Spanish Typing Practice: Free Vocabulary Trainer

Spanish typing practice that builds real vocabulary

Most vocabulary apps ask you to recognise a word: you see four options and pick the right one. That feels like progress, but recognising a word is much easier than producing it. When you speak or write Spanish, nobody offers you options. This trainer works the other way round. You see the English word, recall the Spanish one and type it letter by letter.

Typing forces active recall, and active recall is what moves a word into long-term memory. It also trains spelling at the same time, so you stop mixing up words like "llave" and "yave" or "hacer" and "aser". The boxes above the answer field light up as you type, so you see straight away which letters are right.

How to type Spanish accents and ñ on any keyboard

Many people searching for Spanish typing practice really want to know how to type á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ, ü, ¿ and ¡ without a Spanish keyboard. Here are the quickest ways:

• Windows, US International layout: press the apostrophe and then a vowel to get á, é, í, ó or ú; press ~ and then n to get ñ; press AltGr+/ for ¿ and AltGr+1 for ¡.
• Windows, any layout: hold Alt and type the code on the number pad. Alt+0225 gives á, Alt+0233 é, Alt+0237 í, Alt+0243 ó, Alt+0250 ú, Alt+0241 ñ, Alt+0252 ü, Alt+0191 ¿ and Alt+0161 ¡.
• Mac: press Option+E and then a vowel for á, é, í, ó or ú; Option+N and then n for ñ; Option+U and then u for ü; Option+Shift+? for ¿ and Option+1 for ¡.
• Phone or tablet: press and hold a letter on the on-screen keyboard and slide to the accented version.

You do not need any of this to use the trainer, though. See the next section.

A missing accent is not a wrong answer

The trainer accepts "cafe" for "café" and "estacion" for "estación", and it does not care about capital letters. After every answer it shows the correct spelling with all its accents and plays the pronunciation, so you see and hear the right form every time. That lets you learn the word first and the accents along the way, instead of losing points to a keyboard you have not set up yet.

How the spaced repetition schedule works

Each word moves through six steps. Every correct answer pushes the next review further away; a wrong answer sends the word back to the start, so the words you struggle with come back sooner and the ones you know stop taking up your time.

• Step 1: the next review comes 2 minutes later, while the word is still fresh.
• Step 2: after 1 day.
• Step 3: after 3.5 days.
• Step 4: after 11 days.
• Step 5: after 30 days.
• Step 6: after 120 days. A word that survives this far is in your long-term memory.

The demo keeps your progress in this browser, so you can come back tomorrow and see which words are due.

What happens when you get a word wrong

A wrong answer is not just marked red. You see the correct word, hear it, and type it once more before moving on. That second, correct attempt is what fixes the spelling in your memory. The word then returns early in the next round, so you get another chance while the correction is still fresh.

From the demo to your own words

The demo uses three short sets: basics, food and travel. With a free MovaReader account the trainer works with your own vocabulary instead. Every word you tap while reading a Spanish text is saved with its translation and goes straight into the trainer, so you practise the words from the stories and articles you actually read.

A new account gets 7 days of Pro with no limits. After that the free plan keeps one word training session a day, or you can choose Pro for €5 a month.