Duolingo - Language Lessons

Education
Rating
4.7 (2M)
Size
287.3 MB
Age rating
4+
Current version
6.225.0
Price
Free
Seller
Duolingo
Last update
7 months ago
Version OS
15.0 or later
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User Reviews for Duolingo - Language Lessons

4.72 out of 5
2M Ratings
3 years ago, LL Bear
Fun to practice everyday
This app is truly fun and is a great supplement to a French language immersion class I am taking. I do have a hint and some suggestions. Hint to those newly downloading: take advantage of the 1-MONTH trial because if you don’t, you’ll only see the 2-week trial for Plus after that initial period. Don’t delay! I truly enjoy the variety, not only lessons but the stories and the listening and there’s even a Podcast! Truly satisfying app - the stories crack me up, and I love hearing pronunciations from other native speakers, not just Estelle and Paul. Suggestions to enhance learning/app, while it’s great that there are flags and learns and those come back up in practice sessions, I wish there was a bookmark feature for specific tips or one that would allow you to flag even specific test. I take screenshots but would rather it be available all in one place in the app. And the other big suggestion is, there are times when I select the word, and it doesn’t say it. It does happen in one kind where you place 2 words and place both within a sentence (i.e. aime-aimer) but it doesn’t happen when you have three separate words to select and check — this is where I would like to hear the word. Maybe these features are unlocked in Plus, but if it doesn’t underline a word after It’s accepted and I press continue, why can’t I listen to the sentence again after the continue prompt is available?
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3 months ago, fkdiifjxkdidksock
Fun but tricky and a bit confusing
I love Duolingo I think it’s a really fun way to learn a language. I started last week and so far have kept my streak. I’m learning Swedish and I have a complaint. When using the words “mitt” or “min” (my) Duolingo shows that you can use them interchangeably (by clicking on the word and seeing what it means in English) but when I put them in a different order (ex. “Mitt fish” and not “min fish”) it says it’s wrong. I tried google translating seeing if it change the meaning of any of the words and it didn’t. (Yes I know google translate isn’t always 100% correct) I tried searching up what the difference is between these two words and I saw some stuff about gender and plural and singular, I didn’t get most of it. I feel like Duolingo should instead of teaching us words they should help us understand the words. When I get the words right I don’t know why I got it right. There should be an option to tell you grammar or to let you know why you got this wrong (there is a small box at the bottom telling you what word you should’ve put there but it doesn’t go that deep into it) the same thing goes for the “ett” and “en” (a) I feel like this is a simple problem that should be resolved not just for this language but for all of them that have similar things like this. Grammar is a key part of any language and it should be taught when you’re learning a language. But overall I think that this is a great way to learn a language.
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1 year ago, Darth sean
Great app- bad update
As usual, “upgrades” to computer products destroy functionality and make things progressively worse for the user. Latest update now has all lessons in sequence so that the learner has much less flexibility than before. Maybe its better if you are a school teacher trying to control what your students learn but I am nearly 60 and don’t need a nanny. The problems I wish they would have fixed include tiny pictures that I can see on my iPhone and occasional screens that don’t have enough room to see the text you are typing. They have fixed some of the regionalisms and no longer force me to use continental Spanish, for example. One continual annoyance with all academic language instruction is the insistence on “school grammar” instead of how people actually speak and write. Since I learned Spanish in an immersion program, I continually run into grammatical elements not actually used that I have to put in, like the “se” reflexive pronoun. Duolingo puts it in all the time, street Spanish leaves it out unless there is no other reference to the object. Since I still can’t type reliably on virtual keyboards, I rely heavily on voice recognition, which works poorly. Most of my mistakes are due to voice recognition errors and secondly word order. Decent voice recognition would be a real plus for me. In some cases, the voice recognition just pumps out complete absurdities that bear no resemblance to what I said, recently, “darmelo” became “Dave my load”.
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11 months ago, jacqueburrow
Der, Die, Das
I love this app and I am learning a lot. I’m taking the German one. In your tips you say when you want to learn the noun. put the der, die, or das with it. however in your matching quizzes you do not put the der, die, or das with it. it would make it much easier to learn the gender of the nouns if the der, die or , das was put with the noun in the matching quizzes. Thank you I went to the word list and once again there are no genders with the nouns. English only has two genders while German has three it would make it much easier to learn the nouns if the genders were included in the matching list and in the word list. Thank you I do like the app. OK it will not let me write a second Review so I will add to the first and hope that it gets seen. I am currently in the Explorer tier at the end of the sixth set and the beginning of the seventh set. At the beginning of each month I like to go back to the first round, called rookie to just review things and to brush up on wording and the die, Der, DOS, that kind of thing. today I went to the rookie tier To do my review, and in the second sept under personalized practice I was given a lesson from a much more advanced set than I had even seen. this was very disturbing to me, and used up all of my hearts at the very beginning of my practice of my German.I think this is a very wrong thing to do because it took me out of any familiar words or sentence structure I was trying to reinforce.
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5 months ago, keep uinin.k7grrhyh
Please read
So this game is good no, I really like it but it has some issues first why would you advertise yourself I mean sure you want people to get that in the super Duolingo in the Duolingo max but seriously just put up an ad in the corner people corner in person, and like to say, the characters are really fun. It’s a really good game for like it’s like you’ve already know some other language or like you’re trying to learn. So I do recommend a game, but it is very stressful since like you have hearts and you only have five and if you wanna hurt, you can’t continue and that laughing without paying like 430 and that’s gay money, but still white pay that much people like at the start, you barely have any money and but what I do like about it is that you can jump to wherever you areu the beginning so that’s some thing I do like about it and whoever is playing the game right now I just want to say is it don’t you agree with me it is stressful but I do like the game it doesn’t play it and like you can earn treasure chest but like if you don’t claim it then you don’t have another chance it’s until like I have to clean mine at like six something in the morning I decline my night owl just in the morning I did not like it so I mean I do like that but still she’s stopped the pressure my end. Please get the game if you want to learn a language but don’t get if you don’t like being put under pressure.
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4 years ago, no4Ds
ONE OF THE BEST WOULD RECOMMEND, SOME SMALL SUGGESTIONS AND ISSUES
If you are just starting out on a language this is the app. You learn words effectively and it is very good at encouraging to learn. The unfortunate thing was it got very repetitive and takes some time to get through to learn new words. It was very good when I first started learning Norwegian or Norsk Bokmål. I got the basics but really just basics. Duolingo won’t make you fluent but it is a great starting place and language practice tool to have when first encountering a new language. Don’t expect yourself to learn an entire language with Duolingo alone but it is great when wanting to practice the language you are learning or getting a few new words. Once again, it doesn’t feel like you are making super fast progress or you have grown quickly but I always enjoying going on and practicing. Another problem is that I never really understood why something was some way and Duolingo did not really do a good job explaining the reasons behind something so I was left confused. The good thing is these questions can be answered on the forum that Duolingo provides. Also the pronunciation does not appear to be given. All you could do was hear the word but I could never tell if the letter “d” was pronounced at the end of some words or not. I had to learn this outside of Duolingo. To conclude this is SPECTACULAR language learning app and I recommend it for all who want to try a new language.
