FluentSubs
Languages and libraries
language learning app
SHOW HN2025
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FluentSubs
Duolingo-style exercises but with real-world content like the news
app.fluentsubs.com#language learning#listening comprehension#transcripts#fill in the blank#news videos
472points
184comments
#79of 3,837 in 2025
Top 3%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
31 positive, 34 neutral or asking, 11 mixed, 30 critical, out of 106 comments about the project. Thread score +0.01.
Design: 10 for, 12 againstExecution: 1 for, 16 againstIdea: 13 for, 1 againstPricing: 2 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Good idea combining language learning with real content
From 3 comments
This is great - I've actually started building something similar myself a few months ago. Requests: - Split Spanish between Spain and Latin America - Add difficulty levels…
philipjoubert on HNThis is so good! I've been looking for a tool that will simulate the "listen to the Spiderman movie 50x" experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eliB_y0fmSk and this site can…
pajop on HNThis is very good, thank you.
scrollop on HN
Clean UI and useful proof of concept
From 2 comments
As a resident Duolingo apologist this is certainly awesome! I appreciate how little landing-page fluff there was before I could give it a shot. I tried Japanese and felt it was…
nougati on HNI'd straight up pay 5 or 10 bucks a month for this if it was like... 200% more functional/featured/professional/working. VERY good proof of concept and I love it. Target language…
bomewish on HN
Objections
Transcription and exercise errors, marking correct answers wrong
From 3 comments
I absolutely love the idea. I would honestly use this. However, when I tried the English learning, it incorrectly marked words wrong several times. Something to check out.
owenpalmer on HNReally cool idea! I tried a few Spanish ones (I speak Spanish) and unfortunately it was marking things as incorrectly wrong on 2/5 videos I did!
mcjiggerlog on HNThat's neat ! Although I got an issue on the Finnish challenge, when I drag the (correct) word "koho" it transforms into the (incorrect) word "koko". I thought I missclicked and…
Miraltar on HN
Content for smaller languages is poor quality
From 2 comments
Thank you for trying and the feedback! I'm working on improving the feedback. It is a bit confusing since some words are very similar so you have no idea what went wrong. I…
ph4evers on HNThanks for trying, and sorry about that. I thought that the videos for Finnish where on a decent enough level (only checked one). I'm afraid the transcription quality is not on…
ph4evers on HN
Japanese content too slow and dumbed-down
From 1 comment
I've checked out the Japanese one, but I'd say that it's definitely no where near "real-world content" IMO. Just the usual tortuously slow-paced, artificially dumbed-down…
dicytea on HN
News content may push polarised opinions on learners
From 1 comment
Clearly I’m in the minority, but I found the idea awful. The execution on the exercises is good—I especially like that you mix similarly sounding words—but my first thought as…
latexr on HN
Requests
Click-to-place words instead of drag and drop
From 2 comments
Great stuff! Small UX thing: Make it so you can just click a word to fill in the next empty spot, instead of having to drag, similar to when building sentences in Duolingo.…
hrydgard on HNNice, tried it. Looks cool. On the phone the drag and drop is a bit tricky. Dropped a wrong word and it got score emediatly as wrong, even though I was going to fix it. I…
anotherpaul on HN
Difficulty levels
From 2 comments
This is great - I've actually started building something similar myself a few months ago. Requests: - Split Spanish between Spain and Latin America - Add difficulty levels…
philipjoubert on HNI placed one word wrong and it didn't tell me what was the correct word, so I learned nothing, I only failed. Also I'm maybe jlpt4 and the text was too hard, you should let me…
dvh on HN
Furigana and kanji display options
From 1 comment
I tried the japanese one, as an A1, I can't read/don't know kanji yet, would be nice to have an option to see katakana/hiragana only, an option to have furigana and an option to…
annienar on HN
Translation of words and phrases
From 2 comments
Would love to see a way to understand the english equivalent of each word. As it stands now you aren't really expanding your vocab if you are just listening and copying what they…
slumberlust on HNGreat idea, nice proof of concept. It'd be nice to see a translation into English after we finish the sentence, as it'll inevitably introduce words I don't known yet, and there's…
sergiosgc on HN
More languages such as Portuguese and Irish
From 2 comments
Awesome idea! Do you plan to add Portuguese soon? I found it surprising that Dutch is in there before it given there are far fewer speakers. Was this related to the amount of…
JimmyBuckets on HNReally enjoy this method. Please add Irish if you can! TG4 could be used as possible source material: https://www.youtube.com/@TG4TV/videos
emurph55 on HN
Questions
How was the pricing decided?
From 1 comment
Great idea! How did you decide on the pricing? I launched a Japanese Kanji Learning App (KanjiMaster.ai) last month, and I chose a subscription instead of a one-time payment.
adilmoujahid on HN
Why are some languages supported before others?
From 1 comment
Awesome idea! Do you plan to add Portuguese soon? I found it surprising that Dutch is in there before it given there are far fewer speakers. Was this related to the amount of…
JimmyBuckets on HN
Alternatives named
Duolingo
From 2 comments
This has a ton of potential! Keep going! Duolingo is tough because they set the expectation that this should be free, so you're walking into a challenging business. But I think…
iambateman on HNAs a resident Duolingo apologist this is certainly awesome! I appreciate how little landing-page fluff there was before I could give it a shot. I tried Japanese and felt it was…
nougati on HN
Spiderman listening experiment video
From 1 comment
This is so good! I've been looking for a tool that will simulate the "listen to the Spiderman movie 50x" experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eliB_y0fmSk and this site can…
pajop on HN