Dos Palabras Is Live
Every Tuesday I ship something. This week it is Dos Palabras, a free iOS app for learning Spanish two words at a time.
The pitch is simple: word-a-day apps are fine, but why learn 365 words a year when you could learn 730? Two words instead of one takes about thirty extra seconds of your morning. Over a year, that is a whole extra year of vocabulary.
What the app does
Each day you get two fresh Spanish words with definitions, pronunciation keys, native audio, and real example sentences. Mark a word as learned and it gets filed away. Mark it for practice and it goes into a flashcard queue you can drill any time.
The four screens:
Hoy (Today): The two words for today, with everything you need to actually learn them. Definition, part of speech, pronunciation, two example sentences, native audio on every card.
Practicar (Practice): Anki-style flashcards for every word you have added to your queue. Tap to flip, mark got it or again, repeat until done.
Historia (History): Every word from past days, searchable, so you can go back and find that word you vaguely remember from last Tuesday.
Widget: Both of today’s words on your home screen without opening the app.
Why I built it
I wanted to pick up more Spanish vocabulary and every app I tried had the same problem: one word a day feels like nothing, but the apps that give you more become a chore. Two is the number that feels useful without feeling like homework.
The native audio was important. Pronunciation in Spanish is not complicated once you hear it, but reading phonetic keys in a textbook is a bad substitute for hearing an actual person say the word. Every word and every example sentence in Dos Palabras has audio.
The flashcard system is Anki-style by design. Spaced repetition is the standard for vocabulary retention. Got it and again are the only two options you need.
It is free
No subscription, no ads, no tracking. Free to download, free to use.
Dos Palabras on the App Store or visit the Dos Palabras app page. iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later.