Understanding Swiss German dialects is a real challenge for German learners. But they are not alone: Even German natives often have great difficulties with some Swiss German dialects. When traveling in Switzerland, hearing different languages spoken is just part of the experience. Sitting in a café, riding on a tram, going by train, standing in a chairlift line, walking in the countryside - you're bound to hear people speak Swiss German with each other. Swiss German As you can also see on the map above, the (Swiss) German Cantons occupy the largest region of Switzerland. But why are Swiss Germ ..read more

Our Quick Language Games have become popular with schools. Why? Our games are for beginning and elementary learners (Levels A1 and A2). Each game takes about 3 to 5 minutes to play, teaches easy vocabulary, and, like the Spanish language game in the image, includes fun exercises such as Word Invaders. Also, our site is completely free, doesn't bother you with ads, and you can play without registering. Sometimes we're surprised which games are played the most. But before we dive into the Quick Language Games that have been most popular recently, you might wonder: WHY GAMESFORLANGUAGE? Why are w ..read more

Have you started to learn some German? Here are 6 Easy German Language Games for fun learning AND building your basic German vocabulary. (The image left shows our earlier Writing Clowns Game) These German Language Games are set up as simple Quizzes. Each one focuses on 4 to 8 vocabulary items and one related grammar point. Recall and practice are part of each Quiz. As an added bonus, you'll sharpen your German pronunciation. You'll hear the key words (nouns, verbs, etc) right at the beginning in the Car Race, without translation. Just focus on listening and repeating each word aloud. Then you ..read more

Are you just beginning to learn French? Here are 5 Easy French Language Games that make practicing some essential French words fun. The games also help you build some basic vocabulary and sharpen your pronunciation. And if you learn to pronounce "Merci" correctly (hint: not like mercy!),  you might even get a smile from the French person who is helping or serving you! French is an official language in 5 European countries: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, and Luxembourg. It is also spoken as an official language in 24 other countries worldwide. For English learners, French pronunci ..read more

If you've always wanted to learn some Spanish, our 7 easy Spanish language games can give you a fun start. Spanish is a wonderful language to learn. It's spoken as an official language in 20 countries, and for many travels it's a great language to communicate and connect. Spanish is a phonetic language, and is easy to pronounce for English speakers. Plus, Spanish shares many cognates with English and does not have a difficult word order. Give a couple of these easy Spanish games a try. You can start with a few common greetings and expressions. Even if you speak only some basic phrases, maki ..read more

Here's a fun way to learn some Italian words and phrases with 5 easy Italian language games. Italian is such a beautiful, melodious language, and learning some basic vocabulary and pronunciation is not that hard at all. Try a couple of these easy Italian games. You'll become familiar with some typical Italian words and sounds, and you may well end up falling in love with the Italian language. A good place to start are a few common greetings and expressions. Even if that's all you know, it's a great way to engage with Italian speakers, and locals if you're traveling in Italy. When you play the ..read more

If traveling abroad is on your horizon, these 5 language tips will make you more confident when you get there. Travel is slowly coming back. Now is the time to start getting ready. No, these 5 tips won't make you fluent or have you really SPEAK the foreign language. But just learning to UNDERSTAND and SAY some essential words and phrases will make your trip much more enjoyable. Anticipating a new travel adventure can be very sweet. It's a lot of fun to figure out where to go, where to stay, and what to see. Plus, it's smart to learn a few expressions so that you can pronounce them well and u ..read more

I recently remembered our canal boating trip on the Canal Latéral à la Loire of a few years ago. A friend had just come back from a trip in the Bourgogne in early August and had shared with us the good and the bad. (His experience prompted me to write about Chartering a Canal Boat in Europe on our sister site Lingo-late.) Chartering a boat on the Canal Latéral à la Loire was our second canal boating experience in France. We had previously cruised the Canal de Nivernais from Corbigny to Joigny. (see Locaboat map below) This time we were going from Decize to Briare on the Loire, or as we quickly ..read more

Do you have Italian travel memories or are you dreaming about visiting Venice? Exploring this romantic and historic city will leave you with lots of wonderful memories. Our first Italian Travel Memories post covered Pisa, where Marco, the young traveler in our Italian 1 travel-story course, visits his aunt and uncle. He then takes the train to Florence, and Venice is his third stop in Italy. In this installment - Marco in Venice, we'll follow Marco's explorations of Venice. For those of you who are doing or have done our "Italian 1 course: Marco in Italia", these additional de ..read more

Today we'll take a look at the French verb "avoir", with 20 expressions and 2 language games for practice. In English "avoir" means "to have", as in "j'ai un soeur" - "I have a sister". But "avoir" also appears in many idiomatic expressions, which are often used in daily conversations. For some of the expressions, the meaning is pretty obvious. These are the ones that typically combine a form of the verb "avoir" with a noun. In idiomatic English you would use either just a verb, or the verb "to be" plus an adjective. For example: "Elle a du charme" - "She's charming." For other expressions ..read more