What's New

A round of fixes

A batch of smaller fixes and refinements landed alongside the bigger features.

• Free trial unlocks instantly. Starting a trial now grants access immediately, instead of briefly waiting on the payment processor to confirm.
• Resume an exam where you left off. In-progress exams now offer resume controls, and exam pages keep a consistent, comfortable width throughout.
• No ticking off tomorrow's work. Tasks scheduled for a future day can no longer be marked done early, and AI-built study plans no longer schedule absurdly far into the future.
• No more blank true/false questions. A handful of true/false exercises that occasionally rendered with no statement now always show their text.
• Password reset works reliably. A recent change had been blocking the legitimate password-reset flow; resetting your password works again.
• Trial plan shows in Settings. If you're on a trial, Settings now correctly reflects your active plan instead of showing you as free.

A study buddy that actually knows your plan

We've significantly expanded what a connected AI assistant can do through our integration. Once you've linked one, it can now act as a hands-on study partner.

• It sees your loop. Your assistant can read today's tasks, your week ahead, your learning goals, and where you currently stand — so its advice fits what you're actually doing.
• It can plan with you. Ask it to add a task or move one to a better day, and it can do that directly on your plan.
• It can adjust your goals. Update the levers of your routine — like how much time you want to commit — through a simple conversation.
• A weekly check-in. A new guided "weekly check-in" helps your assistant review how the week went and set up the next one.
• You stay in control. Access is granted only when you connect an assistant, the permissions are spelled out before you approve them, and premium-only actions still respect your plan.

Keep your motivation in view

The goals you set during onboarding are no longer buried — they're there when you need a nudge.

• Your "Why" on home. A reminder of why you started learning German is now one tap away from your home screen, for the days motivation runs low.
• Your Learning Plan, in full. Open your complete plan — your level, schedule, and the structure you chose — from the roadmap and plans pages.
• Edits keep your pledge. Tweaking your plan used to quietly erase the commitment pledge you signed. Your signed pledge now stays put when you make changes.

Start your way

The first few minutes after signing up are gentler and more in your control.

• Quiz or skip. A new welcome step lets you either take the placement quiz or simply set your own level and move on — no surprise quiz the moment you arrive.
• Build your plan when you're ready. After the quiz you choose whether to generate a personalised study plan now or skip it for the moment. Skipping no longer ends onboarding or leaves you stuck.
• Resume what you skipped. If you skip the study plan, a "Build your study plan" item waits for you on your Quickstart checklist, so you can finish it whenever it suits you.
• An exit on every step. Each step of the setup wizard now has an "I'll finish this later →" link, so you're never trapped mid-setup.
• Less clutter. During setup the sidebar stays tucked away, so you can focus on one thing at a time; it returns once you reach your home screen.

A right answer is a right answer

If you ever typed an answer you were sure was correct — with an ä, ö, ü or ß — and it was marked wrong, this fixes it.

Depending on your keyboard or device, an accented German letter can be sent to the app in two technically-different ways that look identical on screen. A few exercise types only recognised one of them, so a perfectly correct answer could be rejected.

We've routed every exercise through one shared, correct way of comparing answers, so:

• All special characters count. ä, ö, ü and ß are now matched the same on every drill, gap-fill, and exam question — no matter how your device types them.
• Accepted alternatives still work. Where a question allows more than one correct phrasing, those continue to be accepted.
• One consistent standard. The same grading logic now powers practice drills, course exercises, and the Goethe exam, so an answer that's right in one place is right everywhere.

Word editing that does what you'd expect

The Add Word and Edit Word dialogs were rebuilt on a single shared form, and a batch of editing bugs went with it.

• Irregular verb fields now save. Editing the Präteritum, Partizip, auxiliary (haben/sein), or the irregular flag on your own verbs now actually persists — those edits used to be silently dropped.
• Examples save for every word type. Adding example sentences to nouns and pronouns now sticks, not just verbs and adjectives.
• No more crash on half-filled verbs. A vocabulary card could crash when a verb had only partial conjugation data — fixed.
• Clearer save errors. When something in a word can't be saved, the dialog now points at the exact field instead of failing silently.
• System words are protected. Built-in dictionary words keep their grammatical fields locked for non-admins, so you can't accidentally break shared entries — while still letting you add your own examples.

Nothing gets lost anymore

If you've added words and later couldn't find some of them, this fixes it for good.

"My Words" used to be a regular list that nothing actually filled — so words you owned could end up belonging to no list and effectively disappear from view. It's now a built-in deck that simply shows every word you own, by definition. You can't empty it, delete it, or fall out of it.

• "My Words" deck appears in the word selector with a live count of everything you've saved
• Your custom lists are untouched — they still work exactly as before, alongside My Words
• Browser extension updated (v1.3.0): clearer "Save word" button and an optional "Also add to a list" picker, so saving from the web always lands the word in My Words even if you skip the list

One home for your examples

If you ever edited a word's example sentences and the change showed in the edit dialog but not on the flashcard, this fixes it.