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4 months ago, Cauliflower pizza
Addictive and challenging
I have been impressed with how much I can learn, even without grammar explanations. The sentences (with translations) build up and if you go in order you can learn a lot. I came in knowing quite a bit of vocabulary but little grammar, so had to go back to earlier lessons and catch up, but it was possible and Duolingo is quite strict! I really like the way the content is specific to the language. I am learning Danish and it includes Danish cultural and geographic detail. This is not a cookie-cutter program teaching the same content for each language. (I wasn’t however thrilled with the lessons on boy/girlfriends moving in together, etc. Despite the initial email that “my child” was using the app.) Some of the English translations are a bit forced, but I have decided it is a useful feature, as that reinforces the grammar differences and is needed for translating exactly what the app wants into the target language. I supplement the app with reading/listening to materials without translation, as you can only get so far with translating, but you can learn a lot with words in context, and that is a huge benefit to the approach here. Other programs drill you on individual vocabulary words building up to a sentence. Duolingo gives you sentences with popup translations that let you learn how the word is used at the same time. Much faster. And much more variety. I am always surprised by new variations I haven’t heard before. Quite realistic!
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9 months ago, Barriesaxxy
Sync your programs!!
I doubt the devs care, but as fun as Duolingo is, it’s really annoying that I can’t fluidly switch between phone and computer. The quests on the programs are completely different, and if I want to make progress towards a friend quest, I *have* to use phone because they don’t show u on computer. But I would rather have access to a mouse and full keyboard. If you really want it to be a phone app that much, shut down the website. Or keep the website and sync it properly. Also, I HATE the 90% and perfect quests. They don’t inspire me to try harder. They just inspire me to stop after I’ve gotten more than one wrong. Either stop and start over or just stop for the day until the quests reload. When it’s one, it’s fine, but when it’s like… 3 perfect lessons for 3 gems? Not worth it, and since I know there’s no reward already, there’s no point in getting on. I would recommend lower stakes (80%) but offer additional rewards (even only sometimes) for the 90% and perfect. Otherwise, you’re basically sending the message that you’re a failure if you’re not perfect. Well nobody is, including you, or you would sync your phone app to the computer program. It would also be nice to know which lessons actually have speaking items in them. It’s really annoying to have a quest to complete 12 speaking items and have to complete 5 lessons just to get 1. This is another thing that sometimes inspires me to not bother, though it’s not as bad as the literal quest for perfection.
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2 years ago, Qwerty000asdfg
This is fantastic!
I’ve always procrastinated learning the languages in which I wish to be fluent due to not having the time or money to pursue the interest, and Duo has created a fun way for me to learn with quick lessons that fit into my schedule, while making it free to pursue the interest. The premium version comes with even more features that I feel are valuable enough for the cost. This app works very well for my style of learning, and you begin with very basic sentences, learning slightly more advanced structures and content as you progress. I cannot stress this enough for newcomers: the comment section under each example sentence is a GOLD MINE of a learning opportunity. If you feel you do not understand what is being presented, check the comments and there is likely someone asking the question you have and someone else has already presented a very helpful explanation. *A note to the developers in regards to the preceding paragraph: in the few circumstances where I have a question that hasn’t yet been asked, or if I see a question that I feel confident I could answer, I would love to have the ability to add a comment directly from the app for iPad or iPhone without having to retry that lesson on the website to comment. I feel it is the only thing lacking from an otherwise amazing learning tool. Please, please, PLEASE add this for us!
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3 years ago, emma76190
It’s a good app!
This is some reasons i gave this app 4 stars only. I did not want to put 5 because of some stuff so let me tell you. This app is so amazing i would download it if i were you but, i am trying to learn french because of friends.. but it does not really teach me french language. All it kinda wants me to do is pick the right french word or, something else like that. It doesn’t seam to make me remember all the words. So i give this app a 4. No hate to this app because they are trying there BEST to help people learn new languages! Its really a great app but also, it wants you to pay a lot for a month I’m pretty sure to get no ads and level up quicker. Almost every app has a monthly subscription witch is kinda unfair. People are losing there jobs during this moment of Covid-19 so they won’t be able to pay that much for a month or however much it costs. I would say who would want to level up fast? It would not be fun because its going fast and you really learn anything and, its kinda cheating as what i think. The no ads.. well thats kinda “OK” but i don’t know about it.. the ads are kinda great although, they are about the Duolingo subscriptions. The ads are actually short though so i would not mind the ads because i don’t want to pay a monthly subscription. So i give this a 4 i guess but it’s actually good app and i think you should download it if you like! There is so many amazing languages out there on Duolingo. Thanks for reading my review! - Customer <3
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5 years ago, minhmornings
Love it, but some features need to be added
I have to say that Duolingo has taken me to a new world of languages. I can spend my whole days practicing with Duo and increase my ability of using languages. However, there're still things that I'm not satisfied with this version for IOS: - the discussions after answers: I've wait for them since a long long time ago. I believe that Duolingo is not only a software for learning languages, but also a special environment for everyone to enhance their skills together. Using Duo on IOS is quite convenient, but if I want to check my answer with the other's, I have to login my account again on the version for web browser, go to that skill, do it and seek for the question. That's not good at all! - The report: Nothing happens when I press the button to report the errors (most of them are translation errors). My and other's reports are the very efficient tools to help Duo better, and we want to see that in the near future. - The club should be added to web version and the currency systems - gems - needs need to be synced. Anyway, the life point is awesome, but we want more games, or tournaments, or challenges, or... something like that, just to increase the competitiveness between leaners. I know that to solve with the problems I've listed above will take a lot of time and money and labor power, but we can believe with our effort and strength, the future of Duolingo is brighter than ever! Duolingo is the sweet home for everyone!
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2 years ago, ChillTaco
Good starter language learning app but…
If you’re taking a language course in school, this app is great supplementation to practice your skills. If you’re just learning on your own, while Duo is a good stepping stone, you’ll need some extra resources if you’re serious in trying to master a language. Personally I use this and babble because the less popular languages like Swedish and Russian don’t get tips like German and Spanish. Apparently they’re available on the website itself, which is pretty inconvenient. (Really babble is more in depth in explaining the grammar. In comparing the two, they both have their strengths. Duo gives you quick vocabulary and babble gives more grammar.) My issue is really how strangely some of the modules are set up. I noticed that the more popular languages are set up in a way that’s a bit nonsensical and fails to set up the lesson they’re intending to teach you. The questions segment of German spent less time showing the proper set up on how questions are asked and spent more time having me translate random sentences. The thing that irritates me the most is how this app with every update tries to push you to buy premium. It used to be you’d just get a few ads for it but these days after every lesson about there’s another promotion for premium, with increasing unskippability which is even more aggravating. And they added an word save feature which is helpful for learning… except it’s for premium only!
