Is Duolingo enough to learn a language?
Duolingo can take a beginner through the basics, especially in reading and listening, but on its own it is unlikely to be enough if your goal is to hold real conversations. The main published study of its outcomes measured only reading and listening, so there is little evidence about speaking and writing from the app alone.
The honest answer depends on what "enough" means to you. For a travel phrase base or a daily habit, it can be a solid core. For conversation, you will need to add speaking practice and real listening.
What the research on Duolingo found
The largest outcome study, by Jiang and colleagues (2021), tested 225 adults in the US who had finished Duolingo's beginning-level Spanish or French course, had little prior knowledge of the language, and used Duolingo as their only learning tool. On standard ACTFL proficiency tests they reached Intermediate Low in reading and Novice High in listening, which the authors report as comparable to university students at the end of their fourth semester. Speaking and writing were not assessed.
Keep two limits in mind. Most of the authors worked at Duolingo, and the study measured people who completed the course, not everyone who started it.
A smaller independent study followed nine university students learning Turkish on Duolingo for a semester (Loewen et al., 2019). They improved on language measures, and more time on the app went with larger gains. Participants liked the flexibility and game features, but some reported swings in motivation and frustration with the materials.
What a single app tends to leave out
This is not about Duolingo specifically. Any one course app gives you a fixed set of sentences and exercise types. What is usually thin:
- Speaking at length. Saying full sentences about your own life, not just repeating given ones.
- Unscripted listening. Real speech at natural speed, with accents and filler words.
- Conversation. Understanding someone who does not wait for you, and making yourself understood.
- Reading longer texts. Following a page or a story rather than single sentences.
A decision table: what to add, and when
Use this to decide whether to keep an app as your main tool and what to layer on top.
| Your goal |
App on its own? |
Add this |
| Build a daily habit and learn basics |
A reasonable start |
One sentence spoken aloud daily |
| Travel in a few months |
Partly |
Survival phrases drilled aloud, short listening clips |
| Hold everyday conversations |
Not enough |
Weekly conversation with a tutor or exchange partner |
| Understand shows or podcasts |
Not enough |
Daily listening to real audio at your level |
| Read books or news |
Not enough |
Graded readers, then real articles |
| Pass a school or work exam |
Not enough |
Materials built for that exam |
Worked example: a 20-minute day built around an app
Here is how a learner keeping an app as the core might structure one session:
- 3 minutes: recall. Cover the answers on yesterday's new words and say them from memory before the app shows them.
- 8 minutes: app lesson. Complete one lesson as usual.
- 5 minutes: listening. Play one short clip of real audio twice and write one sentence you heard.
- 2 minutes: speaking. Say three sentences about your day out loud and record them.
- 2 minutes: review. Add any word you wanted but did not know to a flashcard deck.
Recalling before you check matters. In a study of university students learning foreign-language vocabulary, repeated recall produced a large benefit on a delayed test, while repeated studying did not (Karpicke and Roediger, 2008).
The 30-day language learning plan works the same way with any app or course: recall, listening, one spoken sentence and spaced review. It also starts with one resource on day one, so you do not have to switch tools to follow it.
How to tell whether your app practice is working
App progress bars measure lessons completed, not what you can do. Once a month, run a quick check with real tasks. It takes about ten minutes.
- Listening. Play a one-minute clip of real speech at your level. Write down the main idea in English.
- Speaking. Record yourself talking for 30 seconds about your week. Count the words you wanted but did not know.
- Reading. Read one short paragraph from a graded reader or a simple news site. Mark every word you had to look up.
- Recall. Cover the target side of 20 words from last month and say them from memory.
Save the results in a notebook and compare them next month. If the listening and speaking checks are not improving while app lessons pile up, shift some app time to those skills. That is a sign of what your practice is missing, not a sign you are bad at languages.
When the answer changes
You only have five minutes a day
Keep the app streak going, and say one sentence aloud before closing it. See how to plan 15 minutes of language study when you have a little more time.
You are learning a language with a new writing system
An app is a convenient way to drill a new script. Add handwriting practice or a separate script course if you want to read and write it by hand.
You have been on an app for months and feel stuck
That is common once the easy wins are behind you. Keep the app for review, and move most of your time to listening, reading and speaking at your level. The guide on how to learn a language daily covers building that wider routine.
You want a plan that fits your schedule
Build a personal language plan, check how realistic your timeline is with how long it takes to learn a language, or browse the language learning hub.
