Reading EPUBs in another language

To read EPUB books in another language with dictionary lookups, you need two things: a DRM-free EPUB file and a reading app that imports it. Free, legal books are easy to find for most major languages, through Project Gutenberg, Wikisource and national digital libraries. Books you’ve bought are a different story, because most store-bought ebooks are locked with DRM and won’t open in other apps.

Here’s what an EPUB actually is, what DRM blocks, where to find books you can use, and how language learning apps handle them.

What an EPUB is, and why it’s ideal for learners

An EPUB is, underneath, a zip file of web pages. Inside are the chapters as HTML, a table of contents, the book’s metadata (title, author, often its language) and any images. That structure is why EPUBs are so useful for language learners:

• The text is real text. Unlike a scanned PDF, every word can be tapped, looked up, highlighted or read aloud.
• It reflows. Text adapts to any screen size, so it works on a phone as well as a laptop.
• It has chapters. A good importer can split a 90,000-word novel into manageable sessions.

PDFs are fine for printing but awkward for reading on a screen, and scanned PDFs contain pictures of text rather than text. If you have a choice, take the EPUB.

The DRM problem

DRM (digital rights management) is copy protection. Most ebooks sold by large stores are encrypted so they open only in that store’s apps and devices. A DRM-protected EPUB is just scrambled data to any other app, including every language learning tool. That’s why importers ask for DRM-free files.

Here’s where the big stores stand at the time of writing:

A few details worth knowing:

• Amazon. In February 2025, Amazon removed the “Download & Transfer via USB” option that people used to get copies of their Kindle books. Then, from January 20, 2026, it started letting verified buyers download EPUB or PDF files of books that the publisher has marked DRM-free, according to Amazon’s KDP help page (also reported by heise). The option covers books published through KDP, Amazon’s self-publishing platform, whose authors or publishers have chosen to sell them without DRM. Books published before December 9, 2025 qualify only if the author opts in, and Kindle Unlimited borrows are excluded, so most Kindle books still can’t be downloaded this way.
• Kobo. Its help page explains that most books are protected and need Adobe Digital Editions, while DRM-free ones download as a normal file.
• Google Play Books. Google’s help page notes that some publishers don’t allow downloads at all.

What about removing DRM?

You’ll find tools online that strip DRM from books you’ve bought. We won’t link to them. In many countries, breaking copy protection is legally restricted even for books you’ve paid for: in the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits circumventing it, with narrow exceptions, and the EU has similar rules. We’re not lawyers, and the rules vary, but the safe approach is simple: use DRM-free files.

The good news is that you rarely need to. There’s far more legal, DRM-free reading in most languages than you’ll ever finish.

Where to find free, legal EPUBs

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the oldest free ebook library, with books in dozens of languages, all available as EPUB. English dominates, but the other collections are substantial. Going by the Gutendex catalog at the time of writing, there are about 4,300 books in French, 2,500 in German, 1,100 in Italian, 900 in Spanish and 650 in Portuguese. You can browse by language at gutenberg.org/browse/languages.

One caution: Gutenberg checks copyright under US law. Its terms tell readers outside the US to check their own country’s rules, because a book that’s public domain in the US may still be under copyright elsewhere, and the other way round.

Wikisource

Wikisource is Wikipedia’s sister library of public-domain and freely licensed texts, with separate editions for many languages, such as French, German, Spanish, Chinese and more. Texts are often proofread against scans of the original printed book. Its WS Export tool, reachable from the “Download” link on a book’s page, turns a work into an EPUB.

National and regional libraries

Many languages have their own free digital libraries:

• French: the Bibliothèque numérique romande and Ebooks libres et gratuits publish carefully prepared, free EPUBs of public-domain French literature.
• Japanese: Aozora Bunko is a huge volunteer library of public-domain Japanese texts, including authors such as Natsume Sōseki and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It publishes plain text and HTML rather than EPUB, though free tools convert its files to EPUB.
• English: if English is your target language, Standard Ebooks publishes beautifully formatted, free editions of public-domain books.

