List of FREE Language Learning Software
Dying to learn that second language, but your pocketbook’s a bit too thin? We’ve got you covered.
These are in no particular order :) Also, please remember that no editor of this blog is being paid or sponsored by the companies mentioned below.
Duolingo
Can’t have a language learning resource list without mentioning pretty much the most popular of them all! Consists of various listening, speaking, reading, and writing exercises.
Languages (non-beta, for English speakers): Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Irish, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Greek
Supported Platforms: Web, Android, iOS
Paid option(s): None
Memrise
Prefabricated flashcard decks, largely contributed by the community. Memrise primarily focuses on the areas of listening, reading, and writing.
Languages: English, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), French, German, Small German Dialects, Swiss German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Portuguese (Portugal), Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Greek, Norwegian, Swedish, Albanian, Armenian, Eastern Armenian, Western Armenian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Cornish, English (US), Estonian, Faroese, Flemish, Georgian, Gothic, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Ladin, Ladino, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maltese, Manx, Occitan, Romanian, Sami Languages, Lule Sami, Northern Sami, Southern Sami, Ume Sami, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Mandarin Spoken Only, Cantonese, Cantonese Jyutping, Ningbo Dialect, Taishanese, Hakka, Japanese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Pali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamang, Tamil, Indonesian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Azerbaijani, Hawaiian, Kazakh, Ainu, Australian, Burmese, Cebuano, Dzongkha, Javanese, Karen languages, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Laz, Malay, Maori, Marshallese, Nepali, Tagalog, Tibetan, Arabic, Classical Quranic Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Khaliji Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Levantine Arabic, North African Maghrebi Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Aramaic, Kurdish, Persian, Yiddish, Russian, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Circassian, Macedonian, Ossetic, Coptic, Swahili, Afrikaans, Akan-Twi, Amharic, Hausa, Kaonde, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, Malagasy, Mandinka, Nyanja, Somali, Soninke, Wolof, Zulu, Cherokee, Algonquian languages, Alutiiq, Choctaw, Greenlandic, Guarani, Inuktitut, Lakota, Nahuatl languages, Quechua, Latin, Ancient Greek, Esperanto, Interlingua (International Auxiliar, Klingon, Lojban, Morse Code, Na’vi, Quenya, American Sign Language (ASL), Argentinian Sign Language, Australian Sign Language (Auslan), British Sign Language (BSL), French Sign Language (LSF), Korean Sign Language, Galician, Haitian, Indo-European languages
Supported Platforms: Web, Android, iOS
Paid option(s): $59/year
Lingvist
Unique cloze-based flashcard learning program that adapts to you. One of my new favorites!
Languages: German, Spanish, French, Russian
Supported Platforms: Web, Android, iOS
Paid option(s): None
Clozemaster
If you couldn’t tell from the name, this is another cloze-oriented system. Closer to traditional SRS than Lingvist. A word of warning, though: Clozemaster kind of requires a baseline understanding of the language as a prerequisite to using it.
Languages: Afrikaans, English, Guarani, Indonesian, Breton, Catalan, Spanish, French, Welsh, Danish, German, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Estonian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Finnish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Czech, Bulgarian, Persian Farsi, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Esperanto, Basque, Serbian, Mandarin Chinese Traditional, Irish, Galician, Scottish Gaelic, Latin, Latvian, Norwegian Bokmål, Occitan, Piedmontese, Romanian, Slovak, Icelandic, Greek, Belarusian, Macedonian, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Armenian, Yiddish, Georgian, Amharic, Cantonese
Supported Platforms: Web, Android, iOS
Paid option(s): $60/year
Lang-8
Write journal entries in your target language, receive corrections from natives, and correct others’ entries in your native language.
Languages: Afrikaans, Ainu, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijanian, Basque, Bengali, Bihari, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, Flemish, French, Gaelic, Georgian, German, Greek, Haitian, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Khmer, Kirghiz, Korean, Kurdish, Laotian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Mandarin, Marathi, Mongolian, Myanmar, Navajo, Norwegian, Ossetic, Other language, Panjabi, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romani, Romanian, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slavic, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tongan, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Turkmen, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish, Zulu
Supported Platforms: Web
Paid option(s): $63/year
Anki
SRS. Powerful and customizable flashcard software. Note that the languages listed are simply the main categories of user-generated decks available on AnkiWeb. You can make your own flashcards for virtually any language. Sort of like Quizlet and SuperMemo.
Languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish
Supported Platforms: Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS
Paid option(s): None except for the iOS app, which is $24.99
Be sure to check out https://languagelearning.stackexchange.com/ for language learning Q&A!
