Stories, audio, and videos can all help you learn Latvian when you can follow what they mean. That is the idea behind comprehensible input: learning from Latvian you can mostly understand. About 1.5 million people speak Latvian as their first language, and learners on Reddit say Latvian content to read and watch online is hard to find.
These apps and free resources give you Latvian at your level, or help you follow the Latvian you pick yourself. For courses, speaking practice, and tutors, see our Latvian app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
Learn Latvian 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 Latvian about music, food, family, or daily life.
Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each lesson for your level and goals. If a sentence is hard to follow, just ask her to explain a word or what its ending means.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't help you read Latvian you found yourself. For a video or a web page you already picked, the tools in Read and Watch Latvian You Choose are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, news, and stories about things you like.
- New lessons fit 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 for help as you read.
- Lesson audio uses AI voices, not recordings of Latvian speakers.
- You cannot bring in your own books, articles, or videos.
- 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
Duostories
Duostories is a volunteer project that brings Duolingo's short stories to more languages, with Duolingo's permission. Volunteers translated its Latvian stories, which are about everyday moments such as a date, a new coat, and a trip to the station.
- 16 free Latvian stories with audio.
- Answer short questions as you read each story.
- A listening mode plays a story and skips the questions.
MobileWeb
Fluent Fiction
Fluent Fiction is a podcast and app of short stories for learners, and you can also find its Latvian stories in podcast apps. It suits learners who know some Latvian and like to learn by listening.
- Short Latvian stories set in places such as Rīga, Sigulda, and Gauja National Park.
- Each story is told again sentence by sentence, with English in between.
- Each episode comes with a word list and a transcript.
MobileWeb
Hear and Read the News in Easy Latvian
Latvijas Radio
Latvijas Radio is Latvia's public radio. Its easy news uses short, simple sentences, and LSM, Latvia's public media, says it can help learners with listening and pronunciation. On Reddit, Latvians point learners to Latvian Radio 1 because it has more talk than other stations.
- Ziņas vieglajā valodā, about five minutes of news in easy Latvian, airs every evening.
- LSM.lv posts each evening's easy news as text, with the audio beside it.
- About 200 programs and podcasts, free and with no ads.
MobileWeb
Read and Watch Latvian You Choose
These tools help you learn from Latvian videos and web pages you pick yourself. They suit learners who already know what they want to read or watch.
Language Player
Language Player turns real videos into lessons, with subtitles in Latvian and in your own language at the same time. It suits learners who can already follow some spoken Latvian.
- More than 2,500 Latvian videos to choose from.
- Tap any word in the subtitles to look it up.
- Save words and review them with spaced repetition.
- Flashcards
MobileWebBrowser extension
Readlang
Readlang helps you read Latvian on the web, such as the easy news above or the fairy tales below. It suits learners who can already read some Latvian and want quick help with new words.
- Tap a word or short phrase on a Latvian web page to see what it means.
- Read texts from its Latvian library, or upload your own.
- Review words with flashcards.
- Flashcards
WebBrowser extension
Free Shows, Fairy Tales, and Books
Palīgā! is an older TV series made for learning Latvian, with 14 short films of simple dialogues in two levels. Learners on Reddit have recommended it for years, and one who has studied for a long time calls it intermediate Latvian. The Latvian Language Agency's Māci un mācies site has short videos for children learning Latvian, such as the 15-part Tofiks mācās latviešu valodu.
Children's shows are another easy start. Tutas lietas, a show for small children on YouTube, comes up often on Reddit, and a Latvian teacher there says their adult students liked it too. LSM's Bērnistaba has short shows to watch and tales to hear, and people on Reddit point to the children's section of LSM Replay for cartoons dubbed into Latvian, such as Bluey. For teens and adults, Paliec negatīvs, a short LTV series, is on YouTube, and a learner on Reddit watches it with Latvian subtitles to train their ear.
For fairy tales, Latvian Radio's free Latvijas Radio pasakas app has more than 400 tales read by well-known Latvian voices. For books, Letonika has a library of Latvian classics, with some free books and audiobooks.
Learn Latvian 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 Player (Chrome Web Store) and Readlang (its help forum). Latvijas Radio's count comes from its listing in Latvia's App Store. Word meanings, lesson explanations, and other platforms may differ.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| Duostories | 1 | Full list |
| Fluent Fiction | 1 | Full list |
| Latvijas Radio | 1 | Full list |
| Language Player | 17 | Full list |
| Readlang | 1 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (4)
- Noo SpeakFree news summaries in Latvian every weekday, on topics you choose and in one of three lengths.
- Common EarListen to short recordings of real Latvian speakers and type what you hear. It suits advanced beginners and intermediate learners.
- PasakaLatvian fairy tales for young children, with pictures, narration in Latvian, and new words after each story. It is new and growing.
- Latvian - Listening SpeakingVideo lessons built from real Latvian videos, where you tap any word to see what it means. It is new and growing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Latvian spelled the way it sounds?
Mostly, yes. Latvian is written with 33 letters, and its spelling follows how words sound, so you can read a new word aloud once you know the letters. Marks on letters show long vowels, like ā, and soft sounds, like ļ.
Are there easy books in Latvian?
A few. In 2024, the publisher Valters un Rapa released Stāsti vieglajā valodā, five new stories written in easy Latvian for readers who include people learning the language. A second book of five stories, this time for teens, came out in 2025.
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
- Latvian Language Agency: Māci un mācies latviešu valodu (about 1.5 million first-language speakers)
- r/latvia: Latvian media/entertainment for language learning. Does it exist?
- r/latvia: Latvian media, books, YouTube, and radio for learning the language (content is “thin on the ground”)
- LSM English: News in simple Latvian, 7 October 2026
- LSM: Ziņas vieglajā valodā, 8 October 2026 (text and audio)
- Latvian Radio: Latvijas Radio apps and the countries they are offered in
- r/latvia: Radio station to learn Latvian (Latvian Radio 1 has the most talk)
- r/learnlatvian: Looking for “slow Latvian” listening resources (easy news and Fluent Fiction)
- r/learnlatvian: Is mondly a good (Palīgā! as a comprehensible input show)
- r/latvia: Reading Latvian Books, Language Learning Tips (Palīgā! and Pasakas.net)
- r/latvia: Reading material to learn Latvian (Latvian fairy tales)
- r/latvia: Latvian channels/shows to watch while learning? (easy news, Tutas lietas, LSM Replay)
- r/learnlatvian: TV shows and music (LSM Replay's children's section)
- r/learnlatvian: Any recommendations for Latvian media? (Paliec negatīvs with Latvian subtitles)
- Wikipedia: Latvian orthography (33 letters)
- LSM: The first book of original Latvian stories in easy language (June 2024)
- LSM: A second collection of easy-language stories, for teens (January 2025)
- Bubblegum
- Duostories
- Fluent Fiction
- Latvijas Radio
- Language Player
- Readlang
Checked on October 8, 2026 against each app's own pages.
