Top 3 Free Spanish Language Apps
Spanish is spoken by about 406 million native speakers around the world, making it the second most spoken language on Earth (number one is Mandarin). Regardless of any numbers, I would say it’s simply a magnificent language to listen to. This might also explain the 20 million Spanish students around the world. If you happen to be a language lover and/or avid traveler, reason enough to start learning some Spanish! To help you get going, here is a list of my Top 3 Free Spanish Language Apps.
1. SpanishDict
SpanishDict will be your greatest online address for any type of Spanish-related resources. It functions as an awesome dictionary, offers conjugations for any verb you can think of, has a flashcard system and provides the best online explanations and exercises for getting the hang of tricky grammar, like using the different past tenses. This really helped me with passing my exams last January! Their app is just as useful, providing a dictionary both ways (English and Spanish), word games, quick access to useful phrases and a new word every day (daily word).
2. Duolingo
I’ve blogged about Duolingo before and it is ever-improving. My sister is part of the Incubator team and many volunteers are working on adding a lot more languages. For learning Spanish, I highly reccomend using Duolingo to really get used to sentence structure and keeping your vocabulary active. It merges grammar and vocabulary by asking the student to translate sentences, introducing new lessons by using themes like ‘animals’ or ‘feelings’. It trains both your reading and listening skills. I personally love using Duolingo, partly because of their experience points (XP) system, where you advance up to a higher level as your Spanish skills improve over time. Duolingo also tracks your weakest skills, offering you the option to ‘strengthen’ those specific words or grammar issues.
3. CatAcademy
CatAcademy is a newly developed app by language learning website Memrise. On your Spanish learning journey, you’ll be guided by the cutest and quirkiest cats, sometimes growling at you if you give a wrong answer. The app incorporates exercises (challenges) in the form of multiple choice tests, training your vocabulary, grammar, listening, reading and conversational skills. Your lessons aren’t timed, so when you get a little busy, you could also just “pawse” the game and continue with your challenge at a later time. Despite CatAcademy’s obviously advantageous kitty-based system, there is one big drawback: Apparently it’s only free until Challenge 7. For that reason, I only recommend this app if you’re a complete beginner. Even though I’m personally more of a dog person, it’ll be a fun method of getting yourself acquainted with the language on a most basic level and motivate you to improve your skills.
These are just a few free Spanish language apps I’ve come across, but I’m sure you guys have found more great ones like these. Do you use any other apps or websites to study Spanish? Do share!
