ONE STORY A DAY · JAPANESE

Read Japanesebefore yourcoffee cools.

Patapa gives you one short story every morning, written for your JLPT level. Read it, answer five questions, learn the words that came up. Three minutes, then you're done.

Get the appSee today's story
Free on iPhone · N5, N4 and N3 · no account needed
Today's story
Wednesday 21 October
Hi, Angela. It's raining today. In the story too. I got soaked.
TODAY'S STORY2 min · N5
雨あめの日ひの傘かさ
Yuki forgets her umbrella. Someone offers half of theirs.
Read story
語
Words
5 new · 5 to review
›
Level
N5800 words · 100 kanji
N41,500 words · 300 kanji
N33,750 words · 650 kanji
N2coming soon
How it works

Three minutes, three steps

1
Read the story

A hundred or so characters at N5, a few hundred by N3, all of it written for your level. Furigana on by default. Tap any word you don't know and its reading and meaning appear without leaving the page.

2
Answer five questions

Questions in English, answers in Japanese. Get one wrong and nothing is taken away: the right answer appears next to yours, and Patapa quotes the sentence it came from.

3
Keep the words

Tap a word while you read and it joins your list. Five new words arrive each day beside it, and a short quiz brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.

Real Japanese, right away

No word lists. A story from day one.

Most apps start you on isolated vocabulary and hope sentences come later. Patapa starts with the sentence. Even at N5 you read something with a beginning and an end, and the grammar arrives in the shape you'll actually meet it.

  • Furigana, kanji only, or romaji — switch mid-sentence.
  • Every reader on your level gets the same story, the same day.
  • Nothing to catch up on. Miss a day and today's story is still today's.
TODAY · N5雨の日の傘
今日きょうは 朝あさから 雨あめが 降ふって いた。ユキは 傘かさを わすれた。
傘
kasa · かさ
umbrella
TODAY · 5 NEW
毎朝
maiasa · まいあさ
every morning
毎朝まいあさ 七時ななじに 電話でんわが 鳴なります。
Then again after 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days.
Words

Five words a day, back before you forget them.

Reading gives you words; keeping them is a separate job. Patapa hands you five new ones from your level every day, each with a sentence it actually appeared in, so you meet the word doing its work rather than sitting in a list.

  • Five new words a day, grouped by theme, never a wall of them.
  • A short quiz brings a word back after a day, then a week, then a month.
  • Tap any word while reading to save it. It joins the same rotation.
Levels

All the way from N5 to N1

Patapa follows the JLPT ladder. Your level decides the story that arrives each morning. You choose it yourself when you start, and you can move up or down whenever a story begins to feel too easy or too hard.

N5
800 words
100 kanji
Hiragana and katakana are enough to begin.
N4
1500 words
300 kanji
Longer stories, past and casual forms.
N3
3750 words
650 kanji
Everyday news and conversation.
N2
6000 words
1000 kanji
COMING SOON
N1
10000 words
2000 kanji
COMING SOON
Kuro the yatagarasu, showing the way
Meet Kuro

A three-legged crow who knows the way

In Japanese legend, the yatagarasu is a crow with three legs, sent from the sky to guide the first emperor through unknown country. It didn't fight anything or carry anyone; it flew ahead and showed the way.

Kuro is that crow, a few centuries on. The country he guides you through is a language. He brings the day's story, points at the word you'll trip on, and waits while you read. He never scolds a missed day, and he never carries you. He just knows where the path goes.

This way. Today it's raining in the story. Bring the umbrella word.
More languages

Japanese first. Not last.

The daily-story loop works for any language with something worth reading. New languages arrive one at a time, each with its own stories and its own levels.

More to do

Listening, writing, and two more levels.

Stories read aloud with the sentence you are on highlighted, kanji practice that follows the stroke order, and a verb conjugation drill are all on the way. N2 and N1 are written and waiting their turn.

Tomorrow's story is already written.

Patapa is a free download on iPhone. One story a day, starting the moment you open it.

Download on the App Store
No account needed. Just a story.