単語屋 · the Japanese word shop
How much Japanese do you understand? How much can you produce?
Tangoya measures both while you play, and grows them in context. You read a word, hear it, write its kanji, or type it into a sentence, and learn to work words out from the Japanese around them. Every answer moves one of four skills, the questions follow your level, and the score is your share of the ten thousand words of daily conversation: how many you know, and in which way.
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First question in seconds.
帳場 Your numbers · of the top 10k words
You understand
58.3%
You can produce
≈29%
Read
58.3%
412 words shown · 61 learned here
Listen
≈41%
120 words shown · 18 learned here
Write kanji
≈38%
40 shown · of 4,283
Recall
≈29%
96 words shown · 9 learned here
An example learner, three weeks in. A plain number is proven here; ≈ is estimated from your level.
The chart on your Home. It fills in as each kind finds its level.
Six kinds of word, each with its own level
Knowing your kanji compounds says little about your onomatopoeia, and most apps never ask you a compound verb at all. Every answer to a new word moves one skill and one kind of word, and whichever the shop is less sure of moves more. From those levels it works out any pairing, such as how many 熟語 you can recall, and leans the day’s set toward the widest gap.
- 熟語Kanji compounds曖昧vague; ambiguous
- 単漢字Single kanji癖habit; tendency
- 外来語Loan wordsマンションcondominium, not “mansion”
- かな語Kana wordsもったいないwasteful
- 複合動詞Compound verbs思い出すto recall
- 擬音語Onomatopoeiaわくわくto be excited
Four ways to ask a word. Try each one.
Every new word is dealt to one of them, and its answer moves the skill it tests. These four are real questions from the shop, picked from the middle of the deck: a compound verb, a kanji to find, three sentences to fill, and an onomatopoeia.
See the word, pick its reading and its meaning. No furigana, and both must be right. The wrong options tempt someone who doesn’t know the word and never trap someone who does.
Try a wrong answer!A miss brings back the word in context for a second try.
Hear the sentence, see the word in kana, pick the kanji missing from it. The four are read the same and share a part, so only knowing the word tells them apart. In the app this is usually the second step of a Listen question.
A sentence with a gap. Type the word. In kana or kanji; romaji turns into kana as you type. Three questions, easiest first.
Hear the word alone, then pick its meaning. Nothing written: knowing a word by ear is its own skill, and sound words are where it shows.
Try a wrong answer!A miss brings back the word in context for a second try.
After every answer in the app: the reading and pitch accent, the full definition, the sentence with audio at two speeds, and a seal. Nothing here is scored or stored.
The first question is already waiting
No level to choose and nothing to set up. Your first set measures all four skills, starting easy.
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