About dailyBe
Spaced-repetition flashcards really do build vocabulary, but they tend to demand a lot of focus and come with an uninviting experience. dailyBe exists to change that: you look up the words your English is missing, practice each one in sentences, and the app handles when every sentence comes back.
Why dailyBe exists
dailyBe came from a simple need: take something that already worked, spaced-repetition flashcards, and make a version that’s far better to use.
The person who created the app studied English that way starting around 2019. They built up more than 3,000 cards, and within 3 to 4 months they could feel a real difference: English content they used to half understand started to make sense all the way through.
But the tool came at a cost. It demanded a lot of focus and discipline, plenty of decisions every session, and an interface that didn’t invite you back. The method worked; the experience pushed people away. Lots of learners quit halfway because of that, not because they didn’t want it enough.
Flashcards, two ways
The usual way
You make the cards, decide what to review and face a dull screen every day.
It works, if you have discipline to spare.
With dailyBe
You look up the word that came up in your day and pick ready-made sentences. The app decides when each one comes back.
Your energy goes where it counts: remembering.
That’s what dailyBe has done from day one: the same memory principle, with a total focus on the experience of the person studying. You don’t need to build decks or understand algorithms.
The app has been live for more than two years, on iPhone and Android, and the AI dictionary has always been at its center. It’s made in Brazil, for Brazilians who understand much of what they read and hear in English but feel there are words missing.
What we believe
They explain why dailyBe works the way it does, including what it chooses not to do.
Conventional wisdom: getting past intermediate takes years.
If you already get the gist, it's easy to assume the next step will take ages. Most of the time, what's missing is the right kind of vocabulary growth: the words you don't have yet, not the list everyone else studies.
Conventional wisdom: if I get the gist, I know English.
Context fills in the gaps and hides what you don't know. So the first step is finding the missing words in what you read, hear and watch, and putting them on your list.
Conventional wisdom: five minutes a day will do it.
Beginner apps give you a sense of progress that disappears the moment you put on a show or join a meeting. New vocabulary takes real study: a few sessions a day, adding up to 20 to 30 minutes, with the effort of remembering.
Conventional wisdom: if lots of people use it, it must work.
Whether you keep going should come down to your own progress. That's why the app tracks learning word by word and shows you what has stuck and what's still in training.
Conventional wisdom: if the method works and you quit, you lacked discipline.
The effort worth making is the effort of remembering a word, not of wrestling with the tool. Everything that doesn't help you remember, like making cards, deciding what to review or decoding a confusing screen, is work the app should do for you.
The app
Find, practice and review, with tracking that follows each word from start to finish.
Find
Look up the word, expression or phrasal verb that came up in a show, a book or at work. Every search brings at least five example sentences, in different contexts, and only the ones that matter to you go on your list.
5 or more sentences per word, in different contexts
Practice
Every sentence is practiced by speaking, seeing and listening. In speaking mode, the app shows what it heard and, when needed, gives a pronunciation tip spelled the way a Brazilian would read it: “I should have known better” becomes “ai xúdav nôun bérer”.
Review
Got it right today? The sentence comes back tomorrow, then after 3, 5, 7, 14, 28 and 54 days. Missed it? It drops back a step and returns sooner. You never have to decide what to review.
Your progress on this sentence, word by word.
Track
The app counts how many times each word has appeared and how many times you got it right. Past a certain point, the word counts as learned and leaves the spotlight. Once every word in a sentence is learned, the sentence leaves practice and the app moves on to the next ones.
Expand
Short stories, 30 sentences each, for building vocabulary in sequence. They're especially helpful if you're closer to the beginning.
Keep it going
You set your own daily goal, keep track of your streak and earn a star every time you hit it. Add friends and compete on study time over the week and the month.
Quality
Example sentences are generated by AI. Spotted a pronunciation or translation error? Report it right in the app, and the sentence goes to a person for review.
The science behind it
In 1885, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus measured how memory fades over time and described the forgetting curve: without review, much of what you learn is gone within days.
Reviewing at growing intervals, and trying to recall before you see the answer, flattens that curve. For second languages, a 2022 meta-analysis (Kim and Webb, in the journal Language Learning) pooled 48 experiments and found a medium-to-large spacing effect.
Where we're headed
Three directions dailyBe wants to grow in. None of them has a date yet, and we'd rather say so than promise a deadline.
Today dailyBe is English only. Down the road, the plan is to add German, Spanish, Italian and French.
No date yet
For now the app needs a connection. The plan is to let you download sessions and study offline.
No date yet
Screens for following students' progress, with consent terms, built as schools and teachers ask for them.
On request
Teachers, schools and companies
Today the app has a friends screen, where people can follow each other and compete on study time. For classes and teams, we can build dashboards for tracking students’ progress, with consent terms, based on demand. If you teach English, run a school or handle training at a company, get in touch.
Your students can use the app between lessons. Tell us how you work, and we'll figure out what makes sense to track.
For classes past the basics, the app handles review. A progress dashboard can be built for your school.
For teams that use English at work and need specific vocabulary, let's talk about the format.
Download now
Download dailyBe, look up the words you keep running into and start your first session.
