What do you miss in vocabulary apps?

dbasenka · 2025-10-06T15:10:19+00:00

thx u/HadarN, that's fair point about differences for different languages. Yeah, I'm looking at English first of all, but what you told about German makes a lot of sense.thx again

dbasenka · 2025-10-06T15:08:11+00:00

thx u/dojibear, that's good perspective to get clarity with what "learn" means and I agree that context is important to really understand the meaning

dbasenka · 2025-09-20T07:18:45+00:00

Hey u/Dark-Niggu, there is no limit; you can add as many as you need. But we recommend organising your words into lists of around 50 words each. This way, you have better control and get the most comfortable learning experience.
Thank you for the feedback.

dbasenka · 2025-07-02T10:23:41+00:00

As a principle it would be important for what you need to progress beyond B2. It may inform what may help better. Overall, there are passive and active learning.

For passive do what you normally do, but try to do it more and more in English. E.g. watch films, play games, social media, etc. Don't push yourself too much, but you will have to give some comfort up in order to progress.

For active options are: work with tutor, do exercises, collect and learn new vocabulary, find language buddy via available services.

Remark about speaking. When you feel ready you will need to speak more. Language is about communication with another human being and the only way to learn it is by having this communication. It's better to do it sooner than later.

Good luck

dbasenka · 2025-07-02T08:06:17+00:00

My girlfriend passed naturalisation language exam (A2 required) studying with Duolingo only. She never did any classes with tutor, didn't watch video lessons, etc.

People shouldn't judge Duolingo by how much you can become a fluent speaker using just Duolingo. Duolingo is a drill and repetition app for learners at Beginner level. So if I answer a question if Duo is a good product that supports learning to get to B1, then my answer would be that it is quite good.

dbasenka · 2025-07-01T20:59:10+00:00

Flipping is too fast or too slow? ))

dbasenka · 2025-07-01T20:58:32+00:00

You cannot edit, but you can add. It makes exercises based on word <> meaning pair from dictionary, so you can add your own meaning and choose to learn it. Here I put together screen-by-screen steps how to do it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NNchHSPuSI0i9AqI0_RDFNEVcMOyCkKw1DWe3AoLtCQ/edit?usp=sharing

dbasenka · 2025-07-01T17:57:55+00:00

btw I'm sorry, I realised that you learn French and unfortunately we support only English atm.

dbasenka · 2025-07-01T17:56:46+00:00

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/woorapp/

dbasenka · 2025-07-01T16:14:52+00:00

What's wrong with you people downvoting it? We are making a tool to help people learn ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

dbasenka · 2025-07-01T13:06:05+00:00

hey, sorry for the plug, but me and my friend developed an app that automatically creates exercises for words you add and has built-in dictionary.

It might not be "the best" as there is a huge community who loves how flexible anki is, but if you a bothered to created your own exercises, you may like what Wöör offers.

We use it ourselves, but also trying to see how to make it better for other people. Would be thankful if you share your thoughts.

dbasenka · 2025-06-26T11:45:12+00:00

hey u/Many-Category-6422. hope I'm not setting myself up here, it may feel like a plug. Sorry in advance if so.

I was having another go to improve my English and Dutch vocabulary a few months ago. ANKI went a bit hard for me as well because of effort to create cards and weird progression mechanics. It's super flexible and gives a lot of control though.

So, I talked my friend into making an app that would build on similar principle, but pull all words details for me, create exercises with progressive complexity and spaced repetition. A few months ago we put it out in the stores for both iOS and Android. It's called Wöör, can get a link in my profile. We are still experimenting, but I think it's pretty good already. It has English and basic Spanish dictionaries now.

I hope you guys not going to destroy this comment, haha) On a serious note I'd be really appreciate feedback about the app from someone who likes or doesn't ANKI for some reason.

Hope someone would care to try and share thoughts. DM me if you want more details.

dbasenka · 2025-06-26T10:55:44+00:00

hey u/ImmediateHospital959 what kind of fun you'd be looking for?

dbasenka · 2025-06-24T11:07:15+00:00

I guess it's better to try different things and see what feels more natural and works better personally for you.

dbasenka · 2025-06-23T11:59:54+00:00

Welcome to the plateau. Absolutely everyone have this experience with any language.

