Original, Translation, and Side by Side: what's the difference?

Overview

While you're reading, three tabs sit at the top of the page: Original, Translation, and Side by Side. They control what text you see, not what book you're reading.

The three tabs

Original shows the book's actual text, in the language it was written in. Nothing is simplified or reworded here.

Translation shows the AI translation at your current reading level. Change your level and this tab updates to match. See What are Reading Levels? for what each level actually changes.

Side by Side shows both at once, original on one side, translation on the other. It's grayed out until that chapter has actually been translated, since there's nothing to line up otherwise. Hover over the disabled tab and a tooltip explains why.

Reading Original at Simple or Guided

If your reading level is set to Simple or Guided, opening the Original tab shows a warning strip at the top of the page. The full untranslated text is unlikely to make sense yet at that level, so the strip offers a level-matched simplified rendering in your own native language instead. You can dismiss the warning and read the original anyway, it's just a heads-up, not a block.

Playback in Side by Side

Side by Side has its own playback controls, separate from the main read-aloud bar you'd see on the Original or Translation tabs. You get play/pause and a speed control, plus a "unified" mode that alternates which language it reads aloud paragraph by paragraph, so you can follow along in one language, then the other, without switching tabs. For more on the regular read-aloud bar, see Listening while you read.