Shaded

Choose your route

I know
I’m learning

Japanese · Spanish · English

Every journey is different. Start where you actually are.

Real sentences, feedback tied to the exact word or pattern you missed, and a next lesson built from it.

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Not a deck · Not a fixed course · Not an open-ended chatbot

Your route, drawn. Solid ports are already yours. Switch the traveler.

Why it feels different

Not flashcards. Not a fixed course. Not just a chatbot.

It breaks every sentence into the pieces you actually learn. Then three moves, on repeat:

01

One unit of learning, every way you’ll meet it.

A sentence breaks into its real units. Each unit is known three ways — and dealt as practice in every format your skills need.

“I eat bread”
broken into its real units
I
topic
bread
object
eat

In Japanese, grammar rides on particles — は and を become pieces of their own.

wordparticle is katakana, too
One unit, three ways Shaded knows it —· to eat

Grounded, not guessed

When coverage is available, checked against a real dictionary or source — not an AI's hunch.

anchors · provenance

One meaning, many forms

are one unit to learn — not three cards.

the lexeme

Known by skill

Reading a word isn't saying it. Tracked across reading, writing, listening, speaking.

per-skill depth
Yo como pan“I eat bread”
broken into its real units
YoI
comoI eat
panbread

In Spanish, the verb form carries who is acting — the subject pronoun can often disappear.

wordcomo comes from comer
One unit, three ways Shaded knows it —comer· to eat

Grounded, not guessed

When coverage is available, checked against a real dictionary or source — not an AI's hunch.

anchors · provenance

One meaning, many forms

comer, como, comí, comeré are one unit to learn — not four cards.

the lexeme

Known by skill

Reading a word isn't saying it. Tracked across reading, writing, listening, speaking.

per-skill depth
I eat bread“Yo como pan”
dividido en sus unidades reales
Iyo
eatcomer
breadpan

En inglés, la gramática vive en el orden de las palabras y en sus terminaciones.

palabraeat cambia de forma: eats, ate, eaten
Una unidad, tres formas de conocerla —eat · comer

Con base, no a ojo

Cuando hay cobertura, se contrasta con un diccionario o una fuente real.

anclas · procedencia

Un significado, muchas formas

eat, eats, ate, eaten son una sola unidad, no cuatro tarjetas.

el lexema

Conocida por destreza

Leer una palabra no es decirla. Se sigue en lectura, escritura, escucha y habla.

profundidad por destreza
“Yo como pan”
dividido en sus unidades reales
yo
tema
pan
objeto
comer

En japonés, la gramática viaja en partículas: は y を se convierten en piezas propias.

palabrapartícula también está en katakana
Una unidad, tres formas de conocerla —· comer

Con base, no a ojo

Cuando hay cobertura, se contrasta con un diccionario o una fuente real.

anclas · procedencia

Un significado, muchas formas

son una sola unidad, no tres tarjetas.

el lexema

Conocida por destreza

Leer una palabra no es decirla. Se sigue en lectura, escritura, escucha y habla.

profundidad por destreza
The same unit, dealt as practice —· to eat

Six forms one unit can take. Which one appears is not a rotation — the weakest skill and what is due decide.

recognizereading

means —

to drink to eat to buy
up next · writing is shallowest
producewriting

Say “I eat bread” in Japanese

in contextcloze
listenlistening

Catch the verb —

speakspeaking

Say it out loud — graded on what it hears

reviewmemory
· to eatdue today
Knew itAlmostMissed
The same unit, dealt as practice —comer· to eat

Six forms one unit can take. Which one appears is not a rotation — the weakest skill and what is due decide.

recognizereading

como means —

I drink I eat I buy
up next · writing is shallowest
producewriting

Say “I eat bread” in Spanish

Yo como pa
in contextcloze

Yo pan

comobebocompro
listenlistening

Catch the verb — “Yo ___ pan”

speakspeaking
“Yo como pan”

Say it out loud — graded on what it hears

reviewmemory
comer · to eatdue today
Knew itAlmostMissed
La misma unidad, convertida en práctica —eat · comer

Seis formas que puede tomar una unidad. Cuál aparece no es una rotación: lo deciden la destreza más floja y lo que toca repasar.

