What is the best app to learn Russian vocabulary with spaced repetition?
Pick by 2 things: how much of the deck you want to build yourself, and whether the app ever asks you for a case form.
- Words with their case forms, ready-made: Slova. FSRS schedules about 1,300 words, most of them A1 to B1, and you type each form inside a sentence.
- Free, and you'll write your own cards: Anki. SM-2 by default, FSRS as an option, and an empty deck until you fill it.
- Native-speaker listening with your reviews: Memrise.
- Words from texts you read: LingQ. The words you save go into its SRS review.
- B1 and up, words inside sentences: Clozemaster.
Anki also runs fine next to any of the others, for the words you collect from a tutor or a book.
Slova is our app. It's first in the ranking below because we built it for the forms problem, and its entry lists what it can't do.
What spaced repetition does for Russian vocabulary
Spaced repetition brings a word back just before you'd forget it. Get it right and the next review moves further out: a day, then a few days, then weeks. Miss it and it comes back sooner. Your time goes to the words that are slipping, and the ones you know stop eating your session.
In Spanish, the thing to schedule is mostly the word. In Russian it's the word and its forms. Here's книга (kniga) - book in all 6 cases:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | книга (kniga) | книги (knigi) |
| Genitive | книги (knigi) | книг (knig) |
| Dative | книге (knige) | книгам (knigam) |
| Accusative | книгу (knigu) | книги (knigi) |
| Instrumental | книгой (knigoy) | книгами (knigami) |
| Prepositional | книге (knige) | книгах (knigakh) |
That's 12 slots and 9 different spellings. A flashcard with "книга = book" trains the first row. A sentence needs the others: Я читаю книгу (Ya chitayu knigu) - I'm reading a book, or без книги (bez knigi) - without a book. Stress can move as well: рука (ruka) - hand is stressed on the last syllable, руки (ruki) - hands on the first. Our guide to the 6 Russian cases explains where each ending comes from.
Recognition and production. Spotting книгу among 4 options is recognition. Typing it into Я читаю ___ from memory is production, and production is what speaking and writing ask of you. A card you flip and grade yourself sits close to recognition: once the answer shows, it's easy to decide you knew it. Typed recall settles the question, because the app checks the letters.
So the best spaced repetition app for Russian is the one that schedules the forms you'll need and makes you type them. The algorithm comes second.
What to look for
- The algorithm. You'll meet 2 names. SM-2 is the older formula, and Anki still uses it by default. FSRS estimates how likely you are to recall each card and schedules from that. Anki has offered FSRS since version 23.10, and Slova uses it for every word. Both work. The bigger question is what's on the card.
- Ready-made Russian content, or build your own. Anki starts empty. A noun has 12 forms, so 100 nouns make 1,200 forms before you add a single verb. Ready-made apps pick the words and write the cards, and you give up some control over what you learn.
- Case forms and stress marks. Does a card ever ask you for книгу, or only for книга? And does it show stress? Real Russian texts don't print it, so your word list has to.
- Typed answers. Tapping one of 4 options is faster and feels better. Typing the form is the version that carries over to a conversation. Look for an app that checks what you type, so you aren't the one deciding whether маме was close enough to мамы.
- Audio. Memrise has clips of native speakers. LingQ has audio lessons with matching transcripts. Anki plays whatever audio you add. Slova has a listen button that reads words and sentences aloud with your device's voice.
The quick comparison
| App | Price | Algorithm | Russian content | Case forms trained | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slova | $12/mo or $99/yr, 7-day trial | FSRS | About 1,300 words, A1-B1, with stress marks, plus your own words | All 12 noun forms and verb conjugation, typed in sentences | Words with their case forms |
| Anki | Free; $25 once on iPhone | SM-2 by default, FSRS optional | None built in; shared decks, mostly word-translation pairs | Only the ones you write cards for | Building your own deck |
| Memrise | ~$8-15/mo, limited free tier | Spaced repetition | Ready-made course with native-speaker video clips | Dictionary form; cases only in examples | Listening next to review |
| Clozemaster | Free; Pro ~$8/mo | Spaced repetition | Thousands of sentences from Tatoeba | Whatever the sentence needs, unexplained | B1+ words in context |
| LingQ | Free to start | SRS for saved words | Audio lessons with transcripts, or your own imported texts | The forms in what you read | Words from reading |
| Busuu | From $6.99/mo or $70/yr; limited free plan | A vocabulary review tool, Premium only | A1 to B2 course, 245+ lessons | A short rule and exercises per case | A full course with review |
| Duolingo | Free; Super ~$13/mo | Engagement-tuned review | Beginner course, alphabet included | Met in sentences, never shown as a table | Daily habit, total beginners |
The ranking
A disclosure first: Slova is our app, so read its entry with that in mind. It's first because this page is about Russian words with their forms, which is the problem we built it for. Every entry lists what the app does badly, ours included.
1. Slova - best for learning words with their case forms
Price: $12/month or $99/year after a 7-day free trial · Algorithm: FSRS · Case forms: all 12, typed inside sentences
Slova is a Russian-only trainer for about 1,300 words, most of them A1 to B1. Every noun carries its full declension table, every verb its conjugation table, and every word its stress mark. FSRS schedules each word on its own.