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3 years ago, Brandon boiiiii24
I love the setup and purpose of why this app exists, some tweaks and I think it could be amazing
I just started to use this app again even though I’ve had an account since 2016. I’ve taken some courses in high school and college for Spanish which helps in the language learning process; most is just refreshing with the language of Spanish. I can’t provide to much input as to whether it will help you become fluent or not because I’m still on the beginning stages of the lessons. However I am enjoying my time with it and hopefully it does help me get to where I would like to be which is a fluent Spanish speaker. I rated four stars because going through the activities I’ve noticed that when it tells you to repeat the sentence the audio seems to lag on the last word and take a little while to register that you got it correct. Everything else is great, I like that if you get something wrong you can go to the discussion section where other users have had the same issues as yourself which has helped me understand errors so I don’t make the same mistake next time. Even after viewing the comment sections duolingo itself gives its own tip by using an example to help you remember and avoid the mistake you made for the future. I would highly recommend the app for learning a language but like I said previously I’m not sure if it will help you become fluent or not. Fix the audio issues of it lagging for a few seconds and I’d gladly rate five stars!!!
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6 years ago, OnthBeach54
New smaller word boxes TOO SMALL
Since the recent update (late April 2018), on my iPad Pro DuoLingo app, the word boxes and the type within them, which one taps to put together a translated sentence, are frequently appearing much smaller than the helpful size they consistently were before. Sometimes they appear in the original size, but more often now, even with a short sentence where there is no problem fitting them on the page, they are very small. Harder to read, and harder to accurately select. And I have small hands/fingers. I lost several “health” bars and had to stop my lesson sooner than in the past, because I was selecting at the speed I always have, and realized I could not have the confidence I had grown accustomed to, that when I think I have touched a word box, it is selected. So my learning process is slowed not because I am selecting the incorrect word and losing health, but that I have to stop and check more diligently to make sure the box I tapped (or tried to, but apparently did not hit the now very small “sweet spot” on it which selects it), actually shows up in the answer box. This was NEVER an issue before the change in word-box size. Please make them, if not as large as they have been previously, larger than they are after this recent “upgrade”. Very annoying in an otherwise wonderful app...you folks say you want to make learning easy, and my feedback is that this tiny type in close-together boxes, is an impediment to learning. Thank you.
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2 years ago, weep638
Love the app but ..
Look I Love this game like really but something is wrong with the duolingo Super so I got the super for free because I’ve been practicing like every day but do you have the icon that you could change from the boring old one to the new super one So I did that and next thing I know everything starts to crash like all my games work stuff and things, so I checked like what’s going on I’m panicking and then I realized this didn’t happen before, so I thought maybe icon because I changed it so after that I changed it back to what it was, and then everything started to like uncrashing so I was like let’s test it out again, so that’s what I did and then I turned it back on and everything started to like tell me I had no Wi-Fi but I have like five bars so can I have Siri right, and she tells me that something is wrong please try again but I have full bars like I said so then I turned it off like the icon And then after I turned it off everything started to work again, so I was like OK I’m not turning this back on again because then everything is going to start crashing again, so then after that I never turned it back on again and then everything is fine. |for DUOLINGO you really have to fix it because I don’t want no one to have a crash or their stuff telling them that they don’t have Wi-Fi because then they’re probably gonna get worried and I don’t want them to be worried at all like at all|
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3 years ago, #YAPEOPLE
Great But Here Are A Few Tips
So this is great! I started learning Spanish a few weeks ago and I have learned a lot from this app. I thought I wasn’t going to stick with it, but I ended up doing it. It’s a really great app if you want to learn any language! Just a few tips though. A couple times, I’ve had a thing pop up when I’m trying to do my lesson. It says that something went wrong. I came back a while later and the same thing was happening. I’ve been working hard on my streak, and I really don’t want to lose it. I wonder if it is possible to not break my streak because of an error in the app. It’s only happened a couple times, so its fine. Another thing: I feel like we shouldn’t be given the stories until we got all of our first lessons done. I tried to do it when I only had 10 crowns, and I didn’t understand everything. I had to use the hints, and then I felt like I wasted a story. I would recommend not Doug the stories until you are done with the first lesson. The cafe one I would wait until you have the restaurant lesson done with all five crowns. The last thing is just being able to have more than 5 hearts if we do the practice. (Or at least up to 6). I feel like then, you would practice more to get hearts (even if it’s only one more than when your hearts are refilled). Well, this app is amazing even if you don’t fix those tiny things. I would definitely recommend.
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2 years ago, cheri614
Course quality depends on the language
I've been using the premium version for two years, mostly on Japanese and tried some others. Some language courses are much better than others. For example the Spanish course seems pretty robust. Korean seemed pretty bad for beginners (even though it's a relatively easy language to learn). I have the most experience with the Japanese courses. It's honestly not great if you're completely new to the language. It doesn't have much focus on teaching the basic alphabet and tries to jump into to words or phrases without much context. If you already know a bit and want to learn some kanji it is decent for that. There are many frustrations with the courses. One of the most annoying things is when you're trying to complete courses quickly to beat a certain timer. Some sentences they want you to translate are weirdly long and unnatural. I can't help but to think there are roadblocks set in place to encourage people to buy timer boosts. I also really don't like the amount of unnecessary animations, some which you cannot turn off that just adds time between courses. Pretty frustrating when I'm trying to finish a few quick lessons during a break or to get more xp within the boost timer. Overall it's a fun little way to get some practice in but it's best used as a supplemental learning too. For many languages it doesn't seem to be a good way to learn from scratch.
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5 months ago, Homesteadgal
Merci beaucoup, Duolingo!!!
I am a language learner at heart; I started as a toddler learning Hebrew from my mom, then as a nine year old, I began 11 years of Greek study, learning both modern and koine Greek. Sadly, I never had a wonderful course to take. I did three levels of Rosetta Stone which gave me an incredible foundation, but it didn’t have a life like way of teaching the language and I had no one to speak with. Then I found Duolingo and completed the entire Greek course. Even though it wasn’t quite as well formulated as the Rosetta Stone, it was WAY more inspiring for some reason. Then, after I had the wonderful opportunity at a job that required speaking with Dutch children, I blazed a good ways into the Dutch course. However, I kept noticing though, how much better the course was in languages like French, Spanish, German and English. So one day I did the first lesson in French, just to see what it was like to hear a story in a different language that wasn’t a far fetched tourist robot sounding conversation about where the toilet was. That was 1,160 days ago. I’ve been learning French ever since. To top it off, I realized my great grandparents spoke fluent French and our family had let it die out to only English. Duolingo—It’s the best resource I have, and all my friends tease me about my learning obsession. Thanks Duo for inspiring my favorite language learning experience so far!!!
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2 years ago, gurl2040
I luv ur app😁
Duolingo is simple and fun to use. I can tell a lot of work goes into it from the audio lessons to the animation characters. I also enjoy your ads for some weird reason. I just feel like your adds genuinely show what the app is and aren’t annoying like other adds. I also think their entertaining and cute. I also like the fact that even without super Duolingo you can still learn effectively and the app is still good. This makes the app more accessible and useful to a lot of people. Unlike other apps where If you don’t pay for extra benefits or super memberships the app turns to be totally useless and you can’t do anything. I am learning Spanish and Japanese. I find both categories to be taught well. I also see the differences in the way you teach these languages. I’m also guessing it changes by what language you speak. Which I find helpful and super cool of you. I luv Duolingo, it is so much fun to use. So shout out to all of the Duolingo team. I suggest to anyone who is reading this to try out the app. Don’t worry about going to slow or fast. Which the app makes me feel good in. I feel like I can make mistakes and take my time and not be rushed. The app is also not that complicated to use. P.S. I don’t review app ever but I thought this app really deserved it. The apps physical design is nice and so are the characters. May God bless you 😁
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6 years ago, xX0utbackXx
Good app! ...but needs work!
