See the words you actually use, not only the ones you know

Knowing a word and using it are two different things. Active Words counts the dictionary words you type with the MindDory keyboard or the Chrome extension and shows them by topic and level, so you can see your active vocabulary grow. Active Words keeps only the word, the day and how many times you used it, never the sentence you wrote.

How do I turn on Active Words?

1. Install the MindDory keyboard on your phone, or the MindDory extension in Chrome.
2. Switch on "Learn from my writing". It is in the keyboard settings in the app, and in the extension popup in Chrome. It is off until you turn it on.
3. Write as you normally do: messages, emails, documents. Each dictionary word you type in the language you are learning is counted.
4. On the web, open Words and choose the "Active" view, or tap the Active words card on Home. In the phone app, open the Words tab, tap it again and choose "Active".
5. Filter by level from A1 to C2 to see where your writing already reaches and where it does not yet.

The same switch also keeps each grammar mistake you make, the short wrong part and its fix, so the Grammar tab can show your patterns. You can delete everything Active Words has collected at any time with "Delete my active words".

Why count the words you use?

Most apps measure what you can recognise. That is your passive vocabulary, and it is always larger. The words you reach for when you write are your active vocabulary, and that is the part that decides how you sound.

Seeing both side by side shows you which words you have learned but never use, and those are the best ones to practise next.

What exactly is stored?

For Active Words: the dictionary form of the word, the day, a count, and whether it came from the keyboard or Chrome. Not the sentence, not the app you typed in, not the person you wrote to. Names, numbers and words that are not in the dictionary are ignored.

"Learn from my writing" also keeps each grammar mistake MindDory finds: the short wrong part and its fix, never the whole message. Those go to the Grammar tab, not to Active Words.

Which languages are counted?

English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech and Indonesian. The page shows the language you are learning, grouped by the same topics as the Word Map.

Read more

• Active vs passive vocabulary

What Active Words is not

• It is not a keylogger. Active Words keeps only the word and a count, not what you wrote around it.
• It is not on by default. Nothing is counted until you switch on "Learn from my writing".
• It is not a grade. A word missing from the list only means you have not typed it yet.

Frequently asked questions