Pimsleur and Lingofly: how they differ and which to choose
Pimsleur is audio courses in half-hour lessons: the narrator speaks, you answer aloud, and there is nothing to read. Of our rare languages its catalogue has Armenian — Eastern and Western — and it also has Greek, Turkish and Spanish. Catalan, Basque, Valencian and the other nine rare ones are not there. All of them run from English. Below: the table, and where Pimsleur is stronger.
The languages side by side
| Language | Pimsleur | Lingofly |
|---|---|---|
| Armenian | yes | 4060 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Georgian | no | 4042 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Kazakh | no | 4039 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Serbian | no | 4047 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Slovenian | no | 4051 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Maldivian | no | 4066 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Sinhala | no | 4049 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Tamil | no | 4052 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Greek | yes | 4008 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Basque | no | 3960 words |
| Catalan | no | 3960 words |
| Valencian | no | 3960 words |
| Turkish | yes | 4057 words, with audio, the script explained |
| Spanish | yes | 4061 words, with audio |
- Fifty-odd languages by their own count; Armenian among the rare ones. No course at all: Georgian, Kazakh, Serbian, Slovenian, Maldivian, Sinhala, Tamil, Basque, Catalan and Valencian.checked against the primary source
How the approach differs
By ear only
The Pimsleur method is built on speech: you listen and answer aloud, and reading and writing are not part of it. For Armenian that means you can say simple sentences after the course but will not read a shop sign — nobody showed you the signs.
How it complements us
An audio course and a course with an alphabet are not rivals but two halves: listening and speaking there, reading and the script here. The two halves add up well, and nothing stops you from using both.
Nine languages it does not have
Georgian, Kazakh, Serbian, Slovenian, Maldivian, Sinhala, Tamil, Basque and Valencian are not in the Pimsleur catalogue in any form. Armenian is, and it is the only one of our rare ten that is.
What we did not count as a course
pimsleur.com/learn-catalan/ and /learn-basque/ both answer 200 — and both serve the same generic “all languages” page, byte for byte. A real course page looks different: /learn-greek/ has its own title and its own contents, and it is in their sitemap, where those two are not. So Catalan and Basque are recorded here as absent. A status code is not evidence, and a placeholder is not a course.
Where Pimsleur is stronger
Pimsleur’s spoken drilling is stronger than ours: half-hour lessons by ear have been tuned for speech for decades, and people do start speaking sooner after them. We score pronunciation, but we have nothing like that density of oral practice.
Which to choose
Spoken Armenian by ear — Pimsleur is good, and you can run it alongside us. Writing, reading, or any of the other nine rare languages — it will not do.
Frequently asked
Is Georgian in Pimsleur?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Pimsleur’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Georgian in full: 4042 words, with audio, the script explained, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.
Is Kazakh in Pimsleur?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Pimsleur’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Kazakh in full: 4039 words, with audio, the script explained, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.
Is Serbian in Pimsleur?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Pimsleur’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Serbian in full: 4047 words, with audio, the script explained, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.
What to use instead of Pimsleur?
Spoken Armenian by ear — Pimsleur is good, and you can run it alongside us. Writing, reading, or any of the other nine rare languages — it will not do. This site has 14 languages: every one with an audible alphabet, words by topic, a phrasebook and grammar — free, with nothing to install.