Let’s talk about Duolingo – the most popular language learning mobile app, with over 500 million downloads on Google Play Store. I originally downloaded Duolingo and made my account in 2016, but only used it sporadically for a few years, until one August day in 2019, when I started the streak that lasts until today. I recently reached the milestone of completing at least one lesson a day every day for 5 years! Here are my thoughts about learning languages on Duolingo.
What is a streak on Duolingo
Duolingo tracks how many days in a row you complete a lesson in the app. Every lesson counts! Whether you choose to do a new lesson and progress in your learning journey, or just review a lesson you’ve completed in the past – it’s up to you. Technically, you could repeat the first lesson of the course every day for ten years and display a reputable streak – but you wouldn’t learn anything, and I imagine it would be extremely boring. Today, my streak is 1835 days, which is more than 5 years.
How I use Duolingo
I’ve started Duolingo courses in several languages, but in most of them I only completed a lesson or two. The one language I chose to learn is Spanish. During the 5 years of my streak, I managed to progress quite far in the Spanish course, but I made most of that progress in the last couple of years or so. 5 years ago, I would often repeat old lessons just to extend my streak, and only sporadically I would complete new lessons. Now, I try to focus on progressing in the course – but I have to repeat old material if I need to refill my “hearts” – making mistakes in new lessons costs lives, and you can’t progress in the course if you’re out of lives. Generally speaking though, I now complete at least 2 or 3 new lessons almost every day – and sometimes, I complete 15 or 20. I generally spend around 10-30 minutes a day on Duolingo.
Where I’m At After 5 Years
The Spanish course in Duolingo, as of August 2024, consists of 8 sections. The first 3 are supposedly at A1 level, section 4 is A2, sections 5-6 are B1 and sections 7-8 are B2. Each section consists of 28-55 units, each unit consists of around 8 steps, and each of the steps is made of a few lessons.
After 5 years on Duolingo, I’m currently half way through section 6. According to my estimations, I’m around 60% through the Spanish course.
Can You Learn A Language On Duolingo
So, how well do I know Spanish after 5 years of doing at least one Duolingo lesson a day? I wish I could say that I’m fluent, but that’s not true. I definitely learnt a lot though, and continue to make progress every day.
I would split language skills into four areas: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
My strongest area is reading. If I see a random Spanish post or comment on social media, I can usually figure out what it’s about, even if I don’t know every single word. Listening is a little harder, but – depending on how fast the person speaks – I can often understand a fair amount. I have my favourite Spanish singers and I can now understand a lot more of their songs than I used to in the past, without ever translating the lyrics online. But, I’m not yet able to watch films or TV series in Spanish.
Writing and speaking are my weakest skills. I may understand Spanish sentences when I read them, but coming up with the right words and grammar myself is a far bigger task. Duolingo lessons include some speaking exercises, but they can be skipped – and I admit, I always skip them. I haven’t done a single speaking lesson in 5 years. My writing and speaking skills are poor.
My Biggest Struggles With Duolingo
Frequent course restructuring
The structure of my Duolingo course seems to be slightly restructured every few weeks, with bigger changes happening once or twice a year. While I appreciate that the app is kept up to date and improved, it can be frustrating to open the app and see that your progress has changed. I’m also convinced that sometimes it results with repeating lessons you’ve already done in the past – it’s most obvious with story-based lessons, when I remember the ending after reading the first sentence.
Lack of reference sheets
This, in my opinion, is the biggest flaw of Duolingo. Typically, the app expects you to learn new concepts by doing exercises that include sentences with new grammar structures or words. Sometimes, new grammar structures have a very short tip panel that you can read before jumping into doing exercises, but that’s about it. I would love to see more reference sheets / theory that I could go through outside of doing exercises.