Example sentences used to be stored in two different places at once, and the card and the editor didn't always read the same one. Now every word — verb, noun, adjective, pronoun — keeps its examples in a single place, so what you save is exactly what the card shows.

A friendlier divider

When you write an example with its translation, you now separate the two halves with a plain, typeable -- (e.g. Ich biege ab. -- I turn off.). The old em-dash divider still works for existing entries, so nothing you've already written breaks.

A lot of small things, all better

This isn't a headline feature — it's the result of a course-wide audit and a backlog of small papercuts.

Course content (Phase 205 — every lesson L01 through L30)

• Grammar, schema, and story defects repaired across A1, A2, and B1
• A1 L02 / L04 intro sections renumbered to contiguous 1..N
• A1 verb_conjugation infinitives, noun_articles examples, and Perfekt auxiliary fixed
• A2 L09–L18: modal verb conjugations completed, lernwortschatz genders corrected, gap_fill word banks aligned to gap counts, da-compound and Adjektivendungen drills repaired, sentence_correction and sentence_ordering cleanup
• B1 L19–L30: grammar/schema/text defects repaired, audio_input instructions aligned with data, empty picture_description exercises converted to open_writing, referenced-content holes plugged
• L02 word_bank entries added; phrases schema normalized
• Story comprehension question types corrected on Lektion 4

Drills and exercises

• Perfekt verb tables — auxiliary now correctly conjugated for ich
• "Try Again" now consistently re-fires oncomplete across all exercise types — no more dead retries
• Sub-question coverage widened — table_completion works inside AudioInput; open and gap_fill work inside SubQuestionsBlock
• Audio input footer + L25 gap_fill mode — QA remediation from Phase 206
• Content gap fixes — redemittel_drill, listening_gap_fill, situation_matching
• Diglot header tightened; RolePlay speaker labels simplified; ExerciseFooter top spacing balanced with body padding

Auth and forms

• Auth form polish — field descriptions, link styling tweaks

A small fix that removes a real annoyance

If you've ever been thrown by a verb drill prompt that said widersetzen but only accepted sich widersetzen as the answer, this one's for you.

Seven reflexive verbs in the system vocabulary had their lemmas stored without the sich particle. The drill prompt now reads the full reflexive form — sich widersetzen, sich erinnern, etc. — so the question and the graded answer line up.

Only the seven affected system verbs were touched. Custom vocabulary you've added yourself is untouched.

See where you are, see what's next

The Courses page (level cards + unit overview) has been rebuilt:

• Per-unit progress bars on each level card show exactly how far through every unit you are — no more "I think I'm about halfway?"
• English subheading on every unit (theme_en) — a one-line description of what the unit is actually about, in your language, so you can pick the right one without parsing German titles
• Refined typography and spacing — section type as a muted eyebrow, unit name as the primary line, top-aligned numbering
• Meaningful story-card descriptions in the unit overview — no more generic placeholder text where the diglot story sits

All 30 units across A1, A2, and B1 now have authored English themes — the Courses page reads as a course catalog, not a wall of German.

Every diglot story, refreshed

The diglot weave is the bridge between English narrative and German vocabulary. Every story across the course (A1 L01–L08, A2 L09–L18, B1 L19–L30) has been rewritten or re-tokenized to a stricter authoring contract:

• All 12 B1 stories newly authored with proper source attribution and paragraph breaks
• A1 and A2 stories re-tokenized to fix broken multi-word German chunks — Plusquamperfekt with nachdem, Konjunktiv II Vergangenheit, separable verbs, um / damit constructions, and similar target-grammar moments now read naturally
• Source citations and paragraph structure on every story — easier to read, easier to scan back to
• One German word per token by default so the cognitive load matches your level
• 30–35% German by word count enforced — the bridge stays comprehensible while still teaching new vocabulary

Cleaner drill, too

The follow-up MCQ now names the word being tested: "Was bedeutet ?" instead of the generic "dieses Wort?" — so you always know which token the question is about, even after a long story.

Reference, in one place

The new Reference Tables hub at /resources/references collects the grammar tables you reach for most often into a single, browseable surface — no more hunting through grammar pages.

This launch ships with two fully redesigned tables:

• Modal Verbs — per-verb cards with an optional tab selector so you can drill into a single verb's full conjugation without losing the overview
• Irregular Verbs — rebuilt with word-card pills, a mobile-friendly card layout, and fixed column widths so the table no longer overflows on narrow screens

More reference tables will land in this hub over time.

Writing feedback, one click away

Every self-assessed writing exercise in the course now has an Ask AI button. Pick your model and:

• No MCP connected: opens the exercise + your draft in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini in a new tab
• MCP connected: the writing is shadowed to your writing_submissions, so any connected AI client can grade it with full context (your level, prior mistakes, the lesson topic)

Your preferred provider is remembered across the site.

