Lithuanian learning resources

Lithuanian learning resources: listening and grammar

Lithuanian with Dovilė and I had a great conversation about learning Lithuanian (you can listen to it here), about various useful resources, strategies, mistakes that our students make etc.

The discussion was very lively because listeners had a lot of questions during the Instagram livestream. This blog post summarizes all the Lithuanian learning materials that we mentioned during our conversation.

We hope it helps you learn Lithuanian faster!

Listening materials (B1-B2 and above)

  • Zachor. Atsimink. This series tells us a story about litvaks (Lithuanian Jews) and their heritage. Learn more about the culture and community that was almost completely wiped out off the map in the Holocaust. (+ subtitles)
  • Gimę tą pačią dieną is a series about Lithuanian people who were born on exactly the same day. They tell their life stories and share their experiences. Each episode presents three persons – one is a famous personality and the other two are not. (+ subtitles)
  • Antanas podcast is a Lithuanian podcast where different topics are discussed: free time, traveling, everyday situations, Lithuanian sayings etc. Quite often it has a personal touch because the podcast author talks about his personal life and experiences. (+ transcripts)
  • Literatūros kūriniai 5-8 klasėms is a good collection of Lithuanian books. It provides pdfs and mp3 files so you can listen and read at the same time! (+ texts)
  • Orijaus kelionės takes you on a journey to different countries and cities where you can discover new cultures and ways of life. It also gives you some insight into Lithuanian cities as well.
  • Pozityvus dienoraštis presents interesting Lithuanian people who do interesting things in life. It has 1000 different stories so you won’t run out of content for a long time!
  • Dialogas podcast discusses various psychology-related topics like anxiety, self-esteem, emotions etc. The language of this podcast is very clear, so it’s definitely a good resource to improve your Lithuanian!
  • Žmonėscinema.lt is a website where you can find a good collection of Lithuanian movies as well as dubbed or subtitled movies from abroad. 

Grammar books

We have mentioned quite a few grammar books in our discussion. Just google them and you will be definitely redirected to a page where you can buy them.

  1. Learn and Speak Lithuanian
  2. Practical Grammar of Lithuanian
  3. Colloquial Lithuanian
  4. Teach Yourself Lithuanian
  5. Beginner’s Lithuanian
  6. Easy Lithuanian. Beginner’s book 1. Lietuvių kalba A1

Private Lithuanian lessons

If you feel like you need more guidance and personal approach in your Lithuanian learning journey then private lessons can be your next best choice.

Working with an experienced teacher will make the learning process a lot more efficient.

Just contact Dovilė or Antanas for private lessons.

Understanding Lithuanian cases. Complete course in plain English

Understanding Lithuanian cases

Why cases are so hard to understand

Understanding Lithuanian cases is definitely a challenge.

The problem is that for example English does not have cases so the case itself is a foreign concept.

It takes time to understand the logics of cases and memorizing all the different case endings is also not a walk in the park.

That’s why I decided to create a course that focuses exclusively on Lithuanian cases to help Lithuanian learners master them.

This time I wrote all the grammar explanations in English so you can understand the theory easier.

About Lithuanian case system

What makes Lithuanian hard is that Lithuanian has 7 cases:

  • vardininkas – nominative;
  • kilmininkas – genitive;
  • naudininkas – dative;
  • galininkas – accusative;
  • įnagininkas – instrumental;
  • vietininkas – locative;
  • šauksmininkas – vocative.

Let’s take nouns as an example. Each noun can have 7 different endings depending on a noun’s function in the sentence.

Furthermore, there are 5 noun declensions. Declension defines a pattern how a particular noun changes its endings in different cases.

So, the numbers are mind blowing at first because 5 declensions times 7 cases is a lot.

But don’t get discouraged. I cover each case individually and provide a lot of exercises to drill the endings as well as to understand the case usage.

What’s inside the course?

  • 62-page e-book:
    • case usage explanations (in English) with examples;
    • declension tables (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, numbers, participles);
    • numerous exercises to practice case endings;
    • answer sheet to check your answers.
  • 5 recorded dialogues and their transcripts;
  • 260 flashcards with words from the course;
  • access to a private Facebook group where you can ask questions.

Is there a preview of the course?

Yes, for sure! Have a look here:

How do I get the course?

Go to the course page and click on the Buy now button. “Understanding Lithuanian cases” course will be delivered straight to your inbox!