Duolingo Spanish Review

Duolingo is constantly overhauling how their app works. I’ve used Duolingo previously, but after hearing that the latest version works pretty differently, I knew I had to retry it. I signed back up for Duolingo and used it for six months. Here’s what I found, and what I now think about this Spanish language learning app.

Video Review: Duolingo Spanish

In the video above, Bianca from the Guide2Fluency team gives a full review of Duolingo Spanish. She covers their approach to teaching Spanish, key features, pros and cons, pricing, and whether it’s worth it compared to other Spanish learning apps. For more detail, be sure to continue reading our full written review below.

Duolingo

• Free Version
• Mobile App or Desktop

Our Score

3.7

See our testing process

Pros

• Lessons take just 5 minutes
• The activities are legitimately fun (and somewhat addicting)
• The vocab repetition is great for burning new words into your brain

Cons

• There is very little conversational practice
• Not much emphasis on grammar
• Lessons feel overly shallow and simplistic

Free Version

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Duolingo Spanish Updates: How It Now Works

The biggest change with Duolingo has been the switch from the tree format to the path. In short, Duolingo used to have a pretty flexible learning format where you could pick and choose what you wanted to learn.

You could do basic exercises like matching vocab words, listen to short stories, learn how to order food, or talk about sports. For even more variety, you could jump to old lessons to review or even work on legendary status. In other words, you were always in the driver’s seat.

Now, however, they’ve turned the tree into a linear path. Rather than having flexibility, you work straight through sequential lessons. The lessons are organized into units, and there are hundreds of units to complete to finish the entire language course.

Under the old version, the units functioned like checkpoints. The crown system has been replaced by the path as well.

So rather than earning different crown levels within a particular skill on the tree, they’ve taken the same lessons and spread them out across the path.

They’ve added even more exercises built into their audio Stories, which are integrated directly into the learning path. It’s a nice feature, but you can’t just jump into a new story anytime you want. You’re stuck simply following the schedule.

Also, the “tips” have been replaced by a grammar guidebook at the start of each unit. That’s a good opportunity to explain how Duolingo does grammar instruction.

Rather than build grammar directly into their lesson work (like how Babbel Spanish and Pimsleur Spanish do it), Duolingo Spanish used to provide grammar “tips” for each skill on the tree. Now, they’ve dialed the grammar back and put it into the form of a “guidebook” at the start of each unit.

Finally, Duolingo has layered their practice work into the path as well, based on a spaced repetition model. You’re told exactly what and when to review. Even if you feel like you’ve already mastered a certain skill or vocab set, you can’t skip forward to the next lesson until you’ve finished all of your assigned review work.

Otherwise, the content of each lesson remains the same. The exercises and drills that make up the heart of Duolingo remain relatively unchanged. You still spend lots of your time on basic matching pairs, translation exercises, speaking drills, and writing exercises.

It’s the same core exercises each day, with the same funny little characters and motion graphics.

So here’s the core question: is Duolingo good for learning Spanish? Duolingo works well for building Spanish vocabulary and basic sentence structure, especially for beginners, but it has clear limits when it comes to speaking fluently or understanding real-world Spanish. As a result, Duolingo is best used as a starting point or daily practice tool, rather than a complete Spanish course.

Duolingo Spanish Negatives (What I Don’t Like)

Now that I’ve broken down the new format of Duolingo Spanish, let’s get into what I like and don’t like about the changes, starting with the negatives.

Lesson Navigation Is Now Harder

The biggest downfall in my eyes is how difficult it has become to navigate the course. If you want to go forward or backward, you have to scroll for an eternity. It’s harder to jump around now. The old user interface had easy-to-read lesson names and icons, so you could tell exactly what each skill or level was about.

My issue is that this makes it harder to go back for extra review. Let’s say you’re confused about a certain topic, or you’re trying to earn legendary status. You have to scroll a long way to find the lesson you need to brush up on, and you’re just guessing at what each step covers, since they are not individually labeled.

For example, say you’re at unit 60; however, your legendary status only goes to unit 30. This means you would need to scroll 30 units up to find your legendary progress. Even then, you won’t have a great idea of what you’re reviewing, because the steps aren’t labeled. This can be a big deal.

Let me explain further. Let’s say you’re getting ready for a trip to Mexico City, and you want to review the lessons on ordering in a restaurant and asking for directions. These particular lessons are now much harder to find.

Frankly, I feel like an easy fix would be to collapse the path view for all but the current unit. Just allow users to scroll through unit headers with clear content labels to find what you’re looking for. That would be nice improvement.

