These Duolingo tips will help you stay motivated and use Duolingo more than ever!
After becoming seriously obsessed with Duolingo in 2018, I learned a lot of things about the app that I think most users aren’t even aware of.
I have 3 Golden Owls, over 60,000 XP, and am a level 18 in Italian! If you did not understand that last sentence, then this blog post is definitely for you!
I seriously would not be able to learn languages without italki (I’m taking 3 classes per week right now) try out a class and you’ll thank me later. They’re usually $9 or less!
1. Change Your Daily Goal
The first thing you should do if you want to use Duolingo more seriously to learn a language is to edit your daily goal. In order to change your daily goal on the mobile app, click on your profile tab at the bottom of the app which is the tab with a face on it.
From there, click on the settings icon on the top right and scroll down until you see the “Edit Daily Goal Option.”
From there you should change it to the highest XP possible. This should push you to use Duolingo more often!
For a more in-depth guide on how to change your daily goal, check out this post.
2. Earn Your Duolingo Golden Owl
UPDATE: Duolingo no longer uses crowns or Duolingo trees (unfortunately, and I’m super sad about this update!) You can still earn your Duolingo owl by completing the entire course, which is now called “The Duolingo Path.”
When you choose a course on Duolingo, your goal is to complete the “tree” which is now known as the path. This is basically all of the lessons that are available for the language course that you chose.
Once you reach the very end of the path, you will earn a trophy known as the Duolingo Golden Owl.
This is the end goal of Duolingo (besides practicing your language) which most users have no idea about.
It pops up at the bottom of the tree (now path) as a reminder of all your hard work!
This is what the Golden Owl used to look like:
3. Leveling Up
Once you have gotten your “Golden Owl”, your work is not done yet! The ultimate goal for serious users on Duolingo is to hit level 25 in your language.
This is the highest level possible and takes a LOT of work to get there.
The level is determined by the amount of XP that you have in that language. Duolingo used to show your levels on your profile, but now only shows the amount of XP you have.
“Leveling Up” in Duolingo is a huge motivating factor for me (and many learners) so that is why the next section is one of my favorites!
Head to this post for a more in-depth look at levels and what you can use them for!
4. The Duome
I’m pretty sure I learned about the Duome from Duolingo forums (where people talk about their progress and ask questions etc.)
This website is SUPER cool and really helps if you are serious about using Duolingo to learn a language.
Basically, this website can see all of your progress on Duolingo, including your Golden Owls, how many XP you need to get to the next level, and how many words you’ve learned.
However, because this is an unofficial site, I’m not completely sure that everyone is on it.
I believe that you have to have completed a certain amount of XP to get onto this site, although since it’s not an official site it can be a little unclear what that number is.
The best way to know if you’re on it is to try!
All you need to do is type duome.eu/YOURUSERNAME and see what it says! This is what pops up when I do that:
When you scroll down, you can see all of the languages that you are currently learning, which level you are on, and how many XP you need to get to the next level. It also shows the Golden Owls that you have earned!
If you’re also learning languages FROM other languages besides your native language (we’ll talk more about that later), then all you need to do to check your progress there is to go into your Duolingo app and change your course.
For example, for the pictures above, I was using my native language, English, to learn French.
However, I have done quite a bit from Spanish as well, so in order to see my progress there, I just switch to any course from the Spanish language.
I switched to my Spanish to Italian course and then refreshed the Duome website and it changed to showing all the courses and progress I’ve made in courses from the Spanish language:
If you were able to find your profile on Duome, make sure to bookmark it so that you can check it regularly to motivate yourself to work harder!
To see more on Duome, you can type in duome.eu/YOURUSERNAME/progress as well to see specific progress in the language course that you are currently on.
5. Learn Languages FROM Other Languages
One of my favorite ways to use Duolingo is to do “reverse trees.” This means that instead of doing English to Spanish, you could do Spanish to English. Even better, once you know Spanish, then you can use Spanish to get to your next language!
