WordVale

Learning words that stay learned

Short, practical guides on building vocabulary from what you read.

• The best vocabulary apps for readers in 2026, compared honestlyAnki, Quizlet, Vocabulary.com, Membrise, Drops and WordVale compared for one job: learning the words you meet while reading. Pricing, spaced repetition, capture from other apps, and who each is for.
• How many English words do you need to know? Fewer than you thinkThe research on vocabulary size: 3,000 word families for conversation, 8,000 to 9,000 for comfortable reading, and why the next thousand you learn matters more than the total.
• How to learn phrasal verbs without memorising listsPhrasal verbs are the hardest part of English vocabulary because the meaning is not in the words. Learn them by particle, by context, and by spaced review, with 100 examples to start from.
• How to pronounce difficult English words (without learning IPA)English spelling lies about pronunciation. A method that works: find the stressed syllable, use a plain respelling like ih-FEM-er-uhl, hear it once, say it once, and let review do the rest.
• How to remember new words you read (and stop forgetting them)Most words you look up are gone within a day. Here is the four-step routine that makes them stick: capture in context, one real example, spaced review, and using the word once.
• IELTS and TOEFL vocabulary: a strategy that beats word listsWhat the examiners actually reward, why memorising 3,000-word lists underperforms, and a reading-based routine that builds the academic vocabulary the tests measure.
• How to save words while reading on iPhone: Safari, Kindle, News and PDFsA step-by-step guide to capturing unfamiliar words from any app on iPhone or iPad using the Share sheet, keeping the sentence for context, and reviewing them later.
• Spaced repetition for vocabulary: the intervals that actually workWhat spaced repetition is, why it beats rereading, the review intervals WordVale uses (1, 3, 7, 16, 35, 90 days), and how to keep the habit going.