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Tips, insights, and updates about English learning
What are sight words? Learn these few hundred words first to instantly make your reading smoother
Words like the, of, and and are short and inconspicuous, yet they make up half of all English text. This article will introduce you to sight words: why they are the most worth learning first, why you need to practice them until you can 'recognize them at a glance,' and three actionable practice methods to instantly make your reading and listening smoother.
Stop Spelling Letter by Letter: Recognize High-Frequency Words at a Glance
The most common words like the, was, and said actually slow down your reading when sounded out letter by letter. They should be treated like a picture and recognized at a glance. This article teaches you how to replace "letter-by-letter decoding" with "whole-word recognition." Combined with flashcard and timed-test training methods, you will turn high-frequency words into a reflex and instantly boost your sentence reading speed.
Which 50 Words to Learn First? The Best Learning Order for the 5-Level Sight Words List
English has 250 sight words that make up the majority of most texts. Learning them in 5 levels based on frequency is the most effortless approach. This article gives you the learning goals for each level, actionable recognition tips, and a self-assessment checklist to serve as your complete roadmap to mastering sight words.
Using Dictation to Practice Common Words: You Don't Truly "Know" Them Until You Reach 80% Accuracy
You understand common words at a glance, but when it comes to writing them down, you often miss letters or misspell them—listening comprehension and spelling are two different things. This article teaches you how to use dictation to practice them separately, and introduces a scientific standard to determine if you've actually mastered them: an 80% accuracy rate, practiced at least 3 times, is what counts as true mastery.
was / were / went / said, came: Common words you see every day that actually hide high-frequency irregular past tense verbs
You already know words like was, were, went, said, and came, but did you realize they are actually in the past tense? This article pulls out the irregular past tense verbs hidden in common words all at once, complete with a base-form comparison table and identification tips to help you stop getting stuck when speaking in the past tense.
How to Practice Common Words: Master the Reference, Challenge, and Statistics Modes
The most frequently occurring words are, ironically, often the ones we spend the least time seriously practicing. This article will guide you through Loopy's Common Words training—from recognizing words on the Reference page and answering custom-range questions in the Review Challenge, to tracking your memory health on the Statistics page—so you can master the 250 words that support the bulk of your reading at a single glance.
there / their / they're and to / two / too: The Most Commonly Misspelled Homophones, and One Trick to Instantly Tell Them Apart
They sound the same but are easy to get wrong—there/their/they're and to/two/too are some of the trickiest homophones among common words. This article compiles the most easily confused groups from the word list, giving you a meaning-based memory trick for each set so you can choose the right one in a split second and never hesitate about which one to use again.