Verbatio: learn by reading

Verbatio.app

In-app purchases

About this app

Most language apps hand you sentences someone else chose. Verbatio turns that around: you read what you actually want, a novel or a PDF you saved this morning, or a www webpage, and pick up the language from inside the text.

How it works
Open a book (or a webpage, or even scan a PDF!) and start reading. Hit a word you don't know, and tap it. The definition appears right there over the page, with no jump to a browser or a separate app. Every word you look up is saved on its own.

Made for offline
The dictionaries sit on your device. No account, no sign-in required. You don't even need a connection. Read on a plane or deep in the metro, and every lookup still works. Your books and your vocabulary stay on your phone.

Remember what you read
Each word you look up can turn into a flashcard. Verbatio schedules reviews using spaced repetition (the advanced SM-2 algorithm, which Anki is also based on), so a card comes back just before you would forget it. A daily cap on new cards keeps reviews from snowballing. Week by week, words you met while reading become words you know. Reinforce through additional exercises, such as gap filling, reverse flashcards, and more.

Bring your own books, or find new ones
Verbatio opens EPUB and PDF files and pulls in web articles to read. A built-in Project Gutenberg browser puts tens of thousands of public-domain classics one tap away, at no cost.

Hear the words
Text-to-speech reads passages aloud, so you can check a pronunciation or just rest your eyes and listen. Learn English, Spanish, German, French, Polish, Portugese or Italian!

Verbatio is free to start, with a paid tier when you want unlimited use.