Length of time to translate and speak answer in challenges

Do I have to finish my answer before Catrin starts speaking or before she finishes when trying to achieve 80% success

Don’t pay too much attention to the 80% - it’s old advice and only a guideline anyway, it really doesn’t matter if you’re still speaking when she repeats the phrase.

A good way to use the pause button, if you’re in a situation where you can, is just to use it if Catrin starts speaking and you want a couple of seconds to finish what you were saying. It’s fine to talk over the top of her though, then listen to Aran after that.

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I rather think she talks over the top of me which is very frustrating, Using the pause button makes it very clunky, I need to unwind with some Duolingo after trying Ex 2 yet again.

Most people experience something similar initially, but as your brain gets used to the system you’ll find that you speed up. Your answers become more automatic - which is the ideal for real conversation - and most of the time you can reply in the gap. The need for pausing decreases so you end up only doing it occasionally on the longer sentences.

If you don’t want to speak over Catrin, you could slow everything down a bit. Conversely, if you’re going back for a refresher ( as I did after switching to Spanish for 7 weeks in Spain) then you can speed it up. I found revision at 1.5 x less boring than normal speed and now I’m back to where I left off at Challenge 20. Duolingo is now so slow and boring. I joined because, from searching, they seem to have something about the structure of the language but I can’t find it on the App, which I find difficult to use. All this points stuff drives me bonkers. Thank goodness for SSi but I am curious about the structure of the language! Anyone within or near the Newtown/Knighton/Llandrindod triangle who would like to partner with me, a 70 year old female gardener? Lynne