Clozemaster is an underrated app for language learners, especially at intermediate and advanced levels. Here’s how to use Clozemaster and get the most from it.

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What is Clozemaster?

Clozemaster* is the definition of an underrated language app. It’s so robust, so helpful, and so easy to use because of how quick and responsive the interface is. No gimmicks, no guilt tripping, just a solid resource that you can use in more ways than you probably realised.

For each language, you’ve got a collection of sentences to give you language in context. You’ll be shown a sentence with a word missing. You then have to select the correct word to fill the gap. (At least that’s one mode – more on this later!)

One thing that sets Clozemaster apart is its gaming inspired 8-bit design, which makes for an enjoyable experience when you’re learning with it. There’s little gifs when you hit new levels, an addictive set of sounds, and stats arguable also inspired by gaming.

Another thing that Clozemaster does differently is the languages on offer, including the option to learn languages through others. Altogether, there’s 70 languages and lots of combinations! This is almost unheard of for language apps that tend to focus on the ‘money-making’ languages.

What Languages Can I Learn With Clozemaster?

You can learn 70 languages with Clozemaster*. Yup, 70. Ready for the full list at the time of writing?

Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Breton, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Guarani, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Macedonian, Mandarin (Simplified and Traditional), Māori, Nahuatl, Norwegian, Occitan, Persian, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Toki Pona, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish.

Those are the languages you can learn through English. On top of that mammoth list, you also have the option to learn many of them through each other.

For example, you could learn Italian through Dutch or German through Portuguese.

This could be a great if you want to do some parallel language learning.

Related: How To Learn More Than One Language At The Same Time

How to Use Clozemaster (& Get the Most From It)

Most of these suggestions for how to use Clozemaster* work across languages, but some features may not work for all languages. Just a heads up to avoid repeating myself!

Listening Skill – listen first, then see, then select cloze

Aside from the default text reading mode, where you’re shown a sentence, select the word to fill the gap, and then hear it (if audio is available), there’s other skills you can practise with Clozemaster.

First on the list is Listening.

When you select ‘Review’ or ‘Play’, you’ll be shown one more screen before you go into it. You might be accustomed to simply skipping past this screen. I was too.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first used this by two things in particular.

Firstly, I loved how it made me slow down and pay more attention to my Clozemaster session.

I wasn’t just ‘going through the motions’ to keep my streak anymore. I was actually paying attention, listening to the language, before guessing the word for the cloze exercise.

Secondly, it was really helpful for languages with different scripts. I have every language available on my Clozemaster (because of course I do!). And that means that there’s some that use different scripts that I don’t have any experience learning.

Being able to listen first takes the emphasis off reading the script first, and puts it second. Which has been really helpful, again to make me see it rather than rush through it.

Related: Developing Better Listening Skills for Language Learning

Speaking Skill (beta)

A really cool feature when it’s available is the Speaking Skill.

This is in beta at the time of writing too, so it’s bound to improve, but already it’s pretty impressive.

You get the option to record your spoken response filling in the blank, but then also can opt to see multiple choice if you’re unsure.

One of the biggest complaints of language apps is they don’t teach you how to speak. This isn’t quite as true anymore as perhaps it used to be, and it’s additions like this that help you to get more speaking in with apps.

Of course, speaking with others is great, and an essential part of your process.

But for many of us, that can be a huge source of shame and embarrassment.

Instead of forcing yourself to ‘just speak’ with strangers, it can be hugely helpful to develop a Solo Speaking Habit.

This works really well with prompts (which is why Promptly exists), but it also can begin with features like this inside Clozemaster.

To do this, simply check the ‘Speaking Skill’ box if it’s available and see what happens…!

Text Input Mode

The final option for variation with how you practise the sentences and use Clozemaster overall is to select ‘Text-Input Mode’. 

Much like the previous options, this helps you go slower and take things from a passive state of attention to somewhat more engaged.

Don’t be put off that it says ‘Hard’ next to it! It’s all mindset. We can do hard things!

This is available for both Vocabulary and Listening Skills, and means that instead of selecting from multiple choice, you’re typing your answers.

Explain AI button

Being quite accustomed to my own routine within Clozemaster, it took a while to spot and then use the Explain button when it first appeared. Big mistake!

Once you guess an answer, you’ll be shown the correct answer with a little button labelled ‘Explain’. Click it!

It’ll give you an AI-generated explanation of the sentence you were just shown, going into detail on the grammar, word order, and how the sentence works. 

I find the Explain button especially helpful for languages that I’m exploring, quite new to, and not learning much outside of Clozemaster. 

This one button takes Clozemaster from only being useful if you have a grasp on a language to being a really solid start point if you love a ‘detective’ approach.

Save useful sentences for later

Make use of the option to favourite sentences. 

At the end of a learning or review session, scroll down on the ‘Round Complete!’ screen and you’ll see the list of sentences you just saw.

