I’d like to use Lexa AI, but I generally prefer monolingual definitions and try to avoid translating between languages.
Right now, if Study Language and Translation Language are set to the same language, Lexa AI doesn’t show up. Is there any way around this? For example, could it be forced to appear with some kind of JavaScript injection?
From what I understand, Lexa’s built-in prompt is meant to explain meanings in the Translation Language. But if I told it to ignore that instruction and instead explain things in simplified Study Language, then in theory it should still work fine for monolingual definitions.
Update: It is possible to force the AI to use your target language, but there are a few caveats.
At first I tried using placeholders in the prompt, like this:
Explain: Explain the meaning and use of the word <WORD> in this sentence: <CONTEXT>. Use simple [study language] only. Before answering, check that your response is written only in [study language]. If any [translation language] appears, rewrite the answer.
This didn’t work reliably. However, I noticed that hardcoding the language works much better:
Explain: Please explain the meaning and use of the word <WORD> in this sentence: <CONTEXT>. Write the explanation in English. Do not translate the word or explanation.
For some reason, this approach seems less consistent with Slavic languages. Also, if the AI still refuses to give monolingual definitions, try changing Translation Language to something else.
My current workaround is to set Spanish as Translation Language (I don’t know it at all) and use the hardcoded prompt above. This way I get monolingual definitions, and I don’t accidentally see translations into my native language.
If you don’t use the built-in dictionary and want strictly monolingual definitions, this seems to be the most reliable approach for now.