Line #346 VideoGame/Duolingo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b3152da7_6bf3_47ed_938f_9a41424f9627.png]]
2	Duolingo is a gamified language-learning platform created by a company of the same name. The application was first launched in beta as a website for a limited number of users on 30 November 2011 and was later fully launched on 19 June 2012. As of February 2022, it offers 104 different language courses across 42 languages, with 19 additional courses in development. The app is available on iOS, Android and Windows 8 and 10 platforms with over 500 million registered users across the world.
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4	You learn by progressing through a language tree consisting of various short lessons that are unlocked as you proceed. Most exercises are written translation exercises, but there are also optional dictation and speaking exercises. Completing lessons gives you ExperiencePoints and lingots--the Duolingo currency you can use to buy power-ups, tests and bonus skills.
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6	[[folder:Courses Offered by Duolingo]]
7	* '''For English speakers:''' Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hebrew, [[Series/GameOfThrones High Valyrian]], Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon]], Korean, Latin, Navajo, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish
8	* '''For Spanish speakers:''' Catalan, English, Esperanto, French, German, Guarani, Italian, Portugese, Russian, Swedish
9	* '''For Chinese speakers:''' English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish
10	* '''For French speakers:''' English, Esperanto, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
11	* '''For Portuguese speakers:''' English, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Spanish
12	* '''For Arabic speakers:''' English, French, German, Swedish
13	* '''For Italian speakers:''' English, French, German, Spanish
14	* '''For Japanese speakers:''' Chinese, English, French, Korean
15	* '''For Russian speakers:''' English, French, German, Spanish
16	* '''For Dutch speakers:''' English, French, German
17	* '''For German speakers:''' English, French, Spanish
18	* '''For Turkish speakers:''' English, German, Russian
19	* '''For Hungarian speakers:''' English, German
20	* '''For Vietnamese speakers:''' Chinese, English
21	* '''For Czech, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Thai, or Ukrainian speakers:''' English[[/folder]]
22
23	----
24	!!This gamified language learning platform provides examples of:
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26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:A - G]]
29	* AbsurdPhobia: In Japanese's Cooking 2 lesson, "My cat is afraid of cucumbers." [[AluminumChristmasTrees Though this actually isn't uncommon for cats]].
30	* AccessoryWearingCartoonAnimal: Falstaff the bear wears a blue scarf.
31	* AllForNothing: In the story "Surprise Party", Vikram prepares a surprise party for his wife and asks Zari and Lily to prolong her return from work so he can finish everything. The girls go from questioning Priti about her shampoo choice to ''pretending to faint in front of her'', until Priti reveals that she [[KnewItAllAlong already had an idea]] about the party.
32	* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife:
33	** Duo is an owl that happens to be green.
34	** The Greek lessons often involve animals with unusual colors (such as a pink gorilla, an orange elephant, or or a light blue hare).
35	** The Finnish course asks the user to translate “Tämä pupu on sininen” - “This bunny is blue”.
36	* AnimateInanimateObject: Occasionally, Duolingo teaches you how to describe what's going on if you encounter a normally-inanimate object doing something human:
37	** The Norwegian course features "The apple speaks Norwegian".
38	** From Danish: "The liver pate demands that the polar bear leaves the room".
39	** The Dutch course teaches you to greet juice, to say you're a banana, and how to excuse yourself on the grounds that you're an apple.
40	** In case you ever find yourself suspecting that you are in possession of an intelligent and moral vehicle, the Dutch course teaches "does my car have a conscience?".
41	** Several of the courses include the phrase "Excuse me, I am an apple."
42	* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
43	** Several features are implemented into the game that allows an answer to be accepted even if it's not exactly what you were asked for. In other words, if an answer could be considered "close enough", it will usually count.
44	*** The game is fairly loose when it comes to grammar - as long as the sentence's intent isn't affected, slight variations are usually accepted. Typing "I am from Spain" when the game wanted you to type "I come from Spain" will be accepted as correct, since the overall meaning was still expressed. Also, sentences like "Do you sometimes drink coffee?" and "Do you drink coffee sometimes?" will usually both count as the correct answer, since both are grammatically correct.
45	*** If you're asked to identify a country which has more than one way to refer to it, the game will usually accept all of them. For instance, if you're asked to identify the country that British people are from, then you could type "England", "Britain", or "The UK", and all of them will be marked as the right answer.
46	*** Forgoing certain special letters and/or accent markers (such as e/é/è or n/ñ) is often allowed as long as it doesn't alter the meaning too much. You're only gently reminded which one you should have used with a typo correction on the bottom of the page, even though your answer still gets accepted as correct. (This is especially useful on mobile, since those special letters and accents aren't always available.)
47	*** The game won't penalize you if your mistake is due to a reasonable typo, such as being only one letter off, unless that typo creates a different word that it recognizes.
48	*** In courses which have speaking exercises, if the speech recognition tool doesn't recognise one or two words that you say, it will still pass you as long as you got close.
49	** (Now defunct) On browsers, after completing a skill for the first time, you can redo the lessons with slightly more difficulty. However, if you ace the first two lessons of the harder level with no mistakes, the game lets you skip straight to the next level of the skill, since you clearly know what you're doing.
50	** When translating sentences, words and phrases that the game wants you to translate for the first time will be highlighted in orange/purple, making you [[NoticeThis notice them easier]] and letting you mouse over the word to see what it is.
51	** If you can't listen to audio lessons for whatever reason, you can just click "Can't Listen Now" and all audio lessons will be skipped for 15 minutes. You won't be penalized in the amount of XP you earn if you do this, either. There's also a "Can't Speak Now" button for lessons in which you have to talk into a microphone to give the answer. You can also turn audio and speech lessons off completely in your options so that they never appear at all, and there is still no harm for doing so.
52	** Starting in October 2021, getting halfway through a Legendary lesson still earns you twenty experience points, even if you fail the remainder of the lesson. Considering that you have to pay gems just to try a Legendary lesson (unless you have a paid subscription, which includes unlimited attempts), it's at least a small compensation if you get halfway through as opposed to AllOrNothing.
53	* AprilFoolsDay:
54	** For 2014, Duolingo added the languages [[WebOriginal/LOLCats Lolcat]], Zombie, and [[TalkLikeAPirate Pirate]] to the Incubator.
55	** For 2015, Duolingo purportedly would release the application as a set of 28 floppy disks.
56	** For 2016, Duolingo released [[http://pillow.duolingo.com/ Duolingo Pillow]], a pillow that would let the user learn a language in their sleep.
57	** For 2017, Duolingo released a course preview for [[http://xn--h28h.duolingo.com/ Emoji]] as a language.
58	** For 2018, Duolingo released a fake line of alcohol called "[[https://brewolingo.duolingo.com/ Brewolingo]]" designed to help you get fluent.
59	** The 2019 prank involved the owl going to the player's house to remind them of their lessons, aka "real life push notifications".
60	** There was no April Fools joke in 2020 due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
61	** For 2021, Duolingo released Duolingo Roll, toilet paper that teaches you phrases in other languages.
62	** In 2022, the prank is Duolingo asking you ''not'' to retain the services of a [[https://fb.watch/c6Pi1FrN-A/ criminal attorney]] who specializes in suing them when they kidnap your loved ones if you forget a lesson. And yes, the law office's phone number actually works.
63	** In 2023, Duolingo announced a Creator/{{Peacock}} reality show called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMG3wdMapDU Love Language]]", where none of the contestants speak the same language and must complete daily language lessons or face Duo's wrath.
