At Duolingo, we believe that learning a language should be fun—after all, we use language in everything from memes and group texts to music and movies. That's why we combine gamification with learning science to keep you motivated while studying a new language. We offer courses in 45 different languages, and each one brings you a new way to connect with the people and cultures you care about.
Your brain is made for learning languages, and Duolingo is made for getting you the best language education possible, all for free.
In this post, we'll show you how to start learning a language on Duolingo and give you a tour of all the learning and gamification features that help you reach your language goals.
Note: If the screens below look a little different from what you see on your phone, that’s OK! We’re continually testing changes and adding features.
Getting started on Duolingo
Lessons and learning features
Gamification for motivation
Duolingo Plus: Unlocking even more
Tips for making the most of your learning
Settings and personalization
Getting started on Duolingo
First: Download the Duolingo app on your smartphone from the App Store or Google Play Store, or head to duolingo.com and pick a language to start your learning journey. Scroll to the very bottom and select "More" to see courses for speakers of other languages—for example, we have courses in Catalan and Guarani for Spanish speakers!
You'll be asked some questions about your motivations and goals. You can always adjust your goal later, so Regular might be a good place to start!
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Next you'll be asked whether you want to start from the very beginning of the course or if you already know some of the language.
| If you want to learn from scratch, the first option will get you started on your very first lesson. | 
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| And if you've already studied some of the language (even if it was long ago!), you can check your level and maybe unlock some of the course! | 
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Lessons and learning features
Our courses effectively and efficiently teach reading, listening, and speaking skills. Check out our latest research!
Our expertly-designed courses might make it feel like a game, but there is real learning science happening behind the scenes! Our learning and teaching experts use international language proficiency standards, the CEFR, to guide course creation, and we also use AI to adapt the difficulty level of your lessons based on your progress, so that you're seeing exercises at the right level for you.
| The home screen is designed as a path that you’ll follow step by step. The path is organized into *units,* which cover specific learning objectives. Units are made up of *levels,* which look like stepping stones on your path! Levels include several *lessons.* |
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Our lessons use interactive exercises to get you speaking, reading, writing, and listening right from the start. As you progress along the path, you'll work through more challenging exercises and will do even more speaking and writing in the language.
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We're always developing new features and methods based on learning science research in order to get you learning and using your new language. Incorporating all these tools into your daily study routine isn't just good for learning--it also makes learning fun, so you want to stick with it! Here are some of the features you might see, and if they aren't in your course just yet, we're working hard on getting them there soon!
| Guidebook. Each unit guidebook offers tips about vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, as well as a roundup of key phrases! These short explanations help you focus your attention on the most important parts of your lessons. Find them by tapping on the notebook icon at the top of each Unit. | 
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| Stories. These short, fun dialogues get you reading and listening to conversational language. You'll be picking up words and phrases without even feeling like you're studying! If you see levels with the book icon in your path, that means your course has Stories!. | 
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| Alphabet or character lessons. For certain languages that use non-Roman scripts, we provide lessons focused on the letters or characters and their sounds and meaning. | 
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| Practice. Practice is built into your path to ensure you’re regularly revisiting material and maintaining a strong foundation as you move forward on your learning journey. For additional practice, if you’re not a Super Duolingo subscriber, you can tap a gilded node along the path to review that lesson anytime. For Super subscribers, you can visit the Practice Hub tab to choose from several sets of practice sessions. | 
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| Podcast. Our award-winning Duolingo Podcast leads learners through fascinating stories from around the world, in the language they're studying! The episodes help you understand the language with brief explanations from the narrator, and you can read along with the transcripts online. | 
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Gamification for motivation
At Duolingo, we believe that staying motivated is one of the biggest challenges for learning a new language. In addition to creating world-class language courses to deliver great teaching, we also use gamification to help you enjoy coming back to your lessons.
Here is some of the other gamification that we use to keep you motivated:
XP. These are "experience points" that you earn whenever you complete a new lesson, read a Story, or do some practice!
Leaderboards. You can use your total XP to compare your progress with friends' and to compete against learners worldwide in our weekly Leaderboards competitions. Each week, play against others in your league—the top XP earners advance to the next league! Look out for special opportunities to earn extra XP: You might be randomly offered a more challenging lesson, and you might see special timed challenges on your Leaderboard!
Streak. Your streak is the number of days in a row you've completed a lesson, and you can see it next to the flame at the top of your screen. Be sure to go to the Shop and buy a streak freeze with your gems — that will protect your streak in case you miss a day!
Hearts. Hearts are like “lives” in video games. You need hearts to finish a lesson. Each mistake costs 1 heart, and 1 heart is restored every 5 hours. You can refill hearts with gems or with practice sessions, or if you’re a Super subscriber you can learn with Unlimited Hearts.
Gems. As you complete lessons you’ll earn gems (or Lingots if you’re viewing Duolingo in a web browser). This currency allows you to buy items from our Shop, such as a Streak Freeze, a Timer Boost, or more Hearts!
Super Duolingo: Unlock even more
One of the ways we keep Duolingo free for everyone is by offering Super Duolingo, a paid subscription that gets learners extra perks while supporting our mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. Besides helping deliver excellent language teaching to learners around the world, Super Duolingo subscribers also get:
- No ads. Skip the ads the free learners see at the end of their lessons.
- Unlimited hearts. Turn on unlimited hearts, so they never run out!
- Personalized practice. Sharpen your language skills with special practice lessons featuring your recent mistakes, and other personalized practice sessions in the Practice Hub.
- Monthly streak repair. Keep your streak intact, even if you forget to do your daily lesson.
Tips for making the most of your learning
On your mark, get set, LEARN! Once you've selected a language course, the real fun begins. Here are our top tips for learning on Duolingo:
- Study a little bit each day. This makes learning more manageable, it's easier to fit studying into your schedule, and it leads to more effective learning.
- Set meaningful, short-term goals. Think of personal milestones to help motivate you and allow you to measure your progress. You might want to understand most of a Mexican recipe for escabeche by the end of next month, or maybe your goal is to sing along to at least one BTS song before your birthday.
- Use your lessons as a starting point. Duolingo is a great fit for all kinds of learners with all kinds of needs, so find ways to make the course work for you! Repeat sentences out loud for extra speaking practice, even the writing exercises. Keep a list or take screenshots of your favorite sentences.
Settings and personalization
Head to your profile (the person icon) and then the settings page to get the learning experience that's right for you: turn on reminders to help make studying a habit, and include speaking and listening practice in your lessons!
| Profile page with Settings | Speaking & listening exercises | Practice reminders |
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Free, fun, and effective language learning!
At Duolingo, we believe that the best language learning happens when you are enjoying the learning process, so we use learning science, gamification, and AI all together to build learning experiences that you want to keep coming back to!
You can start learning a new language today by downloading Duolingo!