Language flashcards
A language card is not a generic card with a foreign word on it
Four things change the moment the two sides are in different languages, and every one of them is something a general-purpose flashcard tool has to be configured into handling. In Rayaad they are the shape of the product.
Each side has a language
Not a formatting preference — a fact the software has to know. It decides which voice speaks that side, how the text is rendered, and which direction the card is asked in. Rayaad stores it as a BCP-47 tag on the pair, so it is never inferred from the characters.
Direction is a decision
Recognition and production are different skills and different amounts of work. Rayaad asks in the recognition direction and does not silently create a reverse card, because doubling every card doubles the reviews for the rest of its life.
Sound is not optional
A word you have only ever read is a word you will not recognise when somebody says it. Both sides of a Rayaad card speak, each in its own language, and the clip is cached so replaying it is instant and free.
How pronunciation worksScripts and direction of text
Non-Latin scripts and right-to-left text are the normal case, not an edge case. There is no transliteration layer, no assumed alphabet, and no language named anywhere in the product — the tags you supply are the whole configuration.
Any pair
Pick the two languages you are working between
There is no supported-languages list. Choose two tags and that is your pair — the catalog below shows how ready-made content is organised for the pairs that have it.
es → en
1Everyday basics4 units · 214 words
- Greetings and courtesyInstall
- Numbers and timeInstall
- Getting aroundInstall
- Food and drinkInstall
2People and places3 units · 168 words
- Family and workInstall
- The cityInstall
- Weather and seasonsInstall
3Getting things done3 units · 152 words
- AppointmentsInstall
- Money and shoppingInstall
- HealthInstall
An illustration of how a catalog is organised. Content is authored pair by pair and grows over time — choosing a pair here does not mean units exist for it. Installing copies the words into a deck you then own and can edit or delete like any other.
The mistake almost every tool makes with audio
Hand a word to a device's speech engine without telling it which language the word is in and it will guess from the characters. Short words are guessed wrong constantly, and words that exist in two languages are read in whichever the device happens to prefer. The result is a confidently wrong pronunciation, which for learning is worse than silence — you will remember it.
Rayaad never guesses, because each side of a card belongs to a language pair and the tag on that side is what the speech request carries. It is a small piece of engineering with a disproportionate effect on whether the audio is worth listening to.
On reverse cards
Most vocabulary only ever needs to be understood. The few hundred words you will actively produce are worth a second card in the other direction; the long tail is not, and creating them automatically is how a deck of a thousand words becomes a daily session of four hundred reviews. Rayaad's position is that the reverse card should be a decision, and for most words the honest answer is no.
Next: what makes a flashcard app work at all, orwhat the catalog contains.
Language questions
Which languages does Rayaad support?
Any of them, in any combination. A language pair is two BCP-47 tags you supply rather than a choice from a list Rayaad maintains, so there is no such thing as an unsupported pair. What varies is whether ready-made catalog content exists for it — for most pairs it does not, and Rayaad works perfectly well with your own words.
Can I study two languages at once?
Yes. Each language pair has its own decks, its own cards and its own schedule, and you switch between them. On the free plan one pair is active at a time; Pro removes that limit, and a downgrade never deletes a pair you already have.
Does Rayaad handle non-Latin scripts?
Yes — the text is whatever you type, in whatever script, and right-to-left languages render correctly. There is no transliteration layer and no assumption about the alphabet.
Which direction are cards asked in?
From the language you are learning to the one you already speak — recognition, which is the direction that carries reading and listening. Rayaad does not generate a reverse card automatically, because doubling every card doubles the reviews and most vocabulary only needs to be understood.
Is the pronunciation any good?
It is synthesised, and it is chosen from the language tag on that side of the card rather than guessed from the characters — which is the failure most tools have. Synthesis is very good for common words and less good for rare ones and names. Rayaad does not claim native-speaker recordings.
Twenty words tonight.
Free plan with no review limit, on every device. No ads, and your words stay yours.