Italian Flashcards: The Top 8 Must-Have Apps in Your Learner’s Arsenal
You’ve already binged Italian drama series, burned the midnight oil learning Italian grammar and maybe even tried your hand (or rather, mic) belting out songs in Italian.
And now you’re dying to learn new Italian vocabulary in a flash (pun intended).
If that sounds like you, you’re probably still missing one important tool: Italian flashcards!
Lucky for you, I’ve put together eight of the best apps to learn Italian using flashcards.
Contents
- 8 Shockingly Great Italian Flashcard Apps
- Why Use Flashcards to Learn Italian Vocabulary?
- And One More Thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
8 Shockingly Great Italian Flashcard Apps
Italian Flashcards by iAceATest Inc
Price: Free (with monthly in-app purchases)
“Italian Flashcards” is a straight flashcard app with over 4,000 pre-made flashcards. It has nine categories including Hobbies, Nature and Food.
You can download custom flashcards from other users to expand your Italian vocabulary. This is great for when you’ve mastered all the included flashcards and are looking to expand your Italian skills!
VOClab by Smart Language Apps
Price: Free (full version costs $9.99 as of this writing)
VOClab includes more than 5,000 Italian flashcards.
This app includes a scientific algorithm that allows you to review words you may have forgotten over time, ensuring that new words will never slip from your memory.
All words include audio spoken by a native Italian speaker to help you with pronunciation. Aside from flashcards, the app has multiple-choice quizzes to test your knowledge of the Italian words you’re mastering. Talk about multifaceted!
Italian Essentials by Renkara Media Group, Inc.
Price: Free
This app isn’t only free: it has over 2,400 professionally-made flashcards for vocabulary and common sentence constructions.
In addition to basic vocabulary, this app is extremely useful because it includes common verbs and their conjugations. This is great for learners because it shows how verbs change within a sentence depending on the subject.
All the flashcards are accessible in a searchable, in-app dictionary so you can find a translation when you just can’t remember what a word means. And while you’re at it, try one of the audio quizzes or multiple-choice quizzes to increase your fluency.
MosaLingua
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
This is first and foremost a flashcard app. It includes the most common vocabulary and sentences, and is complete with audio so you can perfect your pronunciation as you’re perfecting your vocabulary. Also, the app allows you to practice built-in conversations to help you use your acquired vocabulary in real-life situations.
The app’s overall goal is to teach you the 20% of the language you’ll use the majority of the time—not so much the 80% of vocabulary that pops up less frequently with natives. And it’s designed to help you pick up this language using 10 minutes per day of focused flashcard study.
Better yet, there’s also a hands-free mode for you to use while on a run or commuting. Who doesn’t love multitasking, right?
Mondly
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
Mondly is for those who want a quick run-down of common vocabulary they can use while traveling.
The flashcards include high-quality audio as well as voice recognition to let you practice speaking. That’s fantastic for those wanting to improve their listening comprehension and perfect their Italian accent.
The app follows a logical sequence for those looking to learn conversational Italian. This means that you start at the most basic grammar and vocabulary, then work your way up to more complicated and complex conversations. We’re talking long-term here!
Aside from vocabulary, you can also use this app to look up verb conjugations. So the next time you’re traveling to Italy, whether for business or leisure, make sure to take Mondly with you.
Need more information on Mondly? Check out this review.
FlashAcademy
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
FlashAcademy covers multiple aspects of language learning: speaking, listening, reading and writing. While it’s not a straight flashcard app, flashcards are a big part of the program.
Specifically, they allow you to hear and watch native speakers say Italian vocabulary by combining multiple forms of media to give you a well-rounded learning experience. FlashAcademy also uses games to teach vocabulary and grammar, which you can use to test yourself after going through the flashcards.
Busuu
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
Busuu is also not a straight flashcard app, but flashcards make up a big chunk of the vocabulary and grammar learning here.
In addition to flashcards, Busuu leads learners through 150 topics and over 3,000 words. These lessons also build on previous knowledge so you’re constantly reviewing the words and constructions you’ve already learned.
Furthermore, users follow a pre-made lesson structure that incorporates audio, video and written flashcards. The app is available offline, so even if your internet fails, you can still review without much trouble.
If Busuu sounds like an interesting app to you, you may want to read this honest review of it.
FluentU
Price: Free trial available
FluentU isn’t strictly a flashcards app, but the interactive subtitles on the videos it features are worth a mention!
Whenever you see or hear a word or phrase you want to add to your custom flashcards deck, all you have to do is click. You’ll also get information from the subtitles like definitions, pronunciations, example sentences, tips and other videos where that word or phrase appears.
You can find a comprehensive FluentU review here.
Why Use Flashcards to Learn Italian Vocabulary?
As I’m sure you remember from your elementary school days, flashcards have been around for a while. Sure, you might not have always seen the point of making or using them when you were growing up, but you have to admit: there’s no better way to explain something concisely than by condensing it onto a 2 x 3 piece of paper.
Even in the age of modern technology, flashcards are a fantastic way to learn a language like Italian. On one side of the card, put the Italian word you want to learn. On the other, put the English translation and maybe a grammar note or two. Simple but effective. And the best part is you can now do it all on your phone!
Because these flashcards are stored in an app on your phone, you can access them and practice anywhere: on the train, in the doctor’s waiting room, on your lunch break or in the bathroom.
What’s more, Italian flashcard apps allow for the repetition of the most useful vocabulary. You can review the same 50 words every day for a week and then move on to 50 new words the following week. This repetition means that the learned words make it into your long-term memory and stay there.
I hope you’re convinced by now to give Italian flashcards a try. If you think your language learning routine could use a little sprucing up, flashcards may be the way to go!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
If you're as busy as most of us, you don't always have time for lengthy language lessons. The solution? FluentU!
Learn Italian with funny commericals, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:
FluentU helps you get comfortable with everyday Italian by combining all the benefits of complete immersion and native-level conversations with interactive subtitles. Tap on any word to instantly see an image, in-context definition, example sentences and other videos in which the word is used.
Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and review words and phrases with convenient audio clips under Vocab.
Once you've watched a video, you can use FluentU's quizzes to actively practice all the vocabulary in that video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.
FluentU will even keep track of all the Italian words you’re learning, and give you extra practice with difficult words. Plus, it'll tell you exactly when it's time for review. Now that's a 100% personalized experience!
The best part? You can try FluentU for free with a trial.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
