Phrase Hero 1.2.0: Five Worlds and 100 English Expressions

Update summary: Phrase Hero 1.2.0 completes all five learning worlds, expands the library to 100 expressions, opens every world from the start, and can refresh learning content without an extension update.

Five complete learning worlds

Phrase Hero began with a simple goal: make common English expressions easy to practise in Chrome's side panel. Version 1.2.0 completes the original five-world map.

The Study and Research world and the Career world join the existing categories. Each world contains 20 expressions across the two exercise levels, bringing the total to 100.

Examples in the new worlds include:

• Study and Research: figure out, sum up, read up on, and sit in on;
• Career: turn down, take over, live up to, and follow up on.

Meanings are available in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and English while the quiz sentence remains in English.

Choose any world from the beginning

Previous versions used sequential unlocking. A learner had to complete an earlier world before entering the next one. That structure gave the map a game-like progression, but it also prevented someone from going directly to the phrases needed today.

Version 1.2.0 opens all five worlds immediately. You can practise business expressions before a meeting, study expressions while writing, or daily-life expressions without completing an unrelated category first.

Progress and star ratings still provide a record of completed work. They no longer act as a gate.

Content can update independently

This release also separates learning content from the packaged extension. Phrase Hero can retrieve the current content and cache it on the device.

The intended flow is:

1. The extension starts with usable packaged or cached content.
2. It checks whether newer learning content is available.
3. A successful response is stored locally.
4. The cached copy remains available when the network is unavailable.

This allows corrections and new expressions to arrive without waiting for a complete Chrome Web Store release. It also means a temporary network problem should not make a previously used learning tool empty.

Level 2 display fix

Level 2 asks the learner to construct a phrase by choosing a verb and particle in order. Version 1.2.0 fixes a state-reset problem that could leave choices from the previous question visible.

This was a small visual bug with an important lesson: quiz state must reset when the question identity changes, not only after a click handler completes. Stale choices can make the learner unsure whether the current answer has already been partially selected.

Install or update

Install Phrase Hero from the Chrome Web Store.

For an unpacked development installation:

1. Download the current source from GitHub.
2. Open chrome://extensions/.
3. Reload Phrase Hero.
4. Open the side panel and select any of the five worlds.

The source snapshot and detailed changes are available on the v1.2.0 release page. Phrase Hero is open source under the MIT licence.

What changed in the learning experience

Version 1.2.0 is more than a larger phrase count. It changes the app from a fixed path into a small library the learner can navigate according to immediate need. The open map reduces friction, and independently refreshed content makes future corrections less dependent on software release timing.