How to Use Duolingo for Fun and Effective Language Learning (2024)

It is always challenging to learn a new language. You must hire a language expert as a tutor or take online classes to get hold of the language, which can cost you more. However, there are many language learning apps available nowadays. One such app that has become famous and is helping people to improve their fluency in different languages is Duolingo. In this article, we will discuss the top ways you can learn the language in a fun and effective way.

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo app is a popular language-learning app that lets you learn any foreign language you want right from the comfort of your place. You can download this app for free to access the basic features. However, you must pay the premium to access the premium features and learn the language in-depth and at an advanced level. This app can improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Tips to Use Duolingo for Fun and Effective Language Learning

The following are the tips you need to follow to learn duolingo languages quickly.

1. Set the Goal or Streak

The Duolingo app has streaks that you have to set initially. The primary purpose of having the streak is to make you use the app repeatedly and complete the set goal. It acts as a great motivator to use the app every day. Sometimes, you will be swamped with a lot of work and need help to complete the streak.

However, streaks need to measure how much fluency you have gained in the language. It is a must for you to know that nothing can be attained without setting a goal. You must set a streak goal, spending 30 minutes of your time in a week. Whatever is feasible for you, it is good to open the app and finish the lessons.

2. Speak Every Phrase Loudly

The biggest mistake many make is learning the phrases in a new language but never attempting to speak them aloud to remember and learn their pronunciation. The Duolingo app is not responsible for making you talk.

You should find opportunities to practice speaking aloud or with humans who know the language you are learning. Duolingo allows you to repeat the same word that it says to make you pronounce it correctly. When the app says, you have to speak it loudly. This helps you to learn how to speak the language better.

When using this app in public, you can speak to yourself about the words you learned. By moving the mouth, your muscles get used to the language and pronunciation of words.

3. Make Use of Guidebooks

Every unit in the Duolingo app has a notepad icon with the unit name. It is known as the Unit guidebook. You can use this guidebook since it shares a lot of information about each unit in one place. Referring to this book gives you more context about the words and lets you remember them forever. You can note essential points from the guidebook or use these as speaking prompts.

4. Make a Note of Everything

How to use Duolingo for free? You can download this app. Along with speaking, you also should learn how to write. You can write the phrases shown on the app in a book to learn the alphabet.

You must keep a notebook for learning a new language aside to note all new words you are learning in the respective language; this way, you can improve your writing skills in this language, too.

You can also create a digital document to save the notes. You can also make a phrase with the letters you learned to post on Instagram to boast of your new language skills.

5. Make the Phrases Yourself

You can improve your language skills by making your own phrases. More than just learning the words suggested in the Duolingo app is required. When you phrase the sentences yourself in the new language, then it indicates that you are progressing. You can take a phrase from a lesson and think about what to change. For instance, say that I have a cat; as you know the other animal names, you can start making sentences such as Do you have a fish? I don’t have a cat, I do have a dog, I don’t have a fish, and so on.

6. Weave a Story

Duolingo app is for amateur and intermediate language learners. Once you get a grip on the language, try putting what you have learned in the lesson in a story form. Though you do not have to be a pro storyteller, you can use the words you have learned in the lesson to create a story creatively.

7. Challenge your Friend

Now that you know the language, why not challenge your friend who is good at the language you are trying to learn or otherwise with someone who is learning the same language as you? You both can challenge each other to see who scores the highest. You know more if you both try to complete the same new lessons with a competitive spirit.

8. Take Enough Time to Practice Speaking a New Language

A practice tab is available in this Duolingo app. You can take advantage of this when you want to progress to a new lesson once you are confident enough about the previous lessons you have gone through. You can also use the practice tab as a refresher to review what you have learned.

9. Listen to Duolingo Stories

The favorite feature that many love in the Duolingo application is the stories. When you listen to stories in a new language, you know how much you can understand, pick new words from them, and learn their meanings.

The short stories will also allow you to answer the questions and feel like you are getting somewhere in the language-learning process. You also have to repeat everything you hear in the story. This is how you can copy the accent and style of the native speaker and speak like a native one. Once you do this a couple of times, you can catch their rhythm while they narrate the story.

10. Type what you Hear

You can gain language proficiency when you type what you hear. It helps you learn the language quickly, practice grammar, and understand pronunciation.

11. Use the Hard Mode of the App

A hard mode option is available in the Duolingo app but not in the web version. If you want challenges, then you can use this mode. Hard mode will challenge you, encourage you to pay attention, and spend more time learning the language. Once you finish a lesson successfully in this mode, it is moved to legendary status.

12. Make Language Learning a Habit with Lessons, Levels, or Units

You can make language learning a habit by using the app to learn new lessons daily. You can set a goal to complete a lesson or a unit in a day and finish this. It is good that if you can fit one lesson in a day, it makes you feel like you are on track.

13. Use Leaderboards and Rewards

How to use Duolingo effectively? You can use leaderboards. It is a fun and effective way to learn language using Duolingo. The leaderboards are critical features of the app. The rewards you gain, the gems you collect after completing the lessons successfully, and the mental candy motivate you to learn more.

14. Test Your Language Skills with the Knowledge You Acquired

If you know the basics of the language and think that the Duolingo app won’t help you and that it is tedious to go through the same stuff again, then why not test your skills? Many people find new words in the language that they are strong with. You can click the checkpoint to open the lessons and topics to take tests.

15. Listen to Duolingo Podcasts

Once you gain confidence listening to short stories in a new language, you must listen to podcasts. The best thing about these podcasts in the Duolingo app is that the narrators in different languages will speak slowly so that you can keep up with their pace and understand every sentence in the language clearly. The producers have created the podcast so that you progress little by little in every podcast.

Link: https://www.duolingo.com/

Pricing:

• Free
• Super Duolingo: N/A

Conclusion

The effort is a must from your side to gain fluency in the language—the more effort, the quicker and more fruitful the result. Thanks to your efforts, Duolingo app will lend a helping hand in learning and progressing. It would help if you used this app to take lessons and get a feel for the language. If you can, this app is for you.

FAQs – Duolingo App

Is Duolingo an excellent app to use?

Yes, many reasons prove this tool is worth it. It makes all the languages you want to learn accessible. People who want to take language lessons can download this app and start learning.

Is Duolingo free?

Yes, there is a free version of the app available. However, if you want personalized practice, unlimited hearts, and unlimited legendary without ads, you can subscribe to Super Duolingo, which has premium features.

Will using the Duolingo app make me fluent in a language?

No, using this app alone does not make you fluent in the language. But you can use this app and other resources, activities, and tools to improve your fluency.

Does Duolingo work for beginners?

The app is best for beginners who want to learn words and phrases. You will initially learn about the language’s food, people, and verb words and slowly progress in building sentences, which is a natural way to understand language and improve vocabulary.

What other apps like Duolingo are available in the market?

There are apps similar to Duolingo, but the features offered by this app are the best. Some alternative apps to Duolingo include Memrise, Mondly, Busuu, and Babbel.