speak better german

Have Fun Learning German Fast

Busuu German offers German learners a dynamic combination of online lessons, language exchange and mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android.

Busuu offers many of their features for free :) This includes picture-based vocabulary training, writing exercises, reading comprehension exercises, video chat, interactive exams and a bustling community for social exchange in German.

The Busuu system allows you to keep a track record of your German studies and mark your progress as you complete each lesson. You can work through your lessons at any time, enabling you to fit your study schedule into your daily life however you choose.

Find Friends and Practice or Exchange

Finding friends is easy in the Busuu community! Quickly search and contact other German learners to practice with as well as exchange partners to share and trade with. Plus, there's a free video chat function for easy access to language exchanges right in the same interface you're using to learn.

Stay Motivated in Style

In order to keep you motivated, Busuu has created a beautiful interface which allows you to grow and visualize your own language garden as you make progress learning German. If you are interested in learning more than one language, you will have a tree for each language that sprouts and shoots to the sky as you progress through the lessons and levels. It's quite a thrill to see this grow and know it's a visual representation of your language skills!

Free German Mobile App for iOS and Android

Busuu offers free mobile apps for learning German on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android. The free app takes you through the basics for getting around, and is especially useful while traveling.

Online English-German Translation

dict.cc is an amazing English-German dictionary available for free. This dictionary stands out by being user-driven with a lively active community.

It is more than simply a dictionary, too. The website offers tools for learning and reviewing vocabulary, a forum for getting translation help from real people and a database that can be downloaded and used free.

The site also offers a free toolbar as well as a Firefox plugin for translating on the fly while browsing the Web.

It is also not limited to English and German, as it has thousands of translations for over a dozen languages. View their multilingual database here.

Listen to Words in Dozens of Languages

Forvo is an interesting project which accumulates recordings of existing words in all languages. A lofty and, indeed, ongoing goal!

Language learners interested in finding out just how a word is actually pronounced by a native speaker of a given language will love this website!

Have a look at the languages page and you can quickly see which languages have the most words. There is a handy tag cloud on the side of the page which will show you in a visual way which languages have more words already pronounced.

And if you're interested, feel free to contribute to this collective pronunciation effort!