Hands-free · Free · No app store
Kotoba teaches you a word, hears you say it back, and quizzes you days later — a complete vocabulary trainer you run entirely by voice, built for your commute.
Start learning free →Kotoba says
apple … in Japanese … りんご … riiin—gooo
You say
「りんご」
✓ That’s it.
For example: 毎朝りんごを食べます。
A real exchange from a session — it hears whether you got it right.
How it works
1 · It teaches
A slow, spoken breakdown of each new word, then the word in a natural sentence.
“apple … in Japanese … りんご … riiin—gooo. For example: 毎朝りんごを食べます”
2 · You say it back
Speak it out loud. Kotoba listens with cloud speech recognition and confirms you got it.
Say りんご and it knows. If it mishears, you self-grade — by voice.
3 · It brings it back
Each word returns right before you’d forget it, quizzed and graded entirely by ear.
Modern spaced repetition (FSRS) — no streaks, no gems, no guilt.
The scheduler adapts to how well you actually know each word and brings it back at the moment you’d start to forget. No streak-shaming, no XP — just words that quietly stick.
Every new word arrives inside a natural example sentence. Once a word matures, you hear the sentence with a beep where the word goes — and say the missing word. Context, still 100% by ear.
What you’ll learn
Nearly 3,000 words with over 40,000 native-quality audio clips. Alternate readings are taught and accepted — “yes” is はい, but ええ counts too.
JLPT N5
N5 Starter
The ~120 most essential words. The right first week.
JLPT N5
Full N5
All ~670 N5 words with native audio and example sentences.
JLPT N4
Full N4
~600 words to carry you past the basics.
JLPT N3
Full N3
1,640 intermediate words — passive, casual speech, real conversation.
Built for the road
Made for AirPods and car audio. Voice commands handle everything mid-session, so your eyes stay on the road. Works offline once cached — cell dead zones included.
Quiz · word 12 of 20
“bicycle”
YOUR ANSWER?
listening…
The difficulty ladder — from first listen to free production
Hear it
LiveRecognize the spoken word and answer by voice.
Complete it
LiveHear a sentence with a beep — say the missing word.
Say it back
In betaShadow full sentences, graded by ear.
Build it
In betaMake your own sentence with the word, graded with instant feedback.
Questions
Yes — but not by listening alone. Retention comes from active recall, so Kotoba asks you for the word, hears your answer, and grades it: every rep is a real memory test. It’s designed so your eyes never leave the road — after tapping Start once, the whole session, including “repeat”, “skip”, and self-grading, runs by voice.
Audio courses and podcasts play the same fixed lessons to everyone. Kotoba is interactive: it tracks which words you know, quizzes each one right before you’d forget it (FSRS spaced repetition), and actually hears whether you said it correctly. Think audio flashcards, not a radio show. It’s also completely free.
That’s the idea — spaced-repetition flashcards you can run entirely hands-free. Anki has no audio-only or background mode, so it can’t be used safely in the car. Kotoba speaks each prompt, listens for your spoken answer, grades it with speech recognition, and schedules reviews the same way an SRS deck would.
Yes. Kotoba is free and open source — no subscription, no ads, no app store. It runs in your browser as a PWA; your progress lives on your device, with optional passwordless email sign-in if you want to sync across devices.
The JLPT lists: a curated N5 starter deck, full N5 (~670 words), N4 (~600), and N3 (1,640) — nearly 3,000 words with over 40,000 native-quality audio clips, each word taught inside a natural example sentence.
Sessions keep working offline once audio is cached — cell dead zones included. Speech recognition needs a connection, so when it’s unavailable Kotoba degrades gracefully to reveal-and-tap self-grading instead of stalling.
言葉
Free · No app store · Works in your browser
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