The Japanese vocabulary course that needs no setup.
8,700+ Japanese Words.
Already Built for You.
Cotobara is a complete Japanese vocabulary course. Every word is already chosen, ordered, explained, and voiced, and every day’s review is already scheduled. Nothing to find, import, or configure: you pick your level and start. A real lesson from the course is playing on this page.
A word isn’t finished until you can recall it from English, not just recognize it on sight. Our algorithm keeps bringing it back until it sticks. You just open the app.
A free 30-day Premium trial, no card required. Already using Anki or WaniKani? Start at your level, not at zero.
Japanese vocabulary lesson
懐かしい
nostalgic
Word breakdown
懐
bosom, chest — to hold something close
かしい
the ending that turns it into a feeling
Why it means this
Imagine an old photo you naturally pull to your chest without thinking. That “held close in the chest” feeling is 懐かしい.
When you’d use it
Used when you feel warm familiarity about past times: a song, smell, old town, childhood food. It often carries a positive tone (fond memories), unlike simply saying 古い “old.”
In a sentence
この写真を見ると、子どものころを思い出して懐かしい気持ちになります。
When I look at this photo, I remember my childhood and feel nostalgic.
Hover any word for its meaning: every word is glossed, down to the particles.
気をつける
to be careful, to watch out
Word breakdown
気
spirit, mind — attention, awareness
を
marks the object
つける
to attach, to apply, to turn on
Why it means this
Imagine you clip a safety light (your 気) onto yourself before going out. When it’s “on,” you notice danger and avoid mistakes.
When you’d use it
Used for warnings and reminders: 気をつけて帰ってね, 車に気をつけて.
In a sentence
夜道は暗いので、車に気をつけて歩いてください。
The road is dark at night, so please watch out for cars as you walk.
Hover any word for its meaning: every word is glossed, down to the particles.
見逃す
to overlook, to miss
Word breakdown
見
to see, to look
逃
to escape, to let slip away
す
the ending that makes it a verb
Why it means this
Imagine a small animal running by while you’re watching—your eyes are open (見), but it gets away (逃). That’s a “miss.”
When you’d use it
Used for missing a chance/scene (電車を見逃す, 名場面を見逃す) and for overlooking errors (ミスを見逃す).
In a sentence
大事な点を見逃さないように、メモを取りながら読んだ。
I read while taking notes so I wouldn’t miss the important points.
Hover any word for its meaning: every word is glossed, down to the particles.
Arcade mode
Play the Words You’re Learning.
A shelf of arcade cabinets deals from your own study queue: the words you keep missing come around more often, and a run never touches your review schedule. Studying shouldn’t always feel like homework.
Analytics
It Studies You Back.
Every answer you give is evidence, and Cotobara reads it for you. No dashboards to decode: each panel is a question (are you keeping up? does the time of day matter?) answered in one sentence, measured from your own reviews.
Nothing to fix this week.
You are keeping up with your reviews and getting 84% of them right.
Yes, you get more wrong between 20:00 and 00:00
The hour your recall is sharpest, measured from your own answers.
Yes, you get more wrong when you leave them waiting
What leaving reviews waiting costs you, in points of accuracy.
About 1 in 26 of your words: ordinary wear at your accuracy
どdegree
lost 4×結局in the end
lost 4×教科書textbook
lost 4×つまりin short
lost 3×Your costliest words, named. Includes the pairs you mix up.
The verdict and its advice are free for everyone; the full evidence behind them comes with Premium.
Before you sign up
Your Japanese Course Is Ready.
Spaced repetition still runs underneath, quietly, the way it should. What’s gone is the part-time job of building and maintaining a Japanese study system around it.
Already done for you
- 8,700+ Japanese words chosen and ordered, N5 to N1
- A written lesson for every single word
- Every word and example sentence voiced
- Kanji broken down, character by character
- A memory hook for each meaning
- The day’s reviews scheduled for you
Never your job again
- Hunting for a Japanese deck you can trust
- Importing, configuring, tuning settings
- Writing and formatting your own cards
- Sourcing audio word by word
- Deciding which word to study next
- Maintaining all of it for years
No setup
Nothing to Build. Nothing to Maintain.
The expensive part of a vocabulary habit was never the reviewing. It was everything around it: finding a deck you can trust, judging whether its meanings are right, filling in the missing audio and examples, deciding what to study next, and keeping all of it alive for years. That work is finished here before you arrive.
The deck is already built
Over 8,700 Japanese words and expressions, chosen and ordered from N5 to N1. No deck to find, no two decks that disagree, no wondering whether these are the right words.
The order is already decided
The words you meet first are the ones you’re most likely to be tested on. Every entry carries a frequency rating, and lessons are ranked by it within your level, so a heavily tested N4 word can reach you before a rare N5 one, and the obscure entries wait until they’re worth your time.
Every lesson is already written
Each word arrives as a short lesson before it is ever a question: what it means, the kanji it’s built from, an image to hang it on, and when a Japanese speaker would reach for it.
