One reader on Reddit (r/languagelearning) said that stopping to look up every word made them lose the story and get tired, but if they kept going, "the word is gone the next day." Another said typing sentences into a notes app pulled them out of the book, so half the time they skipped the word.
Read at the Right Level
About one unfamiliar word per sentence, while you still follow the meaning.
When most words are ones you know, you can guess many new ones from the sentence around them. When half the page is new, every word turns into a lookup, and reading stops being fun.
Four Steps While You Read
- Look Up What Blocks YouSkip a new word if the sentence still makes sense, and look it up if it doesn't.
- Save It With Its SentenceTap the word, or copy the line into your notes, and keep reading.
- Finish the ChapterStudy the words you saved after you finish, so the story keeps moving.
- Read It Again LaterA few days later, read the word again in a new sentence.
Two tools save a word as you read. Readlang translates a word when you click it on a web page and saves it, and LingQ helps you review the words you highlight in its lessons.
Read Saved Words Again
The last step is the hardest to do alone, because you'd need new reading that uses the same words. In Bubblegum, Poppy, your AI tutor, does that part. Tap a word in a lesson to save it, and she works it into a later lesson where it fits. Bubblegum calls this Regenerative Review™.
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Words you add from a photo of your notes can come back in lessons too.
- Send the words to Anki whenever you want flashcards as well.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't import a book or article to read inside Bubblegum.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Saving a word with its sentence is the first step of sentence mining.
Common Questions
Should I look up every word I don't know?
No. A word you skip will come back if it's common, and you can look it up then.
Do I need to make flashcards from what I read?
You can, but you don't have to. See do flashcards work for language learning for other ways to bring words back.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- r/languagelearning: How do you remember new words when reading books in a foreign language?
- r/languagelearning: How do you actually retain advanced vocabulary from the books you read?
- Readlang: Click to translate, and practice the words you translate
- LingQ: Highlight words you don't understand, and LingQ helps you review them
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 16, 2026 against each app's own pages.
