The 23 Best Apps to Learn Italian in 2023 [Tested and Reviewed]
Traditional textbooks and self-teaching guides are great, but technology has added a whole new level of convenience to learning a language.
You can easily use your smartphone to spend more time studying Italian. Many apps are multimedia, so you can learn through audio, video and text—and maybe even connect with native Italian speakers!
Here are 23 of the best apps to learn Italian that should be considered for a spot in any Italian language learner’s pocket.
Contents
- 1. Best Free App to Learn Italian: Duolingo
- 2. Best Italian Video Learning App: FluentU
- 3. Best App for Italian Learning Community: Busuu
- 4. Best Interactive Italian Learning App: Mondly
- 5. Best Classic Italian Learning App: Rosetta Stone
- 6. Best Italian Language Exchange App: HelloTalk
- 7. Best App for Texting in Italian: Speaky
- 8. Best Italian Tutoring App: italki
- 9. Best App for Finding an Italian Teacher: Verbling
- 10. Best Italian Translation App: Google Translate
- 11. Best App for Italian Videos: YouTube
- 12. Best Italian Audio App: Spotify
- 13. Best App for Variety of Italian Lessons: Innovative Language
- 14. Best App for Italian Flashcards: Anki
- 15. Best App to Learn Conversational Italian: MosaLingua
- 16. Best Italian Dictionary App: WordReference
- 17. Best Italian Radio App: Radio Italia
- 18. Best App for Italian Podcasts: Pocket Casts
- 19. Best Italian Vocabulary Quiz App: 50 Languages
- 20. Best App for Learning Italian Fast: In 24 Hours Speak Italian
- 21. Best App for Italian Travel: Bravolol Learn Italian
- 22. Best Italian Vocabulary App: FunEasyLearn
- 23. Best Italian Phrases App: 5,000 Phrases
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. Best Free App to Learn Italian: Duolingo
Duolingo is a good resource for boosting your Italian vocabulary. It includes a variety of units for different levels of learners based around various themes, such as education or work environments.
Instead of focusing on grammar, the app helps you learn vocabulary and structures that allow you to communicate in particular situations.
The exercises include repeating audio, phrase translation, matching photos to words and other quiz-type features. Each lesson is designed to be short enough to fill your spare moments with Italian learning.
See our full review of Duolingo here.
2. Best Italian Video Learning App: FluentU
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons, 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’ve learned to recommend videos and ask you questions based on what you already know.
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!
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.)
Click here to read our full review of FluentU.
3. Best App for Italian Learning Community: Busuu
Like Duolingo, Busuu offers quick Italian lessons on a variety of topics at different levels. The lessons are not as culturally specific, but can be used in conjunction with other resources that give you more access to Italian culture.
There are a number of ways to use the app—useful lessons, a translator, word acquisition and more—but a great feature is the opportunity to interact with native Italian speakers.
You can write short texts or make recordings and have them corrected by native speakers. The chat feature will likely help you pick up some Italian idioms and slang!
Check out our full review of Busuu here.
4. Best Interactive Italian Learning App: Mondly
Mondly is another “gamefied” language learning app that features interactive exercises, pictures and translation tests, which we’ve reviewed fully in this post.
Lessons contain simple conversations between native speakers in full, excellent audio. With the help of Mondly’s non-repetitive exercises, you’ll assimilate the vocabulary into your long-term memory.
What sets it apart from other programs is the chatbot feature, where you can chat in Italian with a bot that asks you questions just like a new acquaintance would!
5. Best Classic Italian Learning App: Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone has been in the business for over 25 years, and the unique thing about their language programs is that you’ll hear a lot of the Italian language throughout your course.
The Rosetta Stone team believes that translation will only slow you down; you’ll have lots of pictures to guide you through the exercises and help you figure out the vocabulary.
You won’t explicitly learn grammar, either. Instead, you’ll learn to get conversational quickly by speaking often and moving your mouth like native Italian speakers do.
See our full review of Rosetta Stone here.
6. Best Italian Language Exchange App: HelloTalk
HelloTalk is a language exchange app that connects Italian learners with native speakers via text and audio messages. It’s ideal for enhancing conversational skills, practicing listening skills and learning slang.
