Verba: learn English words

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About this app

You already know hundreds of English words, and yet a news article still resists.
Verba works on both at once: vocabulary in small doses, and understanding real texts.

Every morning Verba pulls in a fresh article — international news or a general
knowledge topic — and prepares it for you. The tricky passages are underlined: you tap
whatever you don't understand, the explanation appears, then the app quizzes you on it
to check that it stuck. Phrasal verbs, idioms, false friends, grammar patterns: exactly
the things that trip up a non-native reader, and they are labelled as such.

The rest of the time you revise vocabulary by theme, two minutes at a go. Food, work,
travel, technology, emotions, home, animals: more than twenty themes, pick whichever
suits your mood. Five quiz modes — two options, four options, open answer, audio
dictation, fill in the blank — with wrong answers chosen to be believable, drawn from
the same theme and close to the right word. That is where false friends live.

WHAT YOU GET

• A daily goal you set yourself, from ten to fifty words
• A run of consecutive days that makes you want to keep the chain alive
• Your mistakes gathered automatically for review
• Honest statistics: accuracy, progress, words mastered
• A points multiplier after five correct answers in a row
• Pronunciation for every word
• A daily reminder, if you want one

WHO IT IS FOR

For A2 to B2 learners who want out of rote memorisation. If flashcards never made
anything stick for you, the context-first approach will make sense: a word met inside a
real sentence stays, a word seen alone on a card does not.

The interface is available in French, English, German and Spanish. The vocabulary runs
from French to English.

Verba works without a connection once the dictionary has synced. Signing in with a
Google account is offered, never required: everything works without it.

What’s new

First release of Verba.

• Themed vocabulary quizzes, five game modes
• Reading mode: a fresh article every morning, annotated with one tap
• Daily goal, day streak and statistics
• Interface in French, English, German and Spanish