Frequently asked questions

Leo English is an English learning app that teaches through short, level-appropriate illustrated stories. Instead of drilling isolated flashcards, you read real English sentences with native audio, tap any word to see its meaning, its part of speech and the nuance it carries in that sentence, then review what you have seen with a spaced-repetition system (SRS) tuned to how you actually performed.

Flashcards teach you a word in exactly one context: the card. Reading teaches you the word plus the preposition it takes, the collocations it lives in, the register it belongs to and the rhythm of the sentence around it - all at once, and all attached to a story you remember. That matters more in English than in most languages, where "make a decision" and "do the dishes" are not deducible from any rule. That is comprehensible input: you acquire language by understanding messages slightly above your current level. Leo still uses an SRS, but as a safety net for what the stories introduce, not as the main course.

The full CEFR range, A1 (absolute beginner) through C1 (advanced), split into 51 numbered levels covering 395 grammar points. Roughly 500 words of active vocabulary at A1 up to 8,000+ at C1. Each level has its own library of stories, with grammar and vocabulary that grow one step at a time.

CEFR is the Common European Framework of Reference, the same scale IELTS, TOEFL and the Cambridge exams are mapped onto. A1: introduce yourself, order, ask directions. A2: handle daily routines and talk about the past - the level the UK asks for on a partner visa, and what Cambridge A2 Key certifies. B1: give opinions and tell a story - the level asked for British citizenship and indefinite leave to remain, roughly IELTS 4.0-5.0. B2: debate, handle nuance and the full conditional system - what most universities ask for, roughly IELTS 5.5-6.5. C1: read literature and the press at natural speed and catch irony and implication, roughly IELTS 7.0-8.0.

Cambridge publishes guided-hour ranges for each level, and they add up to roughly 1,000-1,200 hours of study between absolute beginner and B2. That is the honest number: at one focused hour a day it is around three years, at 20 minutes a day considerably longer. Your first language moves it a lot - a Spanish or Portuguese speaker shares thousands of Latin cognates with English and tends to arrive faster than a Japanese speaker, who shares almost none and has to rebuild word order from scratch.

Yes, indirectly. The curriculum is built on the CEFR descriptors those exams are mapped onto, so working through the B2 levels puts you on the ground B2 First and a 5.5-6.5 IELTS band cover. Leo is not an exam-cram product though: there are no timed mock papers and no writing-task templates. It builds the reading and listening comprehension the exams test, and you should still do past papers before sitting one.

English spelling is the least reliable of any major language - "through", "though" and "tough" share four letters and no sound. So every story ships with native audio, and tapping a word shows its IPA transcription alongside its meaning and its role in that sentence. You also hear the things the page hides: contractions, weak forms and where the stress falls. Read and listen together and the gap closes much faster than reading alone.

Every word and sentence you encounter is scheduled for future review. Cards you recall easily come back less often; cards you struggle with come back sooner. Because the material comes out of stories you have already read, reviews are anchored to a context instead of floating free. Reviews sync across your devices, so you can study on your phone in the morning and pick up where you left off on another device later.

Yes. Once a story is downloaded, you can read, listen and review it without an internet connection. Progress syncs the next time you go online.

Leo English is still in development and is not yet on the App Store or Google Play. There is no beta build to install today. Leave your e-mail on the home page and we will write once, on launch day - no newsletter, no drip campaign.

The plan is for the core learning experience - the full A1→C1 curriculum, SRS reviews, native audio and tap-to-translate - to be free, with an optional subscription for readers who want to go past the free daily allowance and download whole story packs offline. Final pricing will be shown in the app before you ever subscribe, in your local currency, and we would rather commit to nothing than publish a number we then have to change.

Through the App Store and Google Play, like any other app: billing on your Apple ID or Google account, auto-renewal that you can switch off from your account settings at any time, and cancellation taking effect at the end of the current billing period. Deleting an app never cancels its subscription - you have to turn it off on the store side.

Once the app is live, refunds will be handled by Apple or Google under their respective policies: reportaproblem.apple.com on iOS, and your order history on Google Play. If you get stuck, email get@leo-english.com and we will do what we can to help from our side.

Yes. When you are signed in, your learning history, bookmarks and SRS schedule sync across all of your devices.

The interface and all translations are available in English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese. English is also offered as an interface language, but there it works differently: the glosses are learner's-dictionary definitions in simple English rather than translations, which is how graded readers have always been written.

No accounts exist yet, since the app has not launched. Once it has, you will be able to delete your account from the app settings, or email get@leo-english.com from the address associated with your account. Deletion removes your personal information from our active systems; residual copies in backups are purged within 30 days. Full details are on our Delete account page.

The Service is not directed to children under 13. The stories are written for adults - work, travel, relationships, the news - rather than for a classroom. Users between 13 and the age of majority should have a parent or guardian review and agree to our Terms. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Leo English is built by Shinobi LLC, the team behind Shinobi Japanese. We are a small group of language learners and engineers who believe in comprehensible input and short daily sessions. The curriculum follows the CEFR: 51 levels and 395 grammar points, ordered so each one unlocks the next.

Email get@leo-english.com. A real human will reply, typically within one business day.