Most language apps ask you to tap, type and match. GrammarMama's new Android app asks you to do something harder and far more useful: say it out loud. A few minutes a day, a friendly voice, and feedback on every single word.
This is the first release, and I'm eager to hear what you think. Here is what the app does today.
In this article we'll cover:
- how to actually start speaking a foreign language
- how a daily session works
- how pronunciation feedback works
- how to practise your own words, including from your desktop
- scripted dialogues and open conversations
- how to stop being afraid of your own mistakes
- what is still to come
How do you start speaking a foreign language?
You start by speaking. It sounds obvious, but most of us do the opposite: we study for months, wait until we feel "ready", and then freeze the first time a real person is waiting for an answer. Speaking is a skill, like riding a bike, and the only way to build it is to do it, in small pieces, often.
What helps most is making the first steps small and safe:
- Start with single words, then short sentences. Not paragraphs. A word you can say with confidence is worth more than a page you only recognise.
- Say things out loud, every day. Ten minutes of speaking beats an hour of reading once a week, because your mouth needs practice as much as your memory does.
- Practise words you will really use. Ordering a coffee, asking for directions and introducing yourself come up far more often than rare vocabulary.
- Practise where nobody is listening. On your own, you can repeat a sentence ten times without anyone noticing, and that is exactly how it becomes automatic.
That is what the app is built around. Your phone is always with you, it is never impatient, and it never gets tired of hearing you try again.
A short daily session, built around words you will use
When you open the app for the first time, you choose the language you are learning and your level, from A1 (beginner) to C1 (advanced). The app then plans your week around everyday situations.
- A theme for the week. Restaurant, travel, shopping, small talk, the doctor, work, a flat, directions, a hotel and more. You can reorder the themes, and you can add up to five topics of your own, such as "my football club" or "cycling holidays".
- A handful of new words each day. You decide how many (5, 8 or 10). Some come from the week's theme, and some from a list of the most frequent words in the language, so you do not only learn restaurant vocabulary while still missing the basics.
- Every word in a sentence. You never practise a word alone. You say it, then you say a sentence that contains it.
- Reviews that arrive when you need them. Words come back after one, three, seven and fourteen days. Reviews start with recall: you see the meaning in your own language and say the word before you see it.
The app adapts as you go. If words keep feeling too easy, it raises the difficulty a little; if you keep struggling, it eases off. If a backlog builds up after a few busy days, it brings fewer new words rather than burying you, and a catch-up option puts long-overdue words back into circulation as new ones.
A weekly streak, XP and optional daily reminders keep you coming back, without guilt trips.
Hold to speak, and see exactly which word needs work
This is the heart of the app. Hold the button, say the word or phrase, and GrammarMama scores your pronunciation word by word.
- Words that were spot on stay calm and green.
- Words that were close are marked softly.
- Words that need work stand out, so you know exactly where to focus.
You can play the reference pronunciation, listen to your own take, and try again as often as you like. There is no penalty and no pressure, just a clear picture of how you sounded.
Your own words: save anywhere, practise on your phone
The words you care about most are the ones you meet in your own life, not the ones in a course. GrammarMama makes it easy to bring them in, from wherever you happen to be.
Share text straight to the app
Reading something in a browser, a messaging app, a news app or an e-book? Select the text, tap Share, and choose GrammarMama. The app finds the words worth learning, and you pick which ones to keep. It takes a few seconds, and you never leave what you were reading.
Add words on your desktop, practise them on your phone
Your words are connected across everything you use. Sign in to the same GrammarMama account, and anything you save appears everywhere:
- On the website, you can paste a text into your vocabulary page and import the words you want.
- With the GrammarMama Chrome extension, select a word or phrase on any web page and add it to your vocabulary in one click, with a translation and a smart hint right on the page.
- In the app, those words wait for you in the Words tab under Mine.
So you can read an article at your desk, save the twelve words that tripped you up, and practise them out loud on the bus the next morning.
Your own words are trained first. In every session they come before the theme words, so what you saved yesterday gets practised today, mixed with new material so sessions stay varied.
Role-play dialogues: use the words, not just know them
Once you have learned the words of the week, the app lets you use them in a short role-play. A scripted dialogue of about six turns, for instance ordering at a restaurant or asking for directions, where you play your side out loud.
The dialogue gets harder in stages:
- Read both sides and say your lines.
- Listen to the other person with no text and answer from what you hear.
- Say your lines from memory. If you get stuck, a failed attempt reveals the line as a hint.
Each stage is scored the same way as your words, so you get feedback on your pronunciation in context.
Open conversations: talk about anything
Scripted dialogues build confidence. Open conversations build fluency.
On the week's theme. When you have worked through the scripted dialogue and practised on several days, you can unlock a free conversation on the same theme. No script this time. GrammarMama starts, you answer, and the conversation goes where it goes.
On any topic. From A2 upwards, a card on the Today screen starts an open chat about whatever you want. You simply say the topic out loud, such as a book you are reading, a trip you are planning or something that happened at work, and the conversation begins. It stays at your level and keeps asking things that go deeper, not only small talk, for up to ten turns.
Throughout the conversation:
- Corrections are gentle. If there is a more natural way to say something, GrammarMama shows it, and she skips things speech recognition can easily get wrong, such as spelling or punctuation.
- A hint is one tap away. The 💡 button first offers useful words and then whole phrases, and nothing plays until you tap it.
- Nothing is lost at the end. A summary shows the new words you heard, and you can save any of them to your vocabulary with a tap.
How not to be afraid of your own mistakes
Almost everyone who learns a language is afraid of sounding silly. It is the number one reason people stay quiet even when they know the words. A few things are worth remembering:
- Mistakes are not a sign you are bad at it, they are how learning works. Every fluent speaker you admire once said things wrong, many times.
- Most people care far less than you think. Listeners are usually glad you are trying and focus on what you mean, not on a wrong ending.
- It is easier to be brave when nobody can judge you. That is why practising with an app first helps. You can get a word wrong in private, hear it, and get it right a minute later, with nobody watching.
GrammarMama is designed to make that easy. Feedback shows you exactly which word to work on, instead of marking the whole sentence wrong. Corrections in conversation are gentle, they arrive as "a more natural way to say it", never as a red mark, and you can retry as often as you like. The aim is that by the time you speak to a real person, you have already said the same sentences many times without any stress.
Start without signing up
You can begin practising straight away, with no account. Sign in when you want your progress and words to follow you, and to connect the app to the website, the Chrome extension and the Telegram bot.
What is coming next
This is the first release of the app, and there is more to do. Tell me what works, what confuses you and what you wish it did. Every message is read, and what you write directly shapes what gets built next.