Get Core 2000$97

Learn the 2,000 Japanese words that make up 85 to 90% of everyday conversation.1

The best way to learn Japanese starts with the words you'll hear most. Core 2000 puts all 2,000 in frequency order, each in a natural sentence with audio. Anki then brings every word back when you're most likely to forget it. On sale today: $197 $97, $100 off, ends when the timer hits zero.

Get my 2,000 words$197 $97
  • 90 day money back guarantee
  • Pay once, no subscription
  • Download right after you pay
or try 8 real cards first

Studies in Anki: free on Mac, Windows, Linux and Android, $24.99 once on iPhone.

Studies in Anki on MacWindowsLinuxAndroidiPhone
  • 90 day money back guarantee
  • Pay once, keep it forever
  • Romaji on every card
  • Audio for every word and sentence
  • Works offline
  • No ads, no daily limits
  • Most common words first
  • Lemur Launch Guide included

You know some Japanese. So why does real Japanese still fly past you?

Maybe you've done the lessons. You can say konnichiwa and count to ten. Then a Japanese friend talks at normal speed, or you put on a show without subtitles, and most of it slips by.

That's a really common place to get stuck, and the reason is simple. Everyday Japanese leans on a small set of words, again and again. Until you know those words, every sentence has holes in it.

Many courses teach by topic. Japanese runs on frequency.

Food one week, travel the next. Useful words, picked in an order that has little to do with how often you'll hear them. The good news is that you need far fewer words than you'd think. About 2,000 of them make up 85 to 90% of everyday conversation.1 Learn those first, and every show and every chat after that has fewer holes in it.

How it works

The most common words first, each one reviewed when you're most likely to forget it.

Climb in order of how often Japanese uses each word

We ranked words by frequency using BCCWJ, the 104.3 million word corpus of contemporary written Japanese from Japan's National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, combined with the wordfreq lists. Some beginner essentials, like greetings, numbers and question words, were added or moved up into the first 200 words.

Let Anki do the remembering

Anki schedules every review with spaced repetition. Words you know come back less often, words you find hard come back sooner. Frequency order means the words that pay off most are the ones you lock in first.

Polite first, then casual

The first 600 words use polite Japanese, the safe choice with people you've just met, apart from a handful of words like うん (yeah) that only exist in casual speech. After that, casual Japanese joins in, so you start hearing how friends talk too.

From understanding to speaking

Speaking starts with having the word ready. Switch on speaking cards for any word to practice going from English to Japanese, and play the sentence audio to say it along with the voice.

One word's journey, for example

  1. TodayMeet 美味しい in a sentence
  2. 1 dayQuick review
  3. 4 daysStill there
  4. 2 weeksGetting easy
  5. 2 monthsYours

Anki sets the real gaps from your answers.

Taste every level

From your first words to word 2,000. Try a few from each stage.

Tap a word to hear it, then study three real cards from that part of the deck.

Beginner, words 1 to 400. Approx. JLPT: mostly N5 and N4. Everyday basics you'll hear in your first conversations: eat, drink, read, home, morning, of course.

3 real cards from the Beginner stage

JLPT levels are approximate. The JLPT has published no official word list since 2010, so we matched each word against Jonathan Waller's widely used JLPT lists (tanos.co.uk, CC BY). A word's level there can differ from where it sits in our frequency order.

Get all three levels$197 $97

Try it right now

Study 8 real cards from the deck

These are the actual cards you get, running right here in your browser. Tap the sentence to see readings, play the audio, press Show answer, then grade yourself the way you would in Anki.

  • Reading cards: see the word in a sentence
  • Listening cards: hear it, then check you understood
  • Tap ▶ for the word and sentence audio

Liked those 8? The other 1,992 work the same way.

Get all 2,000 words$197 $97

Everything inside Core 2000

All 2,000 words come packed the same way, so you're never left guessing what a word means or how it sounds.

2,000

The most frequent words

Ranked from corpus data, most common first.

4,000

Reading and Listening cards

See each word in a sentence, then hear the sentence and check you understood.

Audio for every word and sentence

A clear female voice made with AI text to speech. We checked every clip against the card text with speech recognition.