Stop drilling things you already know

Six drill pages — verbs, articles, adjectives, cases, prepositions, and word order — now have a Practice weak spots button next to the start CTA.

Click it and the next session is built from your own mistake history: the words you've missed, the cases you keep flipping, the verbs you can't conjugate. Mistakes from in-course exercises and AI sessions both feed the pool, so the longer you use the app, the sharper the weak-spot session gets.

Practice without the friction

The drill experience has been rebuilt from the ground up.

• Every /practice/* drill is now a continuous 20-question session, not a one-shot question
• Press Enter to check, then Enter again to continue — no mouse needed
• Wrong answers reveal the correct answer inline and auto-advance after a short pause
• Multiple-choice questions let you retry once before showing the answer
• Hints (including noun gender) appear inline for preposition and adjective drills
• A unified ChoiceAnswerButton and TextAnswerQuestion primitive means every drill behaves the same way

Under the hood, this is the unification of nine separate drill components onto one renderer pipeline, and the introduction of the MultiQuestionFrame host that powers session flow.

Make the grammar reference your own

The entire grammar reference is now yours to mark up.

• Fork any system grammar page and edit your copy — examples, tables, your own mnemonic
• Annotate any section with a sticky note (question, reminder, mistake-you-keep-making)
• Annotations are anchored to specific blocks, so they stay attached as the page evolves
• Connected AI clients can read, write, and update grammar pages and annotations via MCP — useful for "explain this section in simpler terms and save it as my version"

A plan, not just a pile of exercises

Tell the system (or your connected AI client) what you want to focus on this week — passive voice, Konjunktiv II, job interview vocab — and you get a structured multi-day plan back.

• Each day has its own items: a reading, a practice session, a grammar page to revisit
• Items can be marked done as you complete them
• Practice-session items deep-link to a real, generated session
• Plans can be revised mid-flight as your needs shift

Did you actually understand it?

Every reading now ends with an interactive comprehension quiz. Three exercise types are supported:

• True / False — fact-check claims about the text
• Multiple choice — single-answer questions on key passages
• Matching — pair speakers, events, or ideas with descriptions

Questions are typed and validated against a schema so the renderer always knows how to display them, even on older readings.

A notebook that writes itself

The new Error Notebook (Notebook in the sidebar) turns the noise of "you got this wrong" into a structured journal you can actually study from.

• Mistakes are tagged with concept tags (e.g. dative prepositions, separable verb position)
• Curated entries explain the pattern, not just the one slip
• Each entry cites the specific mistakes it's built from
• You can also add manual notes — entries don't have to be auto-generated
• Connected AI clients can read, write, and link entries via MCP

Practice that actually targets your gaps

Instead of always practising every drill, you can now ask the system (or a connected AI client) to generate a practice session for you.

• Pulled from your recent mistakes, weak words, and uncovered grammar
• Mixed exercise types — MCQ, gap-fill, ordering, typed answers
• First-attempt-wrong answers feed back into your mistakes log for tomorrow
• Sessions are saved and resumable

Reading practice that meets you where you are

Generate short German texts targeted to your current level. Every word is interactive:

• Click any word for an instant gloss with translation, IPA, and example sentence
• Glosses are persisted so the reading remembers what you've already looked up
• New vocabulary can be queued straight to your spaced-repetition deck
• Connected AI clients can fetch, glossify, and follow up on any reading

Write. Submit. Improve.

The new Writing workflow lets you submit anything you've written in German and receive structured feedback graded against your current level.

• Submissions are saved to your account
• Feedback covers grammar, word choice, register, and structure
• Connected AI clients (via MCP) can read prior submissions and follow up
• In-course writing exercises now shadow-write to the same store, so MCP can grade them too

Bring your own AI tutor

One Who Learns now ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. Connect Claude Desktop, ChatGPT desktop, or any MCP-compatible client and the assistant can see what you already know, what you got wrong, what you're reading, and what you're studying — without you copy-pasting context.

Tools the connected AI can call on your behalf:

• Look up and add words to your vocabulary
• Read your recent mistakes and practice sessions
• Generate readings, exercises, and study plans
• Open and edit your grammar pages and journal

Auth is OAuth 2.1 with per-user scopes. Rate-limited per account.

Chrome Extension — Now Free

The One Who Learns Chrome extension is now available to all users at no cost. Translate any word on the web and save it directly to your vocabulary — up to 10 translations per day on the free plan.

Premium subscribers keep unlimited translations and AI enrichment (auto-generate mnemonics, IPA, and memory images).

New Apps Page

Find all One Who Learns apps in one place at /apps:

• Chrome Extension — translate and save words while browsing
• iOS App — coming soon (join the waitlist)

What's Next

We're working on the iOS app and more features for the extension. Stay tuned.