How to Learn a Language by Speaking a Little Every Day

What do the 90 days look like?

Three stages, each with one main job. Use the planner above, under "Lay out your 90 days," to turn them into a dated list: choose a language, a daily amount and a start date, then print it or download a CSV. It runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.

All of this is a House routine: this site chose these lengths and hasn't tested them with learners. The plan starts you speaking in the first week because that's how this site lays out the days. If you'd rather listen for a few weeks first, you can, and this page doesn't call that a mistake.

For what's particular to your language, read the Spanish start, the French start or the German start for your first two weeks.

How do Spoken Minutes work?

The timer runs only while you're making sounds in the language, such as saying along with audio, reading aloud or talking to yourself.

It stops while you listen, read or look something up, and a conversation counts half because you spend about half of it listening. The minutes show that you did the work, not your level. The shadowing page has the full rules, and the Mile Log keeps your count, at 20 Spoken Minutes to a mile.

How much should you speak each day?

Choose 5, 10 or 20 Spoken Minutes by the time you really have on a normal day, not your best day.

A Cold Say-Back means saying something from at least a night ago, with nothing in front of you, and only then checking it. It comes first, before you look at anything. Day 1 has nothing to test yet, so those minutes go to the main job.

If you can't decide, start with 5. You can move up later, and nothing on this page says more is required. You'll also need somewhere you can talk out loud without feeling watched. A walk, a parked car or an empty kitchen all work, and earbuds let you say along with audio on the way.

What do days 1 to 14 look like?

Three jobs take turns, and the planner rotates them for you: one a day on 5 or 10 Spoken Minutes, two on 20.

1. Letters and sounds. Say the ones that are new to you, one small group at a time.
2. Minimal pairs. A minimal pair is two words that differ by one sound. Say each word alone, then both together. The minimal pairs tool has them by language.
3. First sentences. Take very common words from the first 1,000 words and say three sentences that use them. Look away for the last try.

Here's how day 2 runs at 5 Spoken Minutes. You start with 1 minute on yesterday's letters and sounds, from memory. Then you spend 4 minutes on one minimal pair, saying each word and then both. Day 3 moves to first sentences, and day 4 starts the turn again.

Your sentences will be short at this stage. A name, a place and a plan for today are enough.

What changes on days 15 to 45?

Three new jobs take turns. One is a short audio clip that you say along with the speaker. Another is writing two sentence cards and saying each one aloud. The writing sits outside the timer, and only the saying counts. The Anki page shows how to set them up, and sentence mining shows where to find the sentences. The third is a run through your older cards: say each one aloud before you check it. That covers the whole stack, while the Cold Say-Back that opens every day tests only a line or two.

Day 30 is your first conversation. Book a tutor or find a language exchange partner before then. Having someone hear you is the one thing pages and recordings can't give you, which is why this plan puts a person ahead of any course. A recorded course can give you an order to follow, but it can't replace speaking, and you can do this plan without one.

Since a conversation counts half, it takes at least twice your daily amount on the clock.

A talk replaces the day's other jobs, including the Cold Say-Back. A tutor's usual lesson length is fine too, even if it runs longer, and it still counts half.

Prepare a little for the first one. In the days before, pick three sentences about yourself and say them cold. Tell the person at the start that you want to do most of the talking. Keep paper nearby and note what you couldn't say, then turn those notes into sentence cards the next day. The tutor agenda has more on how to run the time.

If you can't find anyone by day 30, use speaking practice alone that day and keep looking.

What do days 46 to 90 add?

Input goes up, and speaking grows out of it. Listen to or read something you can mostly follow, which the input menu helps you pick. That part sits outside the timer. Then say three things from it in your own words, and the timer runs.

Conversations become weekly, starting on day 49. This is also the stage to work on the grammar point you keep tripping on. Keep it small, such as wo against wohin from German cases, the subjunctive after quiero que from the Spanish subjunctive, or the choice between the two French past tenses. A whole topic holds several points, so take them one at a time. Pick one, and say five sentences that use it. Stay on it until those sentences come out without much thought, then pick another.

The weekly talk also steers the other days. Note what you couldn't say, and let that decide which clips and cards you use next.

What should you leave alone for now?

Start with less. These can wait, and the planner lists them too.

Leaving these out isn't a claim that they don't matter. Verb forms first come to you inside whole sentences, and some charts do need memorizing later on, so this site gives ways to do that when the time comes. Rare words can wait until the common ones are easy to say.

This list suits someone learning to talk. Change it if your goal is different. If your job needs reading, or you already have an exam date, your list won't look like this one.

What if you miss a day?

Do the next day on your list. Nothing resets, and you don't owe the missed minutes. If the dates on your list have drifted, ignore them and go by the day number. If you miss a conversation day, have the talk on the next day you can.

After a longer gap, start with a Cold Say-Back on a few old lines. Any line you can't say goes back on your daily list, and then you carry on from where you stopped.

What does 90 days mean here?

It's the length of this plan and nothing more. This page can't tell you what level you'll reach, and neither can a count of miles. The plan does give you a total you can check.

Those totals assume you do every day, and few calendars work out that neatly. To see what you can do at any point, try the CEFR self-check. It's a set of questions for you, not an exam or a certificate.

Tomorrow morning, before you look at anything, do your first Cold Say-Back: say the line with your name in it, once, from memory. Then check it against this page.