Die Kartei

Learn German your way: vocabulary, grammar, reading, and speaking, powered by AI that runs entirely on your device.

A GERMAN MODEL, FINE-TUNED FOR THIS APP
The app ships with German Tutor, a model trained specifically on German instruction rather than general chat. It writes the stories, runs the grammar drills, and builds your cards, all on your phone. The model and its training data are open and public on Hugging Face.

READ LIKE YOU WOULD IN THE EXAM
Story Mode writes a short story at your level, then asks you comprehension questions about it, the same format as the Lesen sections of the Goethe and ÖSD exams. Stories can be illustrated on device, read aloud with separate male and female voices for dialogue, and any word you didn't know becomes a flashcard.

PRACTICE SPEAKING WITH AI VOICE CHAT
Have a real, turn-based spoken conversation in German. Each turn shows what to fix and the corrected sentence. Role-play 20+ everyday scenarios (a café, a haircut, a job interview, a first date) or focus on specific grammar like Perfekt, Konjunktiv II, and the cases. Tap any word for a translation, ask for hints, and hear replies read aloud. Stuck? "Say it in German" turns what you want to say from English into natural German, then coaches you through saying it. Every chat ends with a coaching report and can become a flashcard deck.

A COACH THAT KNOWS WHAT YOU GET WRONG
The app tracks the mistakes you make across flashcards, stories, games, and conversations, then works those weak spots back into your practice. A streak calendar shows how much you studied each day, and reminders run on whatever cadence you set, or none at all.

GAMES THAT USE YOUR OWN VOCABULARY
Vocab Matching pairs German and English against the clock using your own decks. Der/Die/Das is rapid multiple-choice article practice drawn from an on-device German dictionary: the one thing English speakers never stop getting wrong.

GENERATE FLASHCARDS ON ANY TOPIC
Type a theme like "kitchen items," "travel phrases," or "business German," and the AI builds a full deck tailored to it. Filter by word type, add example sentences, include conjugation tables across four tenses, and illustrate cards with on-device image generation. Queue several heavy jobs at once and let them finish in the background.

SAVE PHRASES YOU HEAR IN THE WILD
Heard something you didn't catch, like a clerk's "Sonst noch etwas?" Save it to your phrase library and the AI weaves it into matching chats until you're used to hearing it. Any saved phrase can become a flashcard.

STUDY FROM PDFs, PHOTOS, AND WEB PAGES
Upload a German PDF, scan text from a photo,, or paste a link, and the AI pulls out a summary, a vocabulary deck, and practice questions, then talks it through with you in German.

OFFICIAL GOETHE-INSTITUT WORD LISTS
Pre-built decks drawn from the official vocabulary lists used in Goethe-Institut certification exams: A1 (Start Deutsch 1), A2, and B1. Over 4,000 words with articles, translations, and word types, plus dedicated practice for the Akkusativ and Dativ cases.

THREE WAYS TO STUDY
Classic flip cards to browse at your own pace. Anki mode with SM-2 spaced repetition: rate a card and the app schedules its next review. Leitner mode with the classic box system, where correct cards advance and wrong cards go back to Box 1.

RUNS ENTIRELY ON-DEVICE
All AI generation uses open-source models running locally via MLX. No account. No subscription. No data leaves your device. The app takes on the look of whichever model you pick.

BUILT FOR GERMAN LEARNERS
Noun articles are color-coded by gender (der / die / das). Verb conjugations span Präsens, Perfekt, Präteritum, and Plusquamperfekt. German text-to-speech, with instructions for adding Apple's natural Enhanced and Premium voices. Generated cards are checked against a bundled Wiktionary dictionary, and wrong articles get fixed before you see them, including compound nouns no dictionary lists. Haptic feedback on answers, tunable to taste.