Clozemaster: Expand Vocabulary Reviews

by EbConklin

Wow, I’m so disappointed. This was a pretty good app for bonus studying up until a day or two ago. Probably would’ve been willing to pay $1-2 a month for pro too, even though they don’t have Latin American Spanish. But the point of Clozemaster is to get familiar with vocabulary in context, and so there are just under 20k sentences. You select what word you think is missing from a given sentence and see it less frequently the more you choose correctly. Well now you only get 30 sentences a day unless you pay $9/month or $70/year for pro. At that rate, it would take someone over 7 years to master all the sentences, and that’s assuming they never made a single mistake. I do want to give credit that for how shoestring Clozemaster looks, there are decent tools like getting to search definitions of words in app. But none of that matters if it is hamstringed by focus on revenue. They may very well need the money to run Clozemaster , but should work on other strategies. I may occasionally check to see for changes, but it’s a no for me for now.

by Xtina27

Clozemaster is fraught with issues. First, many of the listening sentences do not sound like the sentences. I’ve tried reporting these issues, but they remain unfixed. Next, MANY of the sentences are inappropriate. For example, a penis enters a vagina. Really guys? You really think anyone benefits from this pathetically immature content? This issue alone has caused me to lose all credibility for you. I’ve again reported the issues, and they remain unchanged. Lastly, ascetically Clozemaster falls short. There is no easy way to look up a word or to copy it. Of course, that may be available to those who pay, but I would never give my money to an app with the other issues I’ve already discussed.

You guys have a long way to go with this one. In my eyes, it’s a miserable failure as it stands now.

by Solyluna17

Honestly if I see one more app with that dang Spanish flag for the Spanish language I think I’ll scream. The percentage of España Spanish speakers to Latin American speakers is so small España Spanish should *not* be the default Spanish language lesson format. The default Spanish language that should be being taught in all of these apps is Latin American Spanish. I’m giving three stars for the fact that they have nahautl because that’s amazing and I’m pretty sure that my husband will want to use that course and I may do some as well but I’m really tired of feeling like if I spend time in an app that focuses on España Spanish that I’m going to have a misstep with my husband’s Mexican family and be seen as elitist Eurocentric and classist because honestly that’s the way I perceive the preference for España Spanish so I have a pretty good feeling that they would perceive it that way as well. Spain is not the monolith of Spanish speaking, far from it. Do better please

by Franciscorf

Man I love Clozemaster, is exactly what I was looking for so the first day I decided to pay for it. However, I HATE that accents can get you a word as incorrect when it’s not 100% wrong. (For example “frere” would be taken as incorrect and “frère” as correct). I use Clozemaster on my iPad with an external keyboard, there’s no way to type accented letters. I’ve seen other apps show you the “typo” and take your answer as correct, I think that is the right way to go. PLEASE add this on future versions I love Clozemaster 🥹. Also, I think speaking mode isn’t properly working on IPad, please fix that! I’m looking forward to buy the lifetime license

by Bitterpeach

it's a shame that they don't give you the answer as correct if you don't put exactly what they have written. Let me explain, I am using it for Chinese and there was this phrase that had "" on it, if you're using the Chinese keyboard, they are considered different characters from the English keyboard so it wouldn't give me the phrase as correct until I literally copied(select copy paste) the correct answer. If they fix that, it will be an amazing app. I really love that it explains each word, is really useful.

Also i think is a bit expensive, is just chatgpt which you can use it for free everywhere, so jut paying for Clozemaster to give you sentences is a bit too much, but a really great idea. im starting to see ads on tiktok so im sure they will be getting famous soon

by F,nf Bulcxhvjlfxhvuxlf

I don’t normally write reviews but quite frankly, I’m disappointed enough to do so now. I used to use Clozemaster a lot in the past and I liked how you could practically use it for free. However, deciding to check on it again today after not having touched it for months, I was disappointed to find a new limit set in place for 30 sentences a day. Pretty much a deal breaker for me, I used to go for a hundred or two a day but the limit to 30 without premium isn’t really enough to get anything done. I guess I’ll just stick with other methods but thanks for making an excellent app while it lasted.

by Celyet

On one hand, I think this is a good idea for an app, and probably over 50% of the sentences are helpful. On the other hand, as some others have mentioned, some sentences are heavily idiomatic, and in a way where I’m not sure if they’re really used that way in the target language (eg “she’s really cold hearted” and a... shakespeare quote? The mandarin translations of those don’t really look like mandarin idioms...)