A new word starts with an easier step where you pick the form from options. After that you type it, inside a sentence. Get it wrong and Slova shows the right form and the word that called for the case, with the ending table one tap away. Each case and verb rule has a short lesson too, so you learn the grammar first and then drill it until the endings come without thinking.
You can add your own words from a tutor or a book, and Slova generates exercises for them. It also trains offline on the words you've downloaded. Our page on Russian vocabulary shows how the word packs are organized.
Limitations: Slova has no speaking practice and no listening course; the listen button reads words and sentences aloud with your device's voice. It doesn't teach the Cyrillic alphabet, so you need to read and type it already. The word list stops around B1, so C1 learners will get more from their own reading and a tool like Anki or LingQ.
Cost: 7-day free trial, then $12/month or $99/year, with a 14-day refund on your first Pro purchase. Details on the pricing page.
Where it runs: on the web and on Google Play. App Store coming soon.
Best for: learners who read Cyrillic and want ready-made cards that train every form of a word, without writing the deck themselves.
2. Anki - best free option if you'll build the deck
Price: free; $25 once on iPhone · Algorithm: SM-2 by default, FSRS optional · Case forms: only the ones you write cards for
Anki is a general flashcard system, and it gives you more control than any other app here. You choose the card format, the number of new cards a day and the scheduler. Turn on FSRS at the bottom of the deck options and Anki schedules with the same algorithm Slova uses. It takes anything you paste in: your textbook, your tutor's sentences, audio you record yourself.
Anki itself ships no Russian content. The Russian decks on AnkiWeb are shared by other users, most of them word-translation pairs with no case forms, and their quality varies a lot. Check 10 cards against a declension table before you trust a deck.
Limitations: the setup takes hours, and 12 forms per noun is a lot of card writing. You grade yourself, which is easy to do generously at 11 pm. And Anki sees cards. Tags let you drill one case, but Anki won't tell you that your dative is the weak one.
A card format that works for Russian: a Cloze note with one short sentence, the whole word hidden and the dictionary form as the hint, as in Я вижу {{c1::маму::мама}} (Ya vizhu mamu) - I see mom. Add a type-in field to the template so you type the answer.
Best for: learners who already review in Anki every day, or who study more than Russian and want one queue for everything.
3. Memrise - best for listening alongside your reviews
Price: ~$8-15/month, limited free tier · Algorithm: spaced repetition · Case forms: dictionary form; cases only appear in examples
Memrise's Russian course comes with short video clips of native speakers saying the words in real settings. That helps a lot in Russian, where stress and unstressed vowels are hard to learn from text. Reviews run on spaced repetition, and community-made courses cover niche topics if you need them. Our Slova vs Memrise page goes through the details.
Limitations: Memrise teaches words in their dictionary form. You learn that книга means book, and case forms like книгу only turn up in example sentences. Exercises lean on tapping and multiple choice. The app has changed direction several times over the years, and the Russian content is uneven because of it.
Best for: learners who want to hear real Russians while they review, and who drill the forms somewhere else.
4. Clozemaster - best for B1+ vocabulary in sentences
Price: free; Pro ~$8/month · Algorithm: spaced repetition · Case forms: whatever the sentence needs, without an explanation
Clozemaster shows a Russian sentence with one word missing, and you type the word or pick it. The sentences come from the Tatoeba database, thousands of them across frequency bands. Every gap on a noun is a case form tested in context, which makes it good practice once you know the endings.
Limitations: it assumes you already know the grammar. When you miss a form, you find out it was wrong, with no rule for why. Sentence quality varies, since the database is crowdsourced, and there's no curriculum.
Best for: intermediate and advanced learners (B1+) who know the cases and want a lot of words in context.
5. LingQ - best for learning words from what you read
Price: free to start · Algorithm: SRS for saved words · Case forms: the ones that turn up in your texts
LingQ is built on input. You read and listen to Russian lessons with audio and matching transcripts, or import your own text and turn it into a lesson. The reader keeps track of every word you know and every word you're learning, and the words you save go into an SRS review. There are apps for iOS and Android, synced across devices.
Limitations: you review the words you chose to save, in the forms you happened to meet. LingQ's Russian page says nothing about case drills, so the endings are up to you. It works best once you can follow a simple text. The Russian page doesn't list prices; check LingQ's site for the paid plans.
Best for: intermediate learners who read a lot and want their new words to come back on a schedule.
6. Busuu - best if you want a course with vocabulary review
Price: from $6.99/month or $70/year; limited free plan · Review: a vocabulary review tool, Premium only · Case forms: a grammar rule and exercises inside the lessons
Busuu is a full course first: Complete Russian runs from A1 to B2 in 245+ lessons, and a free plan gets you started. Its Russian page lists a vocabulary revision tool next to the lessons, and Busuu puts its review tools in Premium. You can also send written and spoken exercises to other Russian speakers in the community for correction.