Repetitive sentences
This is probably the biggest reason why I’m still pretty bad at constructing Spanish sentences myself. Duolingo is built on a set of sentences that you practise regularly. Each new word or grammar structure is typically presented in just a handful of sentences. I usually end up memorising those sentences, often involuntarily, without necessarily fully understanding the grammar concept. This, combined with the lack of proper grammar reference sheets, is the reason why learning grammar on Duolingo is hard. The app doesn’t force you to fully understand it.
American English / Spanish
Something that often throws me off is the fact that Duolingo uses American English and (South) American Spanish. Sometimes, it’s not the Spanish part of the exercise that I find tricky – it may be an American English word/phrase that’s not typically used in the UK. It’s just a minor inconvenience, but I wish Duolingo supported European versions of English and Spanish.
Is Paid Duolingo Subscription Worth It?
Duolingo is free to use, but there’s an option to buy a subscription. The paid subscription removes ads and gives you a few extra exercise options, like a personalised “practice hub” where you can review your weakest words. I have never paid for a Duolingo subscription, but I’ve been given a few free trials throughout the years. And, frankly – I don’t think it’s worth paying for. Whilst it’s nice not to be interrupted with ads, the ads on Duolingo aren’t too bad compared to other popular mobile apps. The personalised lessons seemed like a bad selection (they included lessons that I found easy), and the practice pool dried up quickly. I don’t think I’ll be paying for the subscription any time soon.
Final Thoughts
I may not be fluent in Spanish after using Duolingo every day for 5 years, but it definitely wasn’t a waste of time. Bit by bit, I learn new vocabulary and I feel like I make slow but steady progress. Whilst I don’t think you can get fluent in a foreign language thanks to Duolingo alone, I do think that it’s a good starting point. I’m planning to start watching films and series with Spanish subtitles or audio, which should hopefully help me expand my vocabulary and show me the grammar concepts applied in real life scenarios. Once I’ve completed the whole Spanish course – probably in a year or two – I’ll come back with another review.
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Alphe's Corner 
I really like Duolingo , I find the streaks do motivate me to get on it. I do feel it’s best used as a tool amongst other things in order to build conversational skills. I use it to keep my German ticking over, but find watch lots of German TV really does help too. Well done on your consistency, it’s a great achievement!
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Good job getting that far in the course! I am almost finished section 2 after 3 months. One thing I’ve been trying to do is avoid looking at the screen when it talks and avoid looking at the sentence stems when it asks for translations from English, which forces me to actually construct the sentence. I am also repeating everything in Spanish. I’m going to costa rica next week so that will be the ultimate test.
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Duolingo is good! I worked on my English for around 2 hours a day and ended up finishing all of the courses. Now I am fluent and Duolingo helped me a lot.
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What is your “Spanish Score” at this point? Duolingo’s CEFR measurement tool? I just finished Unit 3, Lesson 1 and mine is 20. It seems pretty accurate so far, I’ve been consistent for about 6 months. I try to do an hour a day but imagine my average is closer to 30.
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I have been using Super Duolingo (the paid version) for almost 500 days, daily. I am currently bearing the middle of Section 8, which is the last section of the course. My ability to read Spanish is quite solid, to understand it spoken is still growing, and writing it is in development. According to Duolingo, since the course confirms to CEFR standards, I should be able to converse easily about various themes and be able to improvise, at a high B2 level of CEFR.
Duolingo doesn’t offer any instruction beyond high B2 in Spanish.
I find the paid version affordable and useful.
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I’m finishing section 3 after a single streak of about 110 days. I have found that Duolingo is the cherry on the cake. I have been doing a lot of reading in Spanish, especially my favourite Argentinian and Spanish authors and watching a lot of videos, particularly documentaries, for about four years. I still have well less than perfect comprehension of movies, but documentaries are now fun instead of work. Just by reading and watching, however, you don’t get a lot of the nuances, nor do you pick up a lot of grammar.