64	** In 2024, Duolingo announced "[[https://youtu.be/dWXuz95uBQo Duolingo on Ice: The Multilingual Musical]]", a four-hour ice rink show with songs like "Spanish or Vanish". Complete with a [[http://www.seatgeek.com/duolingo page to buy tickets]] and an [[https://open.spotify.com/album/2igT4o8J4ldF4CLLauFmmF album on Spotify]].
65	* ArtEvolution: Duo started off in 2011 as a static bird with his name making up [[WingdingEyes the eyes and beak]], then he became more realistic before settling as a simplified, cartoony owl. [[https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/13/18137843/duolingo-owl-redesign-language-learning-app An interview with the developers]] explains that the simpler design not only makes Duo and other characters easier to animate, but it also allows for more expressive emotions, making players more attached to Duo; they cite [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] always appearing in different positions and with different expressions as a particular source of inspiration. Considering the memes attached to Duo, it's safe to say they've succeeded.
66	* ArtifactTitle: ''Duo'''lingo''''' announced at Duocon 2023 that it would start offering non-language-related courses, starting with math and music.
67	* AscendedMeme:
68	** The official Duolingo Tiktok account revels in the [[invoked]]MemeticPsychopath interpretation of Duo in the responses to its videos, and then some. [[https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo/video/7016463031760588037 For example]]:
69	--->'''Commenter:''' PLEASE FREE MY FAMILY IM BEGGING I ONLY MISSED ONE SWEDISH LESSON\
70	'''Duolingo:''' one too much
71	** The meme phrase "Spanish or Vanish" is the name of a minigame in the official {{Platform/Roblox}} game made for the app's anniversary, and also a song in the [[AprilFoolsDay "Duolingo on Ice" musical]].
72	* AttractivenessDiscrimination: In the story "The Exhibition", Oscar waits helplessly in a queue in front of an exhibition for a couple hours without being granted entry... while Lucy gets the green light as soon as she arrives, simply because, per the security guard, "she's totally cool!"
73	* BadToTheLastDrop: The coffee that inspires "Is this coffee or borscht?" (Unless it's not coffee at all and is ''actually'' borscht.)
74	* BathroomBreakOut: One of the stories in the German course, "A Terrible Date", concerns a woman who accidentally breaks her date's favourite lamp and then spills wine on his sofa, and is so embarrassed that she makes an excuse to go to the bathroom and escapes out the window.
75	* BaitAndSwitch:
76	** The two-part stories do this across languages. The first part sets up something menacing or bad, only for the second to establish it was some sort of misunderstanding or not what it seems at first glance. One stock story includes a man writing to a woman telling her he loves her and can't wait to see her in a few weeks. It ends with his wife entering the room and asking who he's writing to. In the second part, you find out [[spoiler:it's their daughter who moved away to attend university, not his mistress. His wife cheers him up and says they'll get to see her soon for parents' weekend.]]
77	** The Swedish course teaches "[[SmarterThanYouLook He is not as stupid as he looks]], [[DumberThanTheyLook but even more stupid]]."
78	* BigEater: French: "I eat a lot."
79	* BirdsOfAFeather: The story "A Date" in the Spanish course concerns a couple on a blind date who discover they have a lot in common--they're both vegetarian, both Cuban, and both have two dogs. Then they realize they're each on the date with the wrong person... but decide to stay together anyway.
80	* BlatantLies: Some of the sentences don't fit the characters who speak them. It's possible for instance to get a middle-aged man saying that he's your granddaughter. (Junior, a kid, is one of the worst for these--he'll often get sentences saying he ''has'' kids, or that he drives, owns a house, or other adult behavior.)
81	* BlindIdiotTranslation: Granted, these are ''very'' rare thanks to the nature of the game, but not unheard of; they're also interesting in that they seem to affect the English sentences more than whatever language you're learning.
82	** For example, [[https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/3205558 this forum thread]] has native English speakers scratching their heads over what the sentence "''He would put us in front of our responsibilities.''" means.
83	** The French course tends to use over-literal translations of French idioms. This can be helpful when going from English to French, but can also look strange when going from French to English. For example, phrases like "Ses lunettes, il les a oubliées" would be translated as "His glasses, he forgot them" instead of the more natural "He forgot his glasses." For a bonus TutorialFailure, it also says nothing about the unexpected gender/number agreement on the verb.
84	* BodyInABreadbox: Hungarian: "There is a person in the fridge."
85	* BondJamesBond: You can actually learn to say "My name is Bond. James Bond" in Turkish.
86	* BookEnds: The Swedish course features the lines "Du gamla, du fria" (Thou ancient, thou free) and "Ja, jag vill leva jag vill dö i Norden." (Yes, I want to live, I want to die in the North.) These two phrases are respectively the first and last lines of the Swedish national anthem.
87	* BuffySpeak: There's a German skill named "Stuff". Upon completion, the game will greet you with the message that "You have learned Stuff". Even better, try strengthening it along with several others, and you'll get something like "You've strengthened Plurals, Comparison and Stuff".
88	* ButThouMust: Several of the chatbots ask you questions like "do you want to do X?". If you say "no", they'll force you to do X anyway:
89	** In "It's a Zoo!", Tina asks you if you want to help her with the animals. If you refuse, she'll [[WhatTheHellPlayer call you out for "not being very nice"]] and ask again, but more politely. Refuse again, and she'll say she "knows you want to help [her]" and force you.
90	** In "Pizza Time!", the chef will ask you if you want to cook with him. If you say "no", he'll ask again. If you refuse again, he'll insist that cooking will "take your mind off things" and proceed to start making a pizza.
91	** In "To Catch a Thief", you can try to say "no" when the inspector asks if you should look for evidence. If you do, he'll reply "but it's our job!" and make you look for evidence.
92	** In "Treasure Quest", the explorer forces you to enter the secret cave with her, even if you say you're afraid and don't want to.
93	** In "Take a Trip", the bot asks if you want to go on vacation with her. If you refuse twice--even if you say you ''don't have time'' to travel--she'll say "don't be a grump" and force you.
94	** In "Security", a security guard asks you if you want to help. Try to refuse, and he'll force you because "he's very busy" and "needs help". However, you ''can'' refuse to enter the metal detector when he tells you to, but then he'll send a guard at you, which ends the chat.
95	* CalculatorSpelling: The Dutch course features the sentence "What does 8008 look like on a calculator?" Thankfully, you're only required to translate the question, not give the answer "BOOB".
96	* {{Cap}}: Level 25 for each language.
97	* CaptainObvious:
98	** The French course teaches you that the snake is an animal. Similarly, the German course teaches you to say that your horse is an animal, and the Hindi course teaches you that a cat is an animal.
99	** The Swedish course teaches you to explain that a hospital is a building for sick people. It sounds even sillier in Swedish, where the word for "hospital" ''is a compound word meaning "building for sick people"''.
100	** You're taught to say "a table has no gender" in German. Note that this is false if you're talking about ''grammatical'' gender.
101	** Esperanto features "I am not you."
102	** German teaches "Thursday is not a month" and "When I run, I am not standing".
103	** The German course is very sure that the correct translation of "Neuschwanstein" is not "Neuschwanstein", but "Neuschwanstein Castle"... and so the perfectly reasonable sentence "Neuschwanstein ist ein Schloss" may not be translated as "Neuschwanstein is a castle", it must be translated as "Neuschwanstein Castle is a castle".