DRM-free stores and publishers

Some publishers sell ebooks without DRM, and some stores label DRM-free books clearly. Self-published and small-press authors are especially likely to sell DRM-free. If you’re about to buy a book in your target language, check the listing for a DRM-free option first.

A word on old books

Public-domain books are old books. The French of Jules Verne or the Spanish of Benito Pérez Galdós is perfectly readable, but it’s more formal than modern speech and full of words you won’t hear today. Classics make a great part of your reading, but you’ll want some modern text too. (If you’re choosing between book types, see our post on graded readers versus native content.)

How to import an ebook into a language learning app

Most reading-focused language apps import EPUBs, but they handle them differently. Here’s what the main tools say about EPUB at the time of writing.

LingQ is a strong choice if you also import PDFs and other formats, and Readlang is a good lightweight option for reading in a browser. Whichever you use, the import step is similar: choose the file, check that the language was detected correctly, and start reading.

Lumo, the app we’re building, isn’t available yet, but we kept its EPUB import simple: you pick a DRM-free EPUB, and Lumo processes it on your device, detects the language, splits it into chapters and adds it to your library with a difficulty label. The book doesn’t need to be uploaded anywhere to be read.

When an import goes wrong

Even DRM-free EPUBs can be messy. The common problems, and fixes:

• “Not a valid EPUB.” Check that the file really is an EPUB. If it’s a different format (MOBI, AZW3 or a DOCX), the free tool Calibre can convert DRM-free files to EPUB.
• Garbled characters. Very old EPUBs sometimes use unusual text encodings. Converting the file to EPUB again in Calibre often fixes it.
• Pages of front matter. Copyright pages, tables of contents and introductions in your native language come along with the book. Skip ahead to chapter one.
• The wrong language detected. A book with a long English introduction can fool language detection. Correct it before you start.
• Huge chapters. Some books are one enormous file with no chapter breaks. That’s readable, but you’ll want to keep track of where you stopped.

Picking your first EPUB to read in another language

The format is the easy part. The hard part is choosing a book you can actually finish. A few rules of thumb:

1. Check the difficulty first. If you’re looking up more than one or two words per line, the book is too hard for now. Save it for later.
2. Prefer short. A 150-page novella you finish teaches more than a 600-page classic you abandon.
3. Choose something you know. A translation of a book you’ve already read is easier because you know the plot.
4. Read in sessions, not marathons. One chapter a day adds up fast.

If you’re aiming for your first full novel, our guides to reading your first novel in Spanish and learning French by reading go through what to read at each level.

FAQ

Can I import Kindle books into a language learning app?

Usually not. Kindle books are DRM-protected and can only be opened in Amazon’s own apps and devices. Since January 2026, Amazon lets verified buyers download EPUB or PDF files of self-published KDP titles that the author has made DRM-free, and those files can be imported.

Is it legal to remove DRM from ebooks I bought?

In many countries it’s restricted. In the US, the DMCA prohibits circumventing copy protection, with narrow exceptions, and the EU has similar rules. Laws vary and we’re not lawyers, so the safest choice is to use DRM-free files.

Where can I download free ebooks in other languages?

Project Gutenberg and Wikisource have free public-domain books in many languages, and both offer EPUB downloads. Many languages also have dedicated libraries, such as the Bibliothèque numérique romande for French and Aozora Bunko for Japanese. Check that a book is public domain in your country.

Is EPUB or PDF better for language learning?

EPUB, in almost every case. The text reflows to fit your screen, it’s split into chapters, and every word is real text you can tap and look up. PDFs keep a fixed page layout, and scanned PDFs contain images of text rather than text.

How do I know if an EPUB has DRM?

The simplest test is to try opening it in a different app. A DRM-protected file won’t open, or it will ask for an account or Adobe Digital Editions. Store listings sometimes say “DRM-free,” and Kobo, for example, lets you download DRM-free books directly from your account.