I get my grammar from many sources on the web, different sources for different concepts. I get my vocabulary from reading. By the end of section 3 of Duolingo, I had come across only one word I did not know from reading. Reading and watching videos etc flesh out the weaknesses in Duolingo while Duolingo through its many, many repetitious exercises hammers in the concepts to the point that I sometimes answer an exercise in Duolingo, think “That doesn’t feel right”, go check, and find that my intuition was right. In other words, I’m starting to edge up on thinking in Spanish, and I think this is due to Duolingo.
I don’t think you will ever become fluent through Duolingo, but it provides another facet in addition to a lot of reading and a lot of documentaries. It also makes your brain react more quickly. I can now understand with ease videos and documentaries that were pretty opaque before I started Duolingo’; e.g. linguriosa.
The main aspect missing is speaking – finding the right word with the right grammar in that quarter of a second between words, as you speak. That requires living and working in a country. Professional talk, coffee room talk, small talk to random strangers, entering deeply into a topic or fluttering about from topic to topic with no exit into your own language. There’s no substitute for real face to face conversation.
Given the strengths and weaknesses of Duolingo, I come down to highly recommending it as an adjunct to numerous other sources all with their own strengths and weaknesses.
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I’ve been doing Spanish on Duolingo every day for over 8 years and I am at a fluency score of 106, maybe 80% through the course. I find myself now understanding simple parts of what native speakers say, and they my pronunciation is good. I’m finally starting to understand sentence structure, but I still have a lot of trouble keeping up with native Spanish at normal speed.
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I never skip any lesson, and I think the speaking lessons would definitely help to learn the language, but I agree I understand easier by reading than listening.
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One unit has about 15 lessons.
You did 182 units which is about 2730 lessons.
Spread over 1827 days that’s almost exactly 1,5 lessons per day.
You could have easily finished the course by now if you had taken studying seriously instead of just extending your streak. You would have B2 Spanish or better.
A mediocre 8 lessons per day would have taken you there.
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Nice article.
I have been using Duolingo for a year. I am at the 80,000+ point level. I know a lot of words, but I could not use those words except for reading. My spoken Spanish was useless.
I decided that I needed a real teacher to work on conversation and to ask questions. So I went on Preply and scheduled one lesson from three teachers and then picked one teacher.
In a month, my ability to understand spoken Spanish and to speak it went up dramatically. My writing continues to be very weak. I still practice with Duolingo every day, but I take online Spanish lessons three times per week. The combination works very well for me.
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As someone who has also been using Duolingo for over 5 years (2032 day streak as of today) this was extremely validating to read! I’ve had all of these issues – especially the US English vs/ UK English one! It’s good to know that Super isn’t worth it; I’ve been wondering more about it recently and feeling conflicted about giving it a try. Thank you!
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEW, I ALSO HAVE BEEN DOING DUOLINGO FOR 5 YEARS. I CAN READ IT PRETTY GOOD BUT WRITING A SENTENCE NOT VERY WELL. I MAINLY DO IT FOR FUN. I TOOK 4 YEARS OFGERMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL. IM 67 AND JUST ENJOY IT.
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I agree about the reference sheets! At 1842 day streak, 5 yrs, I wish I could look up verb conjunctions and grammar tips. It would really help me remember them better. However, I have paid for 3 yrs and it’s worth it! I can’t imagine watching ads! It would deter me from being consistent. On New Year’s they offer a sale, I think I pay $5 a month US but you have to pay for the year up front. I don’t remember what the unpaid version was like, but I’ve been very happy with the paid version and no ads!
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these are good thoughts! I like Duolingo( my family has the Max plan) for the following:
Good for basics for if you are going somewhere as a tourist. Need a supplementary grammar book if you really want to learn a language (italian for me in this case)
helped me “refresh” a language I was good at and spoke a lot of as a child but had let go (French)
keeping my streak goal has been a good atomic habit for me in consistency and showing up
My competitive nature was truly revealed to me – and surprised me, so I learned something about myself, but had to curb the need to “win” because it honestly was not improving my language skills and was a huge waste of time for the sake of winning a game on an app, essentially
my favourite thing has been the meditative focus and mindfulness aspect and in that respect I count it as a meditation. It really creates a pause where other thoughts can live in the background for a while.
