Nihongo Chat

Now on iPad. 61 cards free across the five levels, and the full 214,000-entry Japanese dictionary free to search. One optional unlock, never a subscription.

Study Japanese vocabulary and grammar at any JLPT level — N5 through N1 — with spaced repetition that brings each word back just before you'd forget it.

FREE TO START, AND FREE WHERE IT COUNTS 61 cards are yours immediately — 10 to 15 at every level — with no account, no time limit and no ads. The full 214,000-entry Japanese dictionary is free too: look anything up, any time, without hitting a paywall.

PICK YOUR LEVEL Choose N5, N4, N3, N2 or N1 and study only that level. No advanced grammar thrown at a beginner, no basics slowing down an advanced learner. Switch whenever you're ready.

11,008 CARDS ACROSS FIVE LEVELS N1 4,262 · N2 2,593 · N3 1,954 · N4 1,202 · N5 997. Of those, 1,621 are hand-written cards carrying a usage note and two example sentences each — the N1 vocabulary and every level's grammar patterns. The rest are dictionary-verified word entries, 753 of which now carry an example sentence as well.

STUDY THE WAY MEMORY ACTUALLY WORKS Grade each card Again, Hard, Good or Easy and the scheduler sets your next review. Every button shows you exactly when that card comes back, before you press it. Swipe right to move on, left to go back and re-read a card you have already graded. Set your session length right on the study screen, so ten free minutes is ten minutes of work instead of a wall of four hundred reviews.

KNOW WHERE YOU ACTUALLY STAND The Stats tab reads your own review history and names the one thing most worth fixing — showing up, clearing your backlog, how much is sticking, or the balance between vocabulary and grammar — with the numbers behind it, and a projected finish date for your level at your current pace. No invented percentiles. No comparison against users who don't exist.

BUILD YOUR OWN DECK Look up any word in the bundled dictionary and add it as a card. Edit any card in the app, including the built-in ones, and revert to the original whenever you like without losing your review history. Adding and editing one card at a time is always free. Filter your library down to just the cards you added, or just the ones you starred, and study only those.

QUIZ, FILL IN THE BLANK, AND LISTEN Multiple-choice quizzes test recall under time pressure. Fill in the blank takes one word out of a real sentence and asks you to put it back. Tap any Japanese word or sentence to hear it read aloud, or let each card read itself as it arrives.

ON IPHONE AND IPAD One app, both devices. On iPad the type and the layout are built for the larger screen rather than stretched to fit, the library grows from two columns to five, and it works in landscape.

BACK UP FOR FREE Export your progress and your own cards at any time, at no cost. Your work is yours.

ONE OPTIONAL UNLOCK A single one-time purchase opens the whole library — every card at every level — plus bulk import of your own word lists from CSV. Not a subscription. Nothing expires and nothing recurs.

PRIVACY Everything runs on your device. No account, no login, no analytics, nothing transmitted anywhere.

Dictionary data derived from JMdict, a project of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under their licence.

Nihongo Chat is an independent study tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Japan Foundation or Japan Educational Exchanges and Services, administrators of the JLPT.