Stories, audio, and videos can all help you learn Catalan when you can follow what they mean. That is the idea behind comprehensible input: learning from Catalan you can mostly understand. Catalan has its own public TV and radio, but far less is made for learners. The team behind Easy Catalan started their YouTube channel because they found few videos made to teach the language.
These apps and sites help you find Catalan at your level, or make the Catalan you choose easier to follow. For courses, speaking practice, and tutors, see our Catalan app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
Learn Catalan with a path made just for you. Start with your level, what you like, and why you want to learn. Your path grows as you learn, with new lessons that fit you. Bubblegum also has news and stories, so you can read and listen to a mix of Catalan about music, food, family, or daily life.
Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each lesson for you. If a word or a sentence is hard to follow, just ask her to explain it.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't help with Catalan you found yourself. For a show, a web page, or a song you already picked, the apps in Read and Watch Catalan You Choose are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, news, and stories about things you like.
- Each new lesson fits your level, interests, and goals.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, so you review them by reading instead of using flashcards.
- Ask Poppy about a sentence while you read.
- You cannot bring in your own books, shows, or articles.
- AI voices read each lesson, not recordings of Catalan speakers.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Read and Listen to Stories for Learners
LingQ
LingQ has a free library of Catalan lessons, from the beginner course Aprèn català gratis to the first episodes of the Easy Catalan and Couch Polyglot podcasts. It marks the words you have not met yet and the ones you are still learning, so you can see what is new on each page.
- Start with 41 Mini Stories that repeat the basic patterns of Catalan.
- Hear the audio and read the text together.
- Bring in YouTube videos, books, and songs of your own.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Watch Shows Made for Learners
3Cat
3Cat is the free app of Catalonia's public TV and radio, and Catalan speakers on Reddit often suggest it to learners. Start with Català fàcil, which is made for new speakers and helps you feel ready to speak Catalan at work, on the street, and at home. Then move on to cartoons, InfoK, and series.
- Català fàcil and Digui, digui teach Catalan through everyday conversations.
- SX3 has cartoons for young children and InfoK, a short news show for kids.
- Films and series from other countries come dubbed in Catalan.
- Watch TV3 and listen to Catalunya Ràdio live.
MobileWeb
Read and Watch Catalan You Choose
These tools help you learn from Catalan videos, web pages, and songs you pick yourself. They suit learners who already know what they want to watch, read, or hear.
Language Reactor
Language Reactor works with YouTube and Netflix. Catalan learners on Reddit use it to watch shows, songs, and podcasts with Catalan and English subtitles. It is free to install, with paid extras.
- Find Catalan YouTube videos and see which ones fit your vocabulary level.
- See Catalan subtitles beside a translation, with a pop-up dictionary.
- Pause and replay one line when it goes too fast.
Browser extension
Readlang
Readlang helps you read Catalan articles and other texts on the web. A Catalan learner on Reddit suggests it alongside LingQ, since both follow the same method.
- Tap a word or short phrase on a Catalan web page to see what it means.
- Review the words you looked up with flashcards.
- Flashcards
WebBrowser extension
LingoClip
LingoClip, also called LyricsTraining, turns music videos into a listening game. Catalan speakers on Reddit suggest it to learners, and its Catalan songs include ones by bands such as Oques Grasses.
- Fill in the missing words of Catalan songs as you listen.
- Pick an easier or harder game, or just sing along in karaoke mode.
- Press and hold a word to see what it means.
MobileWeb
Free Catalan to Watch, Hear, and Read
Easy Catalan interviews people on the street, with Catalan and English subtitles on every video. Its Super Easy Catalan videos use simpler words for beginners, and its podcast has more than 230 episodes. The Couch Polyglot podcast uses words and a speed meant to be understood, for people who know some Catalan or another Romance language. Català al Natural makes YouTube videos in Catalan for people learning it. In The Lazy Linguist, Christina, a teacher from Catalonia, teaches her partner Alex Catalan from the basics.
For reading, the University of Barcelona has free simplified texts at elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. The Associació Lectura Fàcil sells about 300 easy-to-read books, from adventure and mystery stories to biographies. 4cats, a free web series from the Institut Ramon Llull, sorts its episodes into three levels, and each one comes with a transcript and notes on grammar and words.
Learn Catalan in Your Language
These counts cover menu-language choices, including script variants. Other apps’ counts and full lists come from their iPhone listings, except Language Reactor (Chrome Web Store) and Readlang (its help forum). Word meanings, lesson explanations, and other platforms may differ.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| LingQ | 17 | Full list |
| 3Cat | 1 | Full list |
| Language Reactor | 27 | Full list |
| Readlang | 1 | Full list |
| LingoClip | 1 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (4)
- Fluent FictionCatalan stories as a podcast and an app. Each story is followed by a retelling that switches between Catalan and English line by line, with a transcript and a word list.
- Catalunya RàdioThe public radio app, with Catalunya Ràdio live and its shows to play again later.
- Desdelsofà.catA guide to the films and series you can watch in Catalan on each streaming service.
- Segueix!A site that gathers videos from YouTube channels in Catalan, sorted by topic.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose Catalan at the right level?
Pick something where you already know almost every word. In one study, readers needed to know about 98 out of 100 words in a story to follow it well. If you stop on almost every line, try something easier.
Is Valencian a different language?
No. Valencian is the name used for Catalan in Valencia, where it is official along with Spanish. Accents and some words change from place to place, and 4cats lets you choose episodes in Central, Valencian, or Balearic Catalan.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Easy Catalan, about the channel
- 3Cat on the App Store
- Couch Polyglot, Learn Catalan podcast
- Universitat de Barcelona, Texts for self-learning Catalan
- Associació Lectura Fàcil
- Institut Ramon Llull, 4cats
- Hu and Nation (2000), Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension
- Generalitat de Catalunya: Legal framework of Catalan
- Bubblegum
- LingQ
- 3Cat
- Language Reactor
- Readlang
- LingoClip
Checked on October 8, 2026 against each app's own pages.
