Noun Town: A Language Learning Game for PC and Mac

Noun Town is a language learning game on Steam. You explore a hand-drawn world, interact with objects, and build up over 1,000 words and phrases through mini-games and spaced repetition. The town starts in black and white, and fills with colour as your vocabulary grows. Noun Town has won three awards and been shortlisted for seven more across the game series.

Over 200,000 people have played Noun Town across the game series. No subscription, no ads.

PC + Mac

Expand your language skills from the comfort of your PC or laptop - and now on Mac!

12 languages to learn

Pick any of the 12 supported languages and switch between them at any point.

Japanese Korean Chinese (Mandarin) Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Mexico) French German Italian Russian Greek Egyptian Arabic English

How it works

You explore a virtual world and interact with the objects around you to pick up vocabulary. Testing and practice run through spaced repetition and mini-games built into the world, so learning happens as part of playing rather than as a separate activity. Words you know well come back less often, words you're still working on come back more.

You can play with speech recognition if you want to practise speaking out loud, or stick with selection-based input if you'd rather not. Either way works fine for building vocabulary.

Progress shows up in the world itself. Every word you learn restores colour to part of the town. After a few sessions it looks noticeably different from when you started, which gives you a feel for how much ground you've covered without needing to track anything manually.

Works for beginners

You don't need any existing knowledge to start. The game introduces vocabulary in small sets and only moves on once the previous ones are solid. A lot of players pick up a language they've never studied before and find it a much easier way in than traditional apps or courses.

Noun Town started life as a VR game and is available in full VR and Mixed Reality on Meta Quest and Steam VR if you have a headset. The desktop version on Steam brings the same core game to PC and Mac without needing one.

What players say

"This game is cute and fun with enough repetition to help you improve your vocabulary and enough content to keep you engaged."
Steam review
"Aside from the learning interactions, the game play and design were well thought out and super helpful. Highly recommend."
Steam review
"When I was looking for a game to learn Japanese, this was the type of game I was hoping for."
Steam review

87% positive from 590+ reviews on Steam

Buy on Steam

Using Noun Town in a school or university? The game is used in classrooms worldwide, with dedicated tools for teachers and group licensing available.

Noun Town for Education

Questions

What languages does Noun Town teach?

12 languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), French, German, Italian, Russian, Greek, Egyptian Arabic and English.

Does it work on Mac?

Yes. The Steam version runs on both Windows and Mac.

Do I need to know the language already?

No. The game is built for beginners. It introduces words gradually and uses spaced repetition so you're always reviewing at the right time.

How does the game actually teach vocabulary?

You explore a virtual world and interact with objects to learn vocabulary in context. Testing and practice come through spaced repetition and mini-games woven into the world. You can use speech recognition to practise speaking, or selection-based input if you prefer. As you learn, the town fills with colour so your progress is visible in the game itself.

Is the VR version the same game?

The core language learning content is the same. The VR and Mixed Reality version on Meta Quest and Steam VR has a different feel to the desktop game, but you're learning the same vocabulary either way. You can see all the versions on the games page.