Additionally, while I double checked that I selected Mandarin, not Mandarin (Traditional), I swear some traditional characters start sneaking in, like I’ve seen 什麼 instead of 什么. Which makes this a lot harder as reading practice!

by Tokyo Moms

I wish I could write a better review about Clozemaster, as it has very good potential but the translations can be really very idiomatic or colloquial which makes it hard to know the right answer. I only use it to practice Finnish, so maybe the other languages are better. Also sometimes the answers are too easy, like they’ll ask for a conjugation of first person singular and it’s super obvious what the answer is because the rest of the answers are not verbs. This selected language could overall use a lot of improvement.

by ScoobnShag

So Clozemaster is pretty great, I can't lie about that, but I do have a couple complaints.

First off, it used to be completely free, and then all of a sudden one day they switched to a subscription model, or you pay $140 for a lifetime subscription. I understand that nobody works for free but I was somewhat upset about that. I spent the $140 anyways because this is the best language app I've found.

Second, I think that the mobile app should offer everything the desktop version offers. Especially since I paid money for it, I should be able to access the sentence explanations and other features such as cloze reading.

All in all the purchase is worth it if you're dedicated to using Clozemaster every day, but if you're someone who just dabbles you're much better off using something like Duolingo. The desktop version has more features so I would opt to use that over Clozemaster .

by SeraphSword

Only been using it for a couple months, but I’m liking it so far. There are definitely more useful phrases in this than in some other apps. I have seen a few issues though. I’m not sure if everything in Clozemaster is made using ChatGPT, but the explanations are (it says so at the bottom, in Russian at least) so I’ve seen errors like the explanation directly contradicting the sentence, or had the audio and explanation be something completely different than the sentence provided. It also does reduce my confidence in the explanations, since AI like that have a tendency to say something that sounds plausible rather than striving for actual accuracy. It’s also a little annoying when the explanations aren’t consistent. Some will go in depth about each word in a sentence, and others will just give a rough overview. Still, for the most part it seems pretty decent, so I’m going to stick with it a while.

by Yung Tater Tot

Clozemaster has a lot of languages. So for those of you who are like me and enjoy learning the languages that are similar to your target language for context, this app makes that readily available.

The cyber Monday deal I got of 50% off of a lifetime subscription (one time purchase) is also the best deal I have seen so far for language learning apps (babbel May offer something similar but I have no experience with it).

I think Clozemaster is a must have for those who are still deep in the “flash cards phase” of memorizing vocabulary before being able to recall and recognize words in daily conversation.

by Arielnicole

After Duolingo went down hill someone suggested this app to me and I LOVE that it has a) realistic sentences b) you don’t have a limited number of hearts like duolingo so if you make a mistake it’s fine c) I LOVE the use of ai explanations breaking down the sentence, it’s all I ever wanted from duolingo like if I get it wrong I want to know why (naturally because that’s how you learn…)
But some key things it’s missing for me is structure and structure surrounding learning tenses. I can recognize tenses in multiple choice for the most part but I can’t pick up on them because there’s not really a learning pattern. That’s all I need and it would be perfect, if I was doing lesson plan type things.
Regardless I will still use it but it’s simply not enough for me personally to completely supplement duolingo (not that duo did the best job but it has the things I wanted from duo to learn better. I just want more structure)

by EGD

this app is a few-frills language learning tool useful for learning new vocabulary in context and drilling grammar concepts and conjugations. It’s not something you can use effectively to get started in a language for the very first time. But once you have a bit of a foothold in the language, this app can help you accumulate the repetitions you need to achieve fluency. Would give five stars but (1) lots of annoying, vulgar frat boy sentences, (2) the point system, reward schemes, leaderboards, etc. are poorly designed, and (3) this app doesn’t work well with voice recognition, though is much improved in this regard.

by Angeeliquuee-x

I’ve been using different platforms like Memrise and Anki to memorize and master words in foreign languages. What I like about Clozemaster is that it’s super simple and easy to use. When you don’t understand a word you can actually click on it and it’ll give you links to different resources to see the definition. To start off there’s many languages already available to you off the bat. The interface is easy to navigate. The minimalism increases the performance and so it’s always fast and not laggy at all. Thank you so much for this wonderful application!

by Hot Refrigerator 44

This is one of the best language practice apps. It’s straightforward and effective.

