The Vocabcord 500

The Vocabcord 500 is a set of free phrase collections for language learners. Each collection gives 500 useful phrases in one language, grouped by everyday situation, such as greetings, getting around, eating out, shopping and asking for help, with an English (or other) translation and a short note where a phrase needs explaining.

Collections cover Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and others, with some written for speakers of languages other than English. The Spanish list, for example, is organized into 18 situations and explains regional differences, like the different words for peanut in Spain and Latin America. Each list is free to read on the site, and a printable PDF and a CSV are offered too, which makes it easy to turn a list into flashcards.

Vocabcord also publishes shorter Specialist 200 lists for particular jobs, such as German for nurses and Spanish for hotel and restaurant work. These are aimed at adults starting work abroad.

The phrase lists are the free part of Vocabcord. The company also makes an app that plays phrases and translations as audio. The app has a free starter collection and a 14-day trial, after which full access is a paid plan (listed at $54.99 per year at the time of writing).

The collections are practical rather than grammatical: they will not teach verb tables, but they give a learner the sentences they actually need. They suit older teens studying a language who want real-world phrases to go with their course, families preparing for travel, and adult learners. Some lists include phrases for ordering drinks in a bar, so parents of younger students may want to preview a list first.