This app comes with helpful features that facilitate interaction, like a voice-to-text capability and an instant translation feature. That means you and your Italian language partner can discuss anything you want!
HelloTalk is an indispensable tool for language learners who want to interact with native speakers, and it’ll help you get a taste of authentic Italian culture as well.
See our full HelloTalk review here.
7. Best App for Texting in Italian: Speaky
Speaky is a language exchange app that makes it possible to partner up with Italian speakers across the globe. The simple interface makes it a breeze to use.
You can chat by text and audio, giving you a chance to practice vocab and discover new words and phrases via your conversation partner. The text correction feature will ensure sure your spelling game is on-point.
Chatting with a native Italian speaker will give you a chance to hear their accent and discover local slang and expressions. And chatting through Speaky is great because there’s no ads and it’s completely free!
8. Best Italian Tutoring App: italki
Using italki is an ideal way to hone your Italian conversational skills. You can schedule a lesson with professional teachers or converse with language partners anytime, anywhere.
The individualized learning experience is an excellent way to strengthen your skills while learning about Italian culture. You can also practice writing and get direct help from the community.
Booking a lesson has a price but many other features are free.
Read our full italki review here.
9. Best App for Finding an Italian Teacher: Verbling
Use Verbling to hunt down the best Italian language teacher for you. You can easily connect with native speakers, professional teachers or tutors, then attend class right in the Verbling interface.
Choose Italian as the language you want to learn, and the app will generate a list of teachers. Click on a profile for pertinent information, including the teacher’s video introduction, to decide whether to book them for a class.
You can read reviews from previous students, sync your class calendars and choose a tutor with a rate that fits your budget. You can even send them a personal message before you book them and take one free trial class.
10. Best Italian Translation App: Google Translate
Google Translate is an awesome tool. You can translate Italian by writing, speaking or pointing your camera at text. There’s even a “Conversation” feature that turns the app into an interpreter if you get stuck in a conversation.
And if you do it right, you can definitely learn some Italian from this app! Supplement your other Italian resources by using Google Translate to get a quick translation or look up specific words or phrases.
Just keep in mind that this app is still a machine and not every answer will be completely accurate. Some results are verified by users for their accuracy but others might not be 100% correct.
11. Best App for Italian Videos: YouTube
That’s right, YouTube is a language learner’s dream. It was never intended for language learning, but you can use it as a language learning tool anyway!
YouTube houses language content from some of the most prolific content makers, like ItalianPod 101, plus resources for learning things like the Italian alphabet and Italian phrases for beginners.
Even better, it gets you into the real lives of native Italian speakers through authentic videos and vlogs. It’s great listening practice, especially for genuine conversations.
12. Best Italian Audio App: Spotify
You might know it as simply a music app, but Spotify houses some amazing Italian language learning content.
Try out language programs like “Coffee Break Italian” or “30 Minute Italian,” or immersive podcasts like “Learn Italian with Lucrezia” (his passion for the language is pretty contagious).
You can also stay up to date in Italian via shows like “News in Slow Italian.” And of course, you can search for terms like “Italy” or “Italian songs” for a seemingly infinite playlist of Italian tunes.
13. Best App for Variety of Italian Lessons: Innovative Language
The Innovative Language app will help anyone looking to build a powerful Italian vocabulary. The app ranges from absolute beginner to advanced, so the words presented are consistent with your abilities.
Line-by-line audio of words and phrases almost guarantees successful student pronunciation of unfamiliar words. There’s also a flashcard feature that presents new words in a familiar and fun way.
The free version nets you plenty of features, like weekly audio and video lessons, vocabulary lessons (via email) and offline learning. You can do a free trial of all the features before buying, and you can read our complete Innovative Language review here.
14. Best App for Italian Flashcards: Anki
Anki is one of the best flashcard apps that you can use to learn a language—here’s a full post about it. I particularly like that you can add media to your flashcards, including photos and audio.
This is a great way to study all those words from your vocabulary apps. You could even ask your Italian tutor or language exchange partner to record a word or phrase that you want to remember so you can quiz yourself on it later.