The sentences, from the very beginning, are useful. They’re real world, conversation snippets. Things like “I’ll let him know”, “Yeah, we can go.” rather than “The horse eats apples.”

The UI is simple and enjoyable, and the old video game sound effects are unobtrusive and a great little dopamine hit. I don’t feel the need to turn them off.

Also, they only ever run “ads” for their own premium upgrade. No 30second “play this game” popups. Just once at the end of every round, “you can upgrade to premium!”

And I’d say premium is definitely worth it. I buy it when I’m ready to do a lot of review for a month or so, and it’s a good upgrade. Let’s you choose how many you want to do each round, up to just playing infinitely.

I wouldn’t recommend Clozemaster as a “first touch” for your new language. Top 100 words will be easy, but I’d suggest moving through the CEFR A level of your language before starting the top 500. You don’t need to be perfect with concepts, but knowing *why* you’re constructing sentences/words this way, will make your learning experience here much more effective. Have fun!

by Norchy01

Actually the best language learning app I’ve come across. Has so many ways of interacting with your target language (listening, speaking, writing, a passive-listening radio mode) with many settings to tailor how challenged you want to be in any given module. I’m weary of AI implementation in language learning but the gpt-powered explanations of example sentences are honestly really helpful and a practical way to provide thorough explanations for such a large set of sentences. I appreciate that the vocabulary and grammar is always varied and that constant review is pushed (this differs from Duolingo, which I find overly repetitive and too ‘babied’). Idk, I never write reviews but I thought it was necessary this once because Clozemaster just rocks. I’m really impressed with these developers. I’m not sure how old or popular this app already is but if you haven’t heard buzz around it yet you sure will soon. It’s gonna be huge, because I can already tell it works.

by Thisisaburner

Based on the highly effective Anki app, this app really immerses you in the language, teaching you to figure out new words based on context clues. The lack of crutches sets this app apart from other apps, as almost all except Rosetta Stone teach you to translate into your native language first, which is a terrible habit. The huge advantage this app has over Rosetta is that it allows you to check out detailed explanations as needed to learn language rules. Unwritten immersion is awesome for vocab, not so much for grammar! More than any other language app, you’ll learn a ton of vocabulary (up to 50k most common words), esp those elusive idioms. Most important, the format really helps you get used to spontaneously understanding and producing conversation.

by 007JamesBond

I’m a polyglot and a language enthusiast and have been for over 15 years. I’ve played with Clozemaster for 30 minutes and already prefer it to many of the popular apps. Yes, this can be difficult to start but trust me, learning through sentences is much better than vocabulary flash cards. That doesn’t mean you should drop your vocabulary studies, it just means this is very much worth your time. I will keep updating this review as I mess with it more. I understand there will be bugs and let that slip of course until Clozemaster has been officially finished and polished.
Thank you guys for creating this. Big fan :)

by Nakfjfhsjakanfnfnd

I wish I could explain to every language learner I ever meet how great Clozemaster is. The leaderboard system is fantastic, it is so simple, the number of language opportunities is immense.

this app offers such an effective and simple way to learn one of the most important and vital aspects of a language—learning words!

I love so much that there are leaderboards—both weekly and all-time. This really makes Clozemaster shine. The fact that Clozemaster is free almost isn’t fair. I’m a poor college student, and I feel the need to donate because of how great Clozemaster is. Please give it a try!