Great free app, very helpful and useful in learning new or refining old languages. However, it still needs work in my opinion. I am learning Spanish and I have learned a lot more than I already knew in a couple days... but there are times when using a proper word is necessary to succeed and move on, but I have to restart over and over again later (after practicing, to get health to play) ...because I picked the right term but wrong specific word and no explanation is given as to why. I.E: Yo (means I) has to be followed with an o in the use of words like como (eat) or bebo (drink) instead of come/comen/comes or bebe/beben/bebes (as I learned through searching), but no explanation is given as to why. It’s frustrating and infuriating. This needs to be explained and taught for proper teaching of other languages. Also, why does the asterisk above certain Spanish words apply but not on others? Learn it all or don’t even try I say! Finally, turn down the need for health as often, or turn up the regeneration rate. I read it was said that they are trying to make learning free. So do it more, please. Stop making me practice over and over again just to get 1 bar of health (works on only 1 mistake before failing) and have 1 measly chance at succeeding just to have to quit, practice, and start ALL OVER AGAIN; only to fail because I don’t understand what I did wrong! The ads are bad enough and should be sufficient... but then there’s this! Please fix!
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2 years ago, Cloudypianos
Great app, I love it for language learning, but too meat-centric
I love using this for learning languages and use it daily. My primary is Spanish, then I use it some for other languages like French, Portuguese, Korean and German, which I’ll explore more when I finish Spanish. So much here and very well updated and perfected. Only technical issue is occasionally with words not accepted when doing audio to text on challenges. The audio to text doesn’t always work but it’s about as good as can be. Minus one star because it is SO MEAT-CENTRIC. The food sections are all about meat- chicken and fish. The audio sections are all about meat, and ordering only meat sandwiches, vegetables are gross…. Even the stories have one mocking vegetarians and to make that clear the audio part where you repeat what you hear is just for the waiter who ignores the man asking for vegetarian food. It’s the same on every language and super annoying for me and likely any vegans or vegetarians or anyone who eats more than carne y pollo y pescado. Super sick of it tbh, and would detract more stars but the rest of this is great and has taught me a lot for a realistic monthly fee so for that I’m just leaving this here for developers and the content design team to hopefully see and take into account. I know this app is all about diversity and inclusion— it shines through all the podcasts— and it’s just not evident with climate change, animal rights and people who believe in these matters.
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1 year ago, CLN_est.05
Pretty cool way to learn
It’s pretty cool , especially if you want to learn fast . My only problem is with the hearts and the league system. The hearts are a major problem, because while it gives you the incentive not to make a mistake, it makes me have to reset my focus especially when running out of hearts. I say this because once you run out of hearts trying to learn you must go to previous lessons and practice or wait, and this goes hand and hand with the league system too. After you run out of hearts some people don’t have the time to practice the other lessons that they’ve previously done and it feels redundant as you end up mastering these skills and this makes people ( especially me ) feel as if learning is being prohibited by that much longer. Feeling this way makes people not want to continue learning and then they drop down in the league system, and once you drop it feels as if your hard work is being undermined. This fact alone has made a few people I know stop using Duolingo for this purpose. Along with the fact that there is no explanations as to why you get things wrong. There NEEDS TO BE EXPLANATIONS, especially if you want people to actually learn. The only way people can truly learn is if they understand. Quite frankly when Duolingo tells me I’m wrong it enrages me because there is no explanations, which in turn makes understanding that much harder .
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5 years ago, TheGreatMustard
Excellent App, but could use more Languages!
I’ve been using Duolingo for a while now to practice my French, and in the time I have had the app I have tried out several other languages too (including Spanish, Russian, German, Klingon, etc.). The games make learning fun and the teaching style helps keep the terms and sentence structures ingrained in my memory very well! My only request/hope for this app (not a complaint, I love the app) is that while I appreciate the inclusion of fictional languages like High Valyrian and Klingon, I would like for there to be more significant languages to be added to Duolingo’s roster of classes as well. Widely-spoken languages like Arabic and Bengali are noticeably absent on the course list (for English-speakers, not sure about others), as well as Finnish, which is a little strange because Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish are all present. Personally, as someone whose family comes from the western Balkans, I would love to see a language course on Serbo-Croatian, since it is a difficult language that I believe Duolingo would be an excellent tool to help me to become better at it. Recently, Hawaiian and Navajo were added to the roster, which excites me and makes me hope for these languages to be added sometime in the future as well. Overall, I love the app and will continue using it to study foreign languages! I look forward to seeing more language courses added in future updates! 👍
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6 years ago, Djdngjozndy skcndirif
I am loving this app!
This app is really helping me to learn very quickly. I am learning Greek and brushing up on Spanish. I wish it would handle a few things differently Among them, letting me test out of Spanish levels further along the way than it does, but I understand they are testing whether that feature is more or less beneficial for learning at the moment. So, I upvoted the feature :). The other thing is that the adds are locked in portrait mode and the “practice” tab also starts out and sometimes gets stuck in portrait mode. I have tor turn my iPad to portrait and back to landscape and it usually switches to landscape then, but not always. I pretty much always use my iPad in landscape mode. Especially when I am using the keyboard, which the app has plenty of. I wish that the whole thing would just be in the orientation of my screen without changing/ trying to figure out which direction it should be as I use the app. Otherwise, this app has been AMAZING and, while, I’d love those improvements, I’m really just being nit picky. I didn’t feel it deserved any less than 5 stars because the rest is awesome! One note, if anyone is having trouble understanding anything in the language you’ve chosen or with the app, visit the website and check out the discussions tab. There is a lot of helpful info in there and many other language learners who are very happy to help out!
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4 years ago, aphmd
Best Language Teaching app! Super Helpful and fun!
