langrit

How it worksTopics

Learn the sentences you actually need

A topic is a small set of sentences about one part of your life, such as work, family or shopping, built from what you want to say.

You pick a topic and write a few sentences in your own language. Langrit turns them into natural sentences in the language you are learning and saves them as cards.

Try it freeHow to use it well

Try it

Pick a topic and see your cards

You write

Can I leave early on Friday?

Tap a topic or press the button.

How to use it well

  1. Pick one situation

    Choose something coming up this week: a talk with your boss, a doctor visit, small talk at school.

  2. Write what you would say

    Two or three sentences in your own language are enough. Be specific: "Can I leave early on Friday?"

  3. Practise them for a few days

    The new cards join your daily review. Say them out loud when they come up.

Why it works

Things about you stick better

People remember information much better when they connect it to themselves. Sentences about your own job, family and street use this effect.

Source:Rogers, Kuiper & Kirker, 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997

Fluent speakers use ready-made phrases

Much of fluent speech is built from whole phrases that speakers already know, instead of single words put together on the spot. Learning full sentences gives you those phrases.

Source:Pawley & Syder, 1983

The research behind it

Peer-reviewed studies this tool is built on. Tap a title to read the paper.

  1. ExperimentRogers, Kuiper & Kirker, 1977
    Self-reference and the encoding of personal information

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    What they did
    People judged words in different ways: their sound, their meaning, or whether the word described themselves.
    What they found
    Words linked to the self were remembered best of all.
    Read the paper doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.35.9.677
  2. Review of many studiesSymons & Johnson, 1997
    The self-reference effect in memory: A meta-analysis

    Psychological Bulletin

    What they did
    Combined 129 studies that compared self-related learning with other ways of learning the same material.
    What they found
    Relating material to yourself reliably improved memory across the studies.
    Read the paper doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.3.371
  3. Theory paperLaufer & Hulstijn, 2001
    Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: The construct of task-induced involvement

    Applied Linguistics

    What they did
    Proposed a model of why some vocabulary tasks work better than others and tested it against earlier studies.
    What they found
    Words are remembered better when the learner has a real need for them and has to find and use them.
    Read the paper doi.org/10.1093/applin/22.1.1

The mistake most people make

Writing textbook sentences

Do this instead

"The cat is on the table" will not help you. Write the sentences you really need, in your own words.

Try it free

More tools

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