104	** French has "England is not in Africa" and "Prisoners are in prison".
105	** Hindi has "Cows are not cats".
106	** Dutch: "One does not drink meat." Which would be an in-universe case of AluminumChristmasTrees, as apparently [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLarQk29fOs liquid meat]] exists...
107	* CasualDangerDialogue: The Danish course has "A tiger is eating my husband", and Norwegian has "The wolf is eating me". As the sentences are read by a text-to-speech program, they sound disproportionately calm.
108	* Catch22Dilemma: Possible case in German, which has "I am searching for the search engine". Good luck searching without a search engine to use...
109	* ChekhovsGun: The Portuguese course has “The insect is the answer”, like it's a jungle adventure movie or something.
110	* ChildEater: Averted; one of the Norwegian sentences is "My husband doesn't eat children."
111	* ClothesEatingWager: The Indonesian course asks you to translate "Saya memakan topi saya." — "I eat my hat."
112	* CompleteImmortality: The Spanish course has you translate "I cannot die".
113	* {{Conlang}}: Duolingo offers courses in [[UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperanto]], [[Series/GameOfThrones High Valyrian]], and [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon]], all of which are constructed languages.
114	* CosmeticAward: Earning enough XP from completing lessons allows you to be promoted into a higher "league". This gives no benefits.
115	* CrazyCatLady:
116	** German: [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11849304/ "By now we own eighteen cats!"]]
117	** Hindi: "Julia has eight cats."
118	** Spanish: [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/625546/ "I have thirteen cats."]]
119	** Indonesian starts with "You have twenty cats." ("Kucingmu dua puluh."), then moves on to "This house is full of cats" (Rumah ini penuh dengan kucing") and "Three billion cats eat in my house" ("Tiga miliar kucing makan di rumahku"). The course also has cat as one of the first words you learn, long before man and woman.
120	** French: "Ma tante est célibataire et elle a huit chats." (My aunt is single and she has eight cats).
121	** Yiddish: "Ya, ich hob tzvelef ketz. Ni in?" (Yes, I have twelve cats. So what?)
122	%%* CulturalCrossReference - Incorrect trope - https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=116972&type=lnf#comment-116972:
123	%%** Norwegian: "Why is there a Swedish telemarketer in my bed?"
124	%%** Swedish: "Why is there a Norwegian architect lying in my bed?"
125	* DemographicallyInappropriateHumour: The story, "I Want to Be Like You," has Junior declaring he wants to be a lion tamer under the assumption that that's what his dad does for a living. His reasoning for believing this? He found a [[HellBentForLeather leather suit]] and [[WhipOfDominance whip]] in Eddy's closet.
126	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Can come up in the sentences to be translated, the translation itself or both.
127	** An example in Esperanto: "Bonulo estas ulo, kiu estas bona." ("A good person is a person who is good.")
128	** From the French course: "Je suis l'aîné parce que je suis le plus âgé." (I am the eldest because I am the oldest).
129	* DesignatedDriver: Portuguese: "If I drink take me home."
130	* DesiresPrisonLife: French: "After escaping, he discovered that he missed the prison, and he decided to return there."
131	* DevelopersForesight:
132	** On mobile, if you're using the [=Gboard=] keyboard and have added additional foreign keyboard options to it in its settings, Duolingo automatically equips the matching keyboard for each course if available, giving (easier) access to certain letters/accented letters.[[note]]Despite being a Google-based keyboard, this automatic change doesn't happen on Google products - such as Translate - suggesting it's done from Duo's side.[[/note]]
133	** Languages that have context-sensitive and "obvious" possessive rules sometimes allow translating "The" as "My", "Yours" etc. without much issue - for example, the Italian sentence "Ho preso il portafoglio" can mean both the literal "I lost ''the'' wallet" and the implied "I lost ''my'' wallet"[[note]]While Italian does have specific possessive pronouns, they can be replaced by "the" if the item is unique/specific/obvious enough from the context (such as a wallet, car or clothing, which probably belong to the person who has them)[[/note]]. That said, sometimes the game won't budge and demands one over the other, so it can still be a guessing game at times especially if the context is lacking.
134	* DirtyCop: Portuguese: "The men offered money to the police officer."
135	* DistinctionWithoutADifference: Pops up occasionally--while usually you have a good amount of wiggle room, the game likes to alternate between demanding and not demanding literal translations. For example, the Italian course's "Ognuno dei fratelli ha un'automobile" only accepts "Each of the brothers has an automobile" instead of the more natural "Each brother has a car".
136	* DoItYourselfPlumbingProject: The "Leaky Pipes" story has Pamela and Jose reminiscing about how they met when Pamela attempted to fix some leaky pipes on her own before a big date, only to have to call Jose in because she managed to make things worse.
137	* DragonAncestry: Implied in the Welsh language course. One of the first sentences taught in the first level is "Draig dw i," which literally translates as "I am a dragon."
138	* DrinkingOnDuty: Hebrew: [[https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/20631639/%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%98-%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%AA%D7%9B%D7%A8-%D7%9C%D7%A4%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%A9%D7%94%D7%95%D7%90-%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%91%D7%93 "The judge gets drunk before he works."]]
139	* DrowningMySorrows: Esperanto: "He is drinking beer, because he is unhappy."
140	* DungeonBypass: Starting in late 2022, it's possible to skip past an entire lesson by taking a quiz on the lesson you want to skip. If you pass the quiz, you earn fifty XP, and all of the activities from that lesson (besides the Legendary test) are marked as complete. But it's AllOrNothing, because failing the quiz gets you no reward; if you want to try and skip the lesson again, you have to start all over.
141	* EasterEgg: On the mobile apps, tapping on Duo ten times on certain screens will cause him to be replaced with a literal Easter egg.
142	* EatingPetFood: The Swedish and Norwegian courses feature both "You're drinking my cat's milk" and "You're eating my dog's food". Inverted with the Hebrew phrase "The dove likes wine", though it doesn't say if the dove is a pet.
143	* TheEndIsNigh: Russian: "The end is soon."
144	* ElvisLives: Finnish: "Is Elvis a lynx?" Also counts as a {{Pun}} since, when translated, the sentence becomes "Onko Elvis ilves?"
145	* EverybodysDeadDave: Spanish: "There are no signs of life."
146	* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench: The aforementioned [[AprilFoolsDay Duolingo Pillow]] claims the French pillow gives upgraded flirting abilities.
147	* EvilLawyerJoke: Referenced in the Italian course, which teaches "Are we men or lawyers?".
148	* EvilOverlooker: In a [[https://www.facebook.com/duolingo/photos/a.421213931256115/2977762288934587/?type=3&theater Halloween promo]] for 2019, a sinister-looking Duo is at the top of the poster, looking down at the viewer.
149	* ExactWords: In the story "The Waiter Is Right", Bea and her friend order fish (or a "dish of the day") at a restaurant and are offered a special type of wine which is said by the waiter to "go well with the dish". When all is served, the friend accidentally spills his wine glass on Bea's food. Bea then eats the soaked food and exclaims that [[TitleDrop the waiter is right]]--the wine perfectly fits the dish.
150	* ExperiencePoints: Your progress is measured in experience points (XP). You get ten XP for each course you complete or practice, and get bonus XP for completing a course with minimal mistakes.
151	* ExtremeOmnivore: "The cook cooks a snake" is bad enough, but there's also "Luis eats spiders" and "A bed is food".
