Language app too repetitive? Find the cause, then fix it

Flashcard review is repetitive by nature. You can fix the repetition that doesn't match your memory or your level.

A 1-star App Store review of Duolingo puts the feeling plainly: "answer the same questions thousands of times despite getting it right". That feeling usually has one of 5 causes:

1. Known words on a fixed path. An easy word returns as often as a hard one.
2. A leech. One word you keep missing returns again and again.
3. The same exercise formats in every lesson.
4. A plateau. The drills stay below your level.
5. A review queue that's too big, from too many new words.

Is repetition necessary to learn a language?

Yes, and the research is clear about which kind works.

Cepeda and colleagues reviewed 317 experiments from 184 articles in 2006. Spaced practice beat massed practice. And the best gap between sessions grew as the time you wanted to remember grew.

Karpicke and Roediger taught students 40 Swahili-English word pairs in 2008. Students who kept recalling the words remembered about 80% a week later. Students who only re-studied them remembered 36%.

So useful repetition has 2 features: you pull the word from memory, and the gaps grow. Recall that feels hard is often the useful kind, as I explain in desirable difficulty.

Why does my app keep showing me words I already know?

Your app most likely runs a fixed ladder of gaps. Every word climbs the same steps, however easy it is for you.

Babbel's help centre lists its ladder: 1 day, then 4, 7, 14 and 60 days, then 6 months (read 5 Sep 2026). Memrise's blog listed 8 steps in 2022, from 4 hours to 6 months.

A 2-star App Store review of Memrise says "The app gets stuck in long stretches of reviewing words you already know."

A per-card scheduler such as FSRS sets each gap from your own ratings, so an easy recall earns a longer gap. I explain the model in how FSRS schedules your reviews.

The fix: move your review to a per-card scheduler, such as Anki with FSRS enabled.

Why do I keep seeing the same hard word?

Every miss shortens a word's gap, so a word you keep missing returns often. Anki calls this card a leech.

At 8 lapses (Anki's word for misses), Anki tags the note as a leech and suspends the card.

A fixed ladder makes a leech worse. Memrise's 2022 blog says one miss sends a word back to the first step, 4 hours. Clozemaster's FAQ says one miss resets a sentence to 0% mastered.

The fix: change the card, which Anki's manual calls the most efficient method. Start with a memory hook.

If 2 similar words cause the miss, study them a few days apart. If the word doesn't matter to you yet, remove it.

Why does every lesson look the same?

Many course apps build lessons from a small set of exercise formats, such as matching pairs or putting word tiles in order. After a few weeks, you know the format better than the words.

A 1-star App Store review of Busuu says "the structure of the lessons are practically the same from lesson to lesson".

Tap-and-match formats show the answer among the options, so you can recognize a word you can't yet recall. Karpicke and Roediger's result says recall is the step that builds memory.

Game loops add a second layer. A streak counts days of study, and an easy day counts the same as a hard one.

The fix: add input and speaking outside the app.

Why do language apps stop working at the intermediate level?

A course app's drills stay at the course's level. Once you outgrow that level, the same formats feel like busywork.

Check your course's ceiling first. On 22 April 2026, Duolingo said its Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese courses now teach through CEFR B2 for most learners. Duolingo says most of those learners could only reach A2 content before that.

So a comparison that puts Duolingo's ceiling at A2 or B1 may predate that change. Russian wasn't on Duolingo's B2 list.

Past the ceiling, these 4 activities add the context and speaking a drill can't:

• Shows and podcasts. Real speech puts words you know into new sentences. Lingopie, for example, plays TV with clickable subtitles (read 11 Aug 2026).
• Whole sentences. Clozemaster blanks 1 word in each sentence, and its sentences come from the Tatoeba dataset. Its FAQ calls it an answer to "What should I do after Duolingo?"
• Speaking from meaning. Duolingo's speaking exercises put a sentence on screen before you speak. A conversation makes you find the words yourself.
• A weekly talk with a person. Saito and Akiyama followed 30 Japanese university learners for a semester in 2017. Those with weekly video calls improved in comprehensibility, speech rate, word variety and grammar.

In the same study, pronunciation didn't improve significantly. And a flashcard app can't fix this cause. That includes Verbamor, which I build.

Why is my review queue so big?

A big review queue usually comes from too many new words a few weeks earlier.

Anki's manual gives a rule of thumb: 20 new cards a day leads to about 200 reviews a day. A queue that size is mostly familiar cards, so it feels repetitive.

In Anki with FSRS, a higher desired retention also means more reviews. The default is 90%.

The fix: add fewer new words each day. The queue shrinks as older cards reach longer gaps.

How do language apps space their reviews?

Each row gives the date I read the company's own page.

My longer comparison of the 2 designs is in spaced repetition for language learners.

What can I change today?

Steps 8 and 9 happen outside your app.

1. Cut your new words per day by half for 2 weeks.
2. Rate a card Easy when the answer is instant.
3. Rate a near miss as a miss.
4. Find the word you miss most often.
5. Add a memory hook to that word.
6. Remove that word from study if the hook doesn't help.
7. Add 10 words from your own week, such as words you said or heard.
8. Listen to a podcast or show in the language 3 times a week.
9. Book a weekly conversation with a tutor or a language partner.

What does my app do about repetition?

Verbamor schedules every card with FSRS-6, so a word you know well waits longer between reviews.

You set daily reviews from 5 to 60 and new words per day from 5 to 30. You can snooze a card for the day, remove it from study or add a personal note as a memory hook.

Cards come from Essentials, a starter deck of about 650 common words, or from words you save from lessons, audio files, pasted text or Translate. Ask people's permission before you record a conversation.

It still repeats. Each new word becomes 2 cards, so 10 new words add 20 cards to your review queue. There's no desired-retention setting to trade some memory for fewer reviews.

A streak exists, and skipping a day resets it to 1. There's no course beyond Essentials. AI models write the card text, example sentences and pictures, with automated checks and no human review.

Who should pick something else?

If you want more variety inside one app, stay with Duolingo and use its Practice tab and Stories. Duolingo said on 18 February 2026 that Practice tab sessions are open to all learners at no cost.

If you want no flashcards at all, use an input app, podcasts or a tutor. Verbamor is a flashcard app, so it won't suit you.

If you want a scheduler with no subscription, use Anki or Clozemaster. Anki is free on desktop and US$24.99 one-time on iPhone, and it needs some setup, including enabling FSRS. Clozemaster's FAQ says it's free to sign up and play.

If you want a set course with grammar lessons, or an Android app, Verbamor has neither.

Questions people actually ask

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