I wanted to learn Greek because, it’s in my culture and my realities and family know how to speak it. I searched for Greek learning apps and I stumbled across Duolingo. I made an account and started learned basics ( though I had experience I wanted to start from the beginning.) I got some things done and made it to checkpoint one, which took some days to complete the lessons. I took the test and failed, I tried again, Nope! Again I tried, but no success for me. I kept trying and eventually gave up but a few months later, I decided to start practicing again. I hadn’t used the app for MONTHS! And it was time to break the Non-Bilingual Wall. So I started it again yesterday and after leveling up on some things, I decided to try the test. I failed two times and then it said it wouldn’t be graded so I could just take it without hearts and stuff since I failed so many times. I took it and I finished and guess what? I PASSED!!!!!!!! I had no faith in my self and I gave up, but a little practice made it perfect. I continued practicing today and now I can speak in detailed sentences, and I know a lot more than before. I am even learning to write in Greek by solving the questions and taking courses. If you want to learn a language I recommend Duolingo, it has helped me come so far and I will continue to learn with Duolingo. Thank you Duo for helping me learn! ❤️❤️
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4 months ago, Sarah's thoughts
I like it a lot, and it can get better
I really like duo lingo and have used it to start learning new languages as well as to maintain ones I’ve learned in the past. I’m sure there are other programs out there that are better for more in-depth and possibly faster learning curves. My “issues” with duo lingo come from it seeming like they spend more time and effort on the little animations than helpful aspects of learning. They used to have this audio learn along thing where there are a few hosts walking you through an experience and you learn the phrases they use to get around and whatnot. THAT was helpful! You learn very useful phrases and since it feels like you’re speaking along with them it sticks better. They took that away for whatever reason even though a bunch of people online loved it (you can find Reddit threads and stuff). Duo lingo sometimes teaches some really dumb phrases when it should be oriented to often used /helpful things while visiting a place (ex: “duo likes to surf” vs “where is the restroom?”). I’m also annoyed that it’s taken them years to include more than just Swahili for African languages. And even now there’s only like maybe 3 MAX. Do y’all know how many of us are trying to learn Twi or Yoruba or one of the thousands going on there? The diaspora is HUGE and a lot of us are searching high and low to learn our homeland languages. But you have Dothraki and other made up languages 🤨🙄
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7 months ago, Humberto R.
Room for improvement …
I’ve been using Duolingo since 2014 and I have been able to learn a few languages to an advanced enough level that I can comfortably credit Duolingo as one of the primary reasons for my success in learning said languages. Now, there are quite a few things that irk me about the app, particularly, the free versions bombardment of ads over the years and a subpar system of hearts which deter learning instead of encourage you. The introduction of new languages to learn has been rather slow but I have been pleased with the fact that Duolingo has made it known that they will continue to introduce new courses as they go. Another annoyance is that I seem to be missing a leaderboard now simply due to the fact that I traveled to a certain region and now I’m unable to access certain features of the app, like the leaderboard as I mentioned prior. This is extremely annoying as I find encouragement through competition, the leaderboard is a feature I have adored since it’s introduction in the app. I’ve yet to contact support regarding why this is so but hopefully the Duolingo support team can resolve this for me and if not then I will consider canceling my family plan. All in all, it’s a great app that can greatly benefit your language learning journey but there’s just a few spots that need polishing for this app to even be worthy of asking you for a paid subscription. Thank you.
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2 years ago, fiaowudbx
The heart system takes the learning experience away
I’m learning Spanish on this app. You can only make 5 mistakes or else you need to wait to have the heart restored to continue. Many times I just have a very small translation error in English which the translation is definitely still right but the app won’t accept my answer - then I lost a heart. I just don’t understand if it’s necessary to have the heart system if I really want to learn. You can have me watch those ads after each lesson, and I’ll still continue study on this app and spend more time on this app. But it just feels like I cannot make mistakes with the heart system. Like don’t we learn from our mistakes? Sometimes I’m learning a new grammar of course I’m going to make some mistakes. I don’t know which program manager of your team came up with this idea but this person should be fired. The original goal of this app to HELP people LEARN languages, but now with the heart system it forces people to spend less time on the app, cannot make more than 5 mistakes, and just give customers a ugly-looking feeling of just want us to look ads so you can make more money. Also, you need to make sure what you are teaching is at least correct. The present tense and normal tense is always messed up in this app. Many times the translation is in present tense but they want you to write Spanish in normal tense and vice versa. I’m not sure if this is helping people to learn or making them more confused.
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3 years ago, kyrag14
My answer to la leche is wrong even though I spell it right.
This app has been very useful. My whole family speaks Spanish and they never taught me so I downloaded this app. Everything has been going good, but I have an issue with a lesson. So I decided to try and get all the crowns for the intro levels. I’m on level/crown 3 out of 6 and lesson 2 out of 4. Remember for this question, you have to complete 2 things to submit your answer. This question is talking about how to spell leche and choosing if la or el goes with it. So you choose la or el and of course I chose la because that is correct, then you have to type la leche. So when I’m trying to type la, the text box goes blank and you have to rewrite la, but this problem continues to occur when spelling la. So I put the word leche(milk) first and then take the blue like that’s there when you are typing and I put it in the beginning of the word leche and then type la in front of it with a space in between the 2 words. I then submit my answer thinking I’m clever and it would still work. Then it says my answer is wrong and it says you spell it like la leche, which is how I spelled it. I then report the answer, I retried this a few times and it still didn’t work. So I then skipped the level and went to the next level and was doing it until the same question popped up, just with different words. I then tried to answer it and it did the same exact thing. I’m just trying to complete my levels, someone please help.
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3 years ago, Lasvicious
Excellent learning tool, Needs more community interaction
I have tried many language learning applications, but Duolingo is by far my favorite. Why? Well first, this review is based on the subbed version. I subbed immediately so I cannot speak for the unsubbed version. Now, this is why it is my favorite app. I am to unit 3. The lessons I have encountered have been the best I have used for memorization. I will cover pronunciation in a moment, though. Now listen, it are VERY repetitive. ALL Language apps are should be. However, other apps don’t provide as much variance as duolingo. I am extremely impressed that they can repeat vocabulary enough to optimize memorization, yet also provide consistent variance between the material. redundant vocabulary becomes interesting every time. I have used apps that have no variance and become boring fast, and apps that are too fast paced, lacking memorization technique and losing their learning power. Duolingo also offers stories that you listen and interact with, and even interactive podcasts. They are my favorite. The app gives you true sense of progress through achievements, monthly challenges, speed challenges, ranking, and a lot more. My critique is an app like this has more COMMUNITY potential than they realize. If I could message directly and even form groups with other learners in this app, it would be fantastic.
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6 months ago, Joe_mammy
Best Language App EVER!!! 5 STARS!!
I was planning on traveling to Europe and going to Italy. Because, it’s my dream! So, I was looking around for an app that I could learn Italian on and I found Babbel and I downloaded it. Let’s just say it was not the best experience. I don’t want to hate on an app that was hard to make so that’s all I’m gonna say. After some research I found Duolingo and I downloaded it to try it out. It was AMAZING! There are little lesson reviews on the side and fun little characters. There are so many languages to learn and so many fun things to do! You join leagues and try to make it up the leagues and that gets me going on the app. I highly recommend this app if you want to have fun learning a new language! There’s only one thing I would change (and it might be a little greedy) the heart situation. I’m sure you’ve gotten many people hating on how you lose hearts so I’m not gonna be that person because it’s an amazing app. But, for fairness, I don’t think you should lose hearts every time you make a mistake. Or at least, you gain hearts more often by getting a perfect lesson or something. Other than that, this is my go to language app. So, if your looking for a fun game with not just learning a little competing and fun I would highly recommend you get this app!! Ps- I would love if you guys responded to my review 🫶🏼 Thank you!
