You recognise an English word when you read it, but cannot recall it when you need it. Or you remember the word, yet the sentence still sounds wrong. LetsWords helps with both: remembering vocabulary and learning to use it with clear feedback. For IELTS, you can continue this work with individual Writing criteria and complete answers.
Understand the word in context, not just its translation
Take impact. Knowing that it means an effect or influence helps you recognise it, but writing an answer also requires a useful pattern and a suitable situation: have an impact on traffic, a positive impact on attendance. In a LetsWords card, definitions and examples show you how the word is used.
You can choose English explanations and hide the translation while studying. This monolingual approach helps you understand meaning in English, with a translation still available when you need help. You do not have to choose between translating everything and an exercise you cannot understand.
Ready-made collections cover different levels, academic and exam vocabulary, collocations and phrasal verbs. You can also put words into personal collections and add examples that matter to you. Your study material can come from your work, reading and exam preparation.
Recall the English yourself
During review, the meaning in your native language is your starting point: recall the English word, then use it in a sentence. This is active recall. You practise what you will need outside the app, when a ready-made English answer is not in front of you.
Spaced repetition brings words back in later sessions based on your review history. You can consolidate what you have studied and add new vocabulary without starting the whole list again each time.
An example of sentence feedback in LetsWords
You want to explain how more frequent buses would affect traffic:
More frequent buses can have a positive impact to traffic because people will use less cars.
The feedback helps you fix two specific points:
- impact to traffic → impact on traffic: use on to introduce what is affected;
- less cars → fewer cars: in formal writing, fewer fits the countable noun cars.
With those errors corrected:
More frequent buses can have a positive impact on traffic because people will use fewer cars.
You can also explain how the change would work more precisely:
More frequent buses could have a positive impact on traffic by giving commuters a reliable alternative to driving.
The first revision fixes the language. The second explains how the effect could arise and presents it as a possible outcome. LetsWords offers both brief and detailed feedback: you can check an error quickly or look more closely at usage and a better way to express your idea. The feedback takes your exam or general English goal into account.
If you cannot think of a sentence, the generator suggests an idea in your native language at your chosen difficulty. You write the English yourself, so the practice still serves its purpose: learning to express an idea rather than copying a ready-made translation.
For IELTS: from a sentence to an argument and a full answer
The transport idea can become an argument: frequent buses reduce waiting times, make travelling without a car more convenient and could ease traffic. Strong Writing also depends on answering the question, developing ideas, connecting them and using grammar accurately. In LetsWords, you can work on each aspect separately.
The bank contains hundreds of Academic and General Training tasks: Task 1 and Task 2, graphs, maps, processes, letters and the main essay types. Task guides explain the format, while a checklist helps you review your answer before submitting it. After your attempt, feedback connects comments to your text and shows where to start revising. Correction cards give you specific actions.
Full-answer practice lets you see the whole response. Criterion practice lets you focus on one skill in a short passage. The guide to the four criteria shows a detailed example.
If you already have an essay, start with feedback on it. If a paragraph still feels difficult, begin with a sentence. These are different ways to start, not a compulsory sequence: you do not need a vocabulary warm-up before checking work you have already written.
For work and conversation: practise the words you need
You do not need an exam goal to work on general English. Add words from messages, work documents and reading, write sentences about familiar situations, get feedback and return to review. Personal examples connect a word to something you actually want to say.
If you already use flashcards, LetsWords adds feedback on your own usage. If you do not know what to study, ready-made collections give you a starting point. If writing is difficult, choose an easier sentence idea and use the translation. The practice can fit your task while keeping the essential action: recalling the word and expressing an idea yourself.
The learning methods behind the practice
In The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning, Karpicke and Roediger show the benefit of repeatedly retrieving learned vocabulary for long-term retention. In LetsWords, you do this by recalling the English word during review.
Cepeda and colleagues’ review of distributed practice examines how spacing study sessions affects later recall. LetsWords brings vocabulary back in later sessions so that your work with a word does not end after the first encounter.
Hulstijn and Laufer, Some Empirical Evidence for the Involvement Load Hypothesis, examine the role of involvement in vocabulary tasks. When writing a sentence, you choose a meaning and a structure that fit your idea. LetsWords feedback helps you understand the result of that attempt.
Nation’s study of vocabulary size for reading and listening explains why vocabulary size matters for understanding English. The IELTS article on research by Milton, Wade and Hopkins links vocabulary knowledge to exam performance. Work on words is useful in its own right and provides a foundation for Writing.
Context, active recall, sentence writing and spaced repetition are parts of the same practice in LetsWords. You understand a word, try using it, receive an explanation and consolidate what you have learned. Start with vocabulary practice or IELTS Writing practice, depending on what you need next.