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me encanta duolingo, aparte de ingles, tomo musica y ajedrez, pero desde hace unos dias no puefo tomar la levcion completa porque me exige tener energia o 600 gemas que no tengo, o suscribirme a superfiolingo y cuando veo un anuncio no es suficiente
Eramos tan felices antes, qué pasó !
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Sou falante nativa de português, e por isso “sempre” compreendi bastante bem o espanhol (desde que não seja falado muito rápido), mas não consigo falar. Como vou para a Espanha no ano que vem, decidi tentar aprender sobretudo a falar a língua. Estou no meio da seção 2 e sinto que o Duolingo tem sido útil. Tento repetir alto todas as frases em espanhol, prestar bastante atenção mesmo quando os exercícios são fáceis, e já fiz algum progresso. Espero ao menos conseguir não ficar muda quando estiver na Espanha. Tenho entretanto algumas críticas quanto à tradução do espanhol para o português, que algumas vezes (ao menos na seção 2) não está correta. Outra observação é que eu gostaria de saber a diferença entre os diversos sotaques, para poder escolher melhor e de maneira mais homogênea como pronunciar algumas palavras.
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I agree with all of what you say. I have learned French, brushed up my German, and am now learning Spanish. After French and German, I went to France and Germany. Not sure how it would have prepared me for German, as I developed spoken language skills in the 1980s when I lived there in my twenties, but in reviewing I couldn’t imagine learning it for the first time as German is quite different from English in terms of grammar, and they just aren’t explicit enough about that part of learning.
Going to France in 2023 after using Duolingo for 13 months (I got about 1/2 way through section 6 with 1/2 hour average per day) my biggest weaknesses by far were speaking and understanding speech. That’s because there is (or at least was) no spontaneous construction of these. Each of the areas of learning you outlined require different parts of the brain, and each must be developed separately to form connections between them. So I found myself hunting for words I knew well while speaking, because the speaking part of my brain wasn’t well connected to the word knowledge part of my brain. However, I stayed with various teachers and all commented on my excellent grasp of grammar which they had always found lacking in Americans. Then there was understanding, but I think that was more that the French speak VERY quickly and are disinclined to slow down unless (and sometimes even if) you ask.
The take-away is that you HAVE to supplement. One great way is as soon as possible, go around your house talking to yourself in your target language. Use the vocabulary you’ve been learning–you can probably do this very early in a course. Do the same with writing. Try to keep a simple diary–if need be, insert words in your native language that you haven’t learned yet, but as much as possible stick to the target language. At first you’ll have to write in the present tense, but that’s okay–no one else will read it. Write your to do lists in the language. Do all you can to construct sentences yourself and you will find it becomes much easier to do over time.
I have found certain youtube creators that are wonderful; there are people doing conversations in the street in simple German and French. They pick a topic and talk to people so you hear the same vocabulary repeated at a A2-B1 level. Not only do you develop vocabulary but you learn about the culture and the society.
I could go on, but the long and short of it is basically that NO course (and I’ve done other methods and even pursued a degree in German) is going to meet all of your needs. So diversify and keep it interesting and fun!
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I’ve been using Duoling for exactly 88 days, which Duo let’s me know every morning. My reading skills are improving rapidly and I can pretty much figure out sentences. For many simple sentences I don’t even need to mentally translate into English. I just understand them. However, my speaking, listening and writing skills are still very poor. But it’s only been 88 days I promised myself that I would continue for at least a full year before I allowe myself to get discouraged. I might never be able to converse in Spanish, but one day I hope to be able to read Cervantes and Garcia-Marquez in Spanish.
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