English Grammar Apps: 10 Real Resources and How to Pick the Right One

You know all twelve tenses. You can tell a second conditional from a third conditional on paper. Then the moment comes to write an email to a client, and you sit there for ten minutes just deciding whether to use have sent or sent, and in the end you pick one at random. The grammar you memorized sits in one drawer, the grammar you use sits in another, and the two drawers don't talk to each other.

Most grammar apps don't fix that, because they measure the same thing school already measured: whether you can pick the right answer out of four boxes. Doing a thousand multiple-choice questions makes you good at multiple-choice questions. To get grammar working when you speak and write, you need two more things that apps rarely have: a decent place to look things up when you hit an unfamiliar sentence, and a lot of exposure to that structure in sentences people actually use.

The ten sources below are grouped by four different uses rather than ranked, and they only include things that are still active this year. There are apps, websites, a book, and even tools that correct you while you're writing. Each entry states clearly what it can and can't do, so you don't end up installing three apps that do the same job.

• Quick-pick table of ten sources
• Four exercise apps for your phone
• Three free reference sources on the web
• One book that still holds the best framework
• Two tools that correct you while you're really writing
• Grammar you actually remember is grammar you hear in real sentences
• Choose according to your goal
• Frequently asked questions

Quick-pick table of ten sources

Find the row that best describes where you're stuck, then jump straight to that section. The part about cost only describes the type of plan, not the figures, because those figures vary by where you live and by the time you're reading this.

Four exercise apps for your phone

This group is good for filling in gaps in your day: ten minutes waiting for the bus, five minutes before sleep. They're good at giving you lots of repetition, and weak at explaining why.

LearnEnglish Grammar by British Council

If you can only install one pure-exercise app, install this one. The content spans beginner to advanced across four levels, the question bank exceeds a thousand items, and there are roughly ten alternating question types: fill in the blank, reorder the words, label each part of a sentence. More important than the sheer number is the density: each topic has enough exercises for your hand to get used to it, instead of three questions and you're done. The download is free and comes with sample questions at all four levels; to add more, you buy question sets within the app.

Where it doesn't help: getting an exercise right doesn't mean you'll get it right when speaking. The exercise tells you upfront that today's lesson is the present perfect; real life gives no such warning.

Duolingo

Duolingo doesn't teach grammar by stating a rule and then giving you an exercise — it has you meet the same structure again and again until a wrong sentence starts to sound off. For many people, this kind of gradual absorption is far more pleasant than reading a conjugation table. The English course is organized by the CEFR framework, and as of this year, the feature that points out mistakes in your answers is no longer locked behind the paid plan.

The limitation is clear: it's hard to actively choose to study the exact point you're weak on, because the path follows the app's route, not your gaps. If you know exactly where you're going wrong, the three reference sources below are much faster.

Busuu

What sets Busuu apart is its placement test and CEFR-based learning path, so you can see what level you're at and which gaps remain. Even more valuable is the community feature: you write a short passage using the structure you just learned, a native speaker reads it and corrects it, sometimes with an explanation of why your sentence sounds off. That's the kind of feedback no multiple-choice app can give you. The free version covers basic lessons; the paid plan unlocks full access.

In exchange, you depend on whoever corrects you: wait times aren't fixed, and some correctors are thorough while others are careless.

BBC Learning English

If reading theory puts you to sleep, listen to someone explain it instead. The BBC's free app has an entire section devoted to grammar, including short programs like 6 Minute Grammar that pack a single grammar point into a few minutes of dialogue, plus a weekly grammar podcast. All the audio can be downloaded for offline listening, so it suits your commute.

The downside is that you're listening, not practicing, and the feeling of understanding after listening is easily mistaken for actually having grasped it. The fix is to listen to one program, then write three of your own sentences using that exact structure.

Three free reference sources on the web

This is the most overlooked group, even though it addresses exactly the situation you run into every day: you read an unfamiliar sentence, don't understand why it's written that way, and need a decent answer within two minutes. All three open right in your browser, no installation needed.

English Grammar Today on Cambridge Dictionary

The grammar section of Cambridge Dictionary covers more than five hundred topics, each with a concise explanation and examples drawn from a real English corpus, including informal usage that native speakers still use. There's a dedicated section on common mistakes, which is worth checking before you trust your own intuition. All of it is free and requires no account.

It's written for intermediate-level learners, so for beginners the phrasing is a bit dense. Learners starting from zero should begin with lighter sources in the article apps for learners starting from zero.

Perfect English Grammar

This site, built by a British teacher, keeps something many bigger sources have lost: short, on-point explanations, followed immediately by an exercise right below. You'll find exercises graded from A1 to C1, handy if you want to work through one topic at a time instead of jumping around. Most of the content is free, with some in-depth courses sold separately.

The interface is simple to the point of feeling a bit dated, and there's no progress tracking, so you have to keep track of what you've covered yourself.

Khan Academy Grammar

Khan Academy teaches grammar from first principles: why a clause needs a comma, why this pronoun can't replace that noun. Every lesson comes with a short video plus practice, and the whole platform is free, with no ads. This year Khan Academy also added grammar courses organized by grade level, alongside the general course.

One thing needs to be said clearly so you're not caught off guard: this is grammar taught for native-speaking students, so it skips over a lot of things English learners need, like article usage or the tense system seen through a foreign learner's eyes. Use it to understand things more deeply, not as your main curriculum.

