Babbel

Babbel is our top pick because it strikes the strongest balance between structure and practicality. Bite-sized lessons of around 10-15 minutes focus on the phrases you would actually use when travelling, working or socialising, and grammar is drip-fed in context rather than dumped on you. Dialogues use real native speakers, there is built-in speech recognition to check pronunciation, and a spaced-repetition review system locks vocabulary in. Thirteen languages are taught from an English base - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish among them - and the optional Babbel Live tier adds group classes with real teachers for an extra fee. It ranks above Duolingo for beginners who specifically want to speak, because its lessons explain grammar in context rather than leaning on gamified drills. The free access is limited (typically just the first lesson of each course - check current terms) and the language range is narrower than gamified rivals, so skip it if you want the widest choice of languages or a substantial free tier.