Tongue Driller

Sep 3, 2026 · 2 min read
Image credit: Ling App

Tongue Driller is a small desktop app by Ville Langén for language drills. Prompt on top, type the answer, Enter to check. Optional translation, grammar note, and spoken answer (TTS). UI in Finnish or English.

You can use it (download first):

All builds and notes: GitHub Releases (v1.0.0).

Opening screen

Open a CSV chapter, create the built-in English–German example, toggle shuffle, and pick a speech voice. Switch the UI with Suomi / English.

Tongue Driller opening screen

How it works

  1. Open a CSV chapter (or create the example).
  2. Read the prompt, type the answer, press Enter.
  3. See correct / incorrect; optionally show translation, rule, and hear TTS.

Examples of how to use the app

A simple translation: English prompt on top, type the German (or other) sentence below, then Enter.

Simple translation drill

A word-order drill: prompt on top, your answer below, then instant feedback plus a short grammar tip.

Correct answer on a word-order drill

Gender drills work the same way—wrong answers highlight the mismatch; correct ones confirm the article.

Wrong gender answer with highlighted correction

Correct gender answer

Statistics

Per-folder totals: a year heatmap of minutes drilled, streaks, and an error-rate chart by day.

Drill statistics window

CSV format

Recommended columns: prompt, answer, translation, rule (last two optional). Headers optional—column 1 is the prompt, column 2 the answer.

  • Underscores around a word underline it in the prompt.
  • In the file, \n starts a new line in the prompt.

Keep personal chapter files private; chapters/ is gitignored in the public repo.

Run from source

Needs Python 3 with Tkinter:

python3 drill.py

On Mac, Homebrew Python 3.14 often lacks Tkinter—use 3.13 if needed.

Development & Support

Open source (MIT) on GitHub. Issues and ideas welcome there.