152	* FakeDifficulty:
153	** Sometimes the game will reject perfectly acceptable translations because the devs made a mistake or simply didn't think of adding them. However, you get a chance to {{def\|iedTrope}}y this trope by reporting the question and hope the devs incorporate it.
154	** While ''very'' rare, the game doesn't mind throwing an idiom at you without any context. For example, the Italian course's "Medical" section[[note]]As in, body parts, illnesses, etc.[[/note]] has been called out multiple times for including the phrase "In bocca al lupo", which literally means (and thus is often translated as) "In the wolf's mouth". The correct answer? "[[NonSequitur Break a leg!]]", because [[ItMakesSenseInContext they are both phrases used by actors to wish each other luck]]. There's absolutely no indication that the game wants an answer that uses ''none'' of the words from the Italian text, and [[GuideDangIt to even know the phrase's intended meaning you'd have to have learned it from somewhere else]]--not to mention that even in context, it's ''still'' out of place due to not being a medical term.
155	** While the game is quite flexible about [[RougeAnglesOfSatin typos]] in general, sometimes you'll be marked as incorrect for the sake of a single mistyped letter.
156	** Some questions are simply way too vague to be answered correctly without knowing the context, especially if the objects' location/gender is not mentioned in any way in the English version - For example, [[https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/758424 this forum discussion about a question on the Italian course]] lists several grammatically correct alternate answers to a question which leaves both the item's gender and location vague, with some acknowledging that even the English sentence seems a bit awkwardly put together.
157	** Sometimes words/sentence structure that was acceptable/required in an earlier question is marked as incorrect with no explanation given to why said word/structure is not acceptable anymore.
158	* FeatherFingers: Duo is able to use his feathers [[https://www.facebook.com/duolingo/photos/a.421213931256115/2032567260120766/ to give a V-sign]] in some old promotional art, although he is never shown using it for more dexterous purposes.
159	* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Japanese: "It is quite warm in hell."
160	* FiveTokenBand: Some of the language courses have an animated character to pronounce the sentence, and react positively or negatively depending on whether you get it right. Those characters include Lily (white goth girl), Zari (veiled Muslim girl), Lucy (fat middle-aged Asian lady), Lin (light-skinned girl with a half-shaved head, who is Lucy's adult granddaughter), Eddy and Junior (blond sporty white man and his equally white son), Bea (black girl with dreadlocks), Oscar (an AmbiguouslyBrown short, chubby, moustached man), Vikram (Sikh man)... and a bear named Falstaff.
161	* FloatingLimbs: The characters shown in some end screens and speaking exercises have no ankles. Same with Duo in the loading screen of him walking. Their feet are a pair of ovals or thick lines. As shown with Eddy (the guy in the red tracksuit), the characters do have legs.
162	* FlyInTheSoup: The Italian course teaches you how to say there's a ''mouse'' in your soup. It also features other results of sketchy hygiene standards, such as "your insects are on my plate", insects in the sugar and an ant dying in the sugar.
163	* FreemiumTimer: If you don't have a [[{{Freemium}} premium subscription]], the app gives you five lives. If you answer incorrectly, you lose a life. If you lose all your lives, among other options, you can wait 1 hour for them to replenish. Alternatively, if you [[NoDamageRun complete a lesson without making any mistakes]] or practice a lesson, you can get a life back.
164	* FunnyAnimal: Animals doing human stuff is a common theme.
165	** Certain courses in the app have characters who speak the sentences. Some of them are animals, so you may encounter a German-speaking dolphin who says he knows English or a self-conscious bear asking how much he weighs.
166	** Apparently Danish bears "eat rice with knife and fork" and can "take the man's wheels and run". Dutch and Spanish bears prefer to drink beer, while Danish bears hand their beer to a cat. Danish birds also drink beer.
167	** Danish ducks say (quack?) "good morning". Spanish ducks not only speak their own language, but know English as well.
168	** "The cat reads a book". According to the Danish course, chickens also read a book. And in Italian, the monkey reads a book.
169	** Irish ducks and Dutch birds apparently read the newspaper.
170	** Dutch dogs can ride a bike.
171	** Dutch teaches "the dog wears a coat" and "the bear feels insulted because he didn't get an invitation".
172	** German teaches "The bear drinks beer", although the sentence has the practical benefit of showing differences in phonemes.
173	** German also teaches [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16396613 "Why does the bear conduct the orchestra?"]]
174	** Another one from German: "Why is the sheep skateboarding around the printer?"
175	** Italian teaches "I am an insect".
176	** Portuguese teaches “The cat reads the newspaper”.
177	** Also in the Portuguese: “The butterfly writes a book”.
178	** Norwegian has some people hearing what a crab is singing. Norwegian bears also ride bikes.
179	** From Russian: "My horse is not an artist, but an architect."
180	** From the Welsh course: [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/13185225/Shwmae-draig-dw-i "Hi, I'm a dragon"]]. Welsh in general makes a lot of dragon references, as the national animal of Wales is the red dragon on their flag.
181	** From the Spanish course: "The snakes have a hockey team!"
182	** Drunken parrots are a bit of a RunningGag in Latin.
183	* FurryConfusion: Duolingo is a cartoony owl, but he celebrates Thanksgiving and [[https://www.facebook.com/duolingo/posts/1885526388158188 has dressed up as a turkey for the occasion]].
184	* GenderBlenderName: Prior to the update in spring 2022, the Welsh course sentences often included a person named Morgan. Some sentences indicated that Morgan is female, but others would use masculine pronouns for them. (Since the update, Morgan has been replaced by Celyn, who is always female.)
185	* AGiftForThemselves: In a story, "I Say Thank You", Zari gives Lily a shirt that Zari loves but Lily doesn't. It's Zari's birthday, and Lily, who forgets her friend's birthday every year, is meant to hand the gift back to her.
186	* GoldDigger: The Italian course has "She loves him for his wealth."
187	* GratuitousNinja: Danish has ninjas that work at night and play with children.
188	* GuideDangIt: Some courses are good at showing you words and phrases and telling you what they mean, but not so good at ''explaining'' them. For example:
189	** The Indonesian course tells you that ''aku'' and ''saya'' mean I, and ''kamu'' and ''anda'' mean you, but does not say which ones are formal or informal, and where one should use which.
190	** In Welsh, there are ''multiple'' words for yes, but no clear reason given for why you should use (for instance) ''do'' instead of ''ydw'' or ''ydy'' or ''cei''. The same is true of the multiple words for no. You will be dinged for picking the wrong one.
191	** Also in the Welsh, following the course being revamped in spring 2022, lessons introduced the phrase "bara brith," which had never been mentioned previously and which the course doesn't translate. This is frustrating to a user who doesn't know what bara brith is; it's a traditional Welsh tea bread made with dried fruit, but the course never tells you that. (It ''does'' teach that "bara" means "bread," but "brith" is never explained.)
192	* GuiltBasedGaming: If you're about to forget your daily practice and have notifications turned on, the game will remind you that "learning a language requires practice every day". If you end up neglecting your daily practice, you may get e-mails telling you that you have to make the owl happy by doing the exercises. Previous versions even showed you a ''crying'' owl when you failed to meet your goal. This is subverted after several weeks, where the owl just doesn't bother with sending you notifications anymore.