To do that, just click on the flag that represents the course you are currently on and then scroll until you see the “Add Course” button.
After that, scroll down the “More” button to see courses that aren’t in your native language.
Then you can scroll through all of the courses that Duolingo has available. Not every language is available from every language, but this is a cool way to get even more practice in the language!
If you want to learn a language faster than ever, I also highly recommend reading Benny Lewis’s book on how to learn a language in JUST 3 months.
6. Don’t Buy Super Duolingo
Although Duolingo is currently trying to add more features that make Super Duolingo more enticing, I still don’t think it’s worth it for most users.
In the past, once you made 5 mistakes, you either had to watch an ad or practice to get your “health” back so that you could keep learning.
These days, most users no longer lose hearts or health while other users still have this feature. Although I haven’t bought Super Duolingo, I no longer lose hearts when I make mistakes.
If you still have this feature on your Duolingo app, one thing you could do to get around this is to buy “Super” which is about $7 per month and it allows you to do as many lessons as you want.
I don’t recommend upgrading (read more about why I don’t recommend upgrading to Plus here!) It’s so easy to use Duolingo for free that it’s never seemed worth it to me!
If you still lose hearts or health when making mistakes, here’s how to get around needing Super Duolingo:
- Every time there is an opportunity to watch an ad, do it
- When you run out of health, switch to an easier language to get your health back
- Only spend my gems on buying back health (not freezing your streak)
Most of that is straightforward, but I want to go over the second bullet point a bit more. So say for example that you are learning Spanish from English.
You’ve been working your way through the Duolingo path and the lessons are starting to get harder and harder and pretty soon you are losing health much faster than before.
Instead of giving up, switch courses to a different language for a few minutes! Not only does this help you get a bit of a break by doing something easier for a second, but it also reminds you of how much you have already learned!
If you are currently only learning one language, then just add your course but backward. So instead of Spanish from English, add the course of English from Spanish.
You’ll be back to doing some of the basic things that you learned at the beginning that should be easier for you, and you’ll be able to build back your health before heading back to your original course.
If you’re super into language learning, or maybe just want to get into it, you should definitely check out this book on Amazon about how to stay fluent in a language over time without losing fluency!
7. Using the Desktop Version of Duolingo
When I first started using Duolingo more seriously (in 2018 when I was learning Italian) I actually had no idea that Duolingo even had a website. But this has been such an awesome discovery since!
The two best things about the desktop website: you don’t lose health and you can type your answers!
This means that you are getting much more practice that is more challenging, and you can go faster since you don’t have to worry about making mistakes! When I’m studying during the day, I only use the desktop website.
When I’m watching TV or have already finished studying for the day and just want to spend more time on Duolingo, I will use the mobile app.
The rewards are also slightly different between the two, but the XP (points earned when completing a lesson) is the same so you aren’t losing anything by using the website.
8. Duolingo Podcasts
I have only listened to a few of these in French, but that’s because I’m not really a podcast person! Currently, Duolingo only has podcasts in Spanish and French which you can find on the Apple Podcast App for free!
9. Duolingo Stories
Some Duolingo courses (usually only the most popular ones) have an extra tab called “Duolingo Stories.” You earn XP by listening to a conversation and answering questions as it goes along.
UPDATE: Duolingo Stories no longer has its own tab, but the Stories are now dispersed throughout the Duolingo course itself.
10. Use Duolingo Offline, Even Without Super Duolingo
Before, you needed Super Duolingo or Duolingo Plus to use Duolingo offline, but now all users can do it for about an hour. here’s how.
In order for this to work, you need to have used Duolingo recently so that some lessons have had the chance to get downloaded to your device.
When you have wifi, make sure to open Duolingo even if you don’t plan on using it so that when you are offline you will have more lessons to choose from.
So, if you’re on a train with time to kill and no WiFi, you can use that precious empty time to brush up on your language learning – no matter where you are!
