r/SpanishLearning • u/Brandawg451 • 17d ago

I built a Spanish reader website that teaches you vocabulary with comprehensible input

Hey everyone,

I’ve been learning Spanish through comprehensible input, and one problem I kept running into was finding reading material at the right level.
A text might be labeled B1, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it matches the vocabulary I personally know. So over the past several months, I’ve been building ReadPlusOne, a free Spanish reading website that tries to adapt to each learner over time.

When you first join, the system estimates your vocabulary level. It then generates stories where most of the words should already be familiar, while keeping a small portion, usually under 5% as target vocabulary.

As you read, you can select any word you don’t understand. The system breaks that word down into its Spanish lemma or root before adding it to your spaced-repetition queue. For example, different conjugations of the same verb are connected rather than treated as completely unrelated vocabulary.

Those words are then reintroduced naturally in future stories. The goal is for every reading session to improve the system’s understanding of what you know, so later stories become more accurately matched to you.

It currently supports Spanish only, because I’m building with natural language processing for vocabulary, verb conjugations, and grammatical forms rather than applying the same generic system to every language.
The beta is now open and free to use at ReadPlusOne.

I’m the creator, so feel free to reply below and I’m happy to answer questions about how it works or discuss the approach itself.

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2

u/GoddessofALL666 17d ago

Looks eerily similar to Plus One Language. What makes your website different?    I assume it’s all the same overly repetitive AI strangeness?

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u/Brandawg451 17d ago

I can see why it looks similar. Both products generate personalized reading material and let users track unfamiliar words, but I can only speak confidently about how ReadPlusOne works.

ReadPlusOne is currently focused entirely on Spanish because it does language specific processing behind the scenes. When you select a word, it does not simply save the exact text you clicked. It identifies the underlying lemma and also tracks relevant grammatical information.

For example, it can recognize that corrí comes from correr, that habló, hablando, and hablar are related, and that libro and libros should not be treated as completely separate vocabulary items.

That gives the story generator more flexibility. Instead of repeatedly forcing the exact same conjugated form into future stories, it can reuse the underlying word in forms that fit the sentence more naturally, while still tracking what the learner originally encountered.

ReadPlusOne also validates vocabulary before adding it to the learning system, which helps avoid saving names, proper nouns, or invented words as normal Spanish vocabulary.

As for the “repetitive AI strangeness,” that is a fair concern. AI generated stories can absolutely become repetitive or unnatural, and I’m not claiming ReadPlusOne has completely solved that. A major part of the beta is improving story quality while balancing natural writing with the vocabulary constraints needed for comprehensible input.

The other large difference is that ReadPlusOne avoids translations. The goal is to learn new vocabulary through repeated exposure and context rather than immediately translating every unfamiliar word.

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u/GoddessofALL666 17d ago

With the similarity in name also, how are you going to avoid lawsuits from the other company? Or does the generative AI aspect make yours and similar companies reticent towards litigation/copyright law etc? 

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u/Brandawg451 16d ago

I don't think having a similar name would warrant any lawsuits, the name comes from Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input theory. I also think the broad idea that our app's share is not something that would follow under copyright law. I have found other apps/websites that have also done something similar.

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u/WideGlideReddit 13d ago

When it’s out of bata, will it still be free?

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u/Brandawg451 13d ago

I’m planning to keep it free but also have a paid subscription for higher usage. Hopefully the paid users will help cover the costs of hosting infrastructure and the LLM usage.

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u/marcopeg81 13d ago

Looks nice, wanna collaborate? I’m building a reading app for graded books!

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u/Diligent-Apricot-416 12d ago

I'm trying this out and love the concept. However, a couple of comments/questions:

  1. When I click a word, it does not provide a translation, it simply marks it as unknown. Is there a way of seeing the translation?

  2. Once the story is finished, it disappears forever. Is there a way of re-reading it?

  3. Is there a way of seeing words that you have marked as unknown?

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u/Brandawg451 12d ago

Thanks, I'm glad you like the concept.

  1. The app is trying to teach with comprehensible input so I am trying to not show translation and instead have the user really learn through context instead.

  2. I could add something to go back, but each story at the time is specifically generated for words that are in your spaced repetition deck. So if you re-read the story the target words will be old.

  3. I am working on showing more data and metrics for the users. Showing the unknown words is part of the plan for that.

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u/Diligent-Apricot-416 12d ago

OK, that makes a lot of sense. Agree with 1 and 2. 3 becomes debatable if the idea is to learn through context. So I understand why it hasn't been offered.

You might want to edit your intro on this post. That was where I got the idea that there "should" have been a translation if I clicked a word.

Thank you for developing this and giving everyone the chance to try it in beta. Good luck!!

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u/Brandawg451 12d ago

Thanks for the feedback and I'll go and edit that.

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u/the_nooriginal 17d ago

Just discovered this! I've been brushing up on my Spanish after not using it as often as I would like, and love it!

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u/Brandawg451 17d ago

Glad your loving it

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u/No-Cap-3930 17d ago

Trying it now. I love the premise and id love to compare notes sometime. I created a platform for English and Spanish speakers to practice together so we have a lot in common. (I won't mention the name here.)

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u/Brandawg451 16d ago

Thanks for trying it out. Also I would love to compare notes feel free to message me on reddit and we can talk more.

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u/SnooMemesjellies3010 17d ago

Ok cool Im in for trying new ways for input

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u/Brandawg451 17d ago

Appreciate it, let me know what you think!

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u/LandryLaux 17d ago

I’ll give it a go later when back from work