193	[[/folder]]
194	[[folder:H - Z]]
195	* HarderThanHard: Legendary difficulty, which is only accessible for a lesson after completing a lesson up to Level 5. The lessons no longer translate anything or provide any hints, and you have a total of three "lives" to use, meaning you can make no more than two mistakes throughout the entire lesson. In addition, you have to pay gems just to access this difficulty, and you don't get the gems back if you fail. As compensation, Legendary lessons are worth a lot more XP than usual; whereas a normal lesson would give you ten XP for the day, a Legendary lesson will give you twenty XP for getting halfway through, and forty XP on completion. Finally, lessons won't "break" from not practicing them after you've obtained the lesson's Legendary crown, since you've clearly proven that you know what you're doing. (They will fracture periodically, however, requiring you to do a practice lesson in order to repair them.)
196	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Implied in the Italian course, which features the ominous "He had known too much".
197	* HistoryRepeats / HorribleHoneymoon: "The Flat Tire" has Vikram and Priti accidentally recreating the night of their honeymoon together. Both times, while they were coming home from a date, their car broke down for whatever reason (at present it was because of a flat tire), and so they had to walk back. ''A long way.'' Vikram alone forgot his keys, so he had to use the window to get back inside the house. This time, ''both'' of them are locked out of the house.
198	* HurricaneOfPuns: The 2018 AprilFoolsDay joke is a product page for "Brewolingo", craft beer made from Owlcohol and Owlgorithms. The beers available include Spring Season-owl, India Pale Owl, and Mad Amber Owl.
199	* HypocriticalHumor: One of the Stories has Eddy get vocally annoyed with Junior's loud drum practice, telling him at every opportunity to stop (for good reason the first two times, since Eddy was trying to sleep). When Junior knocks his drum performance out of the park at a concert and another spectator praises the boy's drumming skills, Eddy's all too happy to say that he was always allowing Junior to practice.
200	* IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: The French course has "I'm the one who killed him, [[YouJustToldMe but I'll never confess]]!"
201	* ImplausibleDeniability: The Spirituality skill from Danish teaches you how to say "It's not my fault the alien steals my homework every day".
202	* ImpliedDeathThreat: The Russian sentence "Suffering is his destiny" sure sounds like a threat, even if it's not spoken to the person being threatened.
203	* ImpossiblyDeliciousFood: One German sentence you can learn is "Oh no, the bread is too delicious."
204	* InconsistentSpelling: Duolingo has different names in certain language courses. For instance, in the Welsh course it's called "Dewi Lingo". Some of the sentences make it hard to tell if the name refers to the company or to the owl himself, although others identify the owl as "Mr. Lingo."
205	* InnocentInaccurate: In "I Want to Be Like You," Junior finds a [[WhipOfDominance whip]] and [[HellBentForLeather leather pants]] in Eddy's closet and assumes his father's a lion tamer.
206	* InspirationalInsult: Duolingo will happily throw sentences like "You are useless" (French) and "You learn nothing" (German) as part of its course content.
207	* InterfaceSpoiler: One common exercise is to be given a sentence in your native language, and a selection of words in the language you're learning that have to be rearranged correctly into the native-language sentence. The selection often includes more words than you need, and usually has at least one that is similar to one of the ones you need.
208	** Not sure which word in the word bank starts the sentence? It's (usually) the one with a capital letter.
209	** Typically there are four words left over when the game wants you to translate a sentence. So if you have more than that, you missed something.
210	** Often, the same leftover words are used through an entire lesson, although typically each is used in at least one answer.
211	* IronicEcho: In the story "Look at the Whales", Eddy and another mother, Sarah, discuss the frustration of seeing their kids focused on their phones while on a boat trip to see the whales, with Eddy noting that "kids these days are never interested in the most important things!"... only for two large whales to show up right before them, which Junior and Sarah's daughter ''actually have noticed'', but failed to get their parents' attention. Junior then remarks, complete with smugness, "adults these days are never interested in the most important things!"
212	* ItsFakeFurItsFine: From the French course: "''Ne t'inquiète pas, c'est de la fausse fourrure.''" ("Don't worry, it's fake fur").
213	** The story "Save the Animals!" have the students at the school Oscar teaches threatening to splash paint onto the fur coat Oscar's wearing, as a demonstration to stop animal cruelty. He avoids it by saying it's fake fur.
214	* IWasQuiteTheLooker: French: "We used to be young and beautiful."
215	* {{Jerkass}}: Some characters, especially Lucy, Lin and Eddy, can be downright mean to each other at times.
216	** Expect a lot of sentences to carry this essence. Examples include:
217	*** "The dessert is for me, and the check is for you!"
218	*** "Obviously, [[WouldRatherSuffer having the flu]] is better than going with you."
219	*** "I'm happy that you're giving me a promotion, but what about my company car?"
220	* LaserGuidedKarma:
221	** In "The Cat Law", Junior uses the excuse of a cat sitting on his lap to get out of doing anything. At the end, Eddy orders pizza, and proceeds to go and eat it all himself because Junior can't get up. Then Junior has to lend his dad 20 bucks to pay for the pizza... and, in "Eddy's Household Chores", expects Eddy to do more housework until he can pay it back.
222	** Oscar once mooches off of his cousin Osman for [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave three weeks]] in Los Angeles, consuming all of Osman's food and ripping a hole through his wallet going to expensive restaurants. Osman responds by giving him the possibly [[{{Revenge}} worst day of his life]]--taking him to the beach (which he hates), having his lunch get stolen by seagulls, and getting his eyes splashed with salt water. The squatter himself swiftly decides to leave the next day.
223	* LazyBum:
224	** Lin is probably the one who is least willing to be productive in life. She is also always expecting other people to solve problems for her!
225	** One of the three advertised babysitters in the story "Looking for a Babysitter" is Samuel, who doesn't engage with the kids much, earning him the title of "the invisible babysitter".
226	* LevelGrinding: Earning XP allows you to be promoted to a higher league. You're unlikely to be promoted very far if you just do half an hour a day, so, if you care about that sort of thing, you'll have to do a lot of lessons.
227	* LiteralMinded: From the German course: [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/10932618 "Are two half-brothers one brother?"]]
228	* LoopholeAbuse:
229	** One story, "A Pink Dress", recounts Lily despising the idea of wearing a pink dress for her aunt's wedding. She eventually gets out of it by pointing out that the dress code does say that they could only wear pink dresses or black suits, but didn't say those options were ''gender restricted''. She then picks out a nice black suit and her mother relents.
230	** In "Eat Your Vegetables", Eddy promises to buy Junior a bag of candies on Saturday if he eats his vegetables every day of the week, which the latter gladly agrees. On Saturday, the two go to the store and Junior picks out a large bag to fill in candies. When Eddy questions this, Junior points out that there was no rule on how big the bag can be.
231	** In "Checking In", Bea is catching a flight to Hawaii. She arrives at the checking counter ''15 minutes'' before the flight, so it is still possible for her to depart, but too late to check in her luggage. She gets around it by opening the suitcase and put on ''all of her clothing inside.''
232	* LostInTranslation: Hebrew: "Every day fifty accidents are caused by cats." However, in Israel, the word תאונה, which the program uses for "accident", is generally reserved for traffic crashes.
233	* MassiveNumberedSiblings:
234	** Italian features "We have eighty grandchildren".
235	** Dutch gives you "They have 29 children".
236	* MediumAwareness: The sentence "Unbelievable! Actually, we're only fictional characters!" along with a graphic of the characters interacting with the interface on a smartphone.
237	* MetalDetectorCheckpoint: "Security" has you checking people who triggered the metal detector at an airport.