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2 weeks ago, Another.Muslim
Thank you for such an App
I’ve heard of Duolingo many times before and just thought of it as a pay to learn app without verifying if what I think is true. I found other apps to learn Arabic but deleted them because I don’t have a job yet and can’t pay at all. I also don’t like asking for money from my parents. (I don't hate my parents nor anyone else, I just don’t ask for money). Anyway, continuing my train of thought. Yesterday, ( Wednesday, February 21st), my sister convinced me to download DL to learn Portuguese. I had no intention of learning Portuguese but the opposite can be said for Arabic. I download DL and talk to my sister about it and she mentions the word, “Free”. Now, don’t take me as a stingy person, not willing to spend even a little bit of money but I just wanted to learn a new language since they only have Spanish, French and ASL at my school. (High school by the way). Now, I’ve found out about this wondrous app that’s completely Free and you only need commitment. You can’t expect to learn a language by learning a word every 5 days. In return for this Language App being Free, you have to show perseverance. You have to have a desire for learning what you want to learn. Now, I just want to say, I have nothing against people who speak Portuguese or want to learn Portuguese, I just wanted to learn Arabic to further myself in my Religion. Islam
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3 months ago, Dr. Tim Aitken
Excellent learning app
I enjoy the app because it twos that you make a commitment in terms of time devoted to learning, the animations, the interactivity, etc. The only downsides are the ads and the cost; it’s not free. With digital marketing, banner ads, and the countless ways to funnel money from online channels, the app could be free and should be free for particular groups of people (teachers, educators, public relations staff, etc.). We are wanting to learn the languages of our students and families to effectively communicate with them. The two main contributors to sustained marginalization for students and families who are emerging English learners are ACCESS and OPPORTUNITY (A&O). Most educators know how to navigate systems to open A&O for all students, but specifically communicating with emerging English language learners is difficult. Effectively communicating with families helps to build trust and demonstrates support, inclusivity, and trust. Those connections matter when we, as educators, are trying to not only improve their learning but also break cycles of limited A&O which anchor the lives trajectory of far too many brilliant students and hard working families. Educators already pay so much money out of their tight pockets for operational supplies. The cost of this program could easily be offset for educators by industries, corporations, civic donations, online marketing, etc.
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2 years ago, ShukaNae46
I am very grateful !
J’adore Duolingo, I never had the confidence to learn a language before using this app. I always scoffed it off as too much work. You guys really make it fun. It’s like playing a game! As you developers already know, the streak keeps many people committed to the app. I’ve kept my streak alive 150 days twice! I’m not dropping the flame this time though. My only complaint is that I wish bots weren’t in the leagues so much. I assume they are there to give people a more competitive feel that perhaps isn’t quite there with all the real users on the app? I’m not sure, I’ve tried to understand the reason, but alas it is what it is. I am learning how to read and pronounce quite a bit in French! That is the main thing I really get from this though. And that is really something I am genuinely grateful for. I have even been practicing thinking in French and although I cannot understand every day French tongue out in the real world yet, I can differentiate many words that are said and that’s cool too, quite an improvement! That is all thanks to you wonderful folks. I appreciate the people behind Duolingo because they are providing such an amazingly useful resource for free!! I do get the premium membership because I love it so much. I’m on my second year with this app and can’t wait to see it evolve. 🥰Merci beaucoup, Duolingo et au revoir !
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6 months ago, Chun-Ni🤪❤️
¡Me encanta Duolingo! Pero ..
I have been using Duolingo for over a year now (462 day streak to toot my own horn hehe), and I can honestly say it’s a great tool for me to help refresh my Spanish skills! However, I do think there’s room for improvement. I wish the community chat rooms were available in app and not just by desktop! Also a lot of native translations that are often taught in curriculum are marked incorrect and that can be frustrating when you know for a fact that you are not wrong! Also, a lot of times the characters will speak out sentences to you but the phrases will be distorted causing you to be marked incorrect which is also very frustrating. One thing I do love is the stories they offer and the inclusion they add to try and incorporate real life situations in a easy to digest way! I also wish that a lot of the functions weren’t hidden behind a pay wall (understandable as the app is free so they need the ads) but only being able to have access to them once in every blue moon after you’ve completed hundreds of lessons isn't very convincing for people to buy that version as it is frustrating for people who want to learn who could use the resources! Overall it is a very good app if you want to be able to read a language on paper. As for real world application, I say this tool is just one of many you should be incorporating into your own method of learning!
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11 months ago, mysterygaming2
Please read before you get it
If you, like me, knew and loved old duolingo of the duolingo tree, i need to tell you something. that is gone. they made something new called the “learning path”. look it up if you want to know more. i’m not here to waste your time on that, but what i will tell you is that it is very unhelpful and discouraging to see. i have had duolingo for a number of years now and LOVED it, am a member of the streak society, and a “super plus member”. i LOVED duolingo. not anymore, and quite frankly, i am very tempted to delete it, but i have learned SO MUCH AND I STILL HAVE HOPE. Duolingo!!! Please change the update back!!!I am very disappointed because you are getting so much feedback not only from me, but THOUSANDS of other unhappy customers! i had “super plus” and loved it, it was so worth it, but now, look what your amazing app has come to. i just unsubscribed a few days ago. it simply is no longer worth it. Please reach out as i really do love duolingo and want to see it do well, but i want Before the update, i was steadily learning future tense etc, and now i am stuck not being able to pick what i am working on, on an endless “path” that feels like i’m making no progress at all, which i’m not. Duolingo, this is seriously not good. this is the opposite of your goal, which is to help people learn. i feel like i’m LOSING my skills with italian, and it’s really sad because i love it.
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5 years ago, Jess_p330
Nice app but slow progress
The app is nicely designed and has good variety of testing formats, but each level takes FOREVER to pass. Some have 20 rounds before you can move on - and each round is the SAME thing. Even some of the levels seem the same. This feels like a waste of time for the learner and has made me start practicing even less (therefore using the app less) because I already know the material by round #5. I don’t need to review it 15 more times. Please make the progress faster, perhaps integrating some review of previous levels into later ones to ensure retention. Also, please allow us to skip levels more easily - right now it takes 400 gems to pass a level, and that takes many days of repetitive practice (of topics I already know) to accumulate. Not worth it. I even made a separate account to start over and take a placement test to hopefully bypass some of these basic levels. I did much better on this test that my first one, yet the levels they put me on seemed the exact same as on my other account - does the test actually place you anywhere other than the beginning? I get that you’re trying to make money by encouraging us to pay for more gems, but what you’re actually doing is discouraging me from using the app. (Plus, with all the ads, I already feel sufficiently encouraged to pay for premium.) Perhaps just make the number of gems we’re awarded for meeting our daily goal much larger or make the number required to pass a level much smaller.
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6 years ago, pugvilla
Great app, but one problem!
I have been using Duolingo to learn French for a little while now. If you really want to be good at it I suggest working over and over on the basics 1 and mastering it, and continuing to work on it even after mastering it until you know the basics 1 words 100%, which is what I did. It’s a lot better to know the words than to rush through and not actually be able to remember them. One thing is, I have started the “phrases” section. Usually when you start a new section and it gives you words you haven’t seen yet, they will put a dotted line under it where you can see what it means and then eventually remember it. However on some new words it doesn’t give me the meaning and asks me to translate anyway. Since I don’t know the meaning of the word because I’ve never seen it I get it wrong and lose my health. I have used this app a long time ago to learn Italian (which I’ve since stopped) and it would always give me the meaning of the word, multiple times even. It’s just annoying to me that I have to lose my health because I don’t know the meaning of a new word. It’s not too much of a problem that I will delete the app, but something that could be fixed. I recommend using the computer version of duolingo for learning new words and phrases, and just using the app for strengthening your skills. Overall though this app is great!
