Library
Thousands of books in the catalog, for every level. And you can import your own in EPUB and PDF.
glōssa (γλῶσσα): tongue, language
Live the language until it's yours
Read, watch and listen to real content in the language you're learning, and understand every word right where you found it, with a single tap. The more you take in, the more you understand. And once you understand it, you start using it.
Glossy isn't open yet. Come back on September 1.
On your computer, phone, tablet and Android e-ink readers, with a mode built for those screens. Everything stays in sync.
- Books and articles at your level
- From vocabulary to conversation
- In sync across your devices
Abrió la y el aire de la .
The streak trap
You can be 300 days into a streak and still not understand the first page of a book. Points, gems and leagues reward you for coming back to the app, not for understanding the language. And because the words never come from anything you actually want to read, they vanish the moment you close the screen.
How it works
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Immerse yourself
Read, watch and listen to what interests you in the language you're learning. Real content, from day one.
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Tap what you don't know
Any word opens right in its sentence, in the exact context where you read it. That's where you meet it, and that's where it stays. That's how a Glossy is born.
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Keep it without trying
That Glossy comes back, in its sentence, just before you'd forget it. Spaced repetition, a few easy minutes a day.
You'll never run out of things to read
More than enough to keep you inside the language.
Articles
A catalog of articles that grows every day, plus any RSS feed or article you want to import.
Video
Follow your favorite YouTube channels inside the app, with a built-in subscription feed and interactive transcripts. Bring your own audio and video too: we transcribe it so you can dive in.
Understand more, sooner
Lessons give you a language's most frequent words, its expressions and its phrasal verbs. The more words you recognize, the more (and the better) you understand what you read and watch. It's the lever that gets you into real content faster.
And once you understand it, you produce it
Understanding is half of it. The other half is letting go. Glossy takes your vocabulary and turns it into practice for talking, writing and translating.
Conversation
Chat around your own vocabulary in everyday situations. You practice your words in the scenarios you'll actually run into.
Journal
Write about your day in the language you're learning. It helps you express yourself more correctly and more naturally.
Translation
Translate sentences built from your own vocabulary, to make it stick. From the language you're learning into yours, and back.
The path, from your first word to your first conversation
A Glossy is a word you're learning, or already know, in a language. Here's how to get the most out of it:
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Starting a language? Do vocabulary lessons and their reviews until you've gathered around 600 Glossys.
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With that base, read the books and articles the app suggests: simple, and matched to your level.
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Raise the bar little by little. Harder books and articles, your RSS feeds, your own books, your YouTube channels.
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Start producing. Write your journal every day for corrections, and begin with sentence translations.
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When you feel ready, move on to conversations.
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And never stop taking it in. Never stop living the language.
The 600 Glossys are our recommendation for starting to read, not for dropping the lessons. Keep at them: they bring you more common vocabulary, and you understand more and more.
Why immersion works
You didn't learn your first language from a vocabulary list. You understood things you cared about, again and again, until the words were yours. It's the same here: thousands of words in context, each one explained the moment you need it and brought back before it slips away. That's comprehensible input, and it's the best way into a language.
Three ways to learn a language. Only one has you immersed in it.
Streak apps
They teach you about the language with small, tidy exercises. They hook you for a while, but you get good at the app, not the language, and the ceiling comes fast.
Courses and textbooks
Good grammar, good structure. But they teach you how to use the language instead of letting you use it. Most people quit without ever understanding or speaking it.
Glossy
It drops you into real books, articles and video from minute one, clears up every word on the fly, and hands it back to you to practice. You learn the language by using it.
For living the language, not for keeping a streak
No points, no coins, no leagues, no streak to save at midnight. Here you're not racing a counter: you move forward when you understand more and say more. That's the only thing we measure.
Questions, answered
Do I need to already know the language?
No. If you're starting from scratch, you begin with lessons on the most frequent words and expressions; before long you understand enough to read content at your level. From there, Glossy grows with you.
How is this different from streak apps?
No points, no leagues. You take in things that interest you, and Glossy turns those words into review and practice. You learn the language you'll actually use, not a game.
What can I read and watch?
A catalog of thousands of books for every level and articles that grows every day, plus YouTube video with transcripts. And your own: your RSS feeds, your EPUBs and PDFs, your channels, even your own audio and video.
Which languages can I learn?
Twelve so far: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
Can I learn more than one at a time?
Yes. Create a profile for each language and switch between them whenever you like.
Is there a free version?
Yes. Free, you get the vocabulary lessons (words, phrasal verbs and expressions) and spaced-repetition review of the words you learn in them or import by hand. Reading the catalog, importing your content, conversation, the journal and translation are Premium.
Where can I use it?
On your computer, phone, tablet and Android e-ink readers, with a mode built for those screens. Everything syncs.
Not open yet
Come back on September 1
We're still building Glossy. There's nothing to download and nothing to pay for yet, and no waiting list either. Come back that day and we'll tell you where it stands.