Yoruba news and books are written for people who already read Yoruba, and the tone marks are new to a learner. These are the easiest places to read and hear it. Reading and listening to things you mostly understand is called comprehensible input. To compare courses, textbooks and tutors, see our Yoruba app comparison.
To check the level, read a few sentences. If most have about one new word, keep reading. If you can't tell what's happening, pick something easier.
Learn each word inside a sentence you read and hear.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Yoruba. You learn from Yoruba you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Tell Poppy, your AI tutor, your level and a topic you like, and she writes a Yoruba lesson for you. For Yoruba you find yourself, such as the stories and news below, paste a page into the chat and ask Poppy to explain it.
- Pick a topic and a level, and Poppy writes the Yoruba to match.
- Each lesson has AI audio to play while you read.
- Tap a word to see what it means, or ask Poppy to explain a whole line.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- Lessons use Standard Nigerian Yoruba, so the local words your family uses may look different from the page.
- You can't turn your own Yoruba books into lessons. However, you can paste a page into the chat, and Poppy will explain it.
- Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Storybooks Nigeria has free stories in five levels, and Yoruba is one of its languages. A good first one is Kíka àwọn ẹranko (Counting animals), at Level 1. Read each page aloud. Some story pages say their audio is not available yet, so check the page before you press play.
Memrise
Memrise's Yoruba course shows a word in a short video before you practice it. It suits learners who want to hear a word before they practice it.
- 60+ videos of Yoruba speakers using the words you are learning.
- Each word plays as audio.
MobileWeb
Other Apps We Looked At (2)
- BluebirdAbout 2,000 video lessons with a hands-free listen-and-repeat format, narrated in any of 146 languages.
- iSabi Yoruba+Listen to a Yoruba speaker, repeat, and compare. It covers phrases for more than 100 situations and works offline.
Yorùbá Yé Mi has an audio archive with its dialogues, monologues and songs, and it opens with audio for the alphabet, the vowels and the tones. Four words that differ only in tone are ọkọ́ (hoe), ọkọ (husband), (vehicle) and ọ̀kọ̀ (spear), so play each one before you move on. The audio for Colloquial Yoruba is a free download from Routledge.
BBC News Yorùbá publishes news and videos in Yoruba, with the tone marks and dots written out. Choose a story you first read about in English. Read the headline, then the first two lines.
Yoruba Wikipedia has more than 40,000 articles. Start with a topic you already know, such as a city or a footballer, because the names will help you follow along.
Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmọlẹ̀, by D. O. Fágúnwà, appeared in 1938 and is widely considered the first novel written in Yoruba. Wole Soyinka translated it into English as The Forest of a Thousand Daemons, which helps if you want to check what you read.
| What You Can Follow | Try This | You're Ready to Move On When |
|---|---|---|
| One picture for each idea | A Level 1 story on Storybooks Nigeria | You can tell the story back from the pictures |
| Short dialogues with audio | The first chapters of Yorùbá Yé Mi | You can say each line back and know what it means |
| Short sentences | A lesson from Poppy at Level 2 | You can answer a question about it without looking |
| Short spoken phrases | Memrise videos or Bluebird lessons | You can say each phrase back with its tones |
| Short news reports | A headline and first lines on BBC News Yorùbá | You can say what the story is about |
| Longer texts | A Yoruba Wikipedia article on a topic you know | You can follow it without the English open |
Each number is how many languages you can use the app in, including script variants. Word meanings, lesson explanations, and other platforms may differ.
| App | Languages You Can Use It In | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| Memrise | 22 | Full list |
| Bluebird | 146 | Full list |
| iSabi Yoruba+ | 1 | Full list |
| Storybooks Nigeria | — | — |
| BBC News Yorùbá | — | — |
| Yoruba Wikipedia | — | — |
Which Yoruba app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Yoruba, start with Bubblegum. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes lessons at your level about things you like. Start with a Level 1 story on Storybooks Nigeria if you want pictures, and with the audio of Colloquial Yoruba or Yorùbá Yé Mi if you want to hear dialogues.
Why do tone marks matter when I read?
Yoruba has three tones, high, mid and low, and a different tone gives a different word. The accents show the tone, and a vowel with no accent is usually mid. Play the audio for each new word, so the sound and the spelling stay together.
Is there a news site for Yoruba learners?
We found no Yoruba news site written for learners. BBC News Yorùbá is written for Yoruba readers, so begin with a headline and its first lines.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read. Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Storybooks Nigeria: free stories with text and audio, Yoruba among the languages
- Storybooks Nigeria: Kíka àwọn ẹranko (Level 1, Yoruba)
- BBC News Yorùbá
- Yoruba Wikipedia
- Yorùbá Yé Mi (COERLL, University of Texas at Austin): dialogues with audio
- Routledge: Colloquial Yoruba, The Complete Course for Beginners
- Routledge: free audio for Colloquial Yoruba
- Memrise: Yoruba course (60+ videos)
- Memrise: iPhone App Store listing (languages you can use it in)
- Bluebird: Learn Yoruba, iPhone App Store listing (Pronunciator)
- iSabi Yoruba+: iPhone App Store listing
- Wikipedia: Daniel O. Fágúnwà (first Yoruba novel, 1938)
- Wikipedia: Yoruba language (three tones, accent marks)
- Wiktionary: ọkọ́, ọkọ, ọkọ̀ and ọ̀kọ̀ (hoe, husband, vehicle, spear)
- Bubblegum