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2 months ago, mit.nikliw
Duolingo: IMHO The Best Way to Learn a Language
Hi! I rarely write reviews, but Duo means so much to me that I thought I would add a thought or two. Duolingo is one of the apps I rely on most on my phone, similar to the camera, flashlight, phone, texts, etc. After trying other language learning apps, the thing to me that sets Duo apart is the fact that they’re actually teaching you the STRUCTURE of a language. You’re not just memorizing phrases to use (which may be helpful in a crunch and you’re traveling to a different country); you’re actually learning how to conjugate the verbs based on the pronoun (critical if you’re trying to address a familiar you vs. a formal you, for instance). Yes, it’ll take more time, but you’re actually building a foundation from which you can really be flexible and confident in speaking a different language because Duo’s not just teaching you wrote phrases to memorize. Plus: IT’S FREE (there’s a bit of advertising to work through though)!! The AI teacher is an upgrade that is really tantalizing, which I haven’t invested in yet. Lastly: I took 3 years of German in high school; and in 3 years of Duolingo (5-10 minutes a day, almost every day), I am way further along in Spanish than I was in German. Thank you, Duolingo for not only developing this critical app, but also continuing to work to improve it. - Tim in Chicago
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6 months ago, anranranranr
Highly recommend
I pay for the SUPER service and I feel like it is worth it. I have a friend who was using the free service and she felt like sometimes she would make a mistake and the quizzes to get the heart back made it more discouraging. With the paid service you can make as many mistakes as you want and you just repeat the question. You do fly through it a lot faster so if you don’t feel like you have the words down you have to force yourself to do the review sections. I like that I have more control with what I’m learning and how frequently I can retake a section. I am currently learning German and Spanish. I took Spanish in school but started it from the beginning because I wanted to see i it would teach. You do have the ability to take a placement test to skip ahead though. In school we learned a lot of nouns adjectives and verbs but never really practiced harder sentence structures other than I go swimming. She goes swimming. We are starting to do the harder sentences now in the end of section 2. German is at a really good pace too. I’m taking it a bit slower because I have no prior knowledge. I’m on section 1 rookie unit 3 and I’m only moving forward when I feel like I know the last sections words. My husband knows German and he is happy that I’m not only speaking German but I’m also pronouncing words properly
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1 year ago, UpsetFloridaCustomer!
Fun way to study!
I took 2 Japanese courses in college and this is the perfect app to practice and brush up on my Japanese knowledge! Although, I must say it might not be the best app for learning from scratch… it starts by teaching the “alphabet” (hiragana, katakana) then throws in some harder vocabulary-including kanji.. it’s great if you aren’t looking to be proficient in writing, but probably not for you if you are. I already learned stroke order for the hiragana/katakana in college, but we never got to kanji.. so this app forces you to look elsewhere for stroke order, which is somewhat frustrating. Albeit, all the content has been right so far and is quite fun! Very user friendly and simple to study with! I just wish it had some textbook-esque quality to it before starting a new unit. I will stumble upon a random word and have no idea where it came from, but I guess it’s part of learning. Seeing a word you have never encountered then learning its meaning and usage. Doesn’t really explain grammatical rules, but as I said before, it really isn’t necessary if you are only trying to SPEAK the language rather than write it. I know my review sounds harsh, but I really do enjoy this app! I recommend anyone to try it at least once.. It really isn’t my style of “learning” but it is great fun for brushing up on my previous language knowledge:)
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1 year ago, Cole Venatta
I love this app, but…
I am still in the beginning stages of learning Spanish and am in love with this app. The simple approach and repetition of words is super helpful. I do have a few issues with the learning style though. 1.) I like the fact that repetition is used to help with memorization, but it is just SO SLOW. Like I’ve been learning about the family and it’s vocabulary for what feels like years (47 day streak). I just wish that some more key concepts would be introduced at a quicker pace. I would like to learn some of the exceptions and tenses used in Spanish quicker so that I can use Spanish more in my day to day life. 2.) The talkback feature in this app is straight up garbage. You can’t convince me any differently. I can say complete gibberish into the mic or just say one of the 7 words given and it counts it as correct. Duolingo definitely needs an update in that aspect of the app. If they can change this, it would be MILES better and would help for the overall credibility over other language learning programs. 3.) Why is the LGBTQIA+ being forced upon me as a user? Almost every other exercise that I do involves something to do with a gay couple or a liking of another person of the same gender. I’m not a hater of this community, but would rather not have this forced upon me as a user. Overall, I’m very grateful for this app, but these things could be changed about the app.
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3 years ago, Pu55yWizard
Let me start by saying I NEVER review apps
This app I have had for a while. And I try to use it everyday. It can be pretty disappointing to see that you have missed a lesson and now you don’t have a true streak anymore. If you truly love language and learning it then this app is all you need. Please do yourself a favor and pay for the plus services. I have used this app for about 4 or 5 months and once I upgraded to the Plus option I really saw my learning time go up a lot faster. Let me stop here and say this is not an advertisement trying to sell you the app, just a VERY satisfied customer. Now it’s currently December of 2020. Bobby Shmurda will be released from prison soon and if you run into el chapo you should know some Spanish. Recently there were some changes to the app that exponentially improved the feel of the quality of service immediately and it was such an amazing well thought out addition that I believe it alone could very much help you to learn 90% more than anything else on the app can. What I am referring to is the newly added voice recorder that lets you hear your vocal lessons so you can hear and compare your voice to what you should be hearing. And for people like me who have a very hard time hearing anything, (And I know my ducking kids inherited it 🤟🏽🙃) This new addition to the app makes it so much easier to hear what you are doing.
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4 years ago, Sugar Gamer Girl YT
AMAZING, but...