11. Duolingo Has Vocabulary Lists
Did you know that Duolingo keeps track of the words you’re learning and how well you know them? Most users have no idea since it’s not in the app.
Instead, you’ll have to head to the desktop version of Duolingo to take a look at how many words you’ve learned, the strength, and when you last practiced them.
Check out this post to find out exactly where to find the vocab lists!
12. Download Duolingo Vocabulary and Add Them to Flashcards
Now that you know Duolingo has vocab lists made for you, you can actually do something with them!
If you’re sick of always forgetting the same words over and over, did you know that you can grab all your Duolingo Vocabulary and create flashcards?
I’m not talking about writing out each word by hand on a blank flashcard, but a streamlined way to get your Duolingo words onto digital smart flashcards that show you the word right before you’re about to forget it!
If you’ve never heard of Anki, this might change your world! Check out this post for the exact steps to follow to create the cards for FREE.
I hope this list helped you know more about Duolingo than you probably ever wanted to know! lol Let me know if there is something you’ve learned about Duolingo that I haven’t mentioned! (:
Now you can head to this post to learn the best way to use Duolingo and how I used it to learn Italian & French!
Language Learning Must-Haves
- iTalki Language Classes: The #1 reason why I’ve been able to learn languages from home. Take conversation classes from a native speaker for only $5-$10 an hour.
- How to Be Fluent Books: Two of my favorite books about language learning have definitely got me super excited about learning a language and I highly recommend reading both!
- Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It
- Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World
- A Language Planner: Keep track of your scheduled language classes, set language goals, and organize your study schedule with my favorite planner ever.
- Harry Potter in Your Target Language: Reading a beginner book that you’re familiar with is an incredible way to learn vocabulary quickly!
- The Perfect Language Notebook
More About Language Learning:
- How to Earn XP FASTER Than Ever
- The Perfect Study Plan for Duolingo
- How to Use Italki to Learn for Free
- Why You Should Be Using iTalki
FAQs
What happens if you make too many mistakes in Duolingo? ›
Every day, you get five hearts on Duolingo. If you make a mistake and don't get a question right, you lose a heart. If you lose five hearts, it's game over. You have to wait before you can try again, and it usually takes a pretty long time.
What happens if you miss a day on Duolingo? ›Get a streak freeze to make sure you don't lose your streak when you forget to practice for a day. A streak freeze must be purchased in advance of a day of a missed lesson to protect the streak. You can equip up to 2 streak freezes at a time. You can purchase a streak freeze via the app and web shop.
What is the hardest language on Duolingo? ›Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn.
Does Duolingo ever get hard? ›Learning a language is hard, so it's important that we make our app fun and exciting to keep up momentum. At the same time, we think it's important for people to regularly challenge themselves with tougher lessons, even if it might be outside their comfort zone.
Do you learn swears on Duolingo? ›Duolingo / 2021. Learning a new language can be a dull process. And often you'll learn all kinds of swear words and slang first.
What happens if you finish Duolingo? ›Once you complete all the levels in a unit, you'll complete a challenge to earn your unit trophy. You'll also have the option to earn the Legendary trophy for each unit.
What happens when you reach 365 days on Duolingo? ›You get automatically inducted into the club once you get 365 days logged.
Who has the longest streak on Duolingo? ›Congrats to John Arnold, who has the highest-ever Duolingo streak of over 2000 days! He's a horse farmer and chemist.
What happens if Duolingo is too easy? ›If you have previous experience with a language and feel that lessons are too easy, you can scroll to the next locked unit and tap the circle that says “Jump here?”. If you pass the test, you'll unlock that unit! NOTE: This will complete all levels up to that point.
What is the 1 hardest language? ›Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
What is the 5 hardest language to learn? ›
- Mandarin.
- Japanese.
- Arabic.
- Xhosa.
- Russian.
When it comes to listening and reading, they found that 5 units of Duolingo is comparable to 4 university semesters. As for speaking, they found that at least 50% of learners that had completed 5 units of the French and Spanish courses reached at least an A2 level of speaking.
