Best 6 Apps To Learn Latin Like A Pro

Ready to jump into a time machine and chat with Julius Caesar? Or maybe decipher mysterious ancient scrolls like you’re in a movie? Latin, once the lingua franca of the powerful Roman Empire, is your golden ticket. But wait! Before you imagine dusty classrooms and droning lectures, we’ve got a spicy twist. In this article, we’ll introduce the best 6 apps to learn Latin like a total pro! Let’s level up your language learning with these epic tools, shall we?

Why Learn The Latin Language

First, let me tell you why you should learn Latin in the first place and why using apps can be an incredibly effective method to master this ancient tongue. Learning Latin allows you to discover the secrets of history. It can also be your gateway to understanding modern languages, enhancing cognitive abilities, and even boosting your career prospects.

• Foundation of Many Languages: Latin is the progenitor of the Romance languages like Spanish, French, and Italian. Understanding Latin can provide a deeper grasp of the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of these widely spoken languages.
  
  
• Enhances English Vocabulary: A significant portion of English vocabulary has Latin roots. Learning Latin can expand your English vocabulary and comprehension, especially in fields like law, medicine, and science.
  
  
• Improves Cognitive Skills: Studying Latin requires and hones analytical and problem-solving skills. It’s known to improve memory and can enhance overall mental agility and academic performance.
  
  
• Cultural and Historical Insights: Latin opens a window into the rich history and literature of the Roman Empire. This will provide you with a more profound understanding of historical texts, legal documents, and classical art.
  
  
• Professional Advantages: In certain professions, such as law, theology, medicine, and scientific research, Latin can be a valuable asset, offering a competitive edge in your career.
  
  
• Modern Learning Methods: Utilizing apps for learning Latin combines the ancient with the modern. These apps to learn Latin offer interactive, engaging, and personalized learning experiences, making the process more efficient and enjoyable compared to traditional methods.
  
  

If you’re a learner like me, try to ask yourself this question: Why lug around heavy textbooks when modern apps can offer interactive, tailored, and on-the-go learning? Yep, you read that right! While Latin is one of the oldest languages in the world, you can still learn it when you use the applications we rounded up below. Check them out now!

1. Duolingo: Best For Interactive Learning

When it comes to language learning apps, Duolingo often emerges as the shining star. With its iconic green owl mascot and an interface that’s as vibrant as it is intuitive, Duolingo has redefined the experience of picking up a new language. Born out of the idea that high-quality education can be free and fun, this platform has made Latin learning accessible to millions around the world.

What makes Duolingo a favorite among Latin enthusiasts? For me, the secret sauce lies in its gamified approach. Same with the Ling app, you can earn points, level up, and maintain streaks, turning what could be a mundane learning process into a thrilling adventure. But it’s not just about fun and games!

Duolingo structures its Latin lessons meticulously, starting with basic vocabulary and phrases and then gradually transitioning into complex grammar and sentence structures. In my honest opinion, this ensures that learners build a solid foundation, making it ideal for those starting their Latin journey from scratch. The app also cleverly integrates spaced repetition without making it feel tedious, ensuring that words and concepts stick.

Devices: Android, iOS, Web

Features

• Variety of Exercises: Duolingo offers a variety of exercises to keep learning interesting. These include multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, translation, and listening comprehension exercises.
  
  
• Stories: Duolingo Stories are short, interactive stories that help you learn new vocabulary and grammar in context.
  
  
• Leaderboards: Want to make learning extra exciting? Duolingo Leaderboards allow you to compete against other learners from around the world and see your rank against your friends.

Pricing

• Monthly premium: $6.99
  
  
• Yearly premium: $83.99
  
  
• Family plan: $119.99

2. Memrise: Best For Mnemonic Learning

Memrise stands tall as one of the premier platforms for language acquisition. Distinctive in its approach, Memrise goes beyond the traditional learning curve, blending neuroscience-backed methods with creativity. When I used it for a span of three months to learn Latin, I reckon that it relied heavily on demo videos. This means users get catchy, memorable associations with every new word or phrase they learn.

