Funetica

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffMay 20, 2005This free program lets you learn basic vocabulary for a number of foreign languages. Funetica's teaching tools are primitive: first you view a list of 200 words per language, then quiz yourself with a multiple-choice test. You can add your own words, but we're not sure how many beginner language students will put this feature to use. Funetica includes vocabulary packs for Italian, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and transliterated (that is, not in Cyrillic script) Russian. The program's interface is fairly simple to understand, but it's unattractive, especially when you're swapping out the ads it forces you to look at. Though you can't view the vocabulary in groups of numbers, greetings, and so forth, you can load a shopping vocabulary pack that sometimes uses pictures to illustrate the item being named. If you're looking to learn the brass tacks of major European languages for free, you might try Funetica, but it's by no means a full-blown instructional tool.