Getting Started

The first step is to set up the language you want to learn.

You do this by creating a language pair, where you specify your native language and the language you’re learning.

If you didn’t complete this during onboarding, you can set it up now in Words.

In addition to the language pair, you can define your current proficiency level and choose a personal flag icon for the language.

Once your language pair is set up, you can add your first words in several ways:

• Browse Community Sets and adopt one that fits your goals
• Enter words manually using the Magic Wand
• Import words from another app or your personal collection
• Create vocabulary for specific contexts using Situations

There are many hidden gems for power users in Vokabulo, so it's definitely worth browsing through this section a bit.

Today

Basic navigation

The Today page is your home base.

It shows the the languages that you are learning and the activity that you unfolded.

Date slider

At the top you'll find a date slider that lets you look back and forth across days.

It's a simple way to understand your streak and your progress over time, and to get a quick feel for how consistent your learning progress has been.

Words

The Words area is your personal vocabulary collection.

It's where you add, edit, tag, search, and review everything you want to learn.

Words has been designed to make the entry of new vocabulary as effortless as possible.

It makes adding words fun, wherever you are and what you do: When you read a book, watch a video, listen to a podcast, or are out exploring a local antiques market in a foreign country.

This is also where the ingenious “Vokabulo Magic Wand” comes into play.

A way to quickly enter and translate a new word, including context example sentences.

Language pairs

Every language pair is like a personal book that belongs to you, and to you only.

Your words are not shared with others (unless you decide to publish some of them as a Community Set, but more on that later).

A language pair defines the direction you're learning, for example German → French.

Why context matters

A word without context often doesn't mean much—or it means the wrong thing.

That's why Vokabulo encourages learning vocabulary with a suitable context (a phrase or sentence).

Context makes meaning clearer, improves recall, and helps you use the word correctly when you actually speak or write.

Enter a new word

I call this function "Magic Wand" because it's a kind of magic.

To add a word, tap the plus button in the top right (available in almost every view, except during flashcards in Study).

You can type into any of the fields, and you can even paste a full sentence.

When you hit Translate, Vokabulo fills the other fields for you. Only fill one field and let the Magic Wand complete the rest.

Limits of AI

Vokabulo makes full use of the latest advances in artificial intelligence to support language learning.

AI is powerful, but not perfect.

It can occasionally make mistakes, especially when dealing with ambiguity, slang, rare meanings, or insufficient context.

Treat AI as a capable assistant, not an unquestionable authority. If something feels off, refine the context, edit the result, or try again with a clearer prompt.

Edit words

You can edit words anytime to improve translations, adjust context, fix spelling, or refine the meaning.

Keeping entries clean pays off later during Study, because you'll review higher-quality cards.

Pronunciation

Use the pronunciation feature to hear how a word is spoken.

Pronunciation can be fine‑tuned in settings, and Vokabulo uses high-quality voices to make listening and repeating feel natural.

When you hit “Listen” for the first time, it can take a few seconds to send the words to a server for proper pronunciation. After that, it will be immediate.

Searching and duplicate detection

The search bar looks in the words and context fields and even tags for any matches.

Search is tolerant to umlauts and accents, so it will, e.g., find “Mädchen” if you only enter “Madchen”.

Words can be searched quickly, and Vokabulo performs automatic duplicate detection to prevent your collection from filling up with the same word multiple times in slightly different forms.

Bulk actions

When you want to manage many words at once, you can bulk select items, select all, or clear your current selection.

Bulk editing lets you change tags efficiently, including removing tags, not just adding them.

Suggest to Set

If you think that a word should belong in a Community Set, you can suggest it to the set.

This helps improve shared sets while keeping your personal collection separate and flexible.

The curator of this set will automatically be notified so that he can review your suggestion.

Why tagging is key

Tags are the fastest way to turn a big vocabulary list into a system.

Tagging helps you:

• find words later,
• study by topic,
• build sets, and
• stay consistent when you're learning from real life.

Default tags

You can set a default tag so every new word automatically lands in the right bucket—useful when you're reading a book, watching a series, or working through a theme and want to capture words quickly without extra steps.

Filter by tags

You can filter your Words list by one or multiple tags.

This makes it easy to review just the vocabulary you care about right now. You can clear all filters anytime by tapping "Clear".

When a filter tag is applied, the filter button turns red to remind you that an active filter is selected.

