipping)
- fourth tone (falling)
- neutral tone (light)
Language colours
Each course has its own colour, on its buttons, links and headings. It only says which course you are in. It never marks a word.
- Spanish
- French
- Mandarin
- English
- Esperanto
- Latin
- German
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Japanese
The lightbulb: a reminder from an earlier lesson
Now and then an example uses something you learnt a few lessons ago. A small lightbulb sits after it; tap it to see which lesson, and open that lesson over the one you are in. It only appears for lessons you have finished, at most once a lesson, and never on a question.
Le dije la verdad a mi jefe.
Boxes in grammar lessons
Three kinds of box, each with its own edge and icon.