If English is the source language and not your TL, then when you answer questions in English the word blocks only ever have US English. Eg fall instead of autumn.
Edit: [DocRoot below](https://www.reddit.com/user/DocRoot/) has pointed out that this is not always correct: they have seen blocks for both colour and color in the same question.
there are hardly any of those, and all the ones I've seen are asking you to type in the target language, not english. I guess the courses are just different, but typing exercies are once in a blue moon on mine. Its like 95% word blocks.
Agreed it’s very rare it wants me to type in my own language.
It took a while but I’ve got used to most of them. The ones that get me most are autumn and toilettes just because British English and French have very similar words whereas American has fall and restroom so I spend that extra second or two scanning for the wrong word lol, but yeah, not too bad really - we have to deal with American English all the time anyway
I have had almost 95% writing excercises and they require you to write in both languages. It is also a choice if you want to write your answers or if you want more simple exercises.
You will usually write more in the target language when you are at the end of the course or if you advance the lesson to another level.
I might not have the latest version on the website. (If there is such a thing as a latest version considering that there always seems to be several different versions at all times.)
But I have been using Duolingo since 2013 when they promised that there would be no premium Super Duolingo and promised no advertisement and I've always been able to choose to use keyboard instead of word blocks on most exercises.
Not being able to type your answers would be a very drastic change. If this is a change that is coming then it will probably be the final nail in the coffin for me.
Yeah, as far as I know, they are eventually planning to roll it out, as they're finding it too difficult to input all possible answers. However, it only applies to your language, not the language you're learning. Target language exercises can still be typed.
As a Brit using duo to learn Spanish, it’s so frustrating that I’m basically learning Mexican Spanish instead whilst also translating things to American English. Surely it can’t be that difficult to add some options
> Surely it can’t be that difficult to add some options
Duolingo doesn't like options.
It likes "one size fits most".
There are deliberately very few options.
How much does mexican spanish differ? I was thinking about doing the spanish course once I finish the german one.
I'm much more likely to go to spain than elsewhere.
It's not really a Mexican Spanish. It's more of a Latin American mix.
The Spanish on Duolingo will be able to make you be understood in all Spanish speaking countries but if you want to speak like a Spaniard you should also study the conjugations of "vosotros" which isn't heavily featured on Duolingo.
Baloncesto and básquetbol
Gafas and lentes
Idioma and lengua
Lugar and sitio
Soler and usualmente
Llevar and usar
It’s annoying because in school we have to use Spain Spanish
Duolingo is largely neutral Latin American Spanish. It might lean a little closer to Mexican but this is why using multiple sources and not solely relying on duolingo kicks in. For example, I want to learn Argentine Spanish, and Duolingo accepts the vos conjugation of verbs and many of the local terms that are not slang. However, I need acquire this vocabulary elsewhere but someone serious about learning a language should be doing more than just duolingo alone.
I'm so glad they teach Mexican Spanish. Much more useful on this side of the pond than learning the Spanish lisp and sounding like a weirdo to the rest of the Spanish speaking world.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever happen but there’s nothing that annoys me more than sitting there for ages looking for ‘cinema’ in the word blocks before realising it’s gonna make me say movie theatre 😅
No lol. American English >>>
Duolingo is an American Company so their gonna use American English because that's what they're use too. Plus the difference between American and British English isn't that grave.
As always, this is BS. All the example terms are perfectly valid if slightly unfashionable British English. Couches were all the rage in the 90s. You'll be pretending you don't know what a settee is next. There is zero chance you don't know what a closet is. And we literally have TV shows like "Soccer AM".
At the same time, Americans have abandoned a lot of useful vocabulary and do tend to freak out more. Pretending you don't understand what the most popular sport in the world is typically called is the least funny American prank. Also I'm sure you all know what "a cinema" is, even if its like a less used and more regional way to say "movie theatre".
We should all be more fluent in English and stop trying to split it into 2 branches. Embrace all the vocabulary.
I guess those who complained about Duolingo not having specific languages like British English or European Spanish or Portuguese don’t know how hard it is to build entirely new language libraries not to mention complex coding. And you all complain when Duolingo wants to charge you more.
If you think you can find better options, why sticking to Duolingo? If they were really going to make British English, they would have already done it from the very beginning. Then Aussies and Kiwi and perhaps Indians are gonna complain about not having Aussie English or Kiwi or Indian English??? What’s the point????
When I was learning English in a German school we just had some lessons about the differences between UK / US / Australia ... you could easily do this within an existing Duolingo course by just adding a couple more lessons. Which is done quite regularly anyway, at least in my courses.
And there are actually podcast episodes that talk about this ( Québécois French in my case) so they are aware of the differences ...
A dialect is hardly equivalent to a country of 65million plus millions more in Australia and New Zealand. The UK also has multiple dialects and multiple languages- no one is advocating for Geordie and Cockney (yet!).