238	* MinorFlawMajorBreakup: The sentence "A spouse who snores, that's a cause for divorce!"
239	** Not entirely looking the part, but in the story "He's Calling Me?", Zari displays great interest in a guy named Marco and his upcoming party... until he calls her on the phone.
240	-->'''Lily:''' You aren't answering it?
241	-->'''Zari:''' No!
242	-->'''Lily:''' Why?
243	-->'''Zari:''' Who calls people on the phone?!
244	-->'''Lily:''' That's true.
245	-->'''Zari:''' If he wants to talk to me, he can send me a text.
246	* MistakenAssumptionOfAttraction: The story "The Love Letter" has Zari under the impression that Junior is writing a love letter to her, but Junior informs her that it's actually meant for her best friend, Lily.
247	* MistakenForCheating: In the story "You Are Not Mary", Eddy's girlfriend Penélope hears from Eddy's son about a girl Eddy loves named "Mary" (name changes depending on language of the story), who hangs around the house every day to talk with Eddy. As Penélope storms off, Eddy clarifies that Mary is the family's ''parrot''.
248	* MistakenForExhibit: In the story "That is Art" in the Spanish course or "The Work of Art" in the German course, during an art museum visit, Oscar (an art teacher) puts down a picture of dogs as being too "boring" to be art, and points to a sandwich on a chair as being ''true'' art, which Eddy doesn't understand. Then a museum guard comes around and eats the sandwich, as it isn't on display--it is just his lunch.
249	* MoneyForNothing: On the website, the only use lingots have is purchasing streak freezes. If you practice regularly, you'll pile up a whole bunch of lingots which really serve no useful purpose. It's less frustrating on the app, where gems can be used to purchase streak freezes but also time boosts for timed events and occasional XP boosts for perfect lessons.
250	* MoodDissonance: For some languages, the app features characters who speak the sentences you're supposed to translate. Their mood doesn't always fit the sentence, so you'll occasionally bump into stuff like happy ladies who excitedly ask if you've come to kill them, or a smiling lumberjack who gives the thumbs up while informing you that he's lost his wife and has yet to recover his son.
251	* MoodWhiplash: The sentences range from mundane to hilarious or depressing. Getting them in certain orders will cause odd mood swings in the lesson. Some concrete examples:
252	** The Spirituality skill from Danish. One lesson is all about zombies, aliens, and vampires, with such delightful sentences such as "It's not my fault [[ImplausibleDeniability the alien steals my homework every day]]", and the next lesson can hit you right after with "[[OutlivingOnesOffspring I bought a nice tombstone for my son's grave]]".
253	** The Date and Time skill from Italian. It's full of mundane stuff like "Today is Monday", and then it suddenly throws "He dies in December" at you.
254	* MysteryFiction: The "To Catch a Thief" chat has you helping an inspector figure out who stole stuff from a museum.
255	* NerdsSpeakKlingon: Presumably the reason that Klingon has been added to the offerings.
256	* NoodleImplements: The Swedish course contains the sentence "The fairy tale is about two hedgehogs and a bar of soap."
257	* NoDamageRun: You get a lingot bonus for testing out of a skill with all hearts intact. You also get bonus XP for completing a course, up to five extra for completing it with no mistakes.
258	* NonconformistDyedHair: One of the animated characters is Lily, a Caucasian goth girl with purple hair.
259	* OneDialogueTwoConversations: In the story "A Question" (or "I Need Money"), Junior approaches his father watching a football game and asks for some money. After mistaking Eddy's cheering as agreement, Junior proceeds to ask for a pizza, a video game, and the right to skip school the next day, all of which are met with his dad's enthusiastic exclamations. When Eddy finally finishes watching, Junior has already gone outside to buy his stuff.
260	* OneSteveLimit: Darn close--prior to the update in spring 2022, the Welsh course had sentences focused on people named Megan and Morgan, two names which it was ''very'' easy to accidentally mix up when picking from the available word bank.
261	* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Either a President Buffoon or a President Lunatic is demonstrated in the sentence, "The President's mental age is less than ten years old."
262	* OurProductSucks: Many late stories have people proudly advertising about things that have subpar quality and/or are unpleasant to clients--such as an immature babysitter, a dog that can destroy all of your stuff, or a lousy space camp with an old trampoline as a "zero-gravity simulator"!
263	* TheOwlKnowingOne: Duolingo's mascot is an owl, chosen for its association for being wise.
264	* PerpetualBeta: [[https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/38852762 The Italian course has this reputation]]; it was one of the earliest courses available, but is very short (especially compared to its more popular siblings Spanish and French), has received very few updates, errors remain unaddressed for years (admittedly, this is a common issue with every language that Duo teaches), [[TutorialFailure doesn't always explain things well]] especially further down the tree, and lacked both Duolingo stories and the human characters until 2020. That said, it is still considered to be good enough to introduce beginners to the language, [[GuideDangIt even if advanced grammar requires sources outside of Duolingo]].
265	* PerpetualFrowner: The Yiddish "Friends" lesson includes the sentence, "''Ven iz er freilich? Keinmal nisht?''" which translates to, "When is he happy? Never?"
266	* PlaneAwfulFlight: The French course asks you to translate "I hope that the pilot won't sleep during the flight." and "It is totally irresponsible for a pilot to sleep during the flight!"
267	* PlayEveryDay: The game emphasizes the importance of practising every day and encourages it by keeping track of your "streak"--the number of consecutive days you reach your XP goal. Although you get 1 lingot for the 10th day in the streak, 2 for the 20th, etc., the main appeal of maintaining a streak seems to be bragging rights.
268	* PoorCommunicationKills: In the story "You Are Not Mary", if Junior had simply told his father's date that Mary [[spoiler:was the pet parrot]] when he was talking about her, she wouldn't have gotten fed up and left after assuming Eddy was being dishonest with her.
269	* PrepareToDie: Klingon: "You will die."
270	* ProductPlacement: The Scottish Gaelic course shills IRN BRU. "Tha IRN BRU math", seen in the very first beginner level, means "IRN BRU is good."
271	* PurpleIsPowerful: Completing the Legendary challenges turns your gold icons [[CosmeticAward purple]].
272	* QuiveringEyes: Duo has tearful puppy-dog eyes when you lose all your hearts.
273	* RaisedByGrandparents: Lin is Lucy's adult granddaughter, and some of the stories indicate that Lucy and her late husband raised (or at least helped to raise) Lin.
274	* ARareSentence: Arguably one of the selling points is seeing what weird sentences you can find. A dedicated [[Website/{{Reddit}} subreddit]], [[https://www.reddit.com/r/shitduolingosays/ /r/ShitDuolingoSays]], exists purely to catalogue these sentences.
275	* RuleOfThree: The Legendary Crown lessons on the mobile app give you exactly three chances per lesson. Lose and you have to spend 100 gems to try the lesson again.
276	* SarcasmMode:
277	** ''Nearly every character'' in the modern version seems to be an expert in this.
278	** Also expect many phrases in lessons to contain this.
279	* ShaggyDogStory:
280	** The Duolingo Story "Where's My Jacket?" involves Oscar looking for his blue jacket and having to go through all his neighbors and a donation center to find it. The reason he was looking for it? He had left 500 dollars in a secret compartment--which the donation center found, and put it into their funds. At this point, Oscar gives up and lets the center have his jacket.