Tag management

Long‑press a selected tag to manage it: you can rename it, create a set from it, or delete all words with this tag (useful for cleanup when a tag was temporary or imported by mistake).

Sorting and review tabs

To review your collection from different angles, you can switch sorting modes such as frequency or alphabetical, and use list modes like:

• Newest/Latest
• Random
• Know least / know best

Tips

• You can change the language pair directly in the add/edit dialog if you notice you're adding a word in the wrong direction.
• Tagging improves everything: finding, filtering, studying, and building sets—start early, even with simple tags.
• Think of Tagging like folders but much more versatile.

Study

How spaced repetition works in Vokabulo and how to make steady progress.

About Study

Study is where your saved words turn into long-term memory. Vokabulo uses a spaced repetition system (SRS) to decide what you should review next and when—so you spend time on the words that need it most.

The SRS system

Study is not a test, and it's not about "winning." That's why you shouldn't cheat by looking up the answer first.

Vokabulo doesn't award points for being right in the moment—what matters is showing up consistently and keeping your reviews moving forward.

The 5 levels

Each word moves through five levels as you review it over time. G

etting a word right pushes it forward to longer intervals; struggling with it brings it back sooner.

This is how Vokabulo keeps easy words from wasting your time while still rescuing the ones you're about to forget.

Philosophy

The key is consistency, not volume. A small daily session beats an occasional marathon.

The goal is to keep your reviews sustainable so your vocabulary keeps growing without piling up.

Study by number of cards or by minutes

You can study in two ways:

• By number of cards when you want a clear target ("I'll do 30 cards").
• By minutes when you want a time-box ("I'll study for 10 minutes").

Filters

You can narrow your session by tags (topic-based learning) or by levels (e.g., focus on newer or weaker words). This is useful when you want to prepare for a specific situation or clean up a backlog.

Recent Filters

Vokabulo remembers your last three filter selections so you can jump back into your usual study setup quickly. Clear all resets both your recent filters and any active tag filters. You can also deactivate a recent filter if you want to return to an unfiltered session.

The Auto button

The Auto button in Study by Number of Card: When you select one or several tag, the auto button will show the number of available cards with the selected tag(s) and start a study session with exactly this number.

Reviewing cards

You start a session by tapping on the number of cards or study minutes. This will launch the flashcard view where you can swipe cards left or right.

Tap anywhere on the card to reveal the translation.

During Study you can swipe right "Got it"" when you knew it well enough.

or left "Not yet" when you didn't.

Your choice updates the word's level and schedules the next review accordingly.

This is not about being right or wrong. It’s about tracking your personal learning journey.

Swipe left if you don’t know a word. It will come back more frequently and help you memorize it.

Pause a study session

If you are training by Study Minutes and need to interrupt the session, you can tap on the countdown in the top middle.

Editing and deleting

If a word is incorrect, confusing, or no longer useful, you can edit it (to improve the translation/context) or delete it (to remove it from your learning queue).

To do this, long-tap on the sentence (or word) that is shown first. The edit word dialog will then appear and you can make edits directly in the study session.

Pronunciation

Use the pronunciation feature to hear the word spoken. This is especially helpful for building listening confidence and avoiding "silent vocabulary" you can read but not recognize in real conversation.

Display options

You can adjust how cards are shown, for example:

• Show native side first if you want recognition practice from your everyday language.
• Show word instead of context if you want a more direct, vocabulary-first style of review.

You can do this in the user settings or directly during the study session by tapping the top-left inverse arrow button.

Points for Study

Points are awarded for doing the work, not for being perfect. For every 10 cards reviewed, you get 1 point—regardless of whether you marked "Got it" or "Not yet."

Study reminders

If you enable study reminders, Vokabulo nudges you to keep your routine. You can turn reminders off anytime in the app's settings/notifications preferences if you don't want prompts.

Streak Management

Streaks are a powerful motivational tool rooted in well-established psychological principles that help users build lasting language learning habits.

By tracking consecutive days of practice, streaks create a sense of momentum and visible progress, which can reinforce intrinsic motivation and encourage daily engagement.

Vokabulo's streak system helps you build consistent study habits by tracking your daily progress.

The streak feature is designed to reward long-term commitment while protecting your progress with milestone checkpoints.

Daily Check-In Requirements

To count a day toward your streak, you must complete at least 10 cards for each streak language before midnight in your local timezone.

Vokabulo uses calendar-day streaks (midnight to midnight) with no grace period—activity after midnight always credits the new day.