One book that still holds the best framework

English Grammar in Use

Raymond Murphy's book, published by Cambridge and now in its fifth edition, remains the tightest framework for learners at the intermediate level. It's the layout that keeps it alive: each grammar point fits into two pages, the left page explains with examples, the right page is exercises, and you can study in any order, not necessarily starting from the beginning. The printed edition with answer key comes with a code for the interactive ebook, so you can carry it on your phone.

What it doesn't do is teach you to listen or speak. This is a book for looking things up and for hand practice, not a comprehensive course, and it's also not suited to someone truly starting from zero.

Two tools that correct your mistakes while you're writing for real

The two things below don't teach you grammar. They catch errors in the very sentence you need right now, and that's exactly when you remember longest, as long as you're willing to read the explanation instead of just clicking to fix it and moving on.

Grammarly

The free version is enough for everyday use: it corrects spelling, catches grammar mistakes, suggests tighter phrasing, and runs on your phone keyboard and in your computer's browser, so you don't have to open a separate app. For someone writing work emails in English, it's the cheapest safety net you can get.

The risk is dependency. If you write carelessly and just click "accept" on every suggestion, the part of your brain responsible for remembering the rule never gets exercised. The healthier approach is to check your own writing once first, then turn the tool on, and note down which mistake recurs most often each month.

An AI assistant

This is the closest thing to a grammar tutor on standby in your device: you paste in your sentence, ask why it's wrong, ask for the explanation again in simpler words, demand five more examples of the same pattern, ask in Vietnamese when the concept is too abstract. No book can withstand being asked ten follow-up questions in ten minutes like that.

Two things to be careful about. First, AI answers very confidently even when it's wrong, so for the important points cross-check against one of the reference sources above. Second, understanding an explanation isn't the same as being able to use it, you still have to write it out and say it out loud. How to use AI in the right place is covered in the article learning English with AI.

The grammar that sticks is the grammar you hear in real sentences

There's a familiar type of learner: does exercises almost perfectly, yet still gets the basics wrong when speaking. The reason is that exercises activate the part of the brain that knows the rule, while when speaking, that part doesn't fire in time. What fires in time is the part that has heard that structure enough times that a wrong sentence sounds off.

So alongside any of the apps above, let your ears meet the structure in sentences people actually say. Not just listening for the sake of it, but listening until you can pick out every word, including the small words where all the grammar actually lives: the s ending, the auxiliary verb that gets swallowed, the article that slips by in half a beat. Transcribing a short passage and then checking it against the transcript is a crude but effective way to see exactly what you're missing, and you often discover that you don't have the rule wrong, you've just never heard that rule ring out before.

This is where active listening practice hooks into learning grammar: you do dictation listening on a podcast segment, check it against the original, and the spots you miss usually line up, surprisingly closely, with the grammar points you tend to get wrong. The foundational part, including what order to learn points in, is in the article English grammar, and if you want to try a less discouraging way to do dictation, there's five concrete steps.

Choose according to your goal

Four common situations, one tight set for each. Pick exactly one line and skip the rest.

• You're studying for an exam and need to plug gaps fast. English Grammar in Use provides the framework, LearnEnglish Grammar for hand practice by level. Take a practice test first to find out where your gaps are, then study only those chapters.
• You write emails and documents in English at work. Keep Grammarly on all the time, use an AI assistant to ask about the spots you're unsure of, and spend ten minutes each week reviewing recurring mistakes. Learn exactly the structures you actually use, don't study the whole book.
• You understand the rules but still get it wrong when speaking. Cut back on exercises, increase listening and speaking. Busuu for someone to correct your writing, plus active listening every day. The article English for communication goes deeper into the gap between knowing and being able to use.
• You're starting over from zero. Don't start with a grammar app. Build your base vocabulary and get used to the sounds first, grammar will attach itself afterward, and faster than you think. The toolkit for this stage is in the article self-studying English.

One general rule: two sources are enough, one for looking things up and one for practice. Installing four grammar apps at once just means you learn the present simple over and over in four different places.

Frequently asked questions

Is learning grammar through an app enough to speak correctly?

Not enough on its own. Apps help you recognize the rule and get familiar with it in writing, but for the rule to work when you're speaking, you need to hear that structure many, many times and produce your own sentences with it. Think of the app as half, the other half is listening and speaking.

Should you learn grammar first or vocabulary first?

Vocabulary first, in the early stage. Without enough words you can't say a single sentence no matter how good your grammar is, but without enough grammar people can still understand you. Once your vocabulary is sufficient, grammar becomes worth investing time in.

Are free grammar apps as good as paid ones?

For basic explanations and exercises, they're nearly equivalent, and the three free web sources in this article are actually more complete than many paid apps. Money usually buys you a ready-made study path, progress tracking, and corrections from a real person.

How much time should you spend on grammar each day?

Less than you'd think. About ten minutes a day on a single point, plus paying attention to that point in everything you listen to and read that day, works far better than one two-hour cramming session on the weekend.

Should you memorize the irregular verb table?

Yes, but learn it gradually by frequency rather than the whole table at once. A few dozen of the most commonly used verbs account for most of the times you'll encounter them in real life, and they stick much faster when you meet them in a sentence rather than in a column.

If you're going to do exactly one thing after finishing this article, pick the one grammar point you get wrong most often, look it up in one of the sources here, then go find it in a podcast with a transcript to hear it ring out for real. A rule read once is forgotten, a rule heard twenty times stays.