281	** "The Security Question" involves Vikram and Priti rushing to see a play on two preordered tickets. They forget the physical copies at home, but Vikram quickly remembers that he has the tickets online, but he doesn't remember the security question that activates his account. After swallowing his pride and calling his brother for the answer, he finally gets the tickets... for yesterday's showing of the play.
282	** "Cake to Deliver" has Vikram and Eddy delivering a cake to a wedding of Vikram's cousin. Suddenly a tire goes flat and Vikram has to spend over an hour trying to fix it... while Eddy waits to the point of exhaustion, that he just takes the cake and eats it.
283	* ShapedLikeItself:
284	** The Esperanto course teaches "a good person is a person who is good".
285	*** This is actually to teach the important aspect of Esperanto grammar that is its extensive derivational morphology. The translation of "good person" ''bonulo'' is one word but its constituent parts ''bona'' (good) and ''ulo'' (person) can also be used on their own.
286	** In German, [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11195604 "Ein Einhorn hat ein Horn."]] "Unicorn" translates literally to "one-horn", the sentence becomes "a one-horn has one horn".
287	** Irish: "The darkness is dark."
288	** Romanian: "A glass of glass". However, it does use two synonyms for glass in the original language.
289	** Welsh has a variation with regards to its various words for no. "Ydw" and "do" both mean yes, and their counterparts are "nac ydw" and "naddo," both of which translate literally as "not yes."
290	** Swedish: ''The orange is orange.''
291	* ShoutOut:
292	** Several languages make reference to ''WesternAnimation/{{Rejected}}''. "I am a banana!" can be one of the sentences encountered in the Dutch and German courses. "My spoon is too big!" can be encountered in Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
293	** The Chinese course includes the question, "Have you ever seen [[Franchise/KungFuPanda a panda that knows kung fu]]?"
294	** Danish:
295	*** Danish features "There is no spoon", a line from ''Film/TheMatrix''.
296	** German:
297	*** One of the images corresponding to "the adventure" shows Carl Fredrickson and his house from ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}''. "Adventure is out there!"
298	*** [[Franchise/StarWars Leia, is your birthday on the fourth of May?]] ("Leia, is your birthday May the fourth" is accepted as correct, but is not Duolingo's preferred version.)
299	*** [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles "My turtle Raphael is a police officer."]]
300	*** "Who is more attractive, [[Franchise/{{Peanuts}} Snoopy]] or [[Franchise/StarWars Yoda]]?"
301	*** One of the numbers chosen for the course is [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11120694 Zweiundvierzig]] (42). Later, the user can encounter the sentences [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/10990550/ "The answer is 42."]] and [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/10971300/ "The answer is 42. What is the question?"]] These sentences reference Creator/DouglasAdams's ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''.
302	*** "Have you seen my red stapler?" shows up in the "Office" skill, referencing TheRedStapler of ''Film/OfficeSpace''.
303	*** You have to translate "Deine Mutter war ein Hamster!"... to [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "Your mother was a hamster!"]]
304	*** German will ask if your rabbits like cereal, which would be nonsensical if not for the Advertising/TrixRabbit.
305	*** German will make you translate [[Film/TheSixthSense "I see dead people"]] as one of its sentences that teaches the word for "dead".
306	*** German will teach you the first line of ''Literature/TheErlKing''.
307	*** "The bear is not dangerous, his name is [[WesternAnimation/YogiBear Yogi]]."
308	*** The "Community" skill makes several references to a nice neighbor in the neighborhood named [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood Herr Rogers]].
309	** High Valyrian makes many a ''Series/GameOfThrones'' reference. In particular, characters from the show are used as examples for the language's numerous [[BigScrewedUpFamily highly specific words for family relations]].
310	** Greek:
311	*** [[Music/YellowSubmarine We all live in a yellow submarine.]]
312	*** [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse I have the power.]]
313	** Italian:
314	*** Fittingly, the Italian course features the sentence "[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario and Luigi]] are plumbers".
315	*** Italian gives us [[Franchise/ToyStory Woody]]'s famous line, "Ho un serpente nello stivale".
316	** Japanese:
317	*** In the "Emergency" skill, a potential sentence to translate is "The clocks were striking thirteen", a reference to ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
318	*** The Japanese course might inform you that [[Film/MeanGirls on Wednesdays, we wear pink]], or otherwise, it may ask if [[Anime/TheBraveFighterOfSunFighbird this is a pigeon]].
319	*** Also in the Japanese course is "[[Manga/DeathNote If you write a person's name in this notebook, that person will die.]]"
320	*** In the "Emergency 1" course in Japanese, you are asked to translate "[[Music/BillyJoel We didn't start the fire]]", "[[Music/TheBeatles Help! I need somebody]]" and "[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI It's dangerous to go alone]]".
321	*** The "Health 3" course in Japanese has "[[ComicBook/ProfessorX The professor uses a wheelchair, but he can read people's minds]]."
322	*** The "Fantasy 1" course includes several references to ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'', including "The Hero of Time is still a boy", "The hero received a sword and shield from the Great Fairy", and "Princess Zelda prayed for peace".
323	*** The "Conflict" course has "We have taken over all your bases", a famous ''VideoGame/ZeroWing'' [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs quote]] better translated.
324	*** In the "Space" course, there is, "The answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42", which is what was calculated as the answer in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''.
325	*** The Religion 2 course asks people to translate, [[UsefulNotes/JewishHolidays "A great miracle happened there."]]
326	*** The Cooking 2 lesson includes the chant, [[WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob "Mushroom, mushroom!"]]
327	** The Klingon course contains several ''Franchise/StarTrek'' references. Mara from the episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E7DayOfTheDove}} Day of the Dove]]" and Torg from ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'' are used in the practice examples, as are references to the conflict between Worf and Duras from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.
328	** Norwegian:
329	*** The Norwegian course appears to reference ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' in having you translate sentences in which plumbers jump from [[GoombaStomp turtle to turtle]] and liking to see [[InvincibilityPowerUp stars.]]
330	*** The Norwegian course has you translating "Film/{{The Force awakens}}".
331	*** Norwegian references L'Oréal's slogan, "because I'm worth it".
332	*** Norwegian and Swedish feature "It's raining men".
333	*** Another Norwegian one is [[Music/MenWithoutHats "We can dance if we want to"]].
334	*** Another Norwegian example references the game ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors''.
335	** Polish:
336	*** Polish, like Italian, has [[Franchise/ToyStory Woody's line]] "W moim bucie jest wąż!"
337	** Spanish:
338	*** Spanish has "I'm the king of the world" from ''Film/{{Titanic\|1997}}''.
339	*** The symbol for the Spanish "To Be" skill is a skull, possibly referencing the famous "to be or not to be" scene in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
340	*** In the Spanish "Life" lesson, one of the sentences translates to [[Series/BarneyAndFriends "Barney is a dinosaur."]]
341	** Swedish:
342	*** The Swedish course references [[Franchise/DuckTales Scrooge McDuck]] with the phrase "The old duck was swimming in money."
343	** Turkish:
344	*** "My name is Bond. Franchise/JamesBond."
345	** Russian:
346	*** Russian has "A wizard is never late" from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
347	*** Another one from both the Russian course and the Norwegian course is [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire "Winter is coming".]]
348	** Vietnamese:
349	*** [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy "So long and thanks for all the fish"]] is a potential sentence in the Vietnamese course.
350	*** Vietnamese has "Be efficient, be polite, but always have a plan to kill anyone", a BadassBoast from James Mattis.
