Why pay for expensive language software when you can use dozens of language learning websites for free? These websites use lessons, videos, images, games, and interactions to help you learn a new language or brush up on an existing one, just as expensive programs do. You can learn dozens of languages for free, including Spanish, English, German, Greek, French, Italian, Hebrew, Chinese, and many others, even sign language. In addition to these websites, there are free mobile language learning apps, which are great for learning a new language while you're away from your computer. Some of the websites below have their own free app.
Duolingo
Duolingo is one of the best places for learning a new language for free. The website is clear and easy to grasp, there are tons of languages to pick from, and you're incentivized to learn through a fake currency. This free language learning site has several functions. There's a Learn section for starting with the basics, Stories to challenge your reading and listening skills, Discuss for interacting with the user forum, Events to find language learners near you, Dictionary for on-demand translations and sample sentences, and Shop to buy things with the credits you earn throughout the site. At any time, you can switch to a different language to start that course without losing your place in your current one.
Languages you can learn: Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, French, German, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, High Valyrian, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Klingon, Korean, Latin, Navajo, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh.
Busuu
Busuu features beginner, elementary, and intermediate language learning lessons. You can skip to any lesson you want and easily monitor the progress of all of them from one page. There's also a Social tool on Busuu that lets you chat with natural speakers of the language you're learning. This type of language exchange allows both you and the other person to learn another language through normal conversations. There are lots of free language learning lessons but you can also pay for Busuu for more features; there's a Premium and Premium Plus plan.
Languages you can learn: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
Memrise
Memrise is another free language learning site that provides techniques for remembering each and every concept you run across. Some of these courses are provided by Memrise and others are created by users like you. There's a good handful of languages to pick from and you can jump around to any course you want; you don't have to follow a standard start to finish order. You collect points as you complete courses, and there's a leaderboard you can use as inspiration to keep learning and compete with other members. You can also make groups on Memrise to study with friends, classmates, or other people you know. Some options require a paid membership. You can pay a monthly, annual, or lifetime price depending on how long you plan to use it and how much you want to spend.
Languages you can learn: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Japanese, Korean, Icelandic, Slovenian, Arabic, Turkish, German, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Russian, and Mongolian
Mango Languages
Mango Languages lets you learn a handful of languages for free, but to access more, you can either sign up through your local library (if they have a subscription to the website; find out here) or pay. The website and mobile apps are simple to use, offering interactive lessons where you can listen to particular words of a sentence over and over until you get it right. With a microphone, you can test your pronunciation with a side-by-side comparison of your voice versus the one spoken in the lesson.
Languages you can learn: Cherokee, Chaldean Aramaic, Pirate, Dzongkha, English, Ancient Greek, Hawaiian, Irish, Potawatomi, Scottish Gaelic, Tuvan, and Yiddish (others are available through libraries or at a price)
Internet Polyglot
Internet Polyglot is more of a massive flashcard game. After selecting the language you want to learn, you can browse through a number of lessons that teach you a handful of words and phrases. To test what you've been taught, you can go through the lessons again, but this time in the form of picture games, guessing games, typing games, and matching games.
Languages you can learn: Amharic, Arabic, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
