Learn Yoruba online

free interactive course2,000 real sentences works on your phoneModerate for an English speaker, ~1,022 hrs

Yoruba is spoken by about 50 million people.

On our measured language map, its closest relatives are Fuzhounese (Eastern Min Chinese), Taiwanese Hokkien and Sango. If you speak one of those, much of the vocabulary will feel familiar from day one.

one sentence from the course
YorubaṢéojí ní kùtùkùtù?
EnglishDidyouwake up early
split into its working pieces by the course itself, and paired with the English underneath. Tap a piece to light up what it pairs with. Every one of the 2,000 sentences works like this.
50 millionspeakers
2,000real sentences
1,310patterns discovered
~1,022hours from English
Try a Yoruba lesson now, free, no signup or create a free account

Real Yoruba sentences from the course

Darapo mo wa.
Join us.
Jíì dìde!
Wake up!
Dárí ji mi.
Forgive me.
Inú mi dùn.
I am happy.
Mo lè wẹ̀.
I can swim.

How the course works

Every lesson is built from 2,000 real Yoruba sentences, aligned with their translations word by word and piece by piece, so you always see how the sentence actually works instead of memorizing flashcards. The grammar is discovered from the sentences themselves, 1,310 patterns so far, and a spaced-repetition quiz teaches it in the order that unlocks the most of the language first. Our measured estimate for reaching conversational level from English is about 1,022 hours of study. Read how it works.

Learn Yoruba from your own language

Most apps only teach Yoruba through English, if they teach it at all. These starting languages already have a built course, and any other published language can be paired on request:

EnglishFrenchGermanSwahili

Related languages you can also learn

Taiwanese HokkienSangoTetumKhasiCebuanoChuukeseKrioWolof

Speaker figures follow Ethnologue and national censuses, rounded. The difficulty estimate is calibrated against U.S. Foreign Service Institute data.