If you get a sentence that feels particularly useful or relevant, you can click the Star next to it to favourite it. This will save it for later so you can easily find it to review quickly when you need.

To find them again, click the relevant Collection and filter to view ‘Favorited’ only.

Download Collections for Offline Use

I travel a lot and there would always be days when my regular Clozemaster routine just wouldn’t happen. If I was on a plane or getting up at silly o’clock for a bus then chances are I’d get tired, forget, and skip a day (or more!).

You’ve probably had this too – numerous times! Sometimes, you just can’t rely on the wifi, data, or signal always being there.

So, eventually, I tested out the download feature on Clozemaster, and it works really well.

Simply select the language you wish to study offline, scroll down to the collection you want, and click the ‘download’ button. 

Next time you’re offline, you’ll be able to keep going with your languages! Yay!

Create your own Collections on clozemaster.com & study on the app

As default, Clozemaster gives you a selection of Collections that differ from language to language. For example, more common languages like French and Spanish have Collections ordered by Most Common Words, Grammar Challenges, and the Fluency Fast Track option.

Some languages (the ones that are less popular on the app) often have all the sentences lumped into one Collection – typically ‘Random Collection’.

At first, this may put you off Clozemaster. You want something to be ordered, guiding you through logically, something very pragmatic. 

But did you know you can create your own collections? Yes, me neither until now! 

With Memrise pretty much guaranteed to sunset their community courses, and Anki not being everyone’s cup of tea, the ability to create your own Collection inside Clozemaster is game-changing. 

You don’t have to learn the ropes of a new app. You can just add your sentences to a new Clozemaster Collection of your own and get started. So good.

The only thing to note is that you create the Collection on the web version and not the app. But once it’s created, you can study it within the app.

Find Shared Collections to Learn

Alternatively, if you don’t have time or the motivation to create your own Collections, it’s worth still logging in to the web version to see if any Collections have been uploaded and shared by others that you can add to your language.

Most shared Collections in Clozemaster follow level themes and common courses. 

Explore Collections Features

There’s more you can do with all Collections too. 

For each sentence, you can add pronunciation, notes, hints, and alternative answers. 

This is great if you have a word or two that you particularly struggle with. You can just add in some hints to give you a nudge & help you remember.

To do this, when you see ‘Collections’, go to ‘Manage’, then ‘Edit’, and then click ‘Add pronunciation, notes, hints, alt answers.’

Set a Custom Goal

One of the biggest love/hate relationships people have with language apps is the streak. Does it motivate you or stress you out? Does it feel like cheating when there’s a setup that allows you to skip a day or does it feel like cheating? 

We’re all wired differently and have different goals with our languages. It’s not One-Streak-Fits-All.

The streak in Clozemaster is discreet. If you want it you’ll see it, but if you don’t then you can ignore it easier than other apps. 

There’s also a pretty impressive selection of Stats too if that’s something you’re into.

But in among all of this, is the ability to set a custom goal – to adjust what counts as a streak for you. 

Simply click the ‘edit’ pencil icon next to ‘Daily Goal’ on the Dashboard for a language, and opt for ‘Custom’ to set your own.

Related: How to Set Mistake Goals for Language Learning

Learn One Language Through Another

Going back to what I mentioned earlier about the language combinations, do find them, when picking a language, adjust the ‘I speak’ language to learn another language through another.

You’ll then see what you can learn through that other language. 

I use this a lot for my more advanced languages. 

Not only does it help me to form new distinctions between pairings that I might easily confuse like Portuguese and Italian, it also gives me a chance to get extra exposure to stronger languages when learning weaker ones through them.

Adjust Review Mode Settings

When you’re in Review mode in any app, it’s all too easy to fall into what’s know as Rote Attention and simply tap away answering questions that aren’t quite challenging enough for you. 

To keep you on your toes, challenge yourself to adjust the way you use Clozemaster. 

You can adjust the pronunciation, text-to-speech and speed of the audio of sentences. 

All of these will just trigger your attention enough to hopefully take your attention from Rote to Focused. 

Of course, you don’t have to do this every time, but when you feel yourself flagging or getting bored or frustrated, it’s a good option when you know it’s there.

It’s also handy to adjust the speed if you’re finding a language too fast. 

Cloze Reading

Another extra feature on the web version that you may not know exists is Cloze Reading. 

The addition gives you longer texts with cloze words to fill in. 

At the time of writing, it’s only available for certain languages but if it is available, you can add your own texts too, which is pretty cool.

One of the best ways to stay motivated with language learning it to make sure it’s always fun and engaging. Picking your own texts on topics that interest you and turning them into cloze exercises will be way more effective than just sticking to what happens to be available.

And there we have it! Lots of great ways to advance the way you use Clozemaster and make sure you get the most from the app. 

If you have a way you use Clozemaster* that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear it!

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