reconocerlectura

eat significa —

beber comer comprar
ahora toca · la escritura es la más floja
producirescritura

Di «Yo como pan» en inglés

I eat brea
en contextohueco

I bread

eatdrinkbuy
escucharescucha

Atrapa el verbo — “I ___ bread”

hablarhabla
“I eat bread”

Dilo en voz alta: se evalúa lo que se oye

repasomemoria
eat · comertoca hoy
La sabíaMás o menosLa olvidé
La misma unidad, convertida en práctica —· comer

Seis formas que puede tomar una unidad. Cuál aparece no es una rotación: lo deciden la destreza más floja y lo que toca repasar.

reconocerlectura

significa —

beber comer comprar
ahora toca · la escritura es la más floja
producirescritura

Di «Yo como pan» en japonés

en contextohueco
escucharescucha

Atrapa el verbo —

hablarhabla

Dilo en voz alta: se evalúa lo que se oye

repasomemoria
· comertoca hoy
La sabíaMás o menosLa olvidé
02

Your answer comes back graded piece by piece.

Not right-or-wrong on the whole line — every unit in your answer gets its own verdict, so the one piece that broke is named.

You were asked for “I eat bread” — you typed:
graded unit by unit
✓
✓ topic
✓
✗ should be を
✓

One particle broke — を, the object marker, swapped for は. That single piece is what comes back for practice, not the whole sentence again.

You were asked for “I eat bread” — you typed:
Yo come pan
graded unit by unit
Yo✓
come✗ yo → como
pan✓

One form broke — comer conjugated for the wrong person. The conjugation is what comes back for practice, not the whole sentence.

Te pedimos “Yo como pan” en inglés — escribiste:
I eat a bread
corregido unidad por unidad
I✓
eat✓
a✗ sobra
bread✓

Falló un artículo, nada más. bread es incontable — y esa única pieza es la que vuelve a practicarse, no la frase entera.

Te pedimos “Yo como pan” en japonés — escribiste:
corregido unidad por unidad
✓
✓ tema
✓
✗ debía ser を
✓

Falló una partícula: を, el marcador de objeto, sustituido por は. Esa pieza — no la frase entera — es lo que se practica después.

03

Your corpus grows — always n+1.

New material arrives as one new unit carried by units you already own. Strong concepts become the context that makes the next one learnable.

A later session deals the next sentence:
“I eat bread in the morning”
one new unit, five you own
yours
yours
+1 · morning
yours
yours
yours

朝 is the only new thing in the frame. Everything else you own — so the new word lands inside a sentence you can already read.

already yoursthe +1
A later session deals the next sentence:
Yo como pan por la mañana“I eat bread in the morning”
one new unit, three you own
Yoyours
comoyours
panyours
por la mañana+1 · in the morning

One new chunk, carried by three units you own — new language embedded in language you can already read.

already yoursthe +1
En una sesión posterior llega la siguiente frase:
I eat bread in the morning“Yo como pan por la mañana”
una unidad nueva, tres que ya son tuyas
Ituya
eattuya
breadtuya
in the morning+1 · por la mañana

Lo único nuevo es in the morning. El resto ya es tuyo — lo nuevo aterriza en una frase que ya sabes leer.

ya es tuyael +1
En una sesión posterior llega la siguiente frase:
“Yo como pan por la mañana”
una unidad nueva, cinco que ya son tuyas
tuya
tuya
+1 · mañana
tuya
tuya
tuya

Lo único nuevo es 朝 (mañana). Todo lo demás ya es tuyo — la palabra nueva llega dentro de una frase que ya lees.

ya es tuyael +1
Why this loop works — the science under it

Retrieval, not rereading

Every format above asks your memory for the unit — recognition at the shallow end, full production at the deep end — instead of re-showing it. Retrieval practice — the testing effect — is one of the most replicated results in learning science, and Shaded credits deeper retrieval more.

retrieval practice

Each unit on its own clock

Every unit is scheduled on its own forgetting curve with a modern spaced-repetition model (FSRS), per skill. It comes back when it is about to fade — not when a deck rotation says so.

spaced repetition · FSRS

Feedback lands on the gap

A whole-sentence “wrong” teaches almost nothing. A verdict on the exact particle or form is corrective feedback — the kind that converts errors into learning.

error-specific feedback

One step past what you own

n+1 is comprehensible input: new language embedded in language you already parse. Hard enough to stretch, known enough to read.

comprehensible input

Flashcard apps grade the card. Fixed courses grade the quiz. Shaded grades the piece — and over years, that difference compounds.