The app also champions spaced repetition, ensuring that learners revisit the learned materials at optimal intervals to reinforce and commit it to long-term memory. This method is particularly handy for Latin, a language brimming with nuances and structures that can seem alien to modern language speakers. As an avid language-learning app user, what I love about Memrise is that its design ensures you’re memorizing while internalizing, understanding, and truly getting to know Latin as if it were an old friend!

Devices: Android, iOS, Web

Features

• Challenging Stages: Memrise’s courses are divided into stages, including learning, reviewing, immersing, and Communicating. As you progress through the stages, the difficulty of the exercises will increase.
  
  
• To-Do List: Memrise offers a To-Do List that allows you to track your progress and set goals for yourself. This list shows you how many words you have learned, how many times you have reviewed words, and how many points you have earned.
  
  
• Large Library of Languages: Memrise offers a large number of languages to learn, including popular languages like Spanish, French, and German. I also noticed that there is a variety of dialects for some languages, such as Mexican, Spanish, Brazilian, and Portuguese.

Pricing

• Monthly premium: $14.99
  
  
• Yearly premium: $89.99
  
  
• Lifetime subscription: $199.99

3. Mondly: Best For Holistic Learning

Mondly offers learners a fresh and modern take on mastering new tongues. With a sleek design and a rich catalog of languages, Mondly aims to make the learning process not just educational but deeply immersive. It understands that in the digital age, learning needs to be dynamic, interactive, and tailored to the needs of the individual.

Mondly’s strength in teaching Latin lies in its balanced approach. Sure, there’s memorization, but you can also understand context and dive into real conversations. From the get-go, Mondly exposes you to authentic Latin sentences, fostering a deeper appreciation for the language’s rhythm and melody.

The app uses professional voice actors, ensuring that your auditory experience is as close as possible to conversing with a native Latin speaker. What makes Mondly part of the best 6 apps to learn Latin is because of its focus on daily lessons, thematic modules, and augmented reality (AR) lessons, creating an environment where learning Latin feels like an exhilarating journey rather than a daunting task.

Devices: Android, iOS, Web

Features

• AR and VR: Mondly offers AR and VR experiences that can help you learn a language in a more immersive way. This includes experiences where you can interact with virtual objects and environments.
  
  
• Fun and Engaging: Mondly uses gamification techniques to make learning fun and engaging. This includes things like earning points, leveling up, and competing against friends.
  
  
• Learning Analytics: Mondly provides learning analytics that track your progress and identify areas where you need more practice. This can help you focus on your learning and make sure that you are learning at the right pace.

Pricing

• Free with basic daily lessons.
  
  
• Monthly premium (one language): $9.99
  
  
• Yearly premium (one language): $47.99
  
  
• Lifetime (all languages): $89.99

4. Rosetta Stone: Best For Immersive Experience

For decades, even before the rise of mobile apps, Rosetta Stone was synonymous with in-depth, quality language instruction. Seamlessly combining technology with pedagogy, this platform offers a unique, full-immersion experience that plunges learners directly into the target language.

What makes Rosetta Stone truly special, especially for Latin learners, is its unyielding commitment to teaching languages in their purest form—no translations, no shortcuts. The lessons are structured to mimic natural language acquisition, mirroring the way we naturally learn our first language.

Devices: Android, iOS, Web

Features

• Tried and Tested: Rosetta Stone’s app has been awarded 4.8 stars on the App Store. This means that it is a well-designed and user-friendly app.
  
  
• Immersion-based Learning: By immersing yourself in the language, you are forced to use it and learn it naturally.
  
  
• Bite-sized Lessons: Designed with small, manageable chunks of lessons, Rosetta Stone makes it possible for learners to add it to their daily routine no matter how busy they are.

Pricing

• Free with very limited lessons.
  
