Hawaiian is one of the two official languages of Hawaiʻi, and it is written with 13 letters, including the ʻokina. Duolingo, Mango, uTalk and Drops all teach it, and this page lists them next to live classes and free courses.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Hawaiian. You learn from Hawaiian you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Say your child goes to a Hawaiian immersion school and you want to follow along. Ask Poppy, your AI tutor, for a lesson about school mornings, and she writes it at your level, with audio and the ʻokina and kahakō in every word.
To practice with a teacher, see Take Live Classes.
- Poppy writes each lesson for your level, on topics you pick.
- Each lesson plays AI audio while you read.
- Look up a word with a tap, or ask Poppy to explain a whole line.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, and you can export them to Anki.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't turn your own Hawaiian books into lessons. However, you can paste a page in the chat, and Poppy will explain it.
- Hawaiian is new in Bubblegum, and its dictionary is still small. When a word has no entry, ask Poppy.
- 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
ʻŌlelo Online
ʻŌlelo Online offers live weekly classes on Zoom in its Virtual Classroom, taught by Kumu Kaliko, and self-study lessons for beginners on its website.
- Weekly live classes on Zoom, from absolute beginner to intermediate-high.
- Video grammar lessons, audio, and a typing game for practicing the keyboard.
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Mango Languages
Mango teaches Hawaiian as one of 10 languages that are at risk of falling out of use. Its lessons are built around conversations, with grammar notes and culture notes.
- Lessons built around real conversations, with grammar notes and culture notes.
- Native-speaker audio for every word, and a way to compare your voice.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Duolingo
Duolingo added Hawaiian in 2018, with short lessons for English speakers.
- A Hawaiian course for English speakers, with short lessons and audio from fluent speakers.
MobileWeb
uTalk
uTalk teaches Hawaiian words and phrases for talking with people. Use the main uTalk app, which has the Hawaiian course.
- More than 2,500 words and phrases in about 60 topics, such as Family and Restaurant.
- Recordings of a female native speaker and a male speaker who was adopted into a Hawaiian family.
MobileWeb
Drops
Drops teaches single Hawaiian words with audio. Read whole sentences in a course or in Bubblegum.
- More than 2,000 Hawaiian words in short five-minute sessions.
- Clear audio for each word.
Mobile
Kamehameha Schools has put Kulāiwi online, an archived video course with 24 lessons, a transcript for each lesson and a workbook for lessons 1 to 12. Ka Leo ʻŌiwi from ʻŌiwi TV has 13 video lessons.
The University of Hawaiʻi Press sells Ka Lei Haʻaheo: Beginning Hawaiian, a textbook with dialogs from contemporary Hawaiian family life and grammar lessons. Its page does not mention audio.
| App | Free? | What's Free |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | Free version | 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. |
| ʻŌlelo Online | Free version | Most of the text on the site is free. A paid membership opens all the videos and audio files. |
| Mango Languages | Free | The whole Mango Hawaiian course is free. You do not need a subscription or a plan. |
| Duolingo | Free | Every Duolingo course is free. Super Duolingo removes ads and adds extras such as Unlimited Energy, and you can try it free for 14 days. |
| uTalk | Some lessons free | Every language has free starter words, and getting full marks in the games opens one more topic for free. For the rest, you subscribe or buy a language or topic. |
| Drops | Free version | The free version lets you learn for five minutes every 10 hours. Drops Premium gives you unlimited time and all the content, and the yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial. |
Using an app in your language does not always mean its Hawaiian lessons are explained in it, so try one lesson before you pay. For Duolingo, the number is the languages its Hawaiian course is taught in. A dash means the app's own pages don't say.
| App | Languages You Can Use It In | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Supported language pairs |
| ʻŌlelo Online | — | — |
| Mango | — | — |
| Duolingo | 1 | Course list |
| uTalk | 140+ | Full list |
| Drops | 16 | Full list |
Which Hawaiian app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Hawaiian, start with Bubblegum. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes lessons at your level about things you like. Or start with Mango, whose Hawaiian course is free, or with Kamehameha Schools' free Kulāiwi videos. The best way to learn Hawaiian has a plan for each part of a study hour.
Does Duolingo teach Hawaiian?
Yes. Duolingo has a Hawaiian course for English speakers, and its course list shows no other language to learn it from.
Do I need to learn the ʻokina and the kahakō?
Yes, because they change what a word means. A kahakō makes a vowel longer, so papa (a flat surface) and pāpā (to forbid) are different words. The ʻokina marks a break in the voice, so lānai is a deck and Lānaʻi is an island.
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
- Hawaiʻi State Constitution, Article XV (English and Hawaiian are the official languages of Hawaiʻi)
- ʻŌlelo Online: Pronunciation of the Hawaiian Alphabet (13 letters, the ʻokina and the kahakō)
- Duolingo course list (a Hawaiian course for English speakers)
- Star-Advertiser: Hawaiian language course now available on Duolingo (2018)
- Mango Languages: Hawaiian (the Hawaiian course is free)
- Mango Languages: available languages (Hawaiian is one of 10 languages at risk of falling out of use)
- uTalk: Learn Hawaiian (2,500+ words and phrases, about 60 topics, recordings of Hawaiian speakers)
- uTalk: the languages you can learn from
- Drops: Learn Hawaiian (2,000+ words)
- Drops on the App Store (languages you can use it in, 7-day free trial of Drops Premium)
- ʻŌlelo Online: home page (live classes, membership, free sections)
- ʻŌlelo Online: how best to use it (where beginners start, what members get)
- Kamehameha Schools: Kulāiwi video lessons (24 lessons, transcripts, workbook for lessons 1 to 12)
- ʻŌiwi TV: Ka Leo ʻŌiwi (13 episodes)
- University of Hawaiʻi Press: Ka Lei Haʻaheo, Beginning Hawaiian
- Bubblegum: Hawaiian
- Duolingo: what's free
- uTalk: what's free
- Drops: what's free
- Drops: what the paid plan adds
- Duolingo
