Summary: Every word in the app is there for a reason!
How We Choose the Words in the App
We’re often asked: Why these words? What’s the reasoning behind the vocabulary you’ll learn in the app?
Great question!
The short answer is: you’re not just learning random words. Every word has been carefully chosen to help you remember faster, speak sooner, and build a strong foundation in your new language.
Words in the Pronunciation tile
The words in this tile are chosen for two important reasons:
They highlight the exact sounds you need to pay attention to. Each word is a crystal-clear example of a sound in your target language.
They’re visual. Words you can picture (like “dog” or “house”) are far easier to remember than abstract ones.
As you progress on to learning vocab in the Words tile, you’ll move onto high-frequency word lists.
But in the pronunciation stage, the priority is simple: get comfortable hearing and producing the sounds of your new language.
Words in the Words tile
The Words tile includes about 625 words, organized into 89 groups.
You might notice that they’re not grouped in the “traditional” way you’ve seen in other language apps (like colors, fruits, or family members). That’s on purpose.
Here’s why:
Learning words in strict categories (e.g. red, blue, green) makes it harder to remember them.
Your brain has to both recall the word and differentiate it from other similar ones, which slows you down and makes memory weaker.
In fact, studies show that learning 10 words in categories can take twice as long and you’ll remember them for half as long compared to mixing them up.
So instead of grouping by category, you’ll see words like “red, apple, delicious” together, or high-frequency, visual words like “water” or “cellphone.”
This approach trains your brain to think in your new language, rather than translating back and forth. It speeds up learning and makes your vocabulary stick.
What Happens Next
Once you’ve built up a strong base of simple, visual words, the app will gradually introduce you to more abstract words (like “and”) by placing them into full sentences.
This way, you keep reinforcing what you’ve already learned while naturally expanding into new areas.
Also see:
- What do I do when I have no more words left to add in the sets?