The app shows your progress toward the daily check-in goal during study sessions, so you always know how many cards you need to maintain your streak.

Streak milestones

Milestones are permanent checkpoints that protect your Streak Level from dropping below certain thresholds.

When you reach a milestone, it becomes your new Milestone Floor.

Even if you break your streak later, your Streak Level will never fall below this floor.

The milestone thresholds are:

• 10 days – Your first major checkpoint
• 50 days – Nearly two months of consistency
• 100 days – Over three months of dedication
• 200 days – More than half a year
• 365 days – A full year of learning

Example: If you reach a 65-day streak:

• Your Current Run is 65 days
• Your Milestone Floor is 50 (the highest milestone you've passed)
• Your Streak Level is 115 (65 + 50)

If you then miss a day:

• Your Current Run resets to 0
• Your Milestone Floor stays at 50
• Your Streak Level becomes 50 (0 + 50)

When you resume studying and reach 15 consecutive days again, your Streak Level will be back to 65 (15 + 50).

Streak Languages

You can choose which language pairs contribute to your streak by enabling the "V logo" (streak badge) for specific pairs in the Streak Management settings.

Only language pairs marked as "Streak Languages" count toward:

• Your daily check-in requirement
• Your displayed Streak Level
• Your position on the leaderboard

This allows you to focus your streak commitment on the languages you're actively learning, without pressure from language pairs you're studying casually or have paused.

Study Days Configuration

You can customize which days of the week count toward your streak.

For example, if you only want to study Monday through Friday, you can disable weekends. On disabled days:

• You don't need to complete any cards
• Your streak is not affected
• The app skips over these days when calculating your next due date

This feature is perfect for creating a sustainable study schedule that fits your lifestyle.

Access this setting in Streak Management → Study Days.

Pausing Your Streak

Life happens, and sometimes you need a break.

The pause feature lets you temporarily freeze your streak evaluation without losing progress.

While paused:

• you don't need to complete daily check-ins
• our Current Run and Milestone Floor are preserved
• Your streak won't break due to inactivity

You can pause your streak in two ways:

• Indefinite Pause: Remains paused until you manually resume
• Scheduled Pause: Set an end date, and your streak automatically resumes afterward

This is ideal for vacations, illness, or any period when you can't maintain your regular study routine.

Access pause controls in Streak Management → Pause.

Historical Streak View

On the Today screen, you can use the date slider to view your streak level for any past date.

This shows you how your streak has grown over time and helps you track your consistency.

The historical view calculates your streak based on your actual study sessions for that date, combined with your current Milestone Floor.

Leaderboard Streaks

The Leaderboard displays each user's highest Streak Level across all their streak languages.

This means: Only language pairs with the "V logo" enabled are considered.

The calculation uses the same formula: Current Run + Milestone Floor.

It reflects your best achievement across all languages you're actively tracking.

We'll refine the Leaderboard in future versions.

Visual Cues

Throughout the app, you'll see streak-related indicators: Flame icon (🔥) that Appears on language pair cards that are streak languages.

Streak number: Your current Streak Level for each language pair.

Milestone badges: Celebrate when you reach new milestone thresholds.

Tips for Maintaining Your Streak

• Start small: The first milestone is just 10 days—very achievable!

• Use Study Days: Configure your schedule to match your lifestyle.

• Enable reminders: Set daily notifications to help you remember to study.

• Pause when needed: Don't let guilt break your streak—use the pause feature.

• Focus on consistency: Even 10 cards per day builds long-term success.

Your streak is a reflection of your commitment to learning.

Vokabulo's streak system is designed to motivate you without creating unnecessary stress.

Resetting learning progress

If you want a fresh start, you can reset your learning progress for words so they return to earlier levels and are scheduled more frequently again.

This is useful when you took a long break, changed your learning approach, somebody else used your app, or want to rebuild a foundation.

Situations

Situations help you learn the right words for the moments that matter.

You might speak confidently about your job, but feel like a beginner when you need vocabulary for the doctor, a date, small talk, or travel—Situations are built exactly for that gap.

What is a Situation?

A Situation is a short description of a real-life context where you want to express yourself better.

Based on your briefing, Vokabulo generates a focused vocabulary list that matches what you're trying to say—so you don't just learn random words, but words you'll actually use.

How to enter a Situation

Write or dictate your Situation in natural language—just describe what's going on and what you want to be able to say.

