Best Apps to Learn French Vocabulary (2026)

Anyone starting French today has more vocabulary apps to choose from than time to compare them. Duolingo and Babbel teach full courses; Anki and Clozemaster hand you flashcards or cloze sentences; Memrise and Drops lean on native-speaker video or quick visual games; TV5MONDE's own site teaches French from real broadcast footage, for free. Watch Your Language does none of that — it keeps vocabulary already met, from any of the above, in view once the lesson closes.

How we chose

We compared what each app offers, from its own site and App Store listing, in September 2026: what it teaches, which platforms it runs on, and how it prices access. This is a comparison of public information, not a hands-on trial, so every claim below links to the page it came from.

Duolingo French

Who it is for: a complete beginner who wants a free, gamified way into French without deciding what to study first.

What it does well: short, game-like exercises covering speaking, reading, listening and writing, plus Explain My Answer, free since 1 January 2026, including in French, a short grammar note after an answer, right or wrong.

What it lacks: an Apple Watch app — its listing shows compatibility with iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision only. Super Duolingo, its paid tier, is listed from $9.99 on the US App Store.

Babbel

Who it is for: someone who wants a structured French course built toward a stated goal, rather than a free-form skill tree.

What it does well: French is one of Babbel's 13 languages for English speakers, taught through a fixed curriculum with grammar explained in context, and, according to its App Store listing, Guided Conversations for speaking practice.

What it lacks: a free way through the course — only the first lesson of each course is free to try, and the subscription after that is priced by location, plan length and where you buy it. Its listing shows no Apple Watch app.

Anki (with shared French decks)

Who it is for: learners who want one large personal deck, and are comfortable either building it themselves or downloading one someone else already built for French.

What it does well: the desktop app is free on Windows, macOS and Linux, and AnkiDroid on Android is also free; AnkiMobile on iPhone and iPad is a one-time $24.99 purchase, not a subscription. AnkiWeb's shared-deck library holds French decks other learners have already built, browsable at ankiweb.net/shared/decks/french.

What it lacks: any teaching of its own — choosing a good French deck is still down to you, and AnkiMobile's compatibility section lists iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision, with no Apple Watch app.

Clozemaster

Who it is for: someone with some French already, who wants vocabulary drilled inside full sentences rather than as isolated word lists.

What it does well: fill-in-the-blank "cloze" sentences across 50+ languages, including French, which its own site describes as free to use, with a paid Pro tier for extra features.

What it lacks: an Apple Watch app — its compatibility section lists iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision only; the same listing shows Clozemaster Pro Monthly from $8.99 on the US App Store.

Memrise

Who it is for: learners who want to hear French spoken naturally by native speakers rather than read it inside a skill tree.

What it does well: thousands of video clips of native speakers using the French vocabulary just taught, across 139 languages including French, plus AI conversation practice.

What it lacks: an Apple Watch app — its App Store compatibility section lists iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision only. Memrise is free to start, with paid plans from $24.99 on the US App Store.

Drops

Who it is for: someone who wants short, visual vocabulary games and nothing else competing for attention in the same five minutes.

What it does well: custom illustrations matched to French words, quiz and multiplayer modes, and native-speaker audio, free for five minutes of French a day.

What it lacks: unlimited free time — Drops' own welcome page points to a Premium subscription "to practice even more", and its App Store compatibility section lists iPhone and iPad only, no Apple Watch.

TV5MONDE — Apprendre le français

Who it is for: a learner who wants free, authentic French — real news, film and music clips with subtitles — rather than a gamified app.

What it does well: hundreds of videos with transcripts and exercises — multiple choice, crosswords, fill-in-the-blank — from A1 to B2, entirely free, syncing with the apprendre.tv5monde.com site.

What it lacks: a personal vocabulary list of your own choosing — its exercises follow its own videos rather than words you pick, and its compatibility section lists no Apple Watch app.

Nouns, gender, and what the watch actually shows

Every French noun carries a grammatical gender — le chat, la maison — and learning why is a job for a course. Watch Your Language is a vocabulary tool, not a grammar course, so it does not teach gender rules; what it does is show nouns the way its Greetings & Basics and Animals packs do — le chat and la maison, with the article in front of each noun, and you can switch that off in Settings. Seeing the article every time the word comes back helps the gender stick, but the explanations are still worth getting from one of the apps above.

Watch Your Language

Who it is for: someone already using one or more of the apps above, who wants this week's French vocabulary to keep coming back afterward, without opening another app to review it.

What it does well: it shows French words — pre-made packs or, with Premium, your own — in iPhone Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets, iPad widgets, and Apple Watch complications, a few at a time. Spaced repetition decides which word comes back next, at an interval you choose, from every minute to once a week.

What it lacks: any of the teaching above — no grammar or gender, no cloze exercises, no native-speaker video; any of the seven apps above is the better fit for that. It is free to start with pre-made packs; Premium unlocks the rest, along with unlimited custom words.

How the seven compare

Which one to pick

• Duolingo if you want a free, gamified daily habit, starting from zero.
• Babbel if a structured course toward a stated goal suits you better than a skill tree.
• Anki if you already think in flashcards and want a deck you fully control, your own or a shared one.
• Clozemaster if you already have some French and want it drilled inside full sentences.
• Memrise if hearing native speech matters more than reading a lesson.
• Drops if five minutes of visual games is exactly the session size you want.
• TV5MONDE if you want free, authentic French from real video, at your own pace.

Pick Watch Your Language alongside whichever of those you choose — not instead of it — once this week's vocabulary starts slipping. It is worth working out how much vocabulary a given level of French actually needs first. You can also browse a free French word list by topic, test your current level, or try a quick French quiz.

Watch Your Language is not a French course, a grammar guide or a cloze-sentence drill: it shows French words, from its pre-made packs or, with Premium, your own list, in widgets on the iPhone and in Apple Watch complications, with the le or la in front of each noun, scheduled by spaced repetition. It suits a reader who already has a primary study method — Duolingo, Babbel, Anki, Clozemaster, Memrise, Drops or TV5MONDE — and wants today's vocabulary to keep surfacing without opening another app.