The two suggestions I have is one, the ability to see a full leaderboard between you and the top 10, and secondly, the ability to see stats for every language. For example, how many people are studying it daily, weekly, monthly, total, etc. I think it would be really fun to compare! Other stats like how many people total are on this app for a language would be cool.

by RuolingOnARiver

I don’t know how I initially came across this app, but I’m so glad I did. It is just a random assortment of fill in the blank sentences in a ton of languages (one at a time;), but that’s kind of what you need for language practice once you’ve passed the absolute beginner stage of a language. As other users have said, this isn’t for total beginners. Spanish/Italian/French/German are easy enough to figure out on this app with limited foundation. Russian, Welsh and Chinese definitely require some outside learning. I never like to say one language app is better than another, because they each do their own thing. Memrise rocks for vocab, Duolingo for sentence forming, this app for reading comprehension that pushes you to think of the correct missing word. this app certainly pushes you past the A1 level in comprehension that a lot of apps might stop at, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use other apps in tandem! Thanks for a great app! Please keep pro affordable as you reach out to more and more consumers.

by Gluis

I’ve tried this at different times over the years and it always left me wanting more of a challenge. Now that they offer typed responses to the complete sentences and audio that plays before you see any text, I can highly recommend this. I don’t know if it’s great for absolute beginners (ie. Starting from zero), but once you have some grasp of your target language, it’s a lot of fun. We usually learn best when having fun. The audio quality is passable, depending on the language, but that provides another listening challenge to help hear imperfect samples.

by Irirhfigujrjeofnf

Just saw this a week ago and checked out the free version for Italian. I Immediate dug into the reviews and tutorials. It gets rave reviews for a reason…great use of Generative AI sentence construction,Text to Speech, Spaced repetition, all the bells and whistles. I was actually trying to do all of this on my own in Python when I realized that they were light years ahead. Super tool, worth splurging for the pro version because of the “radio” review option (pick your fav sentences, then it has a customizable interface to listen to it like the old school language cassette tapes.

by Shadowzergsz

I’ve tried many resources in my life as an aspiring polyglot. I speak 4 languages and I wish this app existed when I first started learning.

It’s *Amazing*. Truly, you won’t find anything that throws you right into the context of a language in a more gentle way. Since you need the “cloze” word to fully understand the sentence, your brain prioritizes the absorption of the words taught, in contrast to flash card methods of learning.

Now that I have this app, I’ll never struggle with vocabulary again. And it’s fun!

As a side note: realize that this app probably isn’t best for absolute day one beginners in a language. And it should be used as a complement to other resources for language learning. You want a balance.

I’d recommend learning the first 100 Most Common Words on Clozemaster before even clicking the Fluency Fast Track.

Last thing: I’m a pro user (regular is free) and it’s totally worth it. Currently I’m living in Sweden and learning Swedish and the unlimited listening practice (Cloze Listening) is making this a piece of cake. In one week I’ve gone from barely understanding anything, to being able to listen to radio and podcasts with pleasure!

Enjoy

by Ihurtyourfeelingd

Radio mode is great! It says beta but I’ve never had an issue. Love the gamified elements (and the leveling up grind!) and the fact that I’m actually to sync easily between my computer and phone. I definitely enjoy this more than Anki because I just don’t enjoy sentence mining and pre-made decks on Anki aren’t that helpful. The mobile app desperately NEEDS the transcribe option though. This is the MOST useful option on the desktop app, and this app definitely loses out to Anki due to this. I think if Clozemaster can add transcribe and allow you to speak the whole sentence (to compete with Speakly) this would then be THE best drilling app.

Changing to 5 stars for the added features. Amazing!!

by BAB729

I’ve wanted a language app that keeps me engaged ever since I decided to study Italian. I’ve tried others, but they’ve been too simplistic, too limited, and too gimmicky. this app can be set up to exactly match your skill level, from absolute beginner to advanced. You can choose multiple-choice, text only, or even audio-only modes, and you can get hints if you’re struggling.
I have spent too much time arranging numbers in boxes and flinging birds at pigs. Now I spend that time learning, and it feels like play. It’s set up so that, as I attain new levels, the quizzes are more challenging and more rewarding. The Italian database has 240,000 sentences, so it’s unlikely I’ll run out of things to learn. I m so pleased I found Clozemaster.

by XxPoLyGLoTxx

There are lots of practice options. I like the listening option as I’m trying to improve my comprehension. Most of the time, it sounds natural, but occasionally it errors and sounds like a robot.

