What It Is
The extension replaces YouTube's standard captions with its own interactive subtitle bar. Every word in it is clickable: click to see the translation, save the word to a collection, and keep watching. The sentence you clicked in is saved along with the word as a usage example.
Turning It On
WordByWord subtitles are on by default and work without signing in. There are two ways to turn them off or back on:
- Right in the player: the WordByWord button next to the settings gear, then the WordByWord subtitles switch.
- In the extension popup: the YouTube subtitles toggle.
The button's colour shows the state: in colour — subtitles are on, grey — off. More in the "Player Settings" section below.
Player Settings
Click the WordByWord button in the player's control bar (next to the settings gear) to open the settings panel. It works in full-screen mode too and closes when you click outside it or press Esc.
The panel has six items:
- WordByWord subtitles — turn the WordByWord subtitles on or off.
- Spotlight — highlight new words and words you are learning (requires signing in; otherwise you see a Sign in button).
- Hide text until hover — blurs the letters so you can train your listening and look at the text only when you need to.
- Pause on hover — pauses the video while you read the subtitles.
- Text size — scale the subtitles from 50% to 150% in 10% steps.
- Sync — shift the subtitles by up to 5 seconds either way in 0.1-second steps if the text and the audio drift apart.
How the Subtitles Work
The extension loads the video's transcript and shows it in its own bar at the bottom of the player, hiding the native captions. Subtitles are shown in the original caption language — they are not translated as a whole. Translation happens per word or phrase, when you click. If the video has several caption tracks, the extension prefers human-created ones over auto-generated.
Translating Words
- Click a word — the translation popup opens right above it. Choose a translation and pick a level — that saves the word; the current subtitle line is stored as its example.
- Select several words with the mouse to translate a whole phrase.
- Hover over the subtitles — the video pauses automatically so the line doesn't run away while you read it. Move the cursor away and playback resumes. You can turn the auto-pause off with Pause on hover in the player settings.
With Spotlight mode enabled, subtitle words are highlighted by your knowledge level, just like on regular pages — you see unknown words the moment they appear.
Playback Controls
Two keyboard tricks make video study much smoother (see Keyboard Shortcuts for details):
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
← / → | Jump to the previous / next subtitle line — perfect for replaying a sentence you didn't catch |
Shift + + / Shift + _ | Nudge subtitle timing by 0.1 s if it drifts out of sync |
You can also shift the subtitles by up to 5 seconds either way with Sync in the player settings. The shift lasts until you reload the page.
Tips
- Pick videos with human-made subtitles when you can — auto-generated captions contain recognition errors that end up in your saved examples.
- Replay one line with
←several times and repeat it aloud — shadowing with clickable subtitles is one of the most effective listening exercises.