Breve

Breve

The Today screen shows a memory span chart for Japanese, Spanish and other decks. There are 27 cards planned for about ten minutes. Two of today's cards are about the Spanish present subjunctive.

Coming to iPhone and iPad

A study coach for language learners.

Breve plans what to review each day across all your decks, works around your class schedule, and shows you the mistakes you keep making.

One plana day

The first time you open Breve each day, it picks the cards that are due from all your decks. Cards are scheduled with FSRS. Anything you add later waits for tomorrow.

  • If you miss a day

    Today still shows only what fits. The rest stays scheduled.

  • Typed answers

    Breve corrects what you type letter by letter. A close misspelling counts as Almost, and you still choose the rating.

  • Cards you keep missing

    Breve asks you to type the answer, even in a deck you normally flip.

A Japanese review card shows 図書館, meaning library. It includes the reading, pitch accent and an example sentence. The card is waiting for an answer.
A Spanish card asks for brief. Brebe is typed and submitted. The card turns over to breve, an adjective, with an example sentence and a note on b and v. Almost marks the b struck through with v beside it.

The mistakesyou repeat

Breve keeps count of your wrong answers. When the same mistake comes up several times, it appears in Patterns with the cards where it happened. Patterns come from your answers, not from AI.

A pattern is marked fixed after 5 days without a miss and 6 correct reviews.

The Spanish Patterns screen shows the present subjunctive with five misses across three cards. It scrolls through memory span, the cards the pattern touches, the again rate, strength and rhythm, then back.
The pattern lesson shows five misses on three cards. It gives the present subjunctive rule, progress toward closing the pattern and the cards missed most.

Grammarlessons

Breve has a grammar syllabus for every language it teaches. You open a lesson from a class or from a pattern. Lessons need Pro. You get one free lesson per language to keep.

2,104 constructions · 9 languages · 1,900 lessons

  • Plain version first

    The plain version gives the rule in everyday words and examples. More precisely has the full explanation.

  • Word forms

    Word Details lists a word's most useful forms. All Forms opens the full table. (Pro)

  • Pronunciation

    IPA for single words, furigana and pitch accent for Japanese, and pinyin with tone marks for Chinese. Free.

A Spanish lesson on yes-or-no questions scrolls through three sentence pairs, then back. Each statement has a falling arrow. The same words as a question have a rising arrow.

Classes

Add your class schedule. When a class is less than a day away, Breve puts its cards first in your plan and adds a few new ones.

  • Recording

    Breve transcribes your class on your iPhone while you record. The audio isn't saved or sent anywhere.

  • Grammar covered

    See which constructions your class has covered, level by level, against the full syllabus.

  • Cards from a class

    Breve reads the class's pages, notes and transcript and suggests cards, grouped by topic. You keep or skip each one. (Pro)

Breve reads a French class's handout. Words including le marché, la boulangerie and se promener gather on a globe as pages are read and checked. The class coverage page then shows 21 words and 3 constructions from 5 pages. It scrolls through market words to the near future lesson. An Add 24 button sits below.
A Japanese class's grammar shows six of 276 constructions covered, grouped by JLPT level. 〜ている is in review.

Cards froma handout

Pick a photo of a handout or paste an article, and Breve suggests cards from it. It handles handwriting and mixed layouts. Part of Pro.

  • Check each page first

    You see each page before it's sent. Pages marked Keep Local stay on your iPhone.

  • Cover private parts

    Crop a page or cover anything you don't want to send.

  • Choose the cards

    Suggestions are grouped by topic. Edit any card, keep the ones you want, skip the rest.

Review Pages shows five photographed pages from the Spanish handout Lección 3. One page stays on the device and four are ready to send.
A page about ser and estar is being edited before sending. A black cover hides one line.

Bring your decks

Import your Anki decks with their review history, scheduling, media and flags. Importing and exporting are free.

  • CSV and Breve packages

    CSV import detects the separator and shows a preview. You can export a deck or a whole class, with or without your study history.

  • Both directions

    If you study a card both ways, each direction gets its own schedule.

The iPad library in landscape shows Italian B1 and Japanese 2A classes side by side. Seven decks sit below, including World Capitals and Anatomy.
The iPhone library shows Italian B1 today at 5:00 PM and Japanese 2A tomorrow at 6:30 PM. Spanish and World Capitals decks sit below.

Read Aloud

Read a passage out loud in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or Korean. A pace guide moves through the text as you read. Afterwards you see how each sentence went. Part of Pro.

  • Passages

    Each language has three passages to start with. You can also read from your deck, a page, your own text or a class.

  • Results

    You get words correct per minute. The passage marks words that weren't recognized or were said twice, and where you paused.

  • On your iPhone

    Speech recognition runs on your iPhone. Recordings are kept only for playback on the results screen.

The Speaking hub for an Italian deck shows a passage Breve wrote from its words. Three ready-made passages and this week's speaking rhythm sit below.
Results for the Italian passage Saturday at the Market show 111 words correct per minute, 98% recognized, a longest run of 24 words and 2 pauses. The passage marks chiacchiera as not recognized, fruttivendola as a second guess and assaggiare as said twice. Pauses before cipolle and pescivendolo lasted 1.7 and 1.9 seconds.

Outside the app

Breve also works from your Lock Screen, Control Center and Siri.

  • Morning Brief

    Breve writes a short brief the day before and sends it at the time you choose. You can tie it to a routine, like after coffee. (The AI coach's version needs Pro.)

  • Study alarm

    Set the morning prompt to Alarm and it rings even in a Focus mode. Opening it starts Study.

  • Widgets and Control Center

    Widgets show today's plan on your Home and Lock Screen. Quick Study in Control Center opens your most due deck.

Your data

There's no Breve account and no Breve server. Your cards and study history sync through your own iCloud, and studying works offline. Class audio is never saved or sent.

Privacy Policy

  1. In the app

    Dictionaries, grammar data and the counting behind Patterns are built in. None of it uses AI.

  2. On your device

    Some features use Apple's on-device model. That stays on your iPhone.

  3. Apple's Private Cloud Compute

    Some Pro features, like writing new cards for a deck, run there. Apple can't read what's sent and doesn't keep it.

  4. Cloud AI, with your permission

    With Pro, pages and class material go to Breve's Cloud AI only after you allow it. Free users never use it.

Free and Pro

Studying is free. Pro adds the features that use AI.

Free

  • Every deck and card
  • Anki and CSV import
  • The daily plan and Study
  • Typed answers and Patterns
  • Pronunciation
  • One grammar lesson per language
  • Class recording and transcripts
  • Morning Brief, widgets and Siri

Pro

  • Cards from photos and text
  • Cards from a class
  • New cards written for a deck
  • Grammar lessons and word forms
  • Practice sentences for a pattern
  • The AI coach and translation
  • Read Aloud

Pro is a subscription, with a free trial if you're eligible. Prices are set in the App Store in your currency.

Coming to iPhone and iPad

Free to study.