Meet Phrasewise — Travel phrases. Audio. No streaks

Travel

Phrasewise

Travel phrases. Audio. No streaks.

Every feature, from the first launch.

No account, no login, no cloud. Everything runs on your device and works fully offline — nothing in this post is hidden behind a wall.

What Phrasewise does

Duolingo teaches you 'the dog is eating an apple in the kitchen' for 200 days, then you land in Madrid and can't ask where the pharmacy is. Reddit's r/duolingo is full of complaints about irrelevant content and aggressive notifications.

Phrasewise is the opposite: scenarios you'll actually use, in five languages.

Six scenarios per language:

— Airport: 'I have a connection to ', 'Where is gate ', 'My bag is missing'. — Hotel: 'Do you have a room', 'My key doesn't work', 'Could I extend by one night'. — Restaurant: 'A table for two', 'I'm allergic to nuts', 'Could we have the check'. — Pharmacy/Doctor: 'Do you have ibuprofen', 'I have a headache', 'I'm pregnant'. — Directions: 'How do I get to ', 'Is this the train to ', 'Where's the toilet'. — Emergency: 'Help', 'I've lost my passport', 'Call an ambulance', 'Police'.

Languages v1: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese. Each phrase has on-device synthesized audio (AVSpeechSynthesizer with the language voice). Tap any word for phonetic + literal translation.

Spaced repetition built in if you want it, but no streak shame, no notifications, no leaderboards. Open it on the plane, close it after Madrid. The audio works offline.

A look inside

Tap any screenshot to open the full-resolution version.

What's inside

Language picker — Choose Spanish / French / Italian / German / Japanese
Scenario list — Six scenarios with curated phrase sets
Phrase card — Big text, audio button, tappable word breakdown
Practice mode — Optional spaced-repetition quiz
Offline audio — AVSpeechSynthesizer native voices, no internet

Why we built it

Duolingo is too long-game and gamified for trip prep; Apple Translate handles ad-hoc lookups but doesn't drill phrases. Existing phrasebook apps are subscription-walled or dated. Travelers want scenario-based phrasebooks that work offline on the plane.

What makes it different

Phrasewise is the only iOS phrasebook organized around six concrete travel scenarios with on-device AVSpeechSynthesizer audio in all five languages — no streaks, no notifications, no account. Spaced-repetition is opt-in. Every phrase has tappable word-by-word literal+phonetic translation. Apple Translate handles looku…

Who it's for

Built for anyone who values fast, private, on-device software with a calm, focused UX.

In one line: Travel phrases. Audio. No streaks.

Try it

See the Phrasewise app page for the full feature list, the info table, and support links.

Use Phrasewise, found a bug, or have a feature request? Comments are open below — anonymous is fine.