Feeling Flashy? Then Check Out These Top 7 Italian Flashcard Apps!
Italian struck you like a bolt of lightning.
You’ve already survived being electrified by Italian drama series, getting burnt out while learning Italian grammar and you were thunderstruck at the thought of singing karaoke songs in Italian but did so anyway.
And now you’re dying to learn new Italian vocabulary in a flash.
But you may be shocked to learn that you’re still missing one important tool: Italian flashcards!
Contents
- Why Use Flashcards to Learn Italian Vocabulary?
- 7 Shockingly Great Italian Flashcard Apps
- Bonus: FluentU
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Why Use Flashcards to Learn Italian Vocabulary?
As I’m sure you remember from your elementary school days, flashcards have been around the education scene for a while. Sure, you might not have always seen the point of making or using them when you were growing up, but you gotta admit: There’s no better way to explain something concisely than by condensing it onto a 2-inch by 3-inch piece of paper.
Even in the age of modern technology, flashcards are a great way to learn, and they’re a fantastic way to learn 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 here’s the best part: It’s all done on your phone!
In fact, I wasn’t lying when I said you can learn up to 50 new Italian words at a time. 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 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 for long-term usage!
7 Shockingly Great Italian Flashcard Apps
You’ll find that there are many free and paid flashcard apps to learn Italian with your iPhone or Android phone. Here are the top seven Italian apps with prominent flashcard features that we’ve found!
Italian Flashcards by BH Inc
“Italian Flashcards” is straight flashcard app with over 4,000 pre-made flashcards. You can get it for free if you want the basic program. For additional features such as audio, there’s a fee.
In the app, there are nine categories to choose from including topics like Hobbies, Nature and Food. These are great to help you practice vocabulary that you’ll use in the most common and basic Italian conversations.
Better yet, you can also download custom flashcards from other users to expand your Italian vocabulary. This is great for when you’ve mastered all the included flashcards and you’re looking to expand your Italian skills!
Voclab by Smart Language Apps
This app includes more than 5,000 Italian flashcards. Like the previous app, it’s initially free but the full program requires some in-app purchases.
This app includes a scientific algorithm that allows you to review words that you may have forgotten over time. This means that new words will never slip from your memory.
All words include audio spoken by a native Italian speaker to help you with pronunciation. Furthermore, in addition to flashcards, the app has multiple choice quizzes to test your knowledge of the Italian words you’re mastering. Talk about multifaceted!
Learn Italian Free from AccelaStudy
This app is only available for iPhone, but it’s free and 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.
Beyond that, 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.
Learn Italian Free by MosaLingua
This is first and foremost a flashcard app, and it’s available for free. 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.
In addition to being a flashcard app, 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 that 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 with 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 Italian Flashcards for Beginners Travel & Business
This Mondly app is really for those who want a quick run-down of common vocabulary that they can use while traveling. Best of all, it’s available for free.
Mondly’s flashcards include high-quality audio as well as voice recognition to let you practice speaking. That’s excellent for those wanting not only to improve their listening comprehension, but also for those who want to 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 for the most basic conversations, and then you work your way up to more complicated and complex situations. We’re talking long term, here!
In addition to vocabulary, you can also use this app to look up verb conjugations right on the app. So the next time you’re traveling to Italy, whether for business or for leisure, make sure to pack this awesomely useful app!
FlashAcademy by Learning Labs
FlashAcademy is a free app with in-app purchases available, and it’s great for learners who are more focused on speaking.
In fact, 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.
As for the flashcards, they allow you to hear and even watch native speakers say Italian vocabulary by combining multiple forms of media to give you a well-rounded learning experience. In addition to flashcards, FlashAcademy also uses games to teach vocabulary and constructions.
After studying the flashcards, you can head over to the games to test yourself and your new Italian vocabulary and grammar knowledge.
Learn Italian by busuu
Like FlashAcademy, “Learn Italian” by busuu isn’t a straight flashcard app, but flashcards make up a big chunk of the vocabulary and grammar learning. After checking out its free features, users can become premium members to gain full access to the app and all its resources.
In addition to flashcards, the busuu program 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.
Better yet, this course is available offline for on-the-go learning. No internet? No problem!
Bonus: FluentU
FluentU isn’t strictly a flashcards app, but its interactive video flashcards make it worth a mention! Flashcards not only display the word, a definition, an associated image and example sentences—they also show you different videos in which the word is used, so you get tons of context.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
I hope that wasn’t too flashy for you. Then again, learning Italian isn’t supposed to be done in the dark.
And now your future Italian studies are looking pretty bright!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