Limitations: the course page doesn't say how the revision tool schedules reviews. Busuu runs the same lesson format for every language, so each Russian case gets a short rule and a handful of exercises. Grammar Review, which brings old rules back, is a paid feature. Reviews disagree on how many Russian lessons the free plan opens, so check it in the app before you plan around it.
Best for: beginners who want a structured course, with vocabulary review as a side dish.
7. Duolingo - review tuned for the streak
Price: free; Super ~$13/month · Review: engagement-tuned · Case forms: met in sentences, never shown as a table
Duolingo's Russian course teaches the alphabet and everyday words through sentence translation. The whole course is free, with ads and a daily energy limit. Old words come back in practice sessions, and that review is tuned for engagement: it's built to keep your streak going.
Limitations: exercises lean on word banks and tapping, which builds recognition. You never see a declension table or a reason why a word changed form.
Best for: total beginners who need the alphabet and a daily habit. Add a real spaced repetition tool by A2. Our ranking of the best apps to learn Russian covers Duolingo and 8 others beyond vocabulary.
Free options
- Anki: free on desktop, Android and the web, $25 once on iPhone.
- Clozemaster: free sentence practice, with Pro for more.
- Memrise: a limited free tier, native-speaker clips included.
- Busuu: a limited free plan. The review tools, the part that matters for this page, need Premium.
- OpenRussian: a free Russian dictionary that shows stress marks. You can save words and practice them as flashcards, and some word sets need a Pro account. The site doesn't describe a spaced repetition schedule, so treat it as the place to look words up.
Two of our own tools need no account. The declension lookup shows the full case table for a Russian noun, and the list of the most common Russian words ranks the A1 to B1 vocabulary by how often Russians use it, with stress marks on every word. For a ranking of drills by case, see the best apps for Russian cases.
A weekly routine
This week works in any app on the list. The only rule that never bends is the first one.
- Reviews first, every day. Due reviews are the words about to slip. New words can wait a day. A skipped review lets a word slip further.
- Then 10 new words. 10 a day is 70 a week and about 300 a month. At that pace, a list of 1,300 words takes a bit over 4 months.
- Learn in frequency order. Start from the top of the most common Russian words. A word you'll hear every day pays back sooner than вокзал (vokzal) - train station.
- Add the forms in steps. Week 1, the dictionary form and its meaning. Then the accusative and the prepositional, the pair behind в Москву (v Moskvu) - to Moscow and в Москве (v Moskve) - in Moscow. Then the genitive, which comes after нет (net) - there is no and after numbers. The dative and instrumental come last. In Slova the forms arrive with the word; in Anki, add a cloze card for each form as you learn its case.
- Type, every day. If your app lets you choose, answer by typing. Tapping is fine for the first look at a new word.
- Take 1 day a week with no new words. Clear the reviews, and look up the forms you keep missing in the cases cheat sheet.
- Watch the queue. If reviews start filling your whole session, pause new words for a day or two. The queue shrinks fast once you stop feeding it.
Words from your own life belong in the queue too: the ones from your tutor, a menu, a show. Topic lists of Russian words and Russian phrases are a good source when you run out.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to learn Russian vocabulary with spaced repetition?
For words with their case forms ready-made, Slova: FSRS schedules about 1,300 A1 to B1 words and you type each form in a sentence. For a free tool you set up yourself, Anki. For listening, Memrise. For words from your reading, LingQ. For B1+ sentence practice, Clozemaster. Slova is our app.
Is Anki good for learning Russian vocabulary?
Yes, if you'll build the cards. Anki is free (except $25 once on iPhone), uses SM-2 by default and FSRS as an option, and takes any content you paste in. For Russian, write sentence cards that hide the whole word and make you type it, so you practice the case forms too. The cost is hours of setup and grading yourself.
Which Anki deck should I use for Russian?
Anki has no official Russian course. The Russian decks on AnkiWeb are shared by users, most are word-translation pairs, and their quality varies a lot. Check 10 cards against a declension table before you commit, and prefer decks with full sentences and stress marks. You can also write your own cards from your textbook or your tutor's sentences.
How many Russian words should I learn a day with spaced repetition?
10 new words a day is a pace you can hold. That's about 300 a month, and the reviews build up behind them. Do your reviews first, and pause new words for a day or two if reviews start filling the whole session. Remember that each Russian noun has 12 forms to learn, so 10 nouns is a bigger day than it looks.
Is Memrise good for Russian vocabulary?
For listening, yes. Memrise has video clips of native speakers and spaced repetition reviews, from about $8-15 a month with a limited free tier. It teaches words in their dictionary form, so you learn that книга (kniga) means book, and case forms like книгу (knigu) only turn up in examples. Pair it with a tool that drills the case forms.
Does spaced repetition work for Russian cases?
Yes, when the cards ask for the forms. A card that hides the whole word in a short sentence and makes you type it trains the case and the ending together. Spaced repetition then brings back the forms you miss sooner. Slova does this for every noun it teaches; in Anki you write those cards yourself.
Is LingQ good for Russian vocabulary?
LingQ suits learners who read. You read and listen to Russian lessons, or import your own texts, and the words you save come back in an SRS review. Its Russian page says nothing about case drills, so you'll want another tool for the endings, and it works best once you can follow a simple text.