English17th century
It’s raining cats and dogs
Rain so violent and relentless it feels like the sky has given up on you.
Il pleut des cordes
Llueve a cántaros1,632 expressionsFrenchEnglishSpanish
Why does English rain cats and dogs while French gives its tongue to the cat? Curioo takes 1,632 idioms and hands each one back to you as an illustrated story — where it came from, what it really means, and how to use it without sounding like a textbook.
Coming soon to the App Store
Free to download. Curioo Premium is optional and starts with a 3-day free trial.
EnglishIl pleut des cordesLlueve a cántaros
What you actually get
Four things a dictionary
will never give you
A definition tells you what an expression means. It does not tell you where it came from, when to use it, or why the same idea sounds completely different one border away.
01Every morning
One expression a day
A single card, chosen for you, waiting when you wake up. Two minutes is the whole commitment — and a reminder lands at the hour you pick, not the hour we pick.
02Where it comes from
The story behind it
Every expression is dated, sourced and explained. You do not memorise “raining cats and dogs” — you remember the flooded London street it came from, and then you cannot forget it.
03In the wild
How to actually use it
Register, context and a real sentence for each one. You learn whether a phrase belongs in a job interview, a text message, or nowhere near either.
04Across three languages
The same idea, said differently
English gives up guessing; French gives its tongue to the cat. Every card lists its equivalents in the other two languages, so you see how each culture solved the same problem.
The collection
Nine of them. There are 1,623 more.
Every card carries the illustration, the meaning, the century it appeared in, the story behind it, and the way the other two languages say the same thing.
Keep scrolling — the deck moves sideways
Where it comes from
You do not memorise an expression. You remember its story.
Every entry is dated and sourced, and the app tells you how confident that account actually is — because half of etymology is people repeating a good guess.
Spanish · 15th centuryLegendary
“No hay moros en la costa”
literally: there are no Moors on the coast
Not a metaphor at first. Watchtowers along the Spanish shoreline scanned the horizon for raids during the Reconquista, and this was the all-clear the lookout shouted down.
Today it means: the coast is clear. nobody is watching — go ahead.
15th
Lookouts on the Spanish coast
16th
The Golden Age puts heads in clouds
17th
London floods its own streets
19th
Paris turns swoons into apples
20th
Actors start breaking legs
The split
Where the 1,632 actually come from
Three corpora, built separately and then cross-referenced, so every card can point at its equivalents rather than pretending it has none.
English0
expressions
British and American turns of phrase, from Shakespeare to the open-plan office.
French0
expressions
Including three from Québec, where the language took its own road and kept going.
Spanish0
expressions
Castilian expressions carrying eight centuries of Iberian history.
The interface speaks all three too, so you can learn a language without first having to navigate it.
Prove you learned it
Twelve ways to be wrong about an expression
Reading is not knowing. Every mode attacks the same corpus from a different angle — 40 levels each, the first 2 of every one of them free.
Quick Quiz
Four meanings, one right answer, a clock that does not wait.
The Impostor
Five expressions. One of them was never real. Find it.
Guess the Country
Read the phrase. Name the culture it grew up in.
True or False
Does that expression really mean what you think it means?
Translation
Find the equivalent that survives the jump between two languages.
In Context
A sentence with a hole in it. Only one expression fits.
Mutant Expression
One word has been swapped. Spot the impostor word.
Story Mode
A branching story where every choice is an expression.
Discovery
Swipe through expressions until one of them sticks.
Guess the Image
The illustration is the clue. Name what it is showing.
4 Pictures, 1 Expression
Four scenes, one phrase connecting all of them.
Survival
Endless. One mistake ends the run.
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game modes
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levels in each of them
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badges to collect
Beyond the cards
An app you keep opening
A streak alone does not hold anyone for a year. So the owl changes as you climb, the widgets teach you without the app being open, and almost none of it sits behind a paywall.
99 levels
Your owl grows up with you
Every expression read and every game won feeds the same XP bar. Curioo changes costume as it climbs — aviator, explorer, superhero, wizard.
6 widgets · free
Learn without opening the app
Home screen and lock screen. The expression of the day sits on the surface you unlock anyway, so the days you never open the app are not lost days.
6 app icons · free
Pick your home screen
Plus 4 interface layouts. Of the 11 wallpapers, some are earned through daily rewards and the rest come with Premium.
Pricing
Most of it is free. Genuinely.
The daily expression, the streak, the badges, every widget and every app icon cost nothing and always will. Premium removes the level gates for people who want the whole corpus at once.
Free forever
€0
No account, no card, no trial to remember to cancel.
- The expression of the day, forever
- The daily journey, streak and 23 badges
- All 6 widgets and all 6 app icons
- Favourites, search and the 4 layouts
- The first 2 levels of every game
Optional
Curioo Premium
Starts with
3 days free
Monthly or yearly afterwards. The price in your currency is shown in the app before you confirm anything.
- All 12 games unlocked from day one
- Levels 3 to 40 of every game
- Unlimited expressions, no daily cap
- All three languages at once
- The complete story collection
- Calendar history — revisit any past day
- The premium themes and the rest of the wallpapers
Subscriptions renew automatically unless renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel at any time in your Apple Account settings.
Questions
Before you ask
Is Curioo free?
Yes. The expression of the day, the daily journey, your streak, badges, favourites, search, all six widgets, all six app icons and the first two levels of every game cost nothing. Curioo Premium is optional and unlocks the rest.
What does Premium add?
Every game unlocked immediately instead of level by level, levels 3 to 40 of each one, unlimited expressions, all three languages at once, the full story collection, the calendar history of past days, and the premium themes and wallpapers. It starts with a three-day free trial.
How do I cancel the subscription?
In your Apple Account settings, under Subscriptions — one tap, at any time, including during the free trial. Price and duration are shown in the app before you confirm anything, and the subscription renews automatically until you cancel it.
Which languages does it cover?
French, English and Spanish — 1,632 expressions in total, with a few Québécois entries alongside the French. The interface itself is available in all three.
Do I need an account?
No. Curioo works straight out of the box, and your progress is kept on your device.
Is it useful if I already speak the language?
That is arguably who it is for. Idioms are the last thing a fluent speaker picks up, because they are the one part of a language you cannot work out from its rules.
Start with one expression.
Tomorrow, another.
1,632 of them, in three languages, each with the story that makes it stick. Two minutes a day is the entire commitment.
Coming soon to the App Store
Free to download. Curioo Premium is optional and starts with a 3-day free trial.