Other resources you use for studying Russian, besides Memrise

Community-Created Courses Russian
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Hi everyone!

I was wondering what kind of other resources you were using while studying russian, besides Memrise? Russian is a language with a difficult grammar so I guess almost everyone is using something else to study at least the grammatical points. It would be nice to share the best websites we found somewhere! :slight_smile:

I know for example that some people may be using Duolingo, busuu, Anki, Semper or other similar websites or applications… But these are probably not the only resources that Memrise members are using.

I. PC applications

1. For beginners

Here are a few websites that I find useful for beginners (and are available in english). For more specific links, please see the subsections. All these links include grammar study.

All of them start from a “pure beginner” level. They can also be used by non-beginners. I think the first website is quite famous, and it has the big advantage of being available in other languages than english (french, italian, german, chinese, japanese and spanish).

a. Writting and reading Russian

b. Vocabulary only

  • Anki: a flashcard application, with a PC version available.

c. Downloadable resources (including audio)

For those of you who don’t always have an internet access, here are some free resources that are fully downloadable.

2. Non-beginner level

a. Practicing with exercises

Some other websites require that you already have a high enough level in russian in order to use them, mostly basic vocabulary and basic knowledge about the language.

  • Clozemaster: sentence-oriented but registration is required - also allows learning from other languages like french
  • Learn with Oliver - Registration required. Has some exercises similar to those on Memrise. Should be ok for a pure beginner, but I think it’s better if you already have a correct level in the language.
  • lang-8 - Writing practice with natives.

b. Reading russian

c. Listening to russian

  • Librivox - Contains audio books read by natives - Probably better if you also read the books on Wikisource.

II. Phone applications

Some applications may be specific to one kind of device. If you have good applications to share, please don’t forget to mention if it’s an Android application or an iPhone application. Also, some applications may not be free.

1. Android applications

  • Semper: this application tests you on pre-defined decks (you can also create your own decks) everytime you unlock your phone and/or everytime you’re waiting for an application to load (depending on the way you configure it).
  • Anki: a flashcard application.

2. Apple applications

  • Semper: this application tests you on pre-defined decks (you can also create your own decks) everytime you unlock your phone and/or everytime you’re waiting for an application to load (depending on the way you configure it).
  • Anki: a flashcard application. :warning: This version isn’t free, but the PC version is.

I’m sure that we can all benefit greatly from sharing our links! :slight_smile:

7 Likes
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Nice list. I have also been using:

http://forvo.com for audio files. If a word you want the pronunciation is not available you can request it. I’ve usually gotten a response within a few minutes. Some of the files are low quality, so make sure you check them first before uploading them to a course.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page
English Wiktionary Good for definitions of fairly common words, declensions, conjugations, etc.

https://ru.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Заглавная_страница
Russian Wiktionary. More thorough than the English Wiktionary for Russian word definitions. One can copy the definitions and past into Google Translate when necessary.

Both Wiki’s have grammar sections as well.


This website allows you to search several dictionaries at once, including English-Russian, Russian-Russian, as well as dictionaries between other languages. It is a bit confusing to use at first since the primary language of the site is Russian, but you can find words here you can’t find elsewhere. It is also good for finding idiomatic expressions.

https://bliubliu.com/en/auth/login/ Free in 5 minute chunks. Practice reading short pieces of text. Mark words you know well and ones you don’t. Somewhat entertaining. Has anecdotes (jokes) and different levels.

http://soundoftext.com Type in a word or phrase and you will get a downloadable version of Google Translate’s audio for it.

http://russianmentor.net/Ru_xx/STARTHERE.HTML
Intermediate Russian exercises.

http://shininghappypeople.net/rwotd/index.php
A blog with many excellent articles on various aspects of Russian grammar.

iPhone/iPad apps:

Exlibris: Free Russian Classics. Has a translation feature that is not great, but functional.

Mango: Free with a public library card (if your local library carries it)

iThinkdiff Wordsearch. iPhone/iPad free app. Fun way to learn new words and review one’s you already know. Has many different languages. You can purchase access to more categories, but that is not necessary.

https://new.vk.com This used to be vKontakte, Russia’s answer to Facebook. Very popular with young people (14-30). A couple of years ago vKontakte was taken over by the Russian government (AKA Putin), so stay away from politics on the site unless you are a big Putin supporter. It has apparently been rebranded as VK.

Make friends and practice your Russian. I found contacts here very useful for answering questions regarding common usage.

They also now have apps for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. Personally, I wouldn’t download an app designed by the Russian government to my phone, but that’s just me.

A NY Times article on the takeover:

3 Likes
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I use a lot of textbooks. I find Russian textbooks help me to learn grammar then i use memrise for vocabulary and and I use italki for conversation practise

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Very useful list. Thanks for posting.

Some more inputs:
LingQ https://www.lingq.com/en/
Exists as Website, app in android/iOS
There courses, stories provided and you have the usual flashcard and other quizzes. What makes LingQ different: you can import your own content. From news articles to song texts, recipes, whatever is your interest. These imported lessons can also be shared to other users (take care of copyright laws though, for example song texts are often copyrighted)

yandex.translate is the best russian translator I have found. Exists as website, app for android/iOS.
Text to Text and voice translations
voice to text and voice translations and even an image to text/voice translation. So you can snap a picture of a text and it translates to your chosen language.

Memrise https://www.memrise.com/home/
Great app and website, comes with many courses and word decks, classic flashcard learning, as well you can set your daily goals, it has statistics on how much you learn and a friendly reminder.
Additionally you find learning topics outside of languages, such as medicine, plants, history etc
I use it on a daily.

And a webiste for german users: russlandjournal (dot) de
Tons of info ablut the language, grammar but as well about russian culture, history, traveling and cooking.

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your information is useful too. . . .

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Try also this free website for learning Russian → https://www.russiantools.com. There a lot of tools both for learning and for teaching Russian: you can create printable worksheets with different exercises (such as fill in the gap, word searches, word scramble sheets), bingo sheets for learning Russian numbers and much more

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I’ve been using a podcast called Russian Made Easy https://russianmadeeasy.com , its content is suitable for beginners. I’ve also been watching the YouTube channel Real Russian Club.