Improve Your Language Skills Online and on Your Smartphone

Practice your French—anywhere! Whether you’re looking to supplement your French classes with additional drills or just dabbling in a totally new language, these websites and mobile apps for iOS and Android are fun and useful tools to boost your proficiency.

French Vocabulary 24/7 Language Learning is a resource for basic but important vocabulary in categories like family, home, school, around town, and descriptive words. Interactive games like audio and pronunciation exercises, quizzes, and puzzles help you retain what you learn.

French Word of the Day helps you build your vocabulary one word at a time.  Once a day you’ll get a French word, its English translation, and an audio clip for pronunciation.

French Gender gives you lists of words as well as tools for recognizing patterns to help you identify and remember masculine and feminine words. The same developer has also created an app called French Numbers.

Learn French – Free WordPower is a free app featuring the 100 most commonly used words and phrases in French. It also provides handy cultural information through links to relevant Wikipedia articles. The progress bar shows you visually how many words and phrases you've learned.

Duolingo is a free app for Android and iOS that offers fun exercises for mastering numbers, gender of nouns, new vocabulary, and even pronunciation through oral exercises. You earn points as you answer questions correctly and advance through the levels.

MindSnacks adapts to your performance over time to help you with vocabulary, grammar, or phrases that you struggle with. Nine games keep the learning fun and fresh, and the first lesson is free!

If games aren't for you, FrenchPod offers a hybrid approach using podcasts and interactive activities for basic conversations and vocabulary.

Memrise is a website that uses matching, mnemonics, and audio to help you progress through three levels of vocabulary.

French Live TV Free HD gives you a variety of channels to help you stay up-to-date on French news and entertainment. This particular app is for Android, but there are dozens of similar apps for iOS, as well as online streaming available on the French Embassy's site and on YouTube.

Online radio like Le Mouv lets you sit back and just listen. Find a favorite news channel like RFI on SoundCloud or listen to top 40 radio and talk shows for fun.

In News in Slow French, available for iOS and Android, recorded speakers use simpler French at a slower speed to help you understand more words, expressions, and sentences. No matter your experience level, this resource will help you build your vocabulary quickly but naturally by challenging your listening skills. Resources are also available online on the News in Slow French website.