Every word is already voiced
More than 17,000 Japanese words and example sentences come voiced, in a male and a female voice. Sourcing audio is the largest job in a homemade deck. It is simply already there.
The algorithm is already tuned
Eleven stages, with the gaps between them widening from four hours to three months, and a wrong answer pulling a word back down. Every one of those intervals is one we chose and tuned, and none of them is exposed as a setting for you to second-guess. Open Cotobara and the day is planned: a few new words, one short review.
Both directions are already tested
Every word is asked twice (once from Japanese, once from English), and the two never land back to back, so the second is recall rather than an echo of the first. A word climbs a stage only when you’ve got both, and it keeps coming back until it has climbed them all.
Straight from the course
Read a Japanese Lesson First.
Real lesson pages, exactly as students see them: written, voiced, and waiting. No account, no email, just open one.
Already learning Japanese
You Don’t Start Over.
Setup is one question: how much Japanese do you already have? Pick anywhere from N5 to N1 and lessons skip what you’ve passed. Use WaniKani? Connect your account and the words you’ve burned there can be left out too, so day one is new vocabulary, not a re-test of things you learned two years ago.
No app will make you fluent, not even this one.
Fluency comes from conversations, from reading, from years. But all of it runs on vocabulary, and vocabulary is the part you can finish.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions.
I already use Anki. Why switch?
You wouldn’t be giving up spaced repetition. Cotobara runs on it. What changes is everything around it. The Japanese word list, the lessons, the audio, the order, and the daily schedule are all finished before you sign up. If you enjoy building and maintaining your own deck, Anki is a superb tool and you should keep using it. Cotobara is for when you’d rather just study.
What do I have to set up?
Your level. Pick anywhere from N5 to N1 and your first Japanese lesson starts immediately. Nothing to download, import, or configure, and no settings you’re expected to understand before you begin.
I tried flashcards and gave up. Is this for me?
Especially. Most people who abandon flashcards abandon the setup, not the studying: making cards, choosing decks, tuning intervals, and the pile-up after a busy week. Here the lessons are already written, ordered, and voiced, and the day’s review is chosen for you.
Can I import my existing deck?
No, and that’s the point. The lessons here are written, ordered, and voiced as one course, so an imported deck would arrive without the parts that make them work. What does carry over is your progress: set your level from N5 to N1, connect WaniKani if you use it, and you start where you actually are.
I already know some Japanese. Do I start from zero?
No. Set your starting level anywhere from N5 to N1 and lessons skip the levels you’ve already passed. If you use WaniKani, you can also connect your account so words you’ve learned there are recognized.
How are the 8,700 words ordered?
By how much use you’ll get out of them. Every word carries a frequency rating for how often it’s tested, and lessons are ranked by that rating within your JLPT level rather than by an arbitrary list order. In practice that means a heavily tested N4 word can arrive before a rarely tested N5 one, and the obscure entries sit at the back where they belong. Each word shows its own rating on its lesson, so you can always see whether you’re learning a staple or a curiosity.
What does “recall it from English” mean?
Every word is quizzed in both directions. One card shows you the Japanese and asks what it means; the other shows you the English and asks you to type the word in kana. The two are deliberately separated by several other cards, so the second one is genuine recall instead of an echo of the first, and the word climbs a stage only once you’ve answered both correctly. There are eleven stages, and the gaps between them widen as you go, from four hours at the start to three months at the end, so a word keeps returning until it has climbed all of them, and one you slip on drops back down a stage or two and has to climb again. How many times that takes is up to you and the word; deciding when to ask you next is our job, and the only thing you have to do is open the app. Recognizing a word on sight and being able to reach for it are different skills, and only one of them is any use in a conversation.
Will Cotobara make me fluent?
Vocabulary is a foundation, not the whole building. You will still need conversation, reading, and time. What Cotobara is built to guarantee is narrower and more useful: that when you meet a word, in a textbook or a manga or a conversation, you already know it.
Is the audio a real person?
No. It’s synthesized with a high-quality neural voice, and we’d rather say so than let you assume otherwise. Pitch accent was part of the work: words that share a reading are voiced from their own clip, each pinned to its own accent, rather than one recording standing in for all of them.
かみ
さばく
How many vocabulary lessons are included?
More than 8,700 words and expressions, N5 to N1, and every one of them arrives as a written lesson rather than a bare card. Words are still being added, and they slot into your level by how often they’re tested rather than onto the end of a list.
Is Cotobara beginner friendly?
Yes. Set your level to N5 and the first thing on screen is a lesson, not a quiz: what the word means, the kanji it’s built from, and when a Japanese speaker would reach for it. If you don’t have hiragana and katakana yet, the kana course is there and takes a few evenings.
What does it cost to start?
Nothing. Every new account starts with a free 30-day Premium trial, no card required. After that the beginner course and everything you have learned stay yours to review for free, and a subscription is what keeps adding new words.
You Learn Japanese.
We Already Built the Rest.
Pick your level and your first Japanese lesson starts. There is no step before that.
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