I love the way it tracks your progress. I am doing the fluency fast track options, and despite lots of repeated practice, I have only mastered a sliver of the available sentences. This is good because it places a high importance on repetition. I can’t even imagine how good I’ll be once I’ve mastered most of the sentences.

by Mexicanibba69

Clozemaster CLOBBERS Duolingo and Babbel.
It has all types of amazing features and it has so much value for it being free. CRIMINALLY underrated app, learning French at the moment and it helps my conversational understanding so much.
Thank you to the creators of Clozemaster for making this available to all those who are interested in learning languages and I hope to the person reading this you learn the language you desire and share Clozemaster with others.
This is a gem, could give it 10 stars if I could

by Keven Jhones

Clozemaster is an absolute gem! has a huge variety of languages and allows users to select multiple to study in. the sets are super helpful and include tons of important phrases to practice. especially LOVE the take on the top 1000 words. not only do the decks quiz you on what the top used words are, but they also include all of the use cases of each word. amazing!!

there are details about grammar in Clozemaster , though not very detailed grammar explanations. that’s my biggest complaint

by CvonD1

For intermediate to upper intermediate, this app drills you with full sentences. It is the perfect training tool that prepares you to start reading longer texts and later, book-length material. I used it casually for a few weeks. I am pleasantly surprised to notice that, as I use it more regularly, my recollection becomes better, and the space repetition really helps. The $60/year is well worth it to better track my progress. A huge thanks to the developers! Keep it up, as we, intermediate Mandarin Chinese learners, really need you!

by Pixelated_Prophecies

I really appreciate how this app gives premade sets of vocab words so I don’t spend hours making them on my own. The words are sorted by how common they are rather than by topic, which makes it easier to learn the most useful words first. The words are also shown in a sentence rather than on their own, so you can see how the word is used. There’s a subscription that gives you extra features, but Clozemaster works fine without it.

by CarbedUpVeganMuscle (YouTube)

Great for Learners that have just gotten past the beginner stages. Try the free version to see if you like it. I used it for a while and decided to just do the paid version for one month and actually though it was worth it. I feel like it’s helped keep learning quite a bit.

by Scrollinonuubs

I had used Duolingo daily for 6mos and tried Drops for 2 months to learn Portuguese. I stumbled on Clozemaster and have now switched over and am not looking back. It’s more challenging than Drops, the real-time green/red error correction in text mode gives you immediate feedback and accelerates learning, gamification is 🔥and it’s just overall more compelling to play. Feels like a game rather than a chore. Highly recommend

by Tdillion

The program is based on actual sentences found in literature and allows you to begin your study with the most commonly used words and gradually expand your vocabulary according to the frequency of word usage. I like that it gives me all the tools I need to learn at my own pace and using the method that works for me. This has a more scholarly approach than other language software that I tried.

by He77kat_

Found Clozemaster after finishing Duolingo’s course, and being sad that Stories and other content were not yet available for my language. this app offers excellent spaced repetition practice for thousands of common phrases, along with insight into the grammar of idioms, particles, and other intermediate / advanced parts of speech. It’s also super fun! I look forward to using it every day. A great learning tool

by Thisguywhoisreviewinganapp

Clozemaster, whether I have used the free or paid version, is the very best way I have found on an app to grow my vocabulary. It’s not for total beginners to a language, but it helps get past that intermediate slump.
Also, I love how Clozemaster is no nonsense. It just works. The free version does what you need, and the paid version offers some more cool features. 5 stars for sure.

by Dmb6689

I am an advanced level Chinese student and novice level Spanish student and Clozemaster has increased my ability in both languages. It gives you full natural sentences and builds grammar knowledge as well as vocabulary. I’ve tried a lot of apps, Babel, Duo Lingo etc. This is most effective for ease of use and results. I recommend it to everyone.

by AlmostLingual

I’m somebody who is fluent in Spanish and somewhat fluent in Chinese and French. this app has been the only app to help me as quick as it does. It’s very simple but also very effective: it gives you multiple choice questions and helps you see words in context, which is absolutely paramount for understanding languages quickly.