Ella Verbs: Learn Spanish

I’ve been using Ella for about four days and it really has clicked for me, after two months of self-study had things feeling pretty vague for me. If you want to sound coherent in a foreign language, getting your verb tenses and conditionals right is crucial. I’m self-teaching Spanish after learning French and Italian in classrooms, and before Ella, the best option I knew to drill conjugation on my own was to work through one of those big books of 500+ verbs conjugated. But that’s obviously useless. I found the KOFI flashcards for Anki and used them for a few months but I wasn’t really getting better. (KOFI tries to teach one verb at a time, while Ella teaches tenses batched by similar conjugation). Four days with Ella and everything makes sense and I’m growing fast. It is very configurable to quiz and drill whatever you’re trying to improve, and you can toggle individual tenses or different regional quirks (vos) to focus on what’s important for your Spanish. They should really really really make this for other languages!

I’ve been frustrated in the past with programs like Rosetta Stone and Duolingo because you end up answering the same questions over and over—well past the point at which you’ve absorbed the information and are ready to move on. Ella Verbs is much more customizable—you can jump around, bypassing levels if you feel you’ve learned enough and going back to review or refresh your skills as needed. This is especially helpful if, like me, you know Spanish pretty well but have learned in a scattershot way over the years, leaving gaps in your knowledge: Ella Verbs lets you target the areas where you need improvement, from relatively simple elements like direct object pronouns to the complexities of the subjunctive. But it’s great for users at any level. Not least, the interface is elegant but simple, and they don’t waste your time with dancing cartoon creatures or cutesy phrases. (If you mess up a test, they just say “Hard luck.”) All in all, it’s a pleasure to use and well worth the price!

I didn’t realize how much I would like this app when I started the free trial. It is evident a lot of thought and effort has gone into making it an excellent learning tool. There is some teaching of verb conjugation, but what I find most useful are the quizzes. Right now I am practicing using the quiz which presents example sentences with a verb missing (but you can see the infinitive) and you need to choose whether to use the preterite or imperfect past tense, and to write it out with correct accent marks. After you choose, the correct verb is spoken and written. Another favorite right now is choosing when to use ser and estar. The default settings use 100 common verbs, but apparently you can change those settings to over 1000 verbs. I haven’t used all the verb conjugation forms yet, but a quick perusal made me think they have them all. Highly satisfied, and hoping they will offer an affordable lifetime purchase option for this app. Well worth your time to accept the free offer and try it out!