Verbal Nomad: Spanish Edition

What we love about Verbal Nomad

Firstly, Verbal Nomad is a nicely-presented app that is clear and effective in what it sets out to do.  The scope of the app itself may not be vast, but it is very good in what it offers and how it achieves this.

As I had previously mentioned, Verbal Nomad will be best suited to a competent Spanish speaker, who has some grasp of extended sentences and how tenses operate – as any novice will quickly find themselves out of their depth and will struggle to navigate the most basic features.  However, if you see yourself at this level or aspire to challenge yourself in verbal grammar, then Verbal Nomad is definitely worth a download.  The customisable levels (A1 for post-beginner up to C1, which would be considered advanced) give good scope to keep the app suitably challenging and motivating while still remaining accessible.  From my experience there is a really nice blend of both, in that as someone who would be considered level C2, I still found some questions that nicely tested my grammar refinement and use.  It is rare that an app claims to suitably challenge all user levels for which it caters – yet, here Verbal Nomad has done very well to back up such a claim.

Continuing the above point, the settings allow each user to customise their app experience in a very specific way; not only is this limited to the aforementioned levels (A1 to C1), but the content within each can be selected or deselected at will.  This goes as specific as limiting the tense involved, regular or irregular verbs, even the extent to which you can select the verbs on an individual level – e.g. stem or spelling change.  For a student with an upcoming verbs test, this is a quality feature showing how Verbal Nomad has the potential to appeal to any user.  

The quality of coding is also apparent, namely in how the app registers that multiple correct answers could be appropriate under certain circumstances.  For example, Spanish pronouns can often appear in several places within a sentence, in each case that I came across, Verbal Nomad registered these and correctly marked my differing answers as correct.

The range of verbs, tenses and moods is a real plus, for me, and kudos must go to the developer, who has taken considerable time in adding a large repertoire of verbs across multiples tenses and in varying sentence contexts.  The ever-changing sentences to be translated will give you a detailed and comprehensive glimpse of grammar and vocabulary to challenge and extend your Spanish knowledge.

Ultimately, what I like most of all are the supportive prompts that overlay each question.  The stand-out is the ‘hint’ option which outlines the core verb from the sentence.  Within this feature, you are told the tense required, and can even view and practise a specific verb in a particular tense or mood.  This is such a well-thought addition and takes the scope of this app to a whole other level in my book.

Other nice additions are the ability to hear the answer in advance of submitting your own answer or opting to view the answer itself.  Though the more competitive among us will prefer to throw caution to the wind and try for ourselves.  It is here that Verbal Nomad will implement more personalised learning, by giving some suggestions (you can toggle these in either English or Spanish) on any of the errors that you may have made – e.g. some letters / accents / words are missing, etc. – to allow you to refine and refine your answer, gradually building towards getting it correct.

Ultimately, the purpose of the app is where you test yourself against the randomly generated phrases and let the app highlight any mistakes you may have made and prompt you on how to improve.  For me, I know that in a short space of time, I gained confidence and efficiency in my grammar recall and use.

Selfishly, another element that is a huge positive for Verbal Nomad is the fact that it is free.  Even more surprisingly, is the fact that the developer appears keen to keep it this way – as the paid-option to enhance features will soon disappear, leaving the app fully open to those who download it.  For what this app offers, it is exceptional value that you get so much quality for no cost – if I were you, I would download this as quickly as possible before the developer decides to charge…and let’s be honest, he would be well within his right to do so.  This really is an effective platform, and I believe any user will see progress in their Spanish in a very short space of time. 

Is Verbal Nomad easy to use?

Yes, Verbal Nomad is neatly designed and is it easy to navigate between the various features and content, especially after a little time spent fully exploring the settings on offer.  The app begins by allowing you to select your desired level and then promptly begins the questions.  Initial use is overlayed with explanatory prompts to show you how to access and make use of the various support features.  In my opinion, the interface is user friendly.

Students will love the customisable nature of the app and the ability to refine their study, as well as the vastness of verbs and grammar available when you unleash the full spectrum of the platform.

For teacher and parents, Verbal Nomad represents a ready-made programme where they know that their children will be engaging with quality and genuine Spanish in a comprehensive and supportive way.

What, Verbal Nomad, can improve on

The quality of Spanish on offer is unquestionably high, especially with the coding recognising various possible answers for one question; however, there is one minor error that has crept through – the inverted question and exclamation marks are not a requirement when writing your Spanish answers.  Although, not major, it is a small oversight that would really put the gleam on what is otherwise a very comprehensive platform.

With the almost meteoric rise in apps like ‘Wordle’ the lack of a sharing feature is something that, developer, Robert Eyre may wish to explore.  One, it is on trend, but secondly it will give deserved publicity to a very good app … which leads to my final point : the lack of Android availability.  Ultimately, this is not the developer’s fault, as Google Play Store requires a certain degree of App Store success before you are able to sell through it.  Yet, again, the social media sharing option will bring this app to a greater proportion of perspective users and be a fundamental part of seeing their Spanish-language skills grow.

How much does the app cost?

Verbal Nomad is currently available for free on the iOS App Store.  Unfortunately, it is not yet available on Android.

Is Verbal Nomad safe to use?

Yes, Verbal Nomad is safe to use, with it being ad-free and all content being related to the app itself.  The app is straightforward to use and is well designed.  Scrolling and navigation are mostly intuitive, and the interface will ensure that you can find intended content with relative ease.

Overall rating of the app

In conclusion, as an app for interacting with and understanding a comprehensive variety of Spanish verbs and tenses, it is very effective in what it does.  It will require self-motivation and discipline for you to make fullest use of what it has to offer, and the customisable elements in the ‘settings’ will appeal to many and means that this software has plenty to offer to a wide range of Spanish speakers.

Verbal Nomad will be best suited for users with a background in extended sentence structure (namely personal opinions and reasons) and how verbs work in this language in order to fully interact and benefit from the app.  For me personally, it is already on my recommendation list for my students to extend their knowledge of verb conjugations and translations alike.

You can download Verbal Nomad: Spanish Edition on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.