Will I be fluent after Duolingo? ›We see this question a lot and the answer is: yes. Duolingo is a free language-learning platform, and every language and lesson is totally free!
Is Duolingo strict? ›Duolingo has strict testing rules for all test-takers to follow. These rules include the following: Keep ears and face uncovered and visible to the proctor at all times. Keep mobile devices, notes, and textbooks away from the testing area.
What fake languages are on Duolingo? ›Duolingo fictional languages
These are High Valyrian and Klingon, taken from Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon and Star Trek respectively. As you might expect, these aren't as in-depth as some of the other courses and aren't as well-supported.
Teacher dashboards on Duolingo for Schools highlight XP earned, time spent learning, and a student's most recent assignment. By knowing exactly what students are working on, teachers can monitor whether or not their students have been able to access the platform and adjust accordingly.
How do you get flirting on Duolingo? ›Flirting is a bonus skill that can be bought in the Lingot store for 30 lingots.
Can you leave a Duolingo class? ›Tap Settings (gear icon) Scroll and tap "Manage Courses" Carefully select the course you'd like to remove and then tap 'Delete course' to confirm. If you change your mind, tap 'Cancel'.
How long does it take to become fluent on Duolingo? ›A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the "Fluent in 3 Months" method. All it takes is 90 days.
Can you learn 2 languages at once? ›Answer: Thankfully, your brain can definitely handle learning two (or more!) languages at once! (Two down, 6,998 to go.) But there are also some ways you can make this linguistic task easier on yourself.
What is the longest Duolingo course? ›
As of February 3rd 2023, the longest Duolingo streak is 3676 days, held by user christi3. This means that the longest Duolingo streak is over 10 years old!
How long should you practice Duolingo a day? ›You don't need to spend hours on Duolingo each day. However, you must put a reasonable amount of time into learning. If you log in to complete one lesson and sign out as soon as you've reached 10XP, you won't get very far. To optimize your learning, aim to spend between 15 and 30 minutes on the app each day.
What happens if you get top 3 in Duolingo? ›What happens to the top 3? Congrats! You are promoted to the next league. There is no league higher than Diamond.
How long is a good Duolingo streak? ›The streak is a fun and simple feature, but committing yourself to keeping one is also one of the best ways to stay on track of your learning goals. It's no wonder that Duolingo learners who reach a streak of just 7 days are 3.6 times more likely to complete their course.
Who is the person with the highest XP on Duolingo? ›The user with the most XP on Duolingo is Pat159978 with 7,918,158 XP and the user with the second most XP on Duolingo is Faeryeye with 6,877,711 XP.
How old is Duolingo? ›So in 2011, Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker founded Duolingo: the free way to learn 30+ languages like Spanish, Chinese, and English. Now, Duolingo is the world's #1 way to learn a language, with more than 500 million learners worldwide.
What is the least score in Duolingo? ›The minimum score is 10 and the others are 15, 20-25, 30-40, 40-50, 55-60, 65-70, 75-80, 85-90, 95-100, 105-110 and 115-120. The highest band corresponds to IELTS 7.0. The highest possible scores in Duolingo are also 125-130, 135-140, 145-150 and 155-160.
Can you finish Duolingo without paying? ›You can learn languages on Duolingo completely free. You can use it on your computer and sync it with our free apps for your mobile device. You can even use Duolingo for Schools if you have students to track—with the same account. Also at no cost.
Is finishing Duolingo worth it? ›Finishing a Duolingo course might teach you how to process the written language on some basic level, but going through thousands of short and unrelated sentences doesn't really have much in common with actual reading. This is why you should develop your own reading practice.
What is the world's easiest language? ›- Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. ...
- Swedish. ...
- Spanish. ...
- Dutch. ...
- Portuguese. ...
- Indonesian. ...
- Italian. ...
- French.
What is sweetest language in the world? ›
According to a UNESCO survey, Bengali has been classified as the sweetest language in the world. As a language, Bengali is widely spoken all over India, including Assam and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The sweetest language in the world is also recognized in the Constitution of India.