I gotta say this app is amazing! It just has some issues. One, the speaking part. This is a little tricky. Like, I can’t always make one voice! My voice at random times just goes high, so it’s a problem. 😕 Two, the store. The store is not that well. Why? I’m like a starter and really good at my German (I’m learning it) but I have EVERYTHING IN THE SHOP! I have all the outfits. I think you can improve it by, like, new outfits every week! That would be amazing! Three, gems. Gems are amazing but what if you made coins. That could also help the store. Stuff that costs coins and some that cost gems! Simple really. Four, the bird. I still love the bird but I think if you complete a whole language, like German, you could get there National animal! I don’t know why that is something I want but I do. ;-; Five, another speaking one, wow, it speaking a little for you. Here’s the thing. If it speaks a little for you, how will you learn to say it!? This has happened to me. It’s something I’m not a fan of much, I’d rather say a while phrase then have it say something for me. Other then all that the app is quite something. Well I have nothing else to say except for, don’t let your dog lick you a million times on your face while learning on this app, and ever accept if there trying to wake you up or your doing nothing. - ꧁ Primrose Sings ꧂
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8 months ago, CheshireCatCO
App is buggy and geared toward forcing you to pay
Duolingo wants to project a public image of an app dedicated to people languages for free. And you certainly can use it without paying, as long as you constantly watch as, often for really dubious apps or products. But mostly they seem to be following the airline model of, "sure, you can have the cheap version, but we are going to make it as annoying and miserable as we need to go get you to pay more." Take the heart system of lives, introduced supposedly to make learning more effective. But the fact that you can pay money to get infinite hearts either means they want you to pay to get an inferior version or they're lying that the hearts are beneficial. The fact that the app often has errors that cost you hearts just adds to the crappiness. (You can flag errors, but it takes months to get then corrected and you'll never get the hearts back, even if you paid for them.) There are a ton of functional bugs, too. For example, when you start a lesson, it will often try to get you to watch an ad for another heart, but only because it hasn't registered that your hearts have fully recharged already. (Funny how bugs always seem to work in favor of the app pushing you to pay for the premium version.) Honestly, it's not even that effective a way to learn a language. I'm quitting from a 1500 day streak in language I studied 30 years ago (and used little since) and most of what I know now is from class three decades back.
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2 years ago, KuKu Kookah
Good for beginners
I downloaded this app since other apps I used, such as babble, wanted me to pay/subscribe in order to fully access language lessons which I think is unfair, or just didn’t teach me all that much. This app however was very good for me at first, since I am admittedly learning a lot and can speak full on sentences with the language that I am learning. It is convenient, and pretty fair in terms of money because I can still learn what I need to learn and deal with ads without necessarily having to pay money (even though there are perks if I bought super duolingo). My issue though and why I gave it 3 stars instead of 5 is because there are no explanations of terms just words, as well as when I go further into lessons, it adds extra words that it never even taught me before. If I don’t select or type the right it wants, I get it wrong and loose hearts (this app btw only gives you 5 hearts or 5 chances to get something wrong unless you pay for super duolingo unlimited hearts which is annoying. If you loose all 5 hearts you have to either wait for hours just to receive 1, or redo lessons for 1). I think that this app should properly teach or show all the words it wants me to learn before it just gets thrown at me out of nowhere and I don’t know how to answer. This isn’t with all of the prompts, but when it does happen, even the comment sections wonder why a word that was never taught in the lesson is there.
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4 months ago, Not_mwa
Love 💗 love 💗 love 💗 !!!
This is probably one of the best apps to learn new languages ever. 😁 right now I am currently learning German and I’ve learned over 50 words and I’ve only completed 3 1/2 sets. ✨ I really recommend this for kids mostly because it’s targeted more on the cartoon kiddie side. 🌊 me and my friend absolutely love this we can’t get enough of it.☀️ I do it in the car at restaurants at home and everywhere. 💖 I only have one issue though, it’s about the heart/lives 😅 so basically, whenever you finish, one set you earn a heart which are your lives. ☺️ and if you get one mistake, you lose one life, and if you make mistakes you lose all of them because you only have five lives 😭 it gets super annoying because then you have to restart 😰 but again that kind of makes us better because you learn your mistake and then you do it again and that help you memorize it 🥳 just a little thing that most people don’t really have trouble with, but for me I do, and that’s the super Duolingo it’s seven dollars a month so doing the math that’s about $84 or $86 each year. 🤯 other than that I absolutely love Duolingo. I definitely recommend for new language learners. 🥰 plus if you don’t want to learn a new language, you can learn songs and math. 🫶🏼 Danke 🤩. (thank you in German)
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4 years ago, XvFirefly17vX
Frustrating, but a good app
I have had Duolingo for maybe a month now and I’m level one on all of the first group of things. Now there are a few things I’d like to address. Duolingo is really great because I’m taking French this year. However there are many huge problems with it too. One is with the practice for a heart. I have been doing it right, le restaurant. But every time I type it no matter how I tweak it it says I’m wrong and knocks me down so I can’t actually ever earn that heart because it keeps giving me the same question which has the wrong thing happening. When I get it wrong it shows me the answer- exactly what I typed. It kind of drives me nuts. Other than that, the hearts system is really stressful because it basically tells you that making mistakes is horrible and that you literally have to pay for them. Now I know that’s not the point but it sure feels like it because failing a lesson sure feels horrible, doesn’t it? I’m sure there are plenty of bugs Duolingo has that I haven’t uncovered but I really wanted to put this out there. Other than these things, Duolingo is great and it’s a great choice to assist in learning a language. But seriously the hearts system crushes your soul and it sure doesn’t help on a bad day. And yes I understand Duo plus is better but come on, I just want a free language app. So if you’re still reading this thanks for listening to me little Duolingo rant. Have a great day.
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1 year ago, Stylinsonbabyy
Not a fan of the update
Practicing my daily Duolingo was something I looked forward to. Competing, buying the occasional gems for extra lessons, etc… The new update is NOT motivating. In theory it seems more seamless (I was excited for the stories to be incorporated) but I cannot get my daily exercises in since it changed. I like the pathway, but there are so many random tiles added, and to go back and practice is more difficult. I found going and practicing my old daily lessons was motivating because I was able to earn at least 20xp and get a refresher in on each lesson. Now, the lessons are just as long, I’m only getting 5xp, and if you want to complete the random task on the side (which I have no idea what the purpose of them are) you have to spend a TON of gems. I just don’t feel motivated to go back and practice, and the lessons have changed in a way that has caused me to run out of hearts every day since the update— I’m usually on top of not doing that! I just really miss the old version because I was telling EVERYONE to join and now I’m just a little frustrated :( it would be a 10/10 otherwise. Great app to learn languages from home, but the update seems less user friendly. If anything, I feel like they should’ve had a tutorial for all of the major changes. :( i agree with other reviews— the option between the pathway vs old screen would be nice. In all honesty— the old screen was super easy to follow!
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8 months ago, Bautistalovescookies
Good but could be better
I just started learning Korean a few weeks ago and I really like the layout of the app. It’s very user friendly and fun to use and learn from. However, a lot of the basic words and phrases are not really relevant to me. I’m not sure if my opinion really matters but I my suggestion would be to have a questionnaire about the learner to gage who they are, their life, and then use that info to tailor their learning experience to words and phrases that are relevant to their life. For example, asking age range, occupation, if they go to school, why they want to learn the language, etc. I’m still in the beginning levels of my learning but it’s very repetitive for words I don’t necessarily need to know and they have been loan words at that. Such as: Philadelphia, Boston, Paris, Crow, Fox. I understand that the repetition of the words helps with practice in reading of the Korean consonants and vowels, but still. I feel like it would be more beneficial to repeat words and phrases that will be useful. Never ever will I use the phrase “I like bad boys” or “the fox’s milk”. Overall, I like the app, but tailoring the curriculum to each learner could take the app to another level. Also, I understand there are free and premium versions of the app, so maybe have the free version stay how it currently is and have the premium version tailor the learning? Just my thoughts, not sure if these reviews are looked at or not, but thanks for whoever reads.
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