Library
Read real books, and your own
Thousands of free classics to start with, plus any EPUB or PDF you bring. Tap a word, understand it, keep reading.
glōssa (γλῶσσα): tongue, language
Learn a language by reading and watching what you love
Tap any word in a real book, article, video or podcast and understand it right there, in its sentence. Glossy keeps the word, brings it back before you forget it, and gets you using it: talking, writing, translating.
For early adopters
Join before launch: 15% off for life
- Monthly
-
€9.99€8.49 €7.99 - Yearly
-
€59.99€50.99 €47.99
Your email is only for the launch and Glossy news. Unsubscribe anytime. More information in the Privacy Policy.
Abrió la y el aire de la .
- Books and articles at your level
- From vocabulary to conversation
- In sync across your devices
- 7 days free, cancel anytime
You did the lessons and you still can't follow a conversation.
Exercises teach you about a language. Then you open a book, a newspaper or a video and understand almost nothing. You never learned those words in something you wanted to read or watch, so they didn't stick.
How it works
-
Immerse yourself
Read, watch and listen to what interests you in the language you're learning. Real content, from day one.
-
Tap what you don't know
Every word opens right in its sentence, in the exact context where you read it. You meet it there, and there it stays. That's how a Glossy is born.
-
Keep it without trying
That Glossy comes back, in its sentence, just before you'd forget it. That's spaced repetition.
- 14 languages
- Over 75,000 free books
- Over 350 newspapers and sites
- 5,000 words per language in lessons
What you can do in Glossy
Books, news, video and podcasts to take the language in. Then the practice to put it to use.
Articles
Read today's news
Follow the newspapers and sites you like, and tap any word in any article to understand it. Bring any article or RSS feed you want, too.
Video and podcasts
Watch YouTube and listen to podcasts, word by word
Follow channels and podcasts inside Glossy: every video and every episode comes with a transcript you can tap. Bring your own audio and video too: Glossy transcribes it.
Review
Review, turned into little games
Your words come back in their sentence just before you'd forget them: pick the translation, listen and pick, or match the pairs. Or flashcards, if you prefer them. Spaced repetition decides when.
Your companion
Iris keeps count with you
A greeting with your own numbers: the word you learned yesterday, the book you left open, how many days your streak has run. Choose a daily goal, from calm to intense, and Iris tells you what's left.
Practice
Then use it: chat, write, translate
Chat using your own vocabulary in everyday scenes. Write a journal that comes back corrected. Translate short texts built with your words, and the other way round too, from your language into the one you're learning.
Pronunciation
Say your words out loud
Iris says each word you're learning and you repeat it. Glossy marks the sounds you need to polish, and you try again until it's all green.
Chrome extension
And outside Glossy, too
With the Glossy extension, the same tap works on any website and on your YouTube or Netflix shows and videos, full screen included. Double-click a word in the subtitles: you understand it in its sentence, the video waits, and the word goes to your review.
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 fastest way into real content.
Why Glossy exists
Glossy comes from one simple conviction: you learn a language by living it, not by studying it. Reading what interests you, watching what you like, and using what you understand. Everything else (the lessons, the review, Iris) is there to make that road shorter.
Marc, maker of Glossy
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 you get the most out of it:
-
Starting a language? Do vocabulary lessons and their reviews until you've gathered around 600 Glossys.
-
With that base, read the books and articles the app suggests: simple, and matched to your level.
-
Raise the bar little by little. Harder books and articles, your RSS feeds, your own books, your YouTube channels, your podcasts.
-
Start producing. Write in your journal every day to get corrections, and start translating short texts.
-
When you feel ready, move on to conversations.
-
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 give you more common vocabulary, so 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.
Exercise apps
They teach you about the language with small, well-made exercises. Good for a start, but you stay inside the app: the jump to a real book or a real conversation never comes.
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 just studying it
Here you move forward by understanding more and saying more. That's the path, and it's yours.
Questions, answered
Do I need to know any of the language first?
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 other apps?
You read, watch and listen to things you care about, and Glossy turns the words you find into review and practice. You learn the language you'll use, not how to beat levels in an app.
What can I read and watch?
Thousands of books for every level, new articles every day, plus YouTube videos and podcasts with transcripts. And your own: your RSS feeds, your EPUBs and PDFs, your YouTube channels, your podcasts, even your own audio and video.
Which languages can I learn?
Fourteen so far: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Catalan, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Filipino.
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. The free version gives you 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, translation and pronunciation are Premium. You can try it all free for 7 days.
Where can I use it?
On your phone, tablet and Android e-ink readers, with a mode built for those screens. A computer app is coming soon. Everything syncs.
Be there on day one
Join the list and start Premium with 15% off for life: it applies to every renewal for as long as you stay subscribed.
For early adopters
Join before launch: 15% off for life
- Monthly
-
€9.99€8.49 €7.99 - Yearly
-
€59.99€50.99 €47.99
Your email is only for the launch and Glossy news. Unsubscribe anytime. More information in the Privacy Policy.