If you’re quite new to English but you’re keen to get started quickly, it’s understandable that you are looking for easy ways to learn English.
Fortunately, there are numerous different options for learning English, and many of them are free and require just a little time each day. That said, the more time you can put towards your English studies, the more progress you will make. These ideas may make it easier for you to learn, but you still need to put in some effort and diligence to see good progress.
Keep in mind that the easiest way to learn English might be different from one person to the next. So, take a look at these tips and ideas and see what would work best for you.
8 Easy ways to learn English
1. Get an app for your phone
This is our #1 tip for easy English learning because chances are you have your phone with you all day, and you spend a lot of time on it already. If you can swap 15 minutes of social media scrolling for 15 minutes of learning English, you’ll soon be making progress!
To add to this, there are plenty of English apps that take a gamified approach to learning the language. With daily tasks and achievements to collect, you have a great incentive to keep coming back.
Here are a few good apps to make learning English easier:
Gymglish
Gymglish is a fun way to learn English with personalized daily lessons available online and via an app. Lessons take just 10 minutes a day, so it’s super easy to fit into your schedule. And, their adaptive learning model means each class builds on the previous one – including re-visiting things you found difficult last time.
Duolingo
Duolingo also offers an effective way to learn English through an app. Basic access is free, or you can get a paid subscription for personalized lessons and more features.
FluentU
FluentU is a fun video-based learning app. It uses real-world news videos, talks, movie trailers and more to teach vocabulary in context. During any video, you can pause and look up the meaning of the words you just heard – so it’s a big step up from watching regular videos or movies with subtitles.
Tips for learning English easily with an app
Once you have chosen an app, here are some ways to get the most out of it:
- Try to set a reminder at a time of day when you know you’ll have time to complete the next stage of your module. It could be during your morning commute, during your lunch break, or in the evening once the kids are in bed. If your app doesn’t have a built-in reminder, set one on your phone.
- Don’t just go through the motions of completing a lesson or stage. To make sure you retain the information, practice using it yourself. Gymglish is good for this as it occasionally brings you back to things you have already learned. Also see tip #5 below.
- If possible, work through your lessons with a partner or friend so you can keep each other accountable.
- If you make good progress with one of these apps, consider supplementing this learning with English lessons or classes.
2. Do your hobbies in English
Whatever you love doing in your free time, find a way to incorporate English into it. This is not only an easy way to learn English, but it’s also fun!
Here are some ways you can do this:
- Gaming: Set your device or console language to English so you become familiar with the terms used there every time you play. If you play multiplayer games, join an English-speaking community and socialize with other players to practice your English skills.
- Sports: Whether you play on a team or you compete individually, join a nearby group where you can practice your sport and your English at the same time. If you don’t live in an English-speaking country, expat groups often welcome both locals and foreigners. Even if you can’t find an English-speaking group or team nearby, join some online communities where you can discuss and read news about your sport in English.
- Arts and crafts: Similarly, if you’re into painting, drawing, knitting, photography, or anything else crafty, see if there is a local English-speaking interest group that you can join. If not, you can look for English tutorials online to help you learn easy English as you develop your skills.
- Music: This is another great way to socialize with other English speakers and learners through a shared interest. Try joining a band, orchestra, or choir nearby. An added benefit of this is that you’ll learn some songs in English too. Be sure to check the meaning of any lyrics that you don’t understand – you’ll learn plenty of new words this way.
3. Play word games
Here’s another fun and easy way to learn English words. There are many free interactive word games online that will push you to expand your vocabulary in a competitive way. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Words With Friends: A Scrabble-style game where the object is to place words on a board to score points. Access it here or via Facebook.
- British Council: As well as having some great online resources for British English learners, they have a selection of word games for kids and adults.
- Games to Learn English: As the name suggests, this website has a variety of easy English learning games; from flashcards for vocabulary to more complex topics like phrasal verbs and tenses. The style of the games is quite simple, but they can all be accessed for free.
There are also plenty of board games that will help improve your language skills. Check our full guide to learning English with games for more details.