Built for the messy middle

It’s real, and it’s yours.

For the stretch between knowing a rule and using it naturally. One learner, one route, four beats.

01

You try a real sentence — and miss.

A real sentence, graded honestly. Wrong is not the end of the story; it is the start of the route.

An English production prompt beside focused Shaded feedback in Spanish
One English sentence. The exact skill beside it. This real Passage result turns a production answer into focused English feedback.
A Japanese cloze answered wrong, with the correction, explanation, and the flagged concept
The miss, the fix, and the why. A live Flow answer: the て-form correction with the exact concept it flagged.
A Spanish prompt beside Shaded feedback that identifies the exact word used
One Spanish answer becomes a useful distinction. This real Passage result keeps the attempted word beside the feedback it produced.
02

Shaded finds the piece that broke.

Not the whole exercise — the exact word, particle, or pattern, tracked by the skill it lives under.

The flagged concept from that answer — 用意する with its meaning, a MISSED chip, and per-skill depth pips
One concept, one verdict. The exact piece from that answer — 用意する — flagged MISSED with its meaning and per-skill depth, nothing else re-shown.
03

The next leg is built from it.

That miss, what is due, and your level become the next practice. No queue to tune, no starting over.

The My Concepts screen on a phone: 227 concepts tracked, 16 due, with per-skill due counts for reading, writing, listening, and speaking A real learner's home map on a phone at level 2, with tinted regions for Passage, Flow, Voyage, Reality Check, and Goals
The queue is the plan. A real learner mid-journey: 227 concepts tracked, 16 due across four skills — and the home they land on. The next session is built from exactly this.
04

And you can see why.

The receipt stays attached to the sentence: dictionaries, sourced examples, reviewed material — flexible where it helps, inspectable where it counts.

A real Japanese Passage activity with its small_snow and AlanF_US Tatoeba attribution chip attached
The Tatoeba attribution stays attached to the exact sentence and translation it supports.

Now on the web

The screen changes. The learner model—and the work that is due—comes with you.

Open Shaded on web

InkField in motion

The interface changes when your learning does.

Designed in ink. Revealed in color. Motion is reserved for a learner action or an earned change.

01

Correct, drawn in ink.

When a resolved grade is correct, an accent splash and a drawn check mark the result once.

InkField Correct feedback with a radial accent splash and a drawn check
A real grading ceremony. Captured from the shipped feedback widget, with a brief hold on the final state.
02

A new shade crosses the field.

When a new theme tier is earned, pigment travels cell by cell before the stable accent changes.

InkField earned theme color spreading cell by cell through the Voronoi field
A real earned-theme bleed. The shipped Voronoi backdrop moving from its previous tier to the newly unlocked shade.

Voyage · earned play

Daily practice can put a fishing cast in your hands.

Complete today’s goal and Voyage can surface a fishing reward. The learning engine still comes from your answers; Voyage makes the momentum tangible.

A real fishing run. Cast, hook, and work the line—the loop is captured from the production widget.
Where Voyage is heading
Concept art of a ship departing a dock onto a wide turquoise sea
The sea this is growing into. Concept art, not a capture — on this page, solid frames are shipped; the dashed frame is the promise.

Built for the messy middle

For the stretch between knowing a rule and using it naturally.

The value is not that Shaded generates more practice. It is that Shaded keeps learning from what happens when you try to use the language.

Which languages can I learn?
Japanese, Spanish, and English. You can learn any one from either of the other two, for all six language directions. Some language pairs have deeper specialized coverage than others.
How does Shaded know what I need?
It uses your answers, missed concepts, skill history, placement, and session context to choose the next useful practice step.
How does Shaded avoid AI leading me astray?
Generated practice is paired with anchors such as dictionaries, source examples, and reviewed learning material whenever they are available.

Start practicing

Let Shaded find the next useful step.

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