Each reader has a story language of their own: "English (British spelling)", "English (American spelling)" or "Español". It decides what their new books are written in, the voice that reads those books, and what Pip says to them. It is separate from the language of your own pages, so you can read your settings in English while your child's stories are in Spanish, or the other way round.
Choosing a reader's language
You choose the language when you add a reader, where the page asks "What shall we write their stories in?". To change it later:
- Go to Readers, then your child, then Settings.
- In "Reading", find "Stories are written in".
- Choose "English (British spelling)", "English (American spelling)" or "Español".
- Press "Save".
The change applies to books made from then on. Books already on your child's shelf stay in the language they were written in, and a book that is being made when you change it is finished in the language it was started in.
Both English options give your child stories in English. At the moment they are written the same way: choosing British or American spelling does not change the words in the books. Where a book is read by the device's own voice, the choice can tip it towards a British or an American voice, when the device has a good one of each.
What is read aloud, and in which language
- Picture books, for readers aged 2 to 5 and 5 to 7, are recorded as they are made, and the recording is in the language the book is written in, so a Spanish book is read aloud in Spanish.
- Chapter books, for readers aged 7 to 9 and 9 to 12, are read by the device's own voice in the book's language, as long as the device has a voice for that language. You can also have a chapter book recorded; see Having a chapter book read aloud.
- Pip speaks in your child's story language when "Let Pip speak" is on. Pip's voice explains that switch.
Read-along explains how the highlighted words follow the voice.
Stories in Spanish
A few things work differently when a reader's stories are in Spanish:
- Phonics. The phonics phases we follow are a scheme for English, so Spanish stories are not written to a phonics phase, and the "Which phonics phase are they on?" setting has no effect on them. When your child taps a word in a Spanish book, it is split into syllables rather than into letter sounds.
- Reading level. We measure the level of a Spanish book with a measure made for Spanish, which looks at sentence length and at how many syllables the words have, rather than the one we use for English. Like the English one, it is an estimate that helps match your child to a book, not a judgement of your child.
- Safety checks. Spanish books are checked against a Spanish word list as well as by our other checks.
- Your child's screens. Pip's words and the questions in the book maker appear in Spanish, from the next time your child signs in after the change. Some parts are still only in English, including the names on the picture choices in the book maker, the page for writing their own beginning and the screen they see while a book is made. Tapping a word in a Spanish book shows a meaning only for the words the book set out to teach.
The language of your own pages
Your own dashboard and our emails to you have a language setting of their own, under Settings, then "Account and security", then "Language". Changing it does not change any reader's stories. The language of the grown-ups' pages explains what is translated.
If a book comes out in the wrong language, check the reader's "Stories are written in" setting first, then ask us through Help in your dashboard and choose "The reading level, or how a book turned out".