Best Apps to Learn Welsh in 2026

When Duolingo mothballed its Welsh course in November 2023, it left 675,000 active learners without their primary tool. The course still exists on the app but is frozen. No updates, no bug fixes, and a final update introduced errors that will never be corrected.

Meanwhile, demand for Welsh learning has never been higher. The Welsh Government's Cymraeg 2050 strategy aims for a million speakers. The National Centre for Learning Welsh hit record enrolment. And parents sending children to Welsh-medium schools need to learn alongside them.

Here's every significant option for learning Welsh in 2026, what each one actually does, and who it's best for.

SaySomethingInWelsh (SSiW)

Best for: Getting you speaking Welsh quickly through audio-only challenges.

SSiW is the most established Welsh learning platform. You hear English, pause to formulate Welsh, then hear the correct answer. No text, no grammar tables. Just speaking practice. It's been running since 2009 and has a strong, active community.

Strengths: Gets words out of your mouth faster than any text-based app. Builds real speaking confidence. Excellent community and forum. Both Northern and Southern Welsh dialects available. Free first course.

Weaknesses: Deliberately avoids grammar explanation. The philosophy is "absorb patterns naturally." No mutation drilling. No reading or writing component. If you want to understand why a mutation happens, SSiW won't tell you.

Price: First course free. Full access: ~£13/month.

blas.

Best for: Adults who want structured grammar, mutation drilling, and comprehensive learning with spaced repetition.

blas. covers grammar, vocabulary, mutations, graded reading, conversation practice, writing, and exam prep. All scheduled with FSRS spaced repetition. It's built specifically for Welsh and Irish, not adapted from a generic language template.

Strengths: The only app that systematically drills Welsh mutations (treiglad meddal, trwynol, and llaes) with SRS. Explicit grammar lessons. Graded reading from A1 to C1. Conversation practice with grammar feedback. Covers WJEC GCSE and A-Level formats. Placement test so you skip what you already know.

Weaknesses: Newer app. Less brand recognition than SSiW. Covers Irish and Welsh only.

Price: Free tier (first two grammar and mutation stages, unlimited sessions). Premium unlocks all content.

Duolingo (Mothballed)

Best for: Nobody, at this point.

The Welsh course was mothballed in November 2023. Duolingo stopped all updates and bug fixes. A final update introduced errors (misspelled words, correct answers marked wrong, Northern dialect forms rejected) that will never be corrected. 675,000 learners were active at the time.

Strengths: Free. Still technically accessible. Some of the original content was well-designed before the freeze.

Weaknesses: Frozen and unreliable. Known bugs in the content. No grammar explanation. No mutation drilling. Will never be updated. You cannot trust which answers are correct and which are errors.

Price: Free. But the cost of learning incorrect Welsh is high.

National Centre for Learning Welsh (Dysgu Cymraeg)

Best for: Structured classroom learning with qualified tutors.

The government-funded programme offers courses from entry level through to proficiency, both in-person and online. Tutors are trained and quality is consistent. It's the closest thing to formal education for adult Welsh learners.

Strengths: Professional, structured, tutor-led. Covers all four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Often free or subsidised. Record enrolment: 18,330 course completions in 2023-24.

Weaknesses: Course-based. Fixed schedule, term dates, pace set by the class. No on-demand drilling of weak areas. Gaps between terms leave learners without structured practice.

Price: Often free or heavily subsidised through Welsh Government funding.

Glossika Welsh

Best for: Intermediate learners who want mass sentence exposure.

Glossika offers Welsh for free (one of its supported minority languages). The method is sentence-based: you hear and repeat thousands of sentences, building patterns through sheer volume. The spaced repetition scheduling is solid.

Strengths: Free for Welsh. Thousands of natural sentences with audio. Builds pattern recognition through repetition. Good for listening comprehension.

Weaknesses: No grammar explanation at all. Sentences are presented without context or structure. Mutations appear but are never taught or drilled. Can feel repetitive. Not ideal for beginners. You need some Welsh foundation to benefit.

Price: Free for Welsh.

Clwb Cwtsh

Best for: Complete beginners, especially parents of Welsh-medium school children.

Run by Mudiad Meithrin (the Welsh-medium early years organisation), Clwb Cwtsh is a free 8-week Welsh taster for parents. It's specifically designed for English-speaking parents whose children attend Welsh-medium nurseries. 77% of Welsh-medium nursery children come from English-speaking homes.

Strengths: Free. Welcoming, low-pressure environment. Directly useful for parents who need Welsh for their children's education. Community-based.

Weaknesses: Only 8 weeks. Very basic level. Not a progression pathway. You'll need something else after it finishes.

Price: Free.

Clozemaster

Best for: Vocabulary building through fill-in-the-blank sentences.

Clozemaster presents Welsh sentences with one word removed. You fill the gap. It has thousands of sentences ordered by word frequency, so you learn the most common words first. The SRS scheduling is competent.

Strengths: Large sentence database. Words learned in context, not isolation. Free tier is generous. Good for building reading speed.

Weaknesses: Cloze only. No grammar explanation, no speaking, no conversation. No mutation drilling. Interface is functional but basic. Machine-translated sentences can be unnatural.

Price: Free tier. Pro: ~£8/month.

Anki

Best for: Self-directed learners who want full control over their flashcard decks.

Anki is a free, open-source flashcard app with the best SRS algorithm available. Several community-made Welsh decks exist, covering vocabulary and basic grammar. You can also build your own decks from course materials.

Strengths: Free (desktop and Android). Best-in-class SRS. Total customisation. Good supplement to any other tool.

Weaknesses: Steep learning curve. You source or create all content yourself. No structure. Welsh decks are fewer and smaller than for major languages. iOS app costs £25.

Price: Free (desktop, Android). iOS: £25 one-time.

Feature Comparison

Which One Should You Use?

If you're a complete beginner:

Start with Clwb Cwtsh if you're a parent, or blas. if you want to start immediately on your own. SSiW's first course is also free and gets you speaking from day one. Don't start with Duolingo. The frozen course will teach you errors.

If you were using Duolingo and need a replacement:

Use blas. with the placement test to skip past what you already know. Your Duolingo vocabulary is real. You need a tool that builds on it with proper grammar and mutation drilling, not one that starts you from zero.

If speaking is your priority:

SSiW is the gold standard for Welsh speaking practice. Combine it with blas. for grammar and mutations. SSiW deliberately skips grammar explanation, so you need something that fills that gap. The combination covers all bases.

If you want a classroom experience:

The National Centre courses are excellent and often free. Use blas. between terms to keep practising. The spaced repetition ensures you don't lose what you learned in class.

The Gap in Welsh Learning Tools

The Duolingo mothballing exposed a dependency. Hundreds of thousands of learners had no backup plan because no other app offered a comparable breadth of Welsh content. SSiW is excellent for speaking but doesn't teach grammar. Glossika and Clozemaster are supplementary tools, not primary ones. The National Centre courses are structured but time-bound.

What Welsh learners need (and what didn't exist until recently) is a comprehensive app that handles grammar, mutations, reading, vocabulary, and conversation with spaced repetition tying it all together. That's the gap blas. was built to fill.