❓ How-To Guide

Getting started

1. Go to the sign-in page.
2. Type your email address and choose a password.
3. Click Create account. That's all — no card, nothing to install.
4. Next time, use the same email and password and click Sign in.

Make a lesson from your own recording

Works on every plan. Good for class recordings, voice messages, or audio you already have.

1. Open the home page.
2. Click 📁 Local file… and pick an audio or video file from your device.
3. Wait — the status line shows progress while it's transcribed and translated.
4. The finished lesson opens by itself and is saved in your Library.

Make a lesson from a video link

Downloading from Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok is part of the Pro and Teacher plans.

1. Copy the video's link (in Instagram or YouTube: Share → Copy link).
2. Paste it into the box on the home page and click Transcribe.
3. The green dot under the box tells you the download server is on. If it shows ⚪ paused, your link waits in line and runs when the server is back — you don't need to do anything.
4. The finished lesson opens by itself and is saved in your Library.

Study a clip

Understand the words

• Click any word in the transcript — a panel shows its meaning, stress, and all its forms (conjugation or declension tables).
• In the word panel: 🔊 pronounces the word, ＋ Save keeps it for flashcards, ✓ Known marks it as a word you already know.
• Choose where the English translation appears with the English: selector — under the player, as a side column, or off.

Train your ear

• Click a line of the transcript to jump the audio there.
• Loop repeats one line until you're ready to move on.
• The speed control slows the audio down without changing the voice.
• 🗣 Repeat after me pauses after each line so you can say it out loud.

Check yourself

• Open the 🎯 Comprehension questions panel and answer the questions about the clip. Teachers can edit these questions for their class.

Read a text

1. Open Texts → My Texts in the menu.
2. Paste any Russian text (or upload a .txt/.docx file) and save it.
3. Read it like a clip: click words for the dictionary, listen with read-aloud voices, and take the 🎯 quiz.

Your Library

• Search your clips with the box in the top menu.
• 🏷 Tags keep clips organized — edit them on any clip, filter by them in the Library.
• Shared with me (under Library and Texts) lists lessons others shared with you.
• ⤤ Share on a clip sends it to another user by their email address (read-only for them).
• 🗜 Free video removes a clip's video to save space but keeps the transcript — you can re-download the video later with one click.

Known & saved words

• ✓ Known words: everything you've marked as known lives under Words → Known. The more honest this list, the better we can tell you how hard a new clip will be for you ("% new words").
• ＋ Saved words are your flashcard queue: export them under Words → Export as an Anki or Quizlet file.
• 📘 Dictionary in the Words menu opens the full GrammarDrills dictionary with practice drills.

For teachers

Set up your class

1. Open Teaching in the menu (visible on Teacher accounts).
2. Add a student by the email address they used for their free account.
3. The student gets an approval request — after they accept, they're in your roster.

Teach with it

• Share a lesson: open any clip or text and use ⤤ Share — it appears in each student's "Shared with me".
• Pick the right material: the Teaching page can show the site as a chosen student sees it, including how many words of a clip they don't know yet.
• Edit the quiz: on any shared clip you can edit the 🎯 questions your class sees.

Make Clip (teachers)

Cut a short lesson (up to 5 minutes) out of a longer video.

1. Open Teaching → ✂ Make Clip.
2. Paste a link or upload a file.
3. Enter the start and end times of the part you want (e.g. 1:20 to 2:45).
4. Click go — only that section is fetched, transcribed, and saved as a new clip.

Account, settings & messages

• ⚙ Settings (in the Account menu) sets your default read-aloud voice for the whole account.
• ✉ Messages is your inbox: when an admin answers your word suggestion or contact message, the reply appears there with a ticket number.
• 💡 Suggest a word: if a word in a transcript has no dictionary entry, flag it right in the word panel — we review these and add them to the dictionary.
• Need anything else? Use the contact form.

When something looks wrong

• The transcript has a wrong word: click the ✎ pencil on that line and fix it — or, if you have the original script, use 📝 Apply script to lay your exact text over the audio timing.
• The whole transcription is poor: check the audio language wasn't set to auto-detect on mixed-language audio; paid accounts can use ↻ Re-transcribe for a higher-quality pass.
• ⚪ "Downloads are paused": the download server is briefly offline. Your link is queued and will run by itself — file uploads keep working the whole time.
• No sound on iPhone read-aloud: tap the play button once directly — iOS requires one direct tap before a page may speak.
• Anything else: the contact form reaches a human.

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