Lemur tips, furigana and romaji

Part of speech and politeness on every word, verb forms on every verb, plus tips on the tricky ones. Speaking cards switch on whenever you're ready.

Bonus: the Lemur Launch Guide

Easy Anki setup for PC, Android and iPhone, from installing the app to your first review, plus the daily settings we recommend for this deck.

Core 2000 and Duolingo, side by side

Duolingo keeps you tapping. It is brilliant at making ten minutes feel like progress. But ten minutes of tapping is not 2,000 words in your head, and deep down you already know that, because if the owl had done it, you would not be reading this page.

Feature
Lingua Lemur Core 2000
Duolingo
How the words are picked
Ranked by how often they appear in NINJAL's BCCWJ corpus of real Japanese (104.3 million words)
Duolingo teaches topics: food one week, travel the next
The order you learn them
Most common first, all the way to word 2,000, because that's the order Japanese itself uses
Units built around topics and tasks, in no order you'd hear in a conversation
A word list you can check off
All 2,000, each with its own cards, so you know exactly what you've covered
No full word list. You never know what you still don't know
A sentence card for every word
A natural sentence with translation, furigana and romaji for every word
Words taught inside mixed exercises, one tap at a time
Speaking
Speaking cards you switch on per word: see the English, say the Japanese. Sentence audio to speak along with
Speaking exercises inside lessons
Review timing
Anki schedules each of your 4,000 cards for the exact day you're most likely to forget it
The app picks what you review, and reviews follow the lesson, not your memory
Ads and daily limits
No ads. Study as much as you like
Free plan has ads, hearts and an Energy limit that stops your streak when you miss a day
What you pay
$197 $97 once, on sale now, and the deck is yours forever
A Super Duolingo subscription. Pay forever, own nothing

Use both if you like. Keep the streak for fun. But when you want to understand what people actually say, Core 2000 is the deck that puts the 2,000 words everyday Japanese runs on into your head, and keeps them there.

Duolingo details checked 13 Oct 2026 from Duolingo's own blog and App Store listing.2 Duolingo is a trademark of Duolingo, Inc. Lingua Lemur has no affiliation with Duolingo, Inc.

Get my 2,000 words$197 $97

Under 5 cents a word. Pay once, keep it forever.

Core 2000 is $197 $97 once, on sale now. Anki is free on computers and Android.

That's $100 off the regular price, and the sale timer on this page decides when it ends. Anki is the flashcard app you study in. On iPhone, the official AnkiMobile app is $24.99 once. You buy the deck from us once, and there's nothing more to pay us. Spread across 2,000 words, $97 comes to under 5 cents a word.

  1. Get Anki. Free on Mac, Windows, Linux and Android. On iPhone, AnkiMobile is $24.99 once.
  2. Add Core 2000. Import the deck. The Lemur Launch Guide walks you through it.
  3. Do your daily reviews. Add a few new words a day and work through all 2,000 at your own pace.
Get my 2,000 words$197 $97

Your bill

Anki on Mac, Windows, LinuxFree
AnkiDroid on AndroidFree
AnkiWeb syncFree
AnkiMobile on iPhone (optional)$24.99 once
Lingua Lemur Core 2000$197 $97 once
Every year after$0

Third party prices checked 13 Oct 2026.3

The 90 day show me guarantee

Study 30 minutes a day for 90 days. See real Japanese open up. Or pay nothing.

Here is the deal, and it is simple. Study every day for 30 minutes, for 90 days. Watch shows, talk with friends, sit in that meeting, whatever Japanese you wanted this for.

If you don't feel the difference, if real Japanese is still flying past you at day 90, email us and we refund every cent of your $97 in full. No forms, no quiz on the vocabulary, no interrogation.

And you keep the deck. All 2,000 words, all 4,000 cards, yours either way. That is how sure we are that daily reviews in frequency order work when another app's topic units have not worked for you.

One honest condition: the 30 minutes has to actually happen. Screenshot your Anki stats at day 90 if we ask, that's all we need. The guarantee covers your $97 Lingua Lemur purchase, not the optional $24.99 AnkiMobile iPhone app.

Start with the guarantee$197 $97

Still on the fence?