4. Join a ‘Word of the Day’ list
Some online English learner’s dictionaries and other resources publish a ‘Word of the Day’. This is an easy way to learn new English vocabulary that you may not have otherwise encountered.
You can visit various websites to find these, but it’s even easier to just have them sent to you via email. The Oxford English Dictionary is one service that offers a ‘Word of the Day’ via email, and you can click here to subscribe to it.
There are also various social media pages dedicated to this.
5. Leave notes around your house
Whatever area of English you are focusing on – new vocabulary, grammar rules, or speaking practice – one easy way to keep it front-of-mind is to write it down and leave notes in places you see often. This could be on your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator door, or tucked into the back of your phone cover.
Whenever you see the note, take a moment to go over the words in your head or speak them out loud. And don’t forget to update them regularly as you move on to studying new topics.
6. Join a language exchange
These platforms can help you find an English conversation partner who wants to learn your native language too. You spend time conversing or chatting in both languages, so it’s an easy way to learn English as long as you’re willing to teach someone your language as well. View our guide to the best apps for language exchange – most of them are free.
7. Listen to podcasts
Podcasts are a fantastic way to learn new things, and English is no exception. Once you are at intermediate level or above, add some English-language podcasts to your feed. They don’t have to be podcasts about learning English specifically, although there are plenty of those around too. Whatever the subject, it will help your comprehension, vocabulary, and more.
Check out some more easy ways to learn English by listening.
8. Meet with other English learners
We already mentioned that one way to learn English easily is to incorporate it into your hobbies and meet with like-minded people, but you can also meet with people just for the purpose of practicing the language.
To find these kinds of meetups, try meetup.com or search on social media for relevant groups. Meeting up in person is ideal, but if you don’t find any groups in your area, you could also join an online meetup. As everybody is there to learn from one another, you needn’t feel shy about your level of English. Just go along and have fun practicing!
9. Watch English movies and videos
What could be more simple than just watching movies and videos in your spare time? This is certainly an easy way to learn English for free.
Simply pick an English movie or TV show to watch, and press play! Depending on your language level, you can have subtitles in your own language or in English, or no subtitles at all.
If a full movie or TV show is too much for you, look on YouTube for short videos about topics that interest you. Anything made by English speakers for English speakers will help you experience the language as it is spoken naturally, including slang terms and a variety of accents.
10. Fill your social media feed with tips to easily learn English
Find some great English learning and teaching pages and people to follow on your favorite social media platforms. They will help fill your news feed with short lessons, resources, and ways to improve your English. It’s easier to learn when this information is showing up in the places you spend your free time.
11. Read the news in English
Keeping up with current affairs or other topics that interest you is a great way to learn English easily. There are several ways to learn English with news, including websites, apps, podcasts, and physical newspapers.
Even beginner English learners can find websites that publish news specifically for English learners, using more basic vocabulary and grammar for lower levels.
12. Visit an English-speaking country
We realize this is not an option for everyone wanting an easy way to learn English, but if you do have the chance to visit an English-speaking country (whether for a short vacation or a longer stay), take it! It will certainly help you learn English quickly.
Being in an English-speaking country fully immerses you in the language and the culture, making it perhaps the easiest way to learn English. You’ll have no end of opportunities to converse with native speakers and other English learners, and if you stay for a while, you’ll be able to join different community groups as well.
Taking a vacation is one way to do this, but you may also want to consider an exchange program where you stay with a host in your chosen country. This takes English immersion to a deeper level, exposing you to the language and the culture and helping you think more like a native.
EF arranges exchange programs for ages 10-25, while Lingoo is open to adults and children and lets you search for hosts and connect with them directly.
Summary
It’s true that English is a hard language to learn, but we hope this list of easy ways to learn English has given you some inspiration for your studies. Whether you opt for 10 minutes a day on a phone app, or you decide to visit another country, these tips will all help you as you become a more proficient English speaker.
Check out How long does it take to learn English? to get a better idea of your learning journey.
