Scribe-iOS is a pack of iOS and iPadOS keyboards for language learners. Features include translation (beta), verb conjugation and word annotation that give users the tools needed to communicate with confidence.
Scribe is fully open-source and does not collect usage data or ask for system access. Feature data is sourced from Wikidata and stored in-app, meaning Scribe is a highly responsive experience that does not require an internet connection.
Preview Videos ⇧
The following are combined preview videos for the App Store:
Scribe_iPhone65.mp4
iPad Pro 4th gen version
Scribe_iPadPro4th.mp4
The App Store videos, images and text can be found in Resources/AppStore. Contributions to improve them are welcome, but please open an issue to check before.
Supported Languages ⇧
The Scribe team has interest in creating keyboards for all languages of interest. The following table shows the supported languages and the amount of data available for each on Wikidata. Check Scribe-iOS/Data for queries for all current languages and those that have substantial data on Wikidata, and check the -new keyboard- label in the Issues for keyboards that are currently in progress or being discussed.
| Language | Nouns | Verbs | Translations* | Prepositions† |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| French‡ | 14,246 | 1,236 | 67,609 | - |
| German | 27,125 | 3,047 | 67,609 | 188 |
| Portuguese‡ | 4,518 | 152 | 67,609 | - |
| Russian‡ | 194,389 | 11 | 67,609 | 15 |
| Spanish | 8,130 | 65 | 67,609 | - |
| Swedish‡ | 41,102 | 4,133 | 67,609 | - |
* Given the current beta status where words are machine translated.
† Only for languages for which preposition annotation is needed.
‡ Included in the next release of Scribe.
Setup ⇧
Users access Scribe language keyboards through the following:
- Download Scribe from the App Store
- Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards -> Add New Keyboard
- Select Scribe and choose from the available language keyboards
- When typing press
🌐to select keyboards
Keyboard Features ⇧
Scribe keyboard features are accessed via the Scribe key at the top left of any Scribe keyboard. Pressing this key gives the user three new selectable options: Translate, Conjugate and Plural in the keyboard's language. These keys allow for words to be queried and inserted into the text field followed by a space.
Current features include:
• Translation ⇧
The beta Translate feature can translate single words or phrases from English into the language of the current keyboard when the return key is pressed.
Those interested in improving this feature can see the Translation project. The goal is that Translate will provide options for entered words where a user can use grammatical categories and synonyms to select the best option (see issue). Then the feature will expand to allow translations from system and chosen languages. More advanced methods will be planned once this feature is out of beta.
As of now translations (P5972, Q7553) are not widely available on Wikidata (see issue). The current functionality is thus based on 🤗 Transformers machine translations of words queried from Wikidata. The ultimate goal is for the translations and synonyms to all be directly queried.
• Verb Conjugation ⇧
With the Conjugate feature, a user is presented with the grammar charts for an entered verb instead of the keyboard. Pressing an example in the charts inserts the chosen conjugation into the text field.
• Noun Plurals ⇧
The Plural feature allows a user to enter a noun and then insert its plural when the return key is pressed.
• Word Annotation ⇧
Scribe further annotates words in the preview bar to help users understand the context of what they're typing. Annotations are displayed once a user has typed a given word and pressed space or by pressing the Scribe key while it is selected. The hope is that annotation will help a user remember grammar rules even when not using Scribe.
Scribe annotates nouns in the preview bar according to the following conventions:
- Feminine: colored red 🟥 and marked with (F)
- Masculine: colored blue 🟦 and marked with (M)
- Common: colored purple 🟪 and marked with (C)
- Neutral: colored green 🟩 and marked with (N)
- Plural: colored orange 🟧 and marked with (PL)
- More than one: marked with all their forms
Scribe also annotates the grammatical cases (accusative, dative, etc) of prepositions in the preview bar if there is a relation in the given language.
• Functionality ⇧
The goal is for Scribe to have all the functionality of system keyboards. See the Base Keyboard Features project if interested in helping.
Current features
- iPhone and iPad support
- Dynamic layouts for cross-device performance
- Portrait and landscape modes
- Dark mode compatibility
- Auto-capitalization following
.,?and! - The double space period shortcut
- Typing
'returns to the alphabetic keyboard - Typing
,,?or!and thenspacereturns to the alphabetic keyboard - Hold-to-select characters for letters and symbols (WIP - see project)
Language Practice ⇧
A future feature of Scribe is language practice within the app itself. Scribe presents users with information that is directly relevant to their current struggles with a second language. This information can be saved in-app and used to create personalized lessons such as flash cards to reinforce the information that Scribe has provided. Work on this feature will be completed in the language practice project.
To-Do ⇧
Work that is in progress or could be implemented is tracked in the Issues and Projects. Please see the contribution guidelines if you are interested in contributing to Scribe-iOS. Also check the -next release- and -priority- labels in the Issues for those that are most important.
Scribe does not accept direct edits to the grammar JSON files as they are sourced from Wikidata. Edits can be discussed and the queries themselves will be changed and ran before an update. If there is a problem with one of the files, then the fix should be made on Wikidata and not on Scribe.
