Russian Learning Games: 6 Online Resources

Online Russian games are a great way to trick your brain into thinking you’re no longer studying—while you’re actually still learning. Many educational websites for Russian learners and online Russian courses use games for just this reason.

Check out these six great websites, so that learning Russian will never cease to be fun.

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Digital Dialects

Digital Dialects offers a nice array of free games on a wide variety of topics including the alphabet, greetings, numbers and other basic vocabulary.

Most games will help beginning and intermediate students build and practice their vocabulary. However, there are also some vocabulary quizzes for more advanced learners.

One of the best things about the games here is that they’re flexible so that you can adapt them to focus on what you want to learn. You can set the games to play the audio version of the word, show the Cyrillic version of the word or show the transliteration (pronunciation) of the word.

In most Digital Dialects games, when you see or hear the word, you click the corresponding image. This way, you don’t use any English, which is a great way to force yourself to think in Russian.

The Digital Dialects game on Russian food words is a particularly fun and helpful game. In this game, you’ll be presented with a kitchen scene. When you see or hear a word, simply select the corresponding item from the kitchen. It’s great for practicing food vocabulary or preparing to work as a chef in a Russian restaurant.

LinGo Play

LinGo Play offers both Russian lessons and games online. You can use both the website or the app for learning Russian vocabulary and phrases, then try out the games to test your knowledge.

The coolest part is that you can choose between single-player mode or multi-player mode for the games. If you select multi-player mode, you get paired with some other Russian learner just like you, and you get to play the game against each other!

You can do the flashcards game for free, which is a bit like the game memory, and you have to remember which words correspond to which pictures. The words and phrases games require a premium account. A premium account is $19.99 USD for one month, $39.99 USD for three months or $59.99 for six months.

The premium account also lets you invite others to play with you, perhaps your friends, and even allows you to participate in tournaments with other players around the world. You can even win prizes!

Russian for Everyone

Russian for Everyone offers over 30 games in four different categories.

Select hangman games to focus on practicing spelling Russian words. Use picture and audio games to connect spoken words to their meanings. Try word and picture games to connect printed words to their meanings. Play grammar games and exercises to improve your overall grammar skills or to target your weak areas.

Each game and activity has a specific focus. Vocabulary sets include clothes, family, professions, fruits, vegetables, transportation, colors and “mixed vocabulary” which contains an array of useful terms. Grammar exercises focus on genders of nouns, plural nouns, combining adjectives with nouns and present tense.

The vocabulary and grammar in Russian for Everyone’s games are most appropriate for beginning and early intermediate Russian learners.

One great activity is Russian for Everyone’s verb conjugation exercise on singular forms which will help you nail down some basic verb conjugations. It’s a fun, interactive quiz. While it might feel repetitive, you’ll never forget these conjugations again!

Russian for Free

Russian for Free’s games come in the form of 25 timed quizzes. Some might say that quizzes aren’t games—tell that to the producers of “Jeopardy.”

Each quiz focuses on a different set of vocabulary words, so it’s a good opportunity to brush up on key terms. Topics include parts of the body, parts of the face, kitchen objects, clothes, pets, buildings and much more.

Some questions will ask you what a Russian word means, while other questions will ask you for the Russian translation of an English word. Try to answer before the time runs out. Play again and again until you’re able to answer all the questions quickly. This will help you learn the vocabulary more thoroughly.

The terms are mostly fairly basic, so it’s a good website for beginning Russian students.

Russian for Free’s quiz on parts of the house in Russian is an easy way to help test your household vocabulary.

Dinolingo

Dinolingo offers fun, visually stimulating Russian learning lessons, activities and games. The website and app are intended for children, but the games are fun for any age group.

While Dinolingo only offers four game options, the games are high quality. You can practice your animal names, basic verbs and food words—great topics for beginning Russian students.

Dinolingo’s fun online word wheel is particularly enjoyable. It will help you learn your animal names and practice your shooting skills at the same time.

You can do a 7-day free trial and then afterwards pay $14.95 per month. 

Steam

I know what you’re thinking—Steam offers Russian games? Indeed, it does.

Simply follow Steam’s simple directions to change your language setting. Then, you can download great Russian-language games directly to your computer.

Playing your favorite games in Russian is a great way to practice your Russian while having fun.

Additionally, you can choose your game based on your Russian skills. For instance, beginners will have no trouble understanding their favorite game regardless of the language. If you’re looking to try a new game, though, it will be easier to choose a game that isn’t too text-heavy. More advanced students can handle games they’re less familiar with and games with more text.

One great option for any Russian learner is “The Sims 3.” Since “The Sims” series revolves around a lot of everyday things like greetings, professions, food and basic activities, the words you learn through the game can easily apply to your everyday life. It’s a terrific way to see common vocabulary in context.

Why Play Online Russian Games?

• Playing online Russian games is a good way to break up your studies without halting your education. No one can study all day. No one. But playing games? Anyone can do that.
• Playing online Russian games helps you see words in a different context. They’re a fun way to look at the words you’ve studied in a whole different light. You can study all you want, but to really understand a language, you need to practice applying it.
• Rather than connecting Russian words to English words you already know, you can often use games to connect Russian words directly to the objects and ideas they name. This will help you skip the step of translating between Russian and English in your head.
• No matter what else, online Russian games are always a great option for one clear reason: they’re just plain fun.

Alternatively, there is a service that can provide learners similar benefits to the ones listed above, although in a different way, known as FluentU. 

So go ahead and take a game break!

It’s a fun way to improve your Russian language skills.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

If you love learning Russian and want to immerse yourself with authentic materials from Russia, then I should also tell you more about FluentU.

FluentU naturally and gradually eases you into learning the Russian language and culture. You'll learn real Russian as it's spoken by real Russian people!

FluentU has a very broad range of contemporary videos. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of Russian-language content available on FluentU:

FluentU makes these native Russian videos approachable through interactive transcripts. Tap on any word to look it up instantly.

Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab. Easily review words and phrases with audio under Vocab.

All definitions have multiple examples, and they're written for Russian learners like you. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.

The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You'll have a 100% personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)