About VocabBondhu

What is VocabBondhu?

VocabBondhu (ভোকাব বন্ধু) is a free English-to-Bengali vocabulary learning application designed specifically for Bengali-speaking students in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The app delivers 7,189 curated English words across academic and general usage categories, each with natural Bengali translations, part-of-speech tags, example sentences, and audio pronunciation.

The English vocabulary lists are sourced from established academic word-list research and used with kind permission from their authors (see Acknowledgements below). Bengali translations, definitions, and example sentences were generated with the help of AI; audio pronunciation uses Microsoft Edge TTS (Jenny Neural) for natural American English clarity. We continually improve the content based on user reports.

Who is this for?

• Students at every stage — from a child's first English textbook to a graduate student's final exam — building vocabulary at their own pace
• IELTS, TOEFL, and GRE candidates building academic vocabulary
• Self-learners who want a free, ad-supported alternative to paid apps
• Teachers and tutors looking for organised word lists with Bengali context

How it works

VocabBondhu offers four learning modes built around the same vocabulary:

• Browse & Search — filter words by category, subject, or part of speech.
• Flashcards — animated card flip with "I Know This" / "Still Learning" tracking.
• Quiz (MCQ) — multiple-choice questions with instant feedback and a final score review.
• Fill in the Blanks — context-based sentence completion.

All four modes feed into a spaced-repetition (SM-2) algorithm that schedules the next review for each word based on how well you remember it — the same algorithm used by Anki and SuperMemo.

Free, anonymous, and yours

No account is required. We generate a random anonymous identifier (####) the first time you open the app and store it in your browser. That ID lets us save your progress on our server so it follows you across visits, but it is not linked to a name, email, phone number, or any personally identifiable information.

VocabBondhu is free to use forever. Hosting, storage, and ongoing improvements are covered by us directly for now; we plan to add non-intrusive Google AdSense advertising to help cover those costs once approved (no ads run today). We do not sell premium tiers, and we do not sell user data.

Acknowledgements

VocabBondhu would not exist without the academic word-list research generously shared by the following scholars. Each list below is used with their kind permission.

• Academic Word List (AWL) — used with kind permission from Averil Coxhead, Victoria University of Wellington. Cite as: Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213–238.
• Academic Keyword List (AKL) — used with kind permission from Magali Paquot, UCLouvain. Cite as: Paquot, M. (2010). Academic Vocabulary in Learner Writing: From Extraction to Analysis. Continuum.
• Subject-Specific vocabulary lists — used with kind permission from Andy Gillett, UEfAP. See uefap.org.
• New General Service List (NGSL)— the modern, openly-shared successor to Michael West's 1953 GSL. Cite as: Browne, C., Culligan, B. (2013). The New General Service List. Retrieved from newgeneralservicelist.org. All 2,809 NGSL 1.2 words are present in our database, distributed across all four categories above (NGSL coverage is intentionally broader than any single one). Look for the small NGSL badge next to a word to spot them.

Audio pronunciation generated with Microsoft Edge TTS (en-US, Jenny Neural). Bengali translations, definitions, and example sentences generated with the help of AI — definitions for NGSL words come from Browne & Culligan's authoritative list. Spotted an error? Please let us know and we'll fix it.

Who's behind VocabBondhu

VocabBondhu is built and maintained by one person — me, Rahman.

I began my professional career as a software engineer near the start of this millennium, back in 2005. The two decades since have taken me through nearly every stage of a software career — writing code, leading teams, and shipping products across multiple countries and industries. The throughline has stayed the same: take a real problem, understand it properly, and build something that works for the person using it, not just for a demo.

This site is a smaller, deliberately scoped project built on top of that experience, combined with a more recent one — using AI to build and ship useful things faster than a solo developer could a few years ago. Rather than start with something large and speculative, I chose to build something small and genuinely useful first: a free vocabulary site for Bengali-speaking students, with no sign-up, no dark patterns, and no shortcuts on the Bengali meanings.

If a word finally sticks, or a page explains something more clearly than you expected, it's doing its job. If you spot a wrong meaning or want a word added that isn't in our list yet, the contact page reaches me directly — I read every message myself.

Learn more

See our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Contact pages for full details on how we handle your data, the rules of use, and how to reach us.