Alternatives
Products that do what penguen.io does
Build vocabulary in your language with spaced repetition
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Hi HN, For over two years I've been working on an App to learn languages (currently French, Italian and Spanish), together with my partner, a language teacher. I think it is finally ready to share with this community! The idea is to introduce vocabulary and grammar whilst you read eBooks in your own language. I've found that it is easier to remember vocabulary 'in context' and with regular repetition. Plus you don't have to carve out dedicated time for language learning. Other apps require you to build a habit around various exercises or ‘games’, whereas lots of people already read books.…
2024 · glossarie.app
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Hi! Wanted to share the project I really wanted to have. TLDR; this app lets you create your own list of words and you get a Duolingo-like experience (kind of, still needs a lot of features) practicing those words in their context. My English is not the best but not the worst either. But I realized I can't boost it up after a certain level! In my belief, in order to truly learn a language, you need to be exposed to that language often. Vocabulary is the key factor here if you really want to improve in any language. My experience is that when I read a book to improve my English vocabulary, I…
2025 · github.com
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Dear hackers: Whether English is your first or nth natural language, you may be familiar with this vexing experience: You encounter a flowery word in a book, podcast, or HN comment; you endeavor to memorize it to hone your speech and writing; you purge it from your synapses by the next day. Flowery (https://flowery.app) streamlines vocabulary building by: • Rendering a typographically pristine Oxford dictionary and thesaurus. • Conjuring up the stochastic parrot to eliminate the tedium of flashcard creation. • Scheduling the flashcards with a spaced repetition algorithm. About the…
2024 · flowery.app
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Hi HN, Just wanted to share a tool i've been working on to help with my own study routine. It’s a browser extension called Lingoku. The idea is simple: we spend hours browsing the web in English every day. This tool replaces some of the english words with Japanese vocabulary based on your japanese level (Similar to Toucan, but with a better user experience). It’s basically an attempt to make the "i+1" method actually passive, you understand the sentence because it's mostly english, but you pick up Japanese words naturally from the context. It uses an LLM in the backend to make sure the…
Dec 2025 · lingoku.ai
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A proof-of-concept language learning app that uses LLMs to generate definitions of unknown words using only previously mastered vocabulary.
Dec 2025 · simedw.com
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I’ve been tinkering with Ricotta for about a year now and I'm happy to announce it’s ready to for others to use officially. Largely the time has been spent making the project a framework to spin up newer projects quickly which I can share details around if anyone is interested. The app was born out of my frustration with Duolingo drilling me on words I knew. I moved on to creating custom Anki cards and found myself spending ages creating decks. It’s free, uses spaced repetition under the hood, and focuses on helping you learn what you want to without a course structure. I'd love to hear your…
2025 · ricotta.affineur.io
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2018 · ulangi.com
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I'm Tim. I speak German, English, French, Turkish, and Chinese. I learned Turkish with lairner itself -- after I built it. That's the best proof I can give you that this thing actually works. The other four I learned the hard way: talking to people, making mistakes, reading things I actually cared about, and being surrounded by the language until my brain gave in. Every language app I tried got the same thing wrong: they teach you to pass exercises, not to speak. You finish a lesson, you get your dopamine hit, you maintain your streak, and six months later you still can't order food in the…
Feb 2026 · lairner.com
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English is my second language. From my experience, I learnt that developing your vocabulary is a long and arduous process. Traditionally, learners used flashcards (or their digital incarnations). I wanted to build something more engaging and more effective in building your vocabulary. DictionaryGames is aimed mostly at ESL (English as a Second Language) students, but I am hoping it might be fun for any English language lovers. The project is in BETA, it is free, and no registration is required. I am looking for feedback to improve it. If you comment, please indicate if you are a native…
2025 · dictionarygames.io
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Build your vocabulary, one powerful word at a time
24d ago · play.google.com
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