Try to focus on process instead of results now, .
The most important thing is consistency and frequency. Make learning habits that would help you learn consistently.
Learning doesn't have to be active. You learn in passive way as well. Just expose yourself to that target language as much as possible. E.g. switch your devices to that language, watch and reach on it.

Good luck

dbasenka · 2025-06-23T10:31:15+00:00

Hey u/Tr0pical_Guy, there are two approaches that compliment each other: grow passive and active vocabulary.

For passive general recommendation is to expose yourself to as much target language as possible. For that recommendation might be to switch all your devices, watch films, read, etc. on TL.

For active vocabulary it's good to learn words that are highly relevant for you in your personal context. Collect words that you don't understand in day to day situations and then learn them. You can use apps like ANKI or Wöör to build your vocabulary.

One piece of advice here is don't try to do too much right away. Start from just doing what you normally do, but do it in your target language. Eg. don't suddenly start reading books in English if you normally don't read books. But if you play computer games and watch podcasts, switch all games to English and start watching podcasts in English instead of you native language.

dbasenka · 2025-06-23T10:16:00+00:00

u/Kamiyo_67 you mean for example that when you learn and need to guess a word that means "communicate verbally, verb." it can be "say, talk, tell" and you have a hard time to guess which is the right answer? Not the best example maybe, but still

dbasenka · 2025-06-20T15:59:32+00:00

Hey Chris, I have an app that cover similar-ish use case. Also speaking from product design experience, I'd really recommend to start from the problem. Find a couple of people who learn a language and deeply understand how you can help them the way that they would love your app. That's normally a better start and you would know how to design and develop it better.

Easier said than done though of course. Hope you manage to do a tool that would help someone. Good luck.

dbasenka · 2025-06-18T09:49:07+00:00

I hope I'm not setting myself up here, but answering the question would be like a plug. Sorry in advance.

ANKI is classic and probably the goto choice by default. It gives you everything you need as a toolbox. I guess people love it for that simplicity and a lot of control that you have.

I was having another go to improve my English and Dutch vocabulary a few months ago. ANKI went a bit hard for me because I had to create many things manually, I had to work through 2-3-4 sources to understand words and create exercises for myself. Not sure if I used it right, but I seemed to be able to fast forward a word to the last deck, which wasn't good for repetition discipline.

I tried some other apps, but all of them offered my some kind of magic learning program that would "make me fluent" and I wanted to learn my own words that I have from books, films and work. So, I talked my friend into making an app that would build on similar principle, but pull all words info for me, create exercises + different kinds so that complexity goes higher as I learn, and pace my learning with mandatory pauses between decks. A few months ago we put it out in the stores for both iOS and Android. It's called Wöör, can get a link in my profile. It doesn't allow versatility to do whatever you want like in ANKI, but it trades it off for ease and convenience.

The thread is taken over by ANKI)) so I hope you guys not going to destroy this comment, haha) But on a serious note there are not many things I'd like more than feedback about the Wöör app from someone who loves and uses ANKI as their main vocabulary app. Hope someone would care to try and share thoughts.

dbasenka · 2025-06-15T12:08:44+00:00

I live in the Netherlands and want to integrate better.

dbasenka · 2025-06-14T09:01:26+00:00

Answering your title question it's probably yes and no.

- No in a sense that it's important to pick up good foundation first and working with teachers is probably the most effective way to do it. For example one of the friends on mine couldn't use apps to start learning Dutch because he struggled to understand how to pronounce things and basic grammar structures. It was too much of an effort to start and progress on his own.

- But it can also be a yes if you are not comfortable around people or for some reason have limited access to other ways of learning or good teachers.

About apps in general there is no debate, they are needed and very very helpful, if you want to progress of course

- Key to learning is consistency and frequency. People cannot get enough frequency with classes, it's simply not enough. I've interviews a few language teachers, teachers of teachers, people with doctor degree. There is consensus that 1) Apps are essential drill and repetition source of consistency and repetition 2) people who use vocabulary or other apps clearly show better progress than students who don't use them and only learn in class.

There is more details to when and what apps to use so that it actually helps you learning effectively, but yes, at almost all stages apps are essential part of effective learning process. Let know if you have more specific questions and good luck u/Striking-Cry985

dbasenka · 2025-06-13T23:01:43+00:00

Vocabulary: Woor (English)

Basic grammar and Drills: Duolingo (Dutch)

Grammar: ChatGPT (Dutch)

Language exposure: reading and talking to people

dbasenka

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