351	* SkillScoresAndPerks: When learning, each language has a "tree". It used to look like an actual skill tree in the past, but is now just a bunch of rows, each featuring from one to three skills, all of which must be completed before proceeding to the next row. Each skill typically contains from one to ten lessons, which give the user sentences with new words in them. After the tree is completed, one is given a "Golden Owl" marking that they have completed the course.
352	** The November 2022 update: All lessons and stories are mixed up together to form a single line of lessons, divided into numerous units. Finishing a lesson turns its icon gold; finishing a unit reveals a golden trophy for it and unlocks an 8-part Legendary challenge (which, when completed, will turn all of the unit's icons purple). A later update changes the Legendary status to gold, with lessons keeping their unit color unless made Legendary.
353	* TheSociopath: In case you encounter one of them, the Spanish course includes the sentence "He does not have a conscience."
354	* StacysMom: One brief story has the narrator explain that he couldn't resist kissing his friend Tom's mother at a wedding in full view of everyone; his only regret is that doing so angered Tom's dad.
355	* StatusQuoIsGod: Ever wondered why most dating attempts of any cast member, or any significant course change in their lives, eventually fails or isn't mentioned throughout multiple stories?
356	* SureLetsGoWithThat: In "I Want to Be Like You", Eddy's young son finds a whip and leather clothing in a cupboard, and an embarrassed Eddy goes along with Junior's guess that it's lion taming equipment to avoid having to explain what he really uses it for.
357	* TalkingAnimal:
358	** Spanish has "¡Mi gato habla inglés!", which translates to "My cat speaks English!"
359	** French has "Je suis un chat," meaning "I am a cat."
360	** The Welsh course has you asking "How are you, dragon?", and even claiming you ARE a dragon.
361	** Also in the Welsh: "The tiger in the office does not like Owen's parsnips." Why there is a tiger working in the office with Owen is not explored.
362	** And of course, Duo himself.
363	* TemporaryOnlineContent: The Christmas bonus skill was available for purchase from December 23 - 26 every year before 2016. The skill was disabled due to [[https://www.duolingo.com/comment/25656881 site performance issues]], so if a user didn't pick it up in earlier years, the skill was lost forever.
364	* TextbookHumor: There are many odd sentences for you to translate. Ever wanted to ask a Norwegian why there's a Swedish telemarketer in your bed? Duolingo will teach you how!
365	* ThirdOptionLoveInterest:
366	** In the story "The Letter", Zari and Lily stumble upon a letter hidden inside a library book written by a man named José, asking for help deciding between two women to marry: Mónica and Samanta. In the end, they find out that José chose neither woman, and married his friend (and owner of the library) who he wrote the letter to: Gabriela.
367	** Suggested by Léna, one of the ladies Eddy has met in the reality show "Finding Love" (in the story of the same name). Upon finding out that Eddy's second interest, Élise, shares the same interests as Léna's, she asks him to "forget [her] and forget Élise, and find another girl", since now ''she wants to be with her.''
368	* TimedMission:
369	** (Now defunct) Practicing a completed skill gives you this option. Each correctly answered question adds a few seconds to the clock.
370	** On the mobile version, there are occasional timed events to boost XP, such as Match Madness (correctly matching words in your own language to the ones in the language you're studying) and Lightning Round/XP Ramp Up Challenge (plowing through exercises on a timer), in which making mistakes will cost you time. The mobile shop sells time boosts which can be deployed to rescue your progress should you run out.
371	* TrademarkFavouriteFood: Owen in the Welsh course really likes parsnips.
372	* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible:
373	** In the story "The Art Homework", Lily doesn't want to show Oscar her art homework, because she says it's bad. When Oscar takes a look, he declares it to be masterful and that Lily did an excellent job. But when Zari looks at it, Lily's homework is just a blank white canvas. Turns out Lily had forgotten to do her homework, but Oscar is such an art snob that he still thought it was genius.
374	-->'''Zari:''' ''(to Lily)'' [[CaptainObvious You always forget to do your homework.]]
375	** Oscar also shows this trait in the story "That is Art"/"The Work of Art" (see MistakenForExhibit above).
376	* TutorialFailure: When it comes to smaller courses that lack Tips, a commonly-cited problem is that, while the course does try to explain some things, it often relies on explaining the "how", but rarely the "why" of translations--in other words, it tries to make you learn the grammar of your new language through brute force repetition until you get it. At worst, it may demand one sentence structure in one question before demanding another structure in the next, all without giving any indication it needs to change or why the previous one is now unacceptable. Certain courses are so notorious that users have seen the need to write multi-part guides into the forum because Duo just is ''that'' vague about why you got it wrong.
377	** The Catalan for Spanish speakers is a particularly egregious example of this; it helps that the grammar of the two languages are so similar that some lessons are basically vocabulary lessons, but in the not so few cases in which the Catalan grammar rules are different, the only explanations were found in the answers that a couple of very active forum users were giving in the exercises' comments. And when the forum and comment features were deactivated, well...
378	* UndeadChild: One of the more morbid sentences you can find is "My daughter died and became a zombie that tried to eat my brain."
379	* UnexpectedGameplayChange: Some questions, both in lessons and stories, may require outside knowledge (typically geographical) about places that speak the language you're learning, or general implications based on the given plot.
380	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Sometimes, the game asks you to write/translate a word it hasn't taught you yet. Usually, the game gives you a translation when you tap/hold the mouse over the word to help you out, but this feature is not always available. It's particularly noticeable during the "listen-and-write" levels, since figuring out how some words are spelled isn't always obvious. It's also a feature of the browser version-only quizzes, in which you are mostly tested on things you have not learned. Presumably, the game is testing how well you're able to work out the answer based on what you already know.
381	* VoiceOfTheResistance: Some of the sentences in the Catalan course are rather impressively radical-left in outlook, including such entries as "Ni guerra entre pobles ni pau entre classes" (Neither war between peoples nor peace between classes), "No sé si sóc comunista o socialista" (I don't know if I'm a communist or a socialist), and the even more visionary "Volem una república anarquista i esperantista" (We want an anarchist and [[UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperantist]] republic).
382	* WeirdMoon: Finnish: "The moon is as red as blood."
383	* WhatAreRecords: In the story "The Videotape", Junior expresses eagerness to watch his father perform in a school play as a child, which was recorded on videotape. Then he wonders what a videocassette actually is, which the succeeding multiple-choice question prompts the player to answer for him.
384	* WordSaladHumor:
385	** "The bear gave birth to a duck" from the Danish course.
386	** "The green bears are invisible" from the German course.
387	** "After seeing the mouse, he washed the spinach while dancing" from the Spanish course.
388	** "The interesting puppy lives in a high-rise apartment" from the Korean course.
389	** The fascinatingly [[Creator/FedericoGarciaLorca García Lorca-esque]] "Happiness is seeing the smile of the blue turtle" and "You will never have imagined the love that the blue turtle will give you," from the Catalan course.
390	* YouCantGetYeFlask: Sometimes sentences which are correct are not accepted despite having the same meaning because they were written in a different order.
391	* YoureNotMyFather: Russian: "You are not my dad!"
392	* YouWatchTooMuchX: In the story "A Scream on the Night Train", Lin and her grandmother Lucy hear a scream from a neighboring cabin. Lucy wants to go and see if the neighbor needs help, but Lin tells her not to open their cabin door in case there's an AxCrazy murderer on the loose. Lucy then tells her granddaughter, "You watch too many horror movies."
393	[[/folder]]

Context VideoGame / Duolingo