Duolingo - A great free tool for improving your French

Whether your French is basic or advanced, then the free language-learning site Duolingo is well worth a visit. According to Duolingo itself, the site has more than 38 million users and was selected by Apple as iPhone App of the Year 2013.

Available as a website and an application, the tool has two main parts. The first is a series of interactive modules that cover introductory French grammar, while the second involves the translation of texts from French into English*.

Each module includes exercises for writing, comprehension (written and oral), and speaking. The speaking option appears to be more about encouraging you to have a go at saying something in French rather than involving speech recognition software.

The earliest module, “Basics 1”, starts off displaying four images with matching text “l’homme”, “le chat”, “la pomme”, and “le garçon”. The user is asked to select the image and text for “the boy”. You will get instant feedback on your response.

Another page gives the text “La femme” accompanied by audio of the text. The user needs to translate the sentence into English.    

Other early modules cover topics such as food, animals, adjectives, possession, plurals, être/avoir, clothing, colours, present, questions, conjunctions, prepositions, and pronouns. There are more than 65 modules in all and they usually come with written ‘tips and notes’ on particular grammar points.

If you make four mistakes in a module, then you will need to start again in order to complete it. You can repeat modules as often as you like. The programme keeps a record of modules you have done and after some time has passed, users are encouraged to revisit modules to strengthen their understanding. The repetitive nature of the grammar section is a very positive part of Duolingo. Having struggled with plurals myself, I found that doing this particular module a number of times really helped me to understand the concept of French plurals in practice.

The grammar modules can be done on the Duolingo website or via application on a smartphone or tablet. The application option is particularly convenient and means that you get in some French grammar practice in your spare moments when you are on a bus or train, for example, so long as you have internet access.

Sometimes the Duolingo answer may leave you wondering why your response was wrong. If you are doing the grammar modules on the website, there is an option to read comments from other users about troublesome questions and answers.

For more advanced learners, the second part of Duolingo – the interactive translation of written texts – is a great option for practicing reading and writing French. This can only be done on the website. [Please see below the May 2017 update on the translation feature.]

Texts can be chosen by subject area and difficulty. Translation is done in small chunks, such as a word, group of words, or a complete sentence. If you are in doubt about how to translate a word or words, hover the mouse over the text to get an automated translation.

A number of people will be involved with the translation of popular texts. If you disagree with someone else’s translation then you can change it, but do give a reason if it is more than a very minor revision, so as to inform other users. The translation activity is very interactive and it’s possible that one or more other people may be translating a document in real time.

You can also upload your own texts for free, so long as they are in the public domain. Commercial users upload documents for a fee, which users translate. Presumably this is part of how the site is able to fund itself.

 Although Duolingo is free for language learners, it is necessary to register with your email. You can select your own anonymous username. Users will get regular emails reminding them to practice (this feature can be turned off) and, if you have translated some text, emails letting you know that another user has revised your work. Disagreements about translations can be a source of tension, so best to remain calm, cool and polite at all times.

Users earn points for completing grammar modules and translating texts. It’s possible to follow other users and discuss language issues with them in the public space.

I highly recommend Duolingo as a useful tool for improving your French. It’s something you can dip into as much as you like and is very interactive. Beware: translating French can be strangely addictive!

*This blog focuses on the French part of Duolingo. It should be noted that other languages, including German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Irish, can all be learned on the site.

Update May 2017: 
Earlier this year, Duolingo unfortunately decided to retire the translation part of its website, which it calls its "Immersion tool". Read the Duolingo statement about the decision and the response from some users.