Memrise focuses on teaching real-world communication and using language in context rather than memorizing words. You can learn over 20 languages, from Spanish, French, and German to Japanese, Korean, and Turkish. Each course is structured around short lessons that teach words and phrases, reinforce them with exercises, and add review sessions so you don't forget what you've learned.
When using Memrise, you'll see short clips featuring native speakers showing how people naturally pronounce phrases, with accents and expressions you would hear in daily conversations. The app also uses audio recordings and speech recognition, helping you become more confident in understanding and speaking the language you're learning.
Apart from learning vocabulary in Memrise, the app uses gamification with points, streaks, and progress charts to motivate you to return regularly. The app has a very clean design, so you can focus on practicing without distractions. The lessons are short, and you can fit them into a coffee break or do more of them at once when you have more time. You can download Memrise for free on iOS and Android or use it through web browsers, but there is also a paid plan if you're looking to get more serious about learning a language and need more features.
Why should I download Memrise?
What's great about Memrise is that it doesn't use robotic voice recordings but includes videos of real people speaking. This prepares you for having actual conversations and helps you understand various accents or casual speech. You quickly learn to recognize everyday expressions, which is super useful when traveling or chatting with native speakers.
Memrise also uses the spaced repetition system, so you can practice and review words before you forget them. The app has special algorithms that adapt review sessions to your memory, showing you new vocabulary when you're ready but making sure to revisit the ones that have been introduced in the past.
With Memrise, you can also practice speaking the language, since the app uses a speech recognition engine. You can say phrases out loud and get immediate feedback on pronunciation. Matching your voice to a native speaker's clip helps you refine your accent and get comfortable using the language actively instead of just being able to recognize it. All the lessons in Memrise are quick, so you can practice for a few minutes during a commute or dive into longer sessions at home. Your progress syncs across devices, so it's easy to pick up exactly where you left off, whether you're on your phone or computer.
Memrise motivates you to keep going with a playful, gamified structure where you earn points for correct answers, maintain learning streaks by practicing daily, and can track your growth on progress charts. You can also download lessons ahead of time and use them without internet access. Whether you're on a plane, a train, or just in an area with a poor signal, you can still learn and use the app.
There are also custom and community-created courses in Memrise, so you can explore user-made sets that focus on specific goals, such as business phrases, slang, or exam preparation. You can start using Memrise for free on iOS, Android, or the web, but it also offers a paid subscription that removes ads, adds new words, and provides unlimited pronunciation and grammar lessons, as well as AI conversations.
Is Memrise free?
Memrise has both free and paid options. The free version gives you access to basic lessons, core vocabulary training, and a limited selection of native-speaker clips. This is enough to start learning, but you need to pay for unlimited reviews, offline downloads, and advanced practice modes.
The Pro subscription unlocks everything, including full access to official courses, offline study, enhanced review sessions, and detailed progress tracking. You can be billed monthly, annually, or get a lifetime license.
What operating systems are compatible with Memrise?
Memrise is primarily designed and optimized for mobile devices, so it is available for both iOS (15.0 or later) and Android (8.0 or newer). If you want, you can also use Memrise on any modern browser, including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Your progress is synced across devices, so you can switch between mobile and web without losing track.
What are the alternatives to Memrise?
LingoDeer is a language learning platform that is perfect for languages like Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. LingoDeer gives you very detailed and clear grammar explanations and high-quality audio from native speakers. The lessons build upon each other in a very logical way, which creates strong grammatical foundations. The first unit of each language course in LingoDeer is typically free, but to progress further, you need to get a paid subscription. You can use LingoDeer through its website or download it for iOS and Android.
Langua: AI language learning is a language tool that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to create a conversational learning experience. You can use it to have open-ended, spoken conversations with an AI tutor on a wide variety of topics. The AI can understand what you are saying, respond naturally, and provide instant feedback and corrections on your grammar and pronunciation. It's a great tool for practicing your speaking skills, but you need to subscribe to a paid plan to use it on iOS and Android.
Talkpal is an AI language teacher, which is an excellent option if you're looking to improve your spoken language. It simulates conversations with virtual tutors and uses speech recognition to help you refine pronunciation. You can use Talkpal on its free version or get a paid subscription to unlock unlimited dialogues, deeper speech analysis, and downloadable lessons. It runs on iOS and Android but is also available on the web through any modern browser.