Here's what you're probably wondering.

I've never used Anki.

The Lemur Launch Guide takes you from installing Anki on PC, Android or iPhone to your first review, plus the daily settings we recommend for this deck.

I can't read Japanese yet.

Every card has romaji, and you can tap any sentence to see furigana over the kanji. The first 200 words cover greetings, numbers, pronouns and question words.

I don't have much time.

You choose how many new words to add. At 10 a day you finish all 2,000 in 200 days, at 20 a day in 100. Reviews add some time on top.

What if it doesn't work for me?

Study 30 minutes a day for 90 days. If real Japanese still flies past you, we refund your $97 in full, and you keep the deck.

Is this another subscription?

No. You pay once and the deck is yours to keep. It works offline, and there's nothing to renew.

Is paying safe?

Checkout runs through Whop. Whop emails your receipt, and your download waits in your Whop account as well as on this page.

I'm ready, get my words$197 $97

90 days to see the difference, or a full refund.

Questions

Are you Anki?

No. Lingua Lemur made this deck. Anki is the flashcard app you study it in. We're an independent team with no connection to Anki, Ankitects or AnkiHub.

Do I need to know hiragana first?

You can start today. Every card has romaji, and you can tap any sentence to see furigana readings over the kanji. Learning hiragana alongside the deck helps you lean on romaji less as you go.

How long does it take each day?

You decide, because you choose how many new words to add. At 10 new words a day you'd finish all 2,000 in 200 days. At 20 a day it's 100 days. Reviews add some time on top, and our setup guide suggests a comfortable starting pace.

Does it work on iPhone?

Yes. On iPhone you study in AnkiMobile, the official Anki app, a one time purchase of $24.99 on the US App Store. On Mac, Windows, Linux and Android, Anki is free.

Is the audio recorded by native speakers?

The audio is a clear female voice made with AI text to speech. We ran every clip through speech recognition, checked against the card text. You get audio for every word and every sentence.

Is there a subscription?

No. You pay $197 $97 once, on sale now, and the deck is yours to keep. It works offline, and there's nothing to renew.

I already use Duolingo. Should I switch?

Keep going if you enjoy it. Core 2000 works alongside any course or app, and makes sure the 2,000 most common words are solid, whatever else you use.

I'm a total beginner. Is this too advanced?

It's made for beginners. The first 200 words include greetings, numbers, pronouns and question words, and the first 600 words use polite Japanese, apart from a handful of words like うん (yeah) that only exist in casual speech. Every word comes with a sentence, translation, audio and romaji, so you always have something to hold on to.

How does the 90 day guarantee work?

Study every day for 30 minutes, for 90 days from your purchase. If you don't feel the difference in real Japanese, email us within the guarantee window and we refund your $97 in full, and you keep the deck. We may ask for a screenshot of your Anki review stats, just to see the days happened. That's the whole process.

What do I get, and how?

The Core 2000 deck file for Anki (2,000 words, 4,000 cards, plus optional speaking cards) and the Lemur Launch Guide for setting up Anki on PC, Android and iPhone. Checkout runs through Whop. Right after you pay, your download and the guide are waiting in your Whop account, and Whop emails your receipt.

Learn your first words today

On sale right now: $197 $97, $100 off. Pay once, set up Anki with our guide, and the lemur keeps you company all the way to word 2,000.

90 day guarantee: study 30 minutes a day for 90 days. Real Japanese opens up, or we refund your $97 in full and you keep the deck.

  • The 2,000 most frequent Japanese words, most common first
  • 4,000 Reading and Listening cards, plus optional speaking cards
  • A natural sentence, translation, furigana and romaji for every word
  • Word and sentence audio, every clip machine checked
  • Politeness on every word, verb forms and Lemur tips
  • The Lemur Launch Guide
Lingua Lemur Japanese Core 2000$197 $97 once
$100 off today 02:01:47 left
  • 2,000 words, 4,000 cards, all audio
  • Lemur Launch Guide included
  • Under 5 cents a word

90 day money back guarantee. 30 minutes a day, 90 days, real results or a full refund. You keep the deck either way.

Secure checkout by Whop. One payment, no subscription.

$197 $97 02:01:47 left