Can you learn a language while sleeping? ›Not a lot, unfortunately. As Jennifer Ackerman notes in her splendid 2007 book Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, learning a language while sleeping “is probably impossible, [and] attempts to teach slumbering adult subjects vocabulary of foreign languages or lists of items have failed miserably.”
What language is the hardest to write? ›Chinese. It's no secret that Chinese has one of the most complicated writing systems out there. The seemingly nonsensical characters can be a bit much even for Chinese toddlers learning to write. This means reading can be a real struggle until you have memorized a certain amount of characters.
Is Mandarin or Japanese harder? ›Japanese is slightly easier to learn. But, Chinese is much more widely spoken. Both languages have their pros and cons.
What is the 7 hardest language to learn? ›- 1 – Chinese (Mandarin)
- 2 – Arabic.
- 3 – Japanese.
- 4 – Korean.
- 5 – Hungarian.
- 6 – Finnish.
- 7 – Xhosa.
Yes, it is possible to learn many languages at once!
There are many methods you can use to learn more than one language at once. Here are some of my best recommendations. As for the these tips, you can try some or all – ultimately it's about finding the technique that works for you!
It does not matter how old you are, it is never too late to start learning a foreign language. Many language learners are put off by their advancing years; they believe age is a barrier to learning an entirely new language. However, this is not the case.
Which is the hardest alphabet to learn? ›First off, the script used to write Hindi, Devanagari, is considered particularly hard to get a hang of. The script is also what's called an abugida, meaning that the individual characters represent a consonant and vowel combination, rather than a single vowel or consonant.
How many mistakes are allowed on Duolingo? ›You can make as many mistakes as you want without the fear of losing your ability to work on your target language. Better still, at the end of your practice session, you'll unlock a heart, allowing you to hop back into the main tree and pick up where you left off.
Is it OK to make mistakes in Duolingo? ›making mistakes is a natural part of learning and should not take away from the process of doing a lesson. I understand what Duolingo is trying to do, but it's really counterintuitive.
How many times can I retake duolingo test if it is not certified? ›
You have three attempts to use the credit to complete and upload the test.
How many times can I retake duolingo test for free? ›A. There is no limit to take the Duolingo exam, however, one cannot take it more than twice in a period of 30 days.
Can you get fluent off Duolingo? ›We see this question a lot and the answer is: yes. Duolingo is a free language-learning platform, and every language and lesson is totally free!
What is the blue broken heart in Duolingo? ›Ultimately, we chose the icon of a broken heart. Learners in Duolingo lose a heart when they make a mistake, so using a broken heart as the symbol for past mistakes resonated well with our learners. In the final feature, learners are able to correct all their mistakes and “mend” their broken heart into a gold heart!
What level does Duolingo get you to? ›At Duolingo, we're developing our courses to get you to a level called B2, at which you can get a job in the language you're studying. Reaching that kind of proficiency requires dedication, varied practice opportunities, and a lot of time.
Is Duolingo valid for 2 years? ›Results for the Duolingo English Test are valid for two years.
Does Duolingo take more than 48 hours? ›Use the Duolingo English Test as an alternative to other standardized proficiency tests. The scores are highly correlated to those of the TOEFL and IELTS, and results are available within 48 hours.
Can you do two courses at the same time on Duolingo? ›At Duolingo, you can learn as many languages as you want! We encourage you to select a new language to tackle once you've completed a course. A language expert? Take as many courses as you would like at the same time.
Which countries accept Duolingo 2023? ›Duolingo is accepted by over ten countries, including the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, China, Qatar, Japan, Thailand, Ireland, and the European countries (Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Italy).
How many Duolingo tests can I take in a month? ›Tests must be completed within 21 days of purchase. No more than 3 tests may be purchased or redeemed via coupon by a single user in any 30 day period. Any appeal of invalid test results must be filed within 72 hours of receipt of invalid test results.