JA Sensei 6.2.0 is now available on Google Play!

For this release, I’ve worked on several tools to help you hear Japanese more clearly, understand the differences between similar words, and organize your learning. Here are the main additions.

Pronunciation: see how the voice rises and falls

You can now explore sentence prosody. That's the natural intonation and rhythm of a sentence through a curve that accompanies the audio recording. It shows how the speaker’s pitch rises and falls, while the text is highlighted as the recording plays.

You can slow down playback and return to a specific passage to listen more closely and practice repeating it. This tool is available in dialogues and example sentences, among other places.

Word pitch accents also appear in vocabulary details, flashcards, and quiz corrections. These visual cues complement the audio to help you refine your pronunciation.

Vocabulary: understand the differences between similar words

Two Japanese words may share a similar translation without being interchangeable.

The new “Usage nuances” section explains these differences through 328 groups covering nearly 2,800 words. From a vocabulary entry, you can explore related words, compare their uses, and listen to their pronunciation.

For example, 家族 — kazoku mainly refers to the people who make up a family, while 家庭 — katei places more emphasis on the household and family life.

Grammar: build your own review lists

The new personal list manager is now available in the Grammar module.

You can group the grammar sheets you want to revisit, add several grammar points to a list, move entries between lists, or merge your lists. Useful for preparing for a JLPT level or keeping difficult constructions close at hand!

Your lists are synchronized with your account. The advanced list manager is available to Premium and Samurai Unlimited members.

A larger dictionary and a more comfortable experience

Samurai Unlimited members now have access to a dictionary containing over 175,000 words (40,000 new words) through an extension downloadable within the app.

I’ve also made several improvements for everyday use:

• a history of your searches and recently viewed words or kanji;
• layouts better suited to tablets and smaller screens;
• improved dark mode readability;
• better stroke validation in handwriting exercises.

Thank you for your feedback and support: they help me keep developing JA Sensei. If the app helps you with your studies, leaving a review on Google Play is another valuable way to support the project! Find JA Sensei on Google Play.