Restart after a break
Restart your progress after a break
You're at a decent level but you've been stuck for months, or you stopped and don't know where to pick back up. Lira finds your real level and relaunches your progress without sending you back through the basics.
Start freeQuick verdict
- ✗Starting from scratch: discouraging, unnecessary
- ✓Lira: detects your real current level
- ✓Lira: known vocabulary comes back fast
Quick verdict
- ✗Starting from scratch: discouraging, unnecessary
- ✓Lira: detects your real current level
- ✓Lira: known vocabulary comes back fast
Self-check
How rusty is your level, really?
4 questions to know what to expect when you restart.
Question 1 of 4
How long has it been since you stopped?
You're at an intermediate level but you've been stuck for months, or you took a break and don't know where to pick back up. The basics are still there, but following a real text or conversation still feels blurry, and the idea of starting from scratch discourages you more than it helps. What actually relaunches progress is reading at your exact level, right away, without redoing beginner exercises that no longer teach you anything.
Pick up your progress, not square one
A word you already met before your break resurfaces in a few reviews, not from zero. Your dashboard picks up the thread right where you left it.
12
day streak
Pick the language you're restarting
The restart approach works the same way regardless of the language.
How Lira gets you moving again without starting over
We find your real level, not your old one
A calibrated text from the very first session, no stressful placement test and no exercise that assumes a level you might not exactly have anymore. Your level readjusts text after text, until it lands precisely where you are today.
Vocabulary that resurfaces at the right time
The FSRS algorithm picks up where you left off: words you already knew come back for review at the right moment, without needing to relearn everything from the start. A word you'd already consolidated before your break resurfaces in a few reviews, not from zero.
Read what interests you, right away
No fixed program to restart from lesson one. Pick a text that interests you today, and Lira calibrates the level to what you actually know right now, session after session.
What you get back when you reconnect
Your dashboard keeps track of what you already knew, and reviews pick up exactly where you left them.
A word you already knew comes back with its original context
Your old progress is still right there
Review exercises generated from your old vocabulary
The science
The science behind restarting: FSRS and the forgetting curve
After a break, your memory hasn't necessarily lost everything: retention declines over time without review (the gray curve), but a word that was already consolidated comes back faster than a brand-new one. FSRS detects your real level from your very first reading sessions and schedules reviews accordingly (the green curve), so you pick up your progress without going back to square one. That faster comeback of already-known words is what separates a real restart from relearning from scratch.
Progress after the break
Finally back at it, without starting over.
Dana, 34
I'd stopped learning Spanish for about three years and figured I'd lost most of it. Turns out not really, texts at my real level got me moving again fast.
Theo, 41
I hadn't touched German in two years. I started with really easy texts, lower than my old level. Three weeks in, I'm reading things again I thought I'd forgotten.
Priya, 27
Stuck on Duolingo, LingQ, or Anki?
If you're stuck specifically on Duolingo or LingQ, we have a dedicated article comparing Lira directly to both. Anki, for its part, requires you to build and maintain your own flashcards by hand. Here, the angle is broader: whatever tool or reason caused the plateau or the break, the idea is to relaunch your progress from your real current level, not an assumed one.
| Duolingo | LingQ | Anki | Lira | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detects your real level | ✗ | ~ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No need to start from scratch | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reviews adapt to what you already remember | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Content you choose | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Go further
The Duolingo Plateau: Why You Stall (and How to Fix It)
Finished the Duolingo tree but still can't read a simple article? Here's why the plateau happens and how Lira helps you move past it.
Extensive Reading: The Complete Guide to Learning a Language
Extensive reading means picking texts you already understand at 90-95%. Here's why it works, how to start with Lira, and how to avoid common mistakes.
Ready to get moving again?
Restart today, for free, from your real level, not a starting point you've already passed.
Start free