Reading books in English and learning the language is easier with WordMemo

I want to talk about the non-commercial service wordmemo.ru , as well as the related program WordMemo for devices with Android OS. Our service is designed for people who want to read English texts (for example, fiction). I myself belong to those people who can easily read small fragments of “technical literature”, but a paragraph from the classics is impossible. The basis of the service, which helps me a lot in this business, is the "reader" with the ability to watch translations of words, write out their meanings, and - most importantly! - simulators that allow you to effectively memorize written words. For example, for each unfamiliar word contexts are saved in which it occurs.
The main idea of ​​the service is that it is best to learn words not taken separately, as in dictionaries, but as part of real sentences. Something like an English-Russian phrasebook and a textbook that you create yourself!

Let's see how it works on the example of the site. Application for Android repeats some of the functions.

Book selection

The site has a choice of several classic books that are not covered by copyright law, but you can download your book, which will be used only by you. While supported formats TXT, RTF and DOC.


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The book will appear on your list. In the same list, set it to mark it current so that it opens for reading.

Start reading

Here is an open book:



In the upper right corner of the page text statistics are displayed: how many words are in it, how many are new, how many are studied. Stumbled upon an unfamiliar word? Click. A window will open with a list of possible variants of translation in which you can select new properties of the word for you. It is very convenient to do this - to do this, just click on the values ​​of the word from the dictionary entry, and the selected fragments will be automatically added to the text field on the left. If necessary, the study value can be edited manually.



Now the word is marked yellow, which means that it has become studied:



If you now click on the word being studied, in any other text, you will receive a hint from the system in the form of the previous sentence in which this word you encountered is the context. Contexts can be viewed in reverse chronological order. If you cannot remember the meaning of the word using indirect cues, you can view the translation:



Learned words gradually change their colors. If, when encountering words in texts, you constantly request clues about them, the system finds such words difficult and begins to highlight them in red. On the contrary, if you stop needing prompts, a bonus is added to the mark of the word’s knowledge, the word is highlighted in green. In the end, it completely ceases to stand out - it is believed that you have firmly studied the word.

The user can flexibly customize the policy for changing word statuses:



The words that you have seen, but not made studied, are considered familiar to you. Therefore, as you read texts, the system accumulates information about your vocabulary and after some time you can get a good idea of ​​its volume and composition:

Effective simulators

Simulators are intended for learning the words studied. For the correct execution of the exercises, a premium is charged to the mark of knowledge of the word according to the points policy, and for the wrong one - a fine. Three types of simulators are implemented: “Writing” (you need to write a word for the specified translation, or vice versa - write a Russian-language value for the specified English word), “Option” (suggests choosing a word or a Russian value from several options) and “Dash” (shows context, in which the word was used, and offers to choose it from several options).

Words for practice can be grouped using standard sets (in order and in complexity), or you can compose your own sets manually:

Androind, and some Windows

Reading through the browser from a phone or tablet can be inconvenient, so we created WordMemo for Android devices. Using a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, the program redirects the user's requests to wordmemo.ru, and displays information from there. While it is available reading the downloaded books with the function of learning words in context. But autonomy and familiar interface are the indisputable advantages of the program over the site.



PS For Windows users, we have a small utility that will remind you about the words you are learning with pop-up windows:



Service and programs are completely free.

We, the authors of the service, will be grateful for feedback, criticism and new ideas!