  
• 3-month premium: $47.97
  
  
• Yearly premium: $126.88
  
  
• Lifetime subscription: $399.00

5. Mango Languages: Best For Cultural Understanding

Bursting onto the scene with a mission to enrich lives with languages and cultures, Mango Languages aims to transform the traditional learning paradigm by prioritizing real-world utility and cultural immersion.

Beyond vocabulary and grammar, Mango Languages introduces learners to the culture and history that Latin threads through. The addition of cultural insights peppered throughout the course gives one not just a lesson in language but a deep dive into the world that once communicated, thought, and dreamt in Latin.

Each lesson is carefully curated to provide context, making ancient texts and phrases come alive with relevance. In my opinion, I think that the app’s intuitive (almost minimalist and straightforward) design ensures that learners grasp the nuances of pronunciation, essential for a language as phonetically rich as Latin.

Devices: Android, iOS, Web

Features

• Phonetic Pop-ups: To assist with pronunciation, the app provides phonetic breakdowns in real-time, ensuring that learners nail the correct sound and intonation of each Latin word or phrase.
  
  
• Strategic Repetition: Mango’s lessons incorporate spaced repetition techniques, presenting information at strategically determined intervals to maximize retention and solidify learners’ grasp of the language.
  
  
• Interactive Conversations: Mango Languages incorporates full-fledged dialogues in its lessons, allowing learners to practice Latin in simulated real-world scenarios. These conversations foster a deeper understanding of sentence structure and usage, preparing users for comprehensive comprehension and application.

Pricing

• Free for the first lesson only.
  
  
• Premium for single language: $79.99/year ($7.99/month)
  
  
• Premium for all languages: $179.99/year ($17.99/month)
  
  
• Enterprise plan: Contact Sales

6. Clozemaster: Best For Contextual Learning

At its core, it is a gamified language learning tool with a difference, designed to help users improve their vocabulary and grasp of sentence structures through the technique of cloze (fill-in-the-blank) exercises. With its retro game aesthetics and a vast database of sentences, Clozemaster is ideal for Latin learners looking to graduate from basics to fluency.

Clozemaster’s strength in teaching Latin, and indeed any language on its platform, is its laser focus on context. By presenting learners like you with thousands of sentences with missing words, the app challenges you to deduce the right word based on the surrounding context. This approach is particularly beneficial for Latin, where context is key to understanding the intricate relationships between words.

Devices: Android, iOS, Web

Features

• Cloze Exercises: The app’s primary teaching method revolves around fill-in-the-blank exercises, challenging users to deduce the correct word based on sentence context, thereby strengthening vocabulary and comprehension skills.
  
  
• Diverse Sentence Database: With thousands of sentences across various difficulty levels, Clozemaster exposes learners to a broad spectrum of Latin usage, ensuring a comprehensive grasp of the language.
  
  
• Grammar Challenges: Beyond vocabulary, the app offers specific exercises designed to hone in on and improve understanding of particular Latin grammar rules, ensuring a well-rounded learning experience.

Pricing

• Free with limited content.
  
  
• Monthly premium: $8.00
  
  
• Yearly premium: $60.00
  
  
• Lifetime subscription: $140.00

Best 6 Apps To Learn Latin: Navigating Your Linguistic Journey

The journey of language learning is deeply personal, filled with moments of triumph, curiosity, and introspection. As you navigate the intriguing world of Latin or any other language, the tools you choose can significantly shape your experience. While the best 6 apps to learn Latin discussed here are undoubtedly valuable, the real magic begins when you take the first step, diving headfirst into the vast ocean of linguistic wonders.

If Latin isn’t the only language on your radar, or if you’re considering broadening your linguistic horizons, there’s another contender in the language app arena worth exploring: the Ling app. Catering to a whopping 60+ languages, the Ling app boasts a comprehensive and interactive approach that rivals many established platforms. Ready to give it a try? Download it now from the App Store or Play Store now!

Updated by: Jefbeck