There are dozens of user-submitted Italian decks out there already, but I encourage you to create your own to study the vocabulary that’s most important to you. The process of making the cards will help reinforce the memorization aspect, too!
15. Best App to Learn Conversational Italian: MosaLingua
MosaLingua’s Italian learning app is based off the idea that it’s possible to speak Italian proficiently without spending a huge chunk of time on vocabulary.
It showcases common words and phrases and presents them in typical, everyday situations. That’s a great way to add to anyone’s conversational abilities.
Pick up a few phrases that you don’t typically use and add some flair to your conversations!
16. Best Italian Dictionary App: WordReference
If I had to choose one Italian dictionary app, WordReference would be it. It contains an excellent, professionally edited Italian-English dictionary.
Also included is the vast Italian-English forum, which will help you find relevant conversations that can open doors to a ton of useful information.
The app also provides helpful conjugations of any Italian verb as well as a link to Google Image searches at the bottom of entries, to ensure you always understand what you’re reading.
17. Best Italian Radio App: Radio Italia
This app gives you access to a whole world of native Italian videos, podcasts, music and interviews from the station Radio Italia.
The app is only in Italian, so it’s best for learners of an intermediate to advanced level who want to find more material to study or interesting programming to listen to.
18. Best App for Italian Podcasts: Pocket Casts
There are lots of great Italian podcasts out there (which you can explore in this post), and this is the app that I recommend Italian learners listen to them on.
You can use any podcasting app, of course, but this one offers the ability to significantly slow down speech, easily skip back ten seconds and even synchronize what you’re listening to across devices.
19. Best Italian Vocabulary Quiz App: 50 Languages
The 50 Languages Italian app pairs text and audio to teach you vocabulary. You’ll hear native Italian speakers pronounce the words, and there are flashcards to help you drill them into your head.
When you’re ready to be tested, choose from the five tests available: written answer, multiple choice, word order, fill in the blank or a bubble game.
You can also check out the Italian phrasebook, do some crossword puzzles, play “Find the Opposites,” and more. The interface is a little basic, but it can still teach you a thing (or 10) about the Italian language!
20. Best App for Learning Italian Fast: In 24 Hours Speak Italian
While you certainly won’t be fluent in 24 hours, this iOS app gives you the most useful words and phrases in the Italian language, including only the most common adjectives, adverbs and nouns.
There are 24 different categories that provide you the most important vocabulary on each topic. You’ll see just the translation and the proper Italian pronunciation. So, for “Excuse me,” you’ll get “Mi scusi” plus an audio clip.
While it may seem minimal, the app is perfect for travelers, tourists and anybody who wants some quick, straightforward Italian lessons.
21. Best App for Italian Travel: Bravolol Learn Italian
If you plan on traveling to Italy and need some language learning, this app divides phrases and expressions into common travel scenarios, like dining, shopping, asking for directions, etc.
Select useful English phrases from the list for a written and audio translation. Follow along and listen to the audio to learn the pronunciation. You can even switch between a male and female voice.
You can also record your own voice to hear what you sound like in comparison to the native speaker. Overall, this app is very practical to help you prepare for interactions in Italian.
22. Best Italian Vocabulary App: FunEasyLearn
This user-friendly app will teach you 6,000 Italian vocabulary words via several vocabulary lists and activities with modes from easy to difficult.
There are different categories that you can choose from, and each comes with various fun exercises. I recommend you choose “Vocabulary” as your first activity each time in order to learn the new words.
Words are pronounced by native speakers so you can hear authentic pronunciation. After that, you can take your pick of exercises such as “Find Image,” “Listen & Write” and “Match Words.”
23. Best Italian Phrases App: 5,000 Phrases
Also from FunEasyLearn comes “5,000 Phrases.” Such a large repertoire means there’s plenty of potential to build an enormous Italian vocabulary.
Phrases showcase common vocabulary in typical, everyday situations. You can choose to study by level or select one of the 20 topics and 145 subtopics.
The app features phonetic transcriptions and audio recordings, and you can learn the words thoroughly with 11 fun game modes. You don’t need an internet connection, so learn anywhere at anytime.
Now you have 23 of the best apps to learn Italian and make your learning journey flow easier!
Buona fortuna! (Good Luck!)
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