Vokabulo will automatically clean up your text if needed.

Tip: Include a few details (who, where, topic, tone).

There's a minimum length for the briefing, and generally: the better you describe the Situation, the better the vocabulary output.

Proficiency level

Choose your proficiency level so the generated words match where you are right now—whether you want safe, essential basics or more precise and advanced expressions.

Generate vocabulary and saving

When you generate, Vokabulo creates a set of around 25 words (the exact number depends on your briefing and how many relevant words the AI finds).

You can then save the result to your collection and practice it like any other vocabulary set.

Tips

• You can run the same Situation multiple times with slightly different wording to discover new vocabulary or different angles.
• Generation typically takes about 30 seconds.
• If you like the result, you can turn your personal set into a community set so others can learn from it too.

Community

Community Sets are shared vocabulary lists built by people who learn and use the language in real life.

If you've ever seen word lists or "vocabulary packs" in Facebook language groups, it's that idea—just structured, searchable, and designed to be practiced directly in Vokabulo.

This makes getting started much easier, especially when you don't yet know what to learn next.

Why Community Sets are different

Community Sets are often more useful than textbooks because they can be tailored to everyday needs: your job, your hobbies, your city, your travel plans, or the situations you actually face.

The goal is to create the best set of words for a specific topic in a specific language pair—focused, practical, and worth learning.

A community effort

Each Community Set improves over time.

People follow it, use it, and suggest better words, missing essentials, or clearer translations. Like Wikipedia, no single person has to get everything perfect—quality comes from many small improvements.

The role of the Curator

Every Community Set has a Curator (the original creator) who keeps it consistent and high-quality.

Curators review suggestions, decide what fits the purpose of the set, and keep the vocabulary clean and coherent—so the set stays focused instead of becoming a random list.

Your responsibility

When you use Community Sets, you're benefiting from other learners' work—so it helps to give something back.

If you notice missing words, wrong translations, or better alternatives, you can suggest improvements and help make the set better for everyone.

Follow and auto-download

When you follow a Community Set, Vokabulo keeps it handy and can auto-download updates, so you always have the newest version without needing to search again.

Suggest new words or edits

You can contribute by suggesting new words, improved translations, or edits to existing entries.

Your suggestions go to the Curator for review, helping the set steadily become more accurate, complete, and useful.

User Settings

Language Pairs

• Current language pair: Switch the active pair.
• Proficiency Level: Set your level for the selected pair.
• Language Flag: Choose a flag icon (or globe).
• Export words / Import words
• Reset Learning Progress (destructive)
• Create New Language Pair
• Delete this language pair (destructive)

Word Entry

• Default Tag: Automatically applied to newly created words.
• Automatically insert clipboard: Prefills the term field with clipboard text when creating a word (device-level).

Study Options

• Show native side first: Show the native language as the prompt.
• Show word instead of context: Prefer single words over context sentences in prompts.
• Show recent filters: Show the last filters you actually studied with.

Streak Management

• Pause: Pause streak tracking (useful for vacations/illness).
• Study Days: Unselected days won’t affect your streak.
• Streak Languages: Toggle which language pairs participate in streak reminders/tracking.

Voices

• Voice per learning language: Choose Auto (Default) or a specific voice, and preview voices before selecting.
• Speech Speed: Adjust pronunciation speed for all playback.

Notifications

• Opens your notifications screen.

Points & Badges

• Shows your points, level, badges/achievements.

Leaderboard

• View global rankings (requires an internet connection).

My Profile

• Username: View/change your username.
• Email: View/change your email address (may require verification).
• Learner since / Account type: Informational.
• Account type: Informational
• Log out: Signs you out (the app may remove local account data on logout).

Privacy Settings

• Do not show me in Leaderboard: When enabled, you won’t appear in the public leaderboard.

Appearance

• Night Mode: Force dark mode.
• Auto‑Night Mode (System): Follow your device system setting. This needs to be disabled first if you want to force dark mode.

App Language

• Choose from: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian. This setting is saved to your account and should follow you across devices.

Support

• Opens the in-app support/help entry point.

Pro Tipps

Home Screen

• When tapping the title, date slide will set to todays’s date
• Tapping on the flag or the V icon will take you into Study mode

Words

• If you have selected a tag filter in Words, and then go to Study, the same tag will be pre-applied

User Settings

• You can change your profile image by tapping on the profile photo.