Light on Grammar

My second complaint has to do with grammar. Duolingo has seriously scaled back their grammar instruction by doing away with “tips.”

The new grammar guidebooks at the beginning of each section contain some of the same material from the old “tips” sections, but they feel somewhat watered down.

All you get is a few example phrases and teaching points. It’s not a great way of managing grammar instruction in my opinion.

Too Easy

Something else I have noticed in using Duolingo Spanish for a second time is that the work all feels a bit easier.

Now, it could just be me, but it feels like post-update, the program is much heavier on repetition. Every stepping stone hammers the same phrases and concepts, over and over. I’m not talking about genuinely helpful review. My actual experience felt more like redoing work I’d already mastered to the point of boredom.

I’ve seen other Duolingo users say this as well. The program overall just feels a little bit more repetitive and easier.

Too Many Ads In The Free Version

Full disclosure, my fourth negative is something I haven’t experienced myself, since I pay for Super Duolingo, their ad-free premium version. However, I’ve heard from a lot of people on the free plan that the ads are much heavier and more frequent lately.

This doesn’t shock me. If we peel back the layers, one of the biggest points of the update was to get more people to upgrade to the paid Super Duolingo.

They say this major change was for improved learning science and user experience, but just being honest, part of it was driven by the desire to get more people to upgrade from free to paid.

The free version is a lot harder to navigate than the paid version. With the heavier ad impressions, I think they’re trying to get people to pay up for the Super version.

Duolingo Spanish Positives (What I Like)

Now let’s switch gears and discuss what I actually like about Duolingo Spanish.

Path Offers Learning Structure

Even though everyone loved the old tree and skills framework, the reality is that it wasn’t perfect. You could jump around to learn whatever you want, which gave the program a very unorganized feel.

That’s why Duolingo had suggested several new approaches, such as the waterfall method (which not very many people used). The reality is that there are a lot of people with 1,000-day streaks who still have low confidence in their ability to speak Spanish.

They just don’t feel comfortable jumping in and holding conversations. And the reason for this, at least in part, was the lack of structure. People used the learning modules here and there, as there’s no clear flow to the program.

If you do want a little more practice with speaking and listening, Duolingo’s AI tutor, Lily, provides a little opportunity for conversations. But it’s a fairly limited tool, and you have to be on the highest tier, Duolingo Max, to access it. Another option is to listen to DuoRadio in Spanish. It helps, but it isn’t going to totally fill that gap.

That is why they now placed a big focus on progressive building. The lessons all build on one another, and even the Stories use consistent characters who grow and change along the way.

This update brings the Duolingo courses in line with more structured Spanish language learning apps that help people to work through lessons in an orderly fashion.

Spaced Practice & Review

While Duolingo does lean a little too heavily into repeat work, I still appreciate how they’ve built practice sessions right into the path. Every few stepping stones, you’ll do a review session practicing what you’ve already learned.

In the past, it was on you to manage your own reviews and practice work. So it’s nice to have some built-in practice work to ensure you’re regularly revisiting material, which is crucial for learning Spanish.

Now, here’s my hesitation. While spaced repetition is a huge factor in internalizing a new language, Duolingo isn’t quite as strategic in how they implement review as some other programs out there. I personally prefer apps that just weave it in sporadically so review doesn’t take as much time.

Shockingly Fun

My final positive is that the app is still enjoyable. Yes, it’s more rigid, and there are definitely some negatives with the changes they’ve made, but the content is still the same.

The lessons only take 5 minutes. You still get to compete against other users in leagues and do friend quests. You can earn gems, lingots and XP points, depending on your mobile device, with all the same cute characters and motion graphics to keep things interesting.

In other words, the gamification aspect of language learning with Duolingo that everyone loves is still there front and center, and I like that.

Final Verdict: Is Duolingo Good For Learning Spanish?

So, is Duolingo worth it? Honestly, my thoughts on Duolingo haven’t changed that much. Even before the major changes, I thought Duolingo was best used as a supplemental tool, and not a standalone Spanish course.

There is a reason why people with incredible streaks still complain about not feeling comfortable and confident in their conversational abilities. It’s because Duolingo is a brain game, not a full-blown Spanish course. If you’re just looking to learn some basic phrases before a trip, then Duolingo is great for that. Go for it.

However, if you’re serious about becoming fluent in Spanish at an intermediate to advanced level, you have to use a more robust Spanish app. Babbel sticks with 15-minute lessons that work in a lot more grammar, Pimsleur lets you learn on the go with their driving mode, and Rocket Spanish is fantastic for advanced speaking and listening skills. Duolingo isn’t a serious Spanish program; it’s just a complementary tool to a more comprehensive language course.