The Fastest Way to Learn Marathi in 2026

The fastest way to learn Marathi is to spend most of your study time on Marathi you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input. The plan below names something to read or hear at each of six levels and suggests how to split an hour of study. Marathi is written in Devanagari, so the plan opens with a row for learning the letters.

Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows one suggested way to spend an hour of study.

1. Start With the Letters

   I can't read the Marathi letters yet.

   • Learn the letters 25 min
   • Listen 35 min

   Marathi is written in Devanagari. Learn the letters in small groups, and say each one aloud. Bubblegum's Marathi Letters course gives every letter a picture and a sound, and the first lessons of Learn Marathi With Kaushik cover the alphabet and how to pronounce it. Replay ळ, the letter Hindi almost never uses, a few extra times. In Bubblegum you can read lessons in Roman letters while you learn them.

   • Learn Marathi With Kaushik
2. Level 1

   I can sound out words but not much else.

   • Read and listen 33 min
   • Review 17 min
   • Speak 10 min

   Choose one of two ways to start. The easiest way is Bubblegum, where Poppy, your AI tutor, writes short Marathi lessons at your level about your interests and goals and explains the grammar as you go. The other way is a free course. We could not find a Marathi textbook for self-study with free audio, so work through Learn Marathi With Kaushik in order, starting with the letters, and watch the video for each lesson. Plan on a few weeks of hard study to learn the basic grammar before you start using apps.

   • Free course: Learn Marathi With Kaushik
3. Level 2

   I can read simple sentences.

   • Read and listen 38 min
   • Review 12 min
   • Speak 10 min

   If you use Bubblegum, read its Level 2 lessons with the translation hidden, and look up only the words that stop you. If you use the free course, work through its grammar and phrase lessons, and watch each video again without reading along. Play the 50LANGUAGES lessons as you read them, and say each short line out loud. Read a picture book on StoryWeaver, and look up only the words you can't guess from the pictures.

   • 50LANGUAGES lessons
   • StoryWeaver's Marathi books
4. Level 3

   I can read short stories and messages.

   • Read and listen 40 min
   • Review 8 min
   • Retell the scene 12 min

   At this level you need more words, so read and listen a lot. Bubblegum reuses the words you saved in new Level 3 lessons. Play a scene from Marathi Everyday, like a bank visit or a shopping trip, twice. Then tell someone who speaks Marathi what happened, and ask them a question about it.

   • Marathi Everyday
5. Level 4

   I can read longer texts about everyday life.

   • Read and listen 43 min
   • Check details 5 min
   • Talk it over 12 min

   Read Bubblegum lessons at Level 4 about things you're into. Read the headlines on Maharashtra Times, and look up only the words that stop you. Choose one phrase you could use this week, and say it to a person.

   • Maharashtra Times
6. Level 5

   I can follow complex topics, but miss some details.

   • Read and listen 46 min
   • Check details 4 min
   • Explain your view 10 min

   Read a news story on a topic you know well, and look up only the words that stop you. Then explain the story in Marathi to a tutor or a friend. Poppy can write your Level 5 lessons about anything you're into.

   • BBC News Marathi
   • Loksatta
7. Level 6

   I can read almost anything.

   • Read and listen 48 min
   • Discuss and write 12 min

   Read longer articles and a Marathi book you chose yourself, with no translation. Then write a short summary, and ask a tutor or a Marathi-speaking friend to mark what sounds wrong. Poppy writes Level 6 lessons about the things you care about.

   • Lokmat
   • Loksatta

Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you can't tell what's happening by the third line.

In Bubblegum, Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each Marathi lesson for your level and your goal, and she'll explain a line when you ask. The audio in Bubblegum lessons is made by AI, so add recordings of real people each week, like the scenes on Marathi Everyday.

K J Somaiya School of Languages and Literature in Mumbai teaches a Certificate Course in Communicative Marathi for non-Marathi speakers in two levels, and it lists 60 hours over 4 months for each one, in weekend lectures taught online. Level 1 covers the script, basic vocabulary, sentence formation, listening and speaking. Level 2 covers reading and writing short texts, everyday communication and cultural etiquette. Both levels together come to about 120 hours of lessons.

The U.S. Foreign Service Institute's list of language groups doesn't name Marathi, so there is no FSI figure to quote here. Here is how long 120 hours takes at different amounts of study a week:

These are hours for a beginner certificate, so they are a rough guide and don't promise a level.

• 🧩Verbs That Match the SpeakerA man says मी जातो (I go), and a woman says मी जाते. Meet each form inside a sentence, and open a verb table when a form puzzles you.
• 🔤Letters Hindi Readers Don't Knowळ is a letter Hindi almost never uses, and the joined letter in ज्ञान (knowledge) is read differently in Marathi than in Hindi. Copy a recording until you match it.
• 🔡Staying in Roman LettersRoman letters are a good way to start. Signs, books and subtitles use Devanagari, so learn the letters when you want to read them.
• 🗂️Starting With a Word ListA word list gives each word one meaning and no sense of how people use it. Meet each new word in a full sentence, and the forms built from it begin to look familiar.