Top 8 best apps for learning Italian

Why invest in language courses when free mobile apps can help you become fluent in Italian?

Learning a language is always a stimulating cognitive learning process. Would you like to learn Italian to make progress before a trip to Italy? If you want to acquire a good level of oral expression and comprehension before your trip, it’s best to plan ahead!

Traditionally, people think of private lessons to learn a foreign language. But training is expensive. Fortunately, thanks to your smartphone or tablet, there’s no need to spend a fortune on language lessons, as there are free apps to help you learn Italian.

Here are our top 8 apps for learning Italian, and why not meet that special someone in Rome next summer?

1. Babbel

Our top/flop:

👍: its personalized learning

👎: the lack of a community

Babbel is the other mastodon of mobile language learning! Founded in 2007, Babbel lets you learn Italian and 15 other languages online. It has established itself as one of the leaders in the field! So, whether your goal is to learn English, Swedish, Spanish or even Italian, Babbel will help you get there, provided you’re willing to drop a few euros.

With its playful interface (though not as fun as Duolingo’s), Babbel is gaining in popularity year on year, and offers two training modules: vocabulary and tools. Whether you have a basic or advanced level of Italian, Babbel’s mission is to make you perfectly bilingual. To achieve this, the application uses interactive activities built around oral and written exercises.

Special courses are also available to help you perfect your Italian and learn Italian culture, customs and habits – making it even easier to integrate into the country. The voice recognition function also lets you perfect your accent and pronunciation even before you arrive in Italy. A little extra to help you feel even more at home in Italy!

The only drawback is that this Babbel application, although very complete, is not free. You’ll have to pay around €5 a month for a year’s subscription, or €7.5 a month for a 6-month subscription.

2. MosaLingua

Our top/flop:

👍: its scientific method

👎: its lack of diversification

MosaLingua is also a behemoth of an app for learning Italian. This small, multi-platform application provides lessons using a scientifically proven method: spaced repetition. The app’s mission is to help you memorize words through vocabulary exercises.

To do this, MosaLingua uses some 3,000 cards containing key words and phrases, which are unexpectedly repeated as you progress through the levels, to help you memorize as many words as possible.

For this application, you’ll have to pay €9.99 per month, or opt for the 12-month package at €59. 99 (or €4.99 per month)!

3. Mondly

Our top/flop:

👍: its very intuitive chatbot

👎 : its repetitive side

Mondly offers you its free Italian learning application. In just a few minutes a day, you can learn the basics of this language through games and quizzes. They’ll help you learn Italian vocabulary and grammar, so you’ll be sure to use the right words and expressions in future discussions, with the right pronunciation.

The many Italian exercises are accompanied by a dictionary, an online translator and a conjugator, so you’ll feel right at home as you learn. This Italian learning app also uses a voice recognition system to help you achieve the perfect accent! The real plus of the app lies in its intuitive chatbot, which will guide you through the learning process.

Prices range from €9. 99 for a month to €47. 99 for a year. The application also offers numerous deals throughout the year. Alternatively, you can opt for the « lifetime subscription » version, at €60, so you never have to spend another cent.

4. FluentU

Our top/flop:

👍: podcasts and innovation

👎 : its exacerbated price

FluentU is the most up-to-date application in our ranking. In fact, it breaks with learning codes by simply proposing to learn Italian through podcasts and other digital information formats. This makes it the most original application in our ranking.

FluentU offers a wide range of tools, from videos on relatively simple subjects such as music videos, to more complex topics such as news and advertising. This type of training addresses one of the problems of language learning. Indeed, after days and days of learning with FluentU, when you’re put into a real-life situation, you rarely get any gaps during the conversation phases.

To help you go step by step, each video has a detailed script, so you know what each term means. The only downside is that, in keeping with the times, the application comes at a price: only the first two weeks of use are free, after which you’ll have to pay €15 a month or €120 a year to continue using it.

5. Busuu

Our top/flop:

👍: perfect for learning vocabulary

👎: the false hope of freemium

When it comes to learning Italian, the developers of Busuu have pulled out all the stops! Their application enables you to make rapid progress and perfect your Italian. You’ll learn perfectives, irregular verbs, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Busuu is very comprehensive, whether you’re a beginner or an expert. You choose to follow interactive exercises adapted to your level, and each course is thematic.

Each lesson introduces you to a point of Italian grammar, and then goes on to learn new words and expressions, followed by their oral expression and comprehension. Pictures and dialogues help you to better understand and learn Italian.

A little extra: you can exchange and have your exercises corrected by native Italians, who are part of the application’s community.

The downside is a minor disappointment… Initially free for the first few lessons, the application then becomes a paying application! On the other hand, the application is quite economical, costing just €34. 99 per year for the premium version!

For the premium plus version, you’ll have to pay around €6.50 per month. But don’t worry, the application often offers attractive deals…

6. Memrise

Our top/flop:

👍: its user community

👎: its lack of diversity

If you want to brush up on your vocabulary or learn new words, phrases or expressions in Italian, Memrise is the ideal application! It uses a scientific method: spaced repetition. Based on our brain’s learning and forgetting curve, it offers you vocabulary cards, with key words and phrases inscribed on them.

You’ll need to learn and remember them. They will then come back at regular intervals: if you remember them, you’ll see them less often. If you don’t, you’ll see it more frequently until you remember it. This Memrise application is tremendously effective when coupled with another application for learning grammar or conjugation.

And one of Memrise’s strengths is its worldwide community of users. Users can create their own lists of cards to memorize, then offer them on the application. So you can download lists from other users to learn Italian on specific themes.

A basic version is free. For advanced use, three subscriptions are available: monthly($8.99), quarterly($18.99) and annual($45.99).

7. Duolingo

Our top/flop:

👍: the app is 100% free

👎: the fun aspect is too present

Duolingo is considered one of the undisputed free references in the landscape of apps designed for learning foreign languages on smartphones or tablets. Already acclaimed in our previous articles for learning English and Spanish, the application, available on both Android and iOS, is the Swiss Army knife of Italian lessons.

Installed in French on your device by default, Duolingo uses fun little games to teach you the language of your choice, which in this case isItalian. You’ll be able to improve your vocabulary, conjugation and grammar, punctuation and listening comprehension. You’ll also learn some of the subtleties of everyday use.

Well-structured, the learning process evolves gradually as you complete the missions assigned to you in the application, with the level of difficulty increasing proportionally. This method will help you understand the most difficult terms of Galileo’s language in the shortest possible time.

Completely free of charge (no in-app purchases), Duolingo also features a saving tool that makes it easy to learn on a variety of media. In fact, you can start an exercise on your tablet and finish it on your smartphone, regardless of the terminal’s operating system.

8. Learn Italian 6,000 Words

Our top/flop:

👍: the method

👎: the lack of conjugation and grammar

Less flamboyant than Duolingo or Babbel, « Apprendre l’Italien 6000 mots » (Learn Italian 6000 words) is a very well-designed thematic application, offering, around a well-structured interface, to learn, as its name suggests, 6000 words of Italian. The aim here is not to make you the future President of the Italian Council, but to give you a basic understanding of Italian, so that you’ll be able to recognize objects and call them by name (in Italian) on your next trip to Rome.

The application is relatively lightweight and contains integrated purchases. However, it’s well worth the price – you’re sure to impress!