The Pinyin transcription of Chinese words on the website sometimes differs from the one shown in the Android app. For example, 大夫 is transcribed correctly as “dàifu” (“doctor”) when I click on the word here on the website, but the very same word in the very same lesson in the Android app is transcribed as “dàfū”, which, according to Wiktionary, means “A governmental job title used during the […] early Chinese dynasties” and is obviously not the intended meaning in a beginner-level lesson.
This happens quite often; the transcription in Android seems to be based on a less common (or an outright obscure) meaning of the word, while the transcription on the website is the correct one. Any idea why this is happening?
I can live with the transcription sometimes being wrong for the less common meaning (I will just make a note of the less common reading in the hint for the given LingQ), but the transcription differing between the app and the website is a big issue (I’ve already learnt a few words with incorrect pronunciation on my tablet because I assumed the transcription was correct).
Hi JakubMarian.
Are you using Beta app or you are on production version? If you are unsing production version, would you be interested to try the Beta app? It’s huge improvement in both performance and design and hopefully the Pinyin works properly there. We plan to release it soon but if you are interested we can add you into Beta and you can try it right away. Just contact me on zoran(at)lingq.com and let me know which email address you are using for Google Play account on your device.
Well, I shouldn’t have written “correct”; it just agrees with the one shown on the website, which is still sometimes wrong.
For example, 那 (a very common word meaning “that”) is transcribed as “nuó” both in the beta app and on the website, but it is only pronounced like that when it is an uncommon surname.