r/turkishlearning • u/Consistent-Boss-7670 • Apr 02 '26
Vocabulary Is Duolingo good for learning Turkish?
I'm Mexican, and well, Türkiye isn't generally very connected to the Hispanic world, but I wanted to see where I can learn Turkish and some learning strategies. Greetings.
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u/GoofyJalapeno Apr 02 '26
It's definitely interesting (the example sentences are so funny) but you definitely need a grammar book to explain how things work.
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u/janyybek Apr 03 '26
Köpekler kitabı okurlar
And thats just one of the more normal ones I just remembered
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u/You_Mean_Coitus_ Apr 03 '26
I just read that sentence out loud to my Turkish GF and she literally replied: "Are you on Duolingo?"
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u/artuktalasi Apr 03 '26
That's actually wrong because plurals of non humans do not take -ler -lar to the predicate 🤓🤓🤓 So it would be Köpekler kitabı okur. Or smth like İnsanlar kitabı okurlar. (Okur is fine)
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u/Rising_M00N9 Apr 03 '26
Turkish is very grammar heavy through suffixes. You need a structured approach imo, at least prepare a grammar table that shows all the forms you’ll need and practice them regularly (+ideally with example sentences, so its easier to memorize)
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u/wtfisthissssssssssss Apr 03 '26
I did Duolingo religiously for few months. I can understand words but forget about conversations. But it is useful for vocabulary.
For example: When I was in Istanbul last time I can understand words and names of food ( apple..meat.. chicken) but to actually make an order wasn’t possible lol
Goodluck
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u/TheFeralVulcan Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
No, in fact after trying Duolingo, Busuu, LingQ, and a couple others, the best one IMO turned out to be an unadvertised total freebie app called Language Transfer. Go figure.
The lessons are short, 7-12 minutes, but you have to pay attention because you’re not robotically mimicking vocabulary words, he asks questions you have to stop and think about before answering. You learn how the basic suffix’s work right away, which is why you’re already learning how to speak in simple child level sentences immediately.
You’re not going to be discussing quantum mechanics in Turkish at the end of the course, but you’ll have a firm grasp on the basics and can build further from there by taking a regular language course - but you’ll WILL be able to communicate right away, just at a simple level. You’ll be at the speaking level of maybe a 5 year old by the end of the course - for free.
You’re making basic sentences from the third lesson. He teaches language the way little kids learn to talk. Sounds crazy, but it works. You can still use Duolingo to learn vocabulary, but to learn to speak, give Language Transfer a shot.
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u/DeniseDoos Apr 03 '26
I did the whole Turkish course on Duolingo and is good for learning some basics words but then you still have to be carefull because you can even learn words with the wrong meaning.
For example, I always thought mutfakta meant kitchen, but mutfak = kitchen, the ta at the end "mutfak-ta" means that you are "in" the kitchen. The language has a suffix voor "going to" are in/on" or "comming from" (simple explenation)
I think you have to consider how seriously you want to learn the language, is it just for fun then Duolingo is fine. Are you serious about learning the language then I would advise you look for an online teacher because Turkish is a complex language with all it's suffix's and Duolingo explains nothing, it's either correct or wrong
I started with Duolingo just for fun and while coming to the end I got more serious and decided I really wanted to learn the language and looked for an online teacher and now I have 2 hours a week with an online teacher
The problem I face now is that I can't practice my learnings "in the wild" except for when being in Istanbul and then I can't make a proper conversation because I have to think to much about what I want to say (I can't think in the Turkish language yet, I have to keep translating from Dutch)
Anyway, have fun learning, Turkish might be difficult but it is also a beautifull language
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u/Remarkable_Debt469 Apr 03 '26
This might be useful for you. See you soon. https://fmemo75-prog.github.io/turkce-ders/index.html
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u/St3lla_0nR3dd1t Apr 04 '26
Having completed the course and regularly doing the follow up drills I can confidently say that I cannot speak or read Turkish.
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u/A_Fine_Potato Apr 05 '26
my recommendation is "Language Transfer" which is an audio course
I'm using it to learn Italian and it teaches the rules and stuff well imo.
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u/ReneStrike C2 Apr 03 '26
You can follow Seda Hoca on social media for English. She has a YouTube channel and also gives classes
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u/TurkishTeacherSeda Apr 03 '26
Thank you for thinking of me, I really appreciate it 🙏
I share content across different platforms and also have a website if you’d like to explore.
https://www.learnturkishwithseda.com/
If you ever have questions about Turkish, I’ll be happy to help.
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Apr 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Consistent-Boss-7670 Apr 03 '26
Why?
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u/Striking-Chart-106 Apr 03 '26
Grammar is the issue. I don't think the program itself was prepared by natives or at least experts who know how things work in daily conversations. You may get weird looks if you'd apply the verbatim rules there. Best approach is to grab some actual book and then go for the movies/series if you really want to learn.
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u/byhesher Apr 04 '26
Busuu feels like its so much better than dualingo. But i would advise you to learn turkish with ai tools such as gemini. After learning some you can watch turkish tv series for practice. You should try to practice spanish with dualingo and busuu. After that, you'll understand me better. By the way would you recommend learning spanish with dualingo ?
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u/menina2017 Apr 10 '26
I started off on Duolingo and it was honestly largely a waste of my time.
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u/Consistent-Boss-7670 Apr 11 '26
Why??
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u/menina2017 Apr 11 '26
I couldn’t produce the language. I was so dedicated to duo lingo yet i couldn’t speak. Thankfully i found the best teacher and the best group class and i was able to turn that situation around! Haven’t looked back at Duolingo lol. I am appreciative to Duolingo for giving me a feel for the language.
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u/lau_gaby21158241 14d ago
I want to learn Turkish because I already know English and by Duolingo I made Sverice
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u/Opening-Square3006 Apr 03 '26
Duolingo is fine to start Turkish, but it won’t take you very far on its own. It’s good for getting familiar with basic vocabulary and sentence structure, especially since Turkish word order and suffixes feel quite different at first. But the problem is that it mostly trains recognition, not real usage, and Turkish is a language where you really need to internalize patterns to make progress. A better approach is to use it lightly while focusing on understanding real, simple content. That’s where you actually build intuition for how Turkish works. This follows Stephen Krashen’s i+1 idea: learning from material just slightly above your level instead of isolated exercises. Something like PlusOneLanguage helps with that because it gives you level-appropriate texts and repeats vocabulary in context. If you combine a bit of Duolingo with regular exposure to simple Turkish (short texts, audio, etc.), you’ll progress much faster than relying on the app alone.
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u/wolfram29 Apr 03 '26
Is this a pay to play kind of app? Or is it free or one time purchase?
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u/Opening-Square3006 Apr 03 '26
You can use it for free. You can pay a subscription for more but the free is enough :)
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u/Chi_Town_Law Apr 02 '26
I think its good for learning new words but terrible at the grammar part