We all want a productive way to fill our time when staying at home (though plonking yourself in front of Netflix for the foreseeable future is perfectly valid too, in our opinion).
Learning a new language is easier than you think, with dozens of apps that make practising and perfecting a new lingo as fun as any game you've got downloaded.
These apps will have you all ready to pack your suitcase and hit the road when the lockdown ends.
All are available for iOS and Android.
Memrise
They say: Do you want to connect with the world? Get ready for your next trip or adventure abroad? Improve your grammar? Or are you looking for the best way to learn a language?
Then join the Memrise community of over 50 million language learners and develop real-life language skills through a rich variety of easy-to-use games and over 30,000 native speaker video clips. Language learning has never been so simple!
We say: Memrise wants you to have fun while learning your new language, so turns everything into a game. It’s fast and effective.
The free tier is great, but consider the upgrade if you like the app - it brings extra features like connecting with real native speakers to help speed things up, a pronunciation guide, and off-line lessons.
Cost: Free with in-app purchases - upgrade to premium for £8.99/month; £18.99/three months; £59.99/year
Babbel
They say: Millions of people are learning languages with Babbel — the language app built by language experts. Why Babbel? Our short and effective lessons get you speaking with confidence. Babbel works: Efficacy backed by researchers at Yale University:
100% of study participants improved their oral proficiency in three months. Our language experts build every language course tailored to your native language. This way you learn Spanish and 13 more languages quickly and effectively.
We say: Babbel is one of the big boys in language learning, and its app offers a few features that may well suit your learning needs. The courses include dialogues in which you can participate to help build confidence when faced with a real world conversation.
It also features speech recognition elements that can assess your pronunciation and offer advice on how to improve.
Cost: £20.99/three months; £32.99/six months; £57/year - prices are per language.
Drops
They say: With over 33 free languages to choose from, Drops’ short, beautiful word games make learning a new language fun. Ever felt entertained while learning a new language? Now you will! Drops has a game-changing approach to language learning - literally. We took the “boring” out of vocabulary learning!
We say: What sets Drops apart from other language-learning apps is its visual approach - you build vocabulary by attaching words to pictures rather than to translations into your own language. It’s a fast way to learn, and the gamification of learning makes the whole thing seem like a fun little diversion… but the results can be powerful.
Cost: £849/month; £59.99/year; £159.99/lifetime
Duolingo
They say: Forget everything you knew about language learning. With Duolingo, you’ll practice with fun lessons that will leave you eager to learn more, and develop reading, writing, speaking, listening and conversation skills along the way! Track your progress, earn rewards, and most importantly: join the world’s largest community of language learners.
We say: Duolingo is currently more or less the king of language-learning apps - as I write it’s the number one free app on Apple’s iOS App Store. And there is a good reason for that - it’s proven to be very effective, and millions of people around the world are happily using it to learn the more than 30 languages on offer.
That might (at least in part) be because it's possible to access all its features for free - it is ad-supported. You can upgrade to remove the ads, which also provides the opportunity to learn offline and gives you some extra quizzes designed to speed up learning.
Cost: Free with ads - upgrade to Plus for £12.49/month; £46.99/six months; £81.99/year.
Lirica
They say: Learn Spanish the fun way - through music! Choose your favorite songs, from the hottest Latin artists, master key vocabulary and grammar, and get to know the artist and their vision better with Liri-facts. Music is a fantastic way to learn. Curated lessons on key vocabulary & grammar from the song, created by professionals.
We say: Lirica offers a whole new way to learn languages, but is only available for Spanish at the moment. Essentially it works by teaching you translations for the lyrics of some super-catchy pop songs. After all, they’re the ones that get stuck in your head...
Cost: Some songs are free - upgrade for the full set for £7.99/month; £24.99/year.
