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 expressions · 3 languages · 12 games
Learn theexpressionsnobodyteaches you
Grammar you can study. Idioms you have to meet. Curioo hands you one illustrated expression a day — with the story behind it, the way to use it, and how the other two languages say the very same thing.
Coming soon to the App Store
Free to download. Curioo Premium is optional and starts with a 3-day free trial.
EnglishIt’s raining cats and dogs
Rain so violent and relentless it feels like the sky has given up on you.
What is inside
Everythingan idiomneeds tostick.
A picture, a story, a real sentence, and the equivalent in two other languages. Then a game to check it actually landed.
Every single day
One expression.
Two minutes.
A single card waits for you each morning, and a reminder arrives at the hour you chose — not the hour that suits us. Miss a day and the streak notices.
Origins
Dated, sourced, and honest about it
Each entry carries its century and how confident that account really is — because half of etymology is a good guess repeated often enough.
Three languages
English0
French0
Spanish0The interface speaks all three, so you never have to navigate a language to learn it.
6 widgets · free
Learn without opening the app
Home screen and lock screen. It works because it lands on the surface you unlock anyway, without you deciding to study.
Register & context
Know where it belongs
Casual, standard, formal or best left unsaid — plus a real sentence for each one.
The collection
Six of them.1,626 moreinside.
Every card carries its illustration, its meaning, the century it appeared in, and the way the other two languages say the same thing.
EnglishIl pleut des cordesLlueve a cántaros
English20th century
Break a leg
Good luck — said to someone about to walk on stage.
Merde !¡Mucha mierda!
English16th century
Once in a blue moon
Almost never — only on the rarest of occasions.
Tous les trente-six du moisDe higos a brevas
French19th century
Avoir le cafard
literally: to have the cockroach
To be gripped by a low, shapeless sadness that arrives without a reason.
To feel blueEstar de bajón
French19th century
Donner sa langue au chat
literally: to give one’s tongue to the cat
To stop guessing and admit you have no idea — usually mid-riddle.
To give up guessingMe rindo
French19th century
Tomber dans les pommes
literally: to fall into the apples
To faint. To go down without warning.
To pass outDesmayarseAcross 25 themes, four registers and four rarity tiers — from the phrase everyone knows to the one nobody has said out loud since 1890.
Twelve game modes
Think yougot it?Proveit.
Reading is not knowing. Twelve modes come at the same corpus from twelve angles, 40 levels deep each — and the first 2 levels of every single one are free.
Modes unlock as your player level climbs — or all at once with Premium. Story Mode is worth 80 XP a run, which is not an accident.
99 levels
Your owllevels upwith you.
Every expression read and every game won feeds the same bar. The mascot changes costume as it climbs — and yes, that is a stupid reason to keep a streak alive, and yes, it works.
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badges
From a three-day streak to “Cultural Storyteller” and “Sharp Eye”.
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levels per game
Twelve modes, forty levels each. That is 480 rounds before you run out.
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themes
Animals, food, money, war, love, the body — filter the corpus however you think.
Streaks, and a way back from breaking one
Streak freezes exist because life happens on a Tuesday.
Inside the app
Seven screens.One habit.
The whole product in seven frames — the card, the picture, the widget, the three languages, the quiz, and the weekly reason to come back.
From the list to the whole story
The feed is only the doorway. Open any expression and you get the meaning, a sentence you could actually say out loud, the origin, and the equivalents in the other two languages.
One drawing per expression
Not a stock library. Every one of the 1,632 entries has a scene made for that phrase alone, which is why the app weighs more than a dictionary and is worth more than one.
A picture instead of a definition
The scene is the mnemonic. Recall an image and the phrase comes back attached to it — recall a definition and you get a definition.
It comes to you
Six widget formats, home screen and lock screen, all free. You end up learning on the days you never opened the app.
Three languages side by side
Every card lists its equivalents, so you watch three cultures solve the same problem three different ways — and that comparison is the actual lesson.
The part that checks you were paying attention
Twelve modes, forty levels each. Recognising an expression and being able to use it are different skills, and only one of them survives a quiz.
A reason to come back on Tuesday
A weekly challenge with XP goals, a progress bar that fills as you play, and a board to climb. Motivation is a feature, not a gimmick — nobody finishes 1,632 cards on willpower.
Scroll the row to see the rest →
Make it yours
Six icons.Four layouts.Zero euros.
Customisation is usually the first thing an app puts behind a paywall. Here the icons, the widgets and the layouts are simply free.
6 app icons · free
Choose the face on your home screen
Change it as often as you like — iOS and Android both.
11 wallpapers
And backdrops to unlock
Some are earned through daily rewards, the rest come with Premium — alongside the 4 interface layouts, which are free.
Pricing
Most of it isfree.Genuinely.
The daily expression, the streak, the badges, every widget and every icon cost nothing and always will. Premium exists 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
3 days free
Then monthly or yearly. The price in your currency appears 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 youask.
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.
One expressiontoday.Anothertomorrow.
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.