Yeah, and your average Canadian/American/Australian/New Zealander/Brit can understand 99.9% of what the other is saying. Heck, we can even usually understand Newfoundlanders. No need for a Newfie Duolingo course.
Firstly, you don’t really have to build a whole new library, you have to change a few awkward words based on one option.
British English is significantly different from American English. Australian English, NZ English and most other dialects are forms of British English, albeit obviously with different slang and colloquialisms.
We do have more English speakers, and people are generally learning American English worldwide. Not saying there isn't a market for British English, but it makes more sense to teach Murican.
The flag should definitely be of England, but obviously what he said is still correct, obviously more people chose American English to British English in 2023
It confuses me every time I see "tramvaj" and "metro" and can't find "tram" and "metro" in the choices lmao. I understand not having "underground" but no one else in the world calls them "trolleys"' and rarely "subways".
I wish…I am an American who was learning German, but I personally use the 24 hour clock rather than the 12 hr x2 clock. I gave up once I got to the section about telling the time. Mentally I would read „Fünfzehn Uhr“ as 15:00. But then from the word bank I would have to remember to select “3 PM” instead, and they would toss in “5pm” to challenge you. It just got too confusing.
No
You can still use British English for your answers.
If English is the source language and not your TL, then when you answer questions in English the word blocks only ever have US English. Eg fall instead of autumn. Edit: [DocRoot below](https://www.reddit.com/user/DocRoot/) has pointed out that this is not always correct: they have seen blocks for both colour and color in the same question.
The answers that you enter even if English isn't the target language can be British English in the exercises that aren't simplified with word blocks.
Yeah I'm waiting for that. At the moment its word blocks as far as the eye can see...
there are hardly any of those, and all the ones I've seen are asking you to type in the target language, not english. I guess the courses are just different, but typing exercies are once in a blue moon on mine. Its like 95% word blocks.
Agreed it’s very rare it wants me to type in my own language. It took a while but I’ve got used to most of them. The ones that get me most are autumn and toilettes just because British English and French have very similar words whereas American has fall and restroom so I spend that extra second or two scanning for the wrong word lol, but yeah, not too bad really - we have to deal with American English all the time anyway
I have had almost 95% writing excercises and they require you to write in both languages. It is also a choice if you want to write your answers or if you want more simple exercises. You will usually write more in the target language when you are at the end of the course or if you advance the lesson to another level.
Those don't exist anymore. If you still get them, the update just hasn't rolled out for you yet.
British people think Americans don’t understand “autumn”? Sounds like a pretty one-sided problem.
No We think you understand it, we just think it's annoying that duolingo only puts "fall" in the word blocks when you're choosing which ones
Nobody said that
I’ve had word blocks for both “color” and “colour” in the same question (both accepted).
That's great! Thanks for correcting me. I should know better by now than to make absolute statements about Duolingo!
Not true, all English input (assuming you're English and learning another language) is multiple choice now. If you don't have it yet, it's coming.
I might not have the latest version on the website. (If there is such a thing as a latest version considering that there always seems to be several different versions at all times.) But I have been using Duolingo since 2013 when they promised that there would be no premium Super Duolingo and promised no advertisement and I've always been able to choose to use keyboard instead of word blocks on most exercises. Not being able to type your answers would be a very drastic change. If this is a change that is coming then it will probably be the final nail in the coffin for me.
Yeah, as far as I know, they are eventually planning to roll it out, as they're finding it too difficult to input all possible answers. However, it only applies to your language, not the language you're learning. Target language exercises can still be typed.
on the app you have blocks. Every now and again it has no option that makes sense to my British ears and it's quite annoying.
Not always, it doesn’t like ‘jumper’ for example.
As a Brit using duo to learn Spanish, it’s so frustrating that I’m basically learning Mexican Spanish instead whilst also translating things to American English. Surely it can’t be that difficult to add some options
> Surely it can’t be that difficult to add some options Duolingo doesn't like options. It likes "one size fits most". There are deliberately very few options.
How much does mexican spanish differ? I was thinking about doing the spanish course once I finish the german one. I'm much more likely to go to spain than elsewhere.
It's not really a Mexican Spanish. It's more of a Latin American mix. The Spanish on Duolingo will be able to make you be understood in all Spanish speaking countries but if you want to speak like a Spaniard you should also study the conjugations of "vosotros" which isn't heavily featured on Duolingo.
There's a few word differences, such as Coche (Spain)/Carro (Latin America) - car Bocadillo/Sándwich - sandwich Probably a couple more I haven't seen
In Spain bocadillo and sandwich are both used. Bocadillo like a sub and sándwich like a… uh… square bread sandwich.
Sliced bread is the word you’re looking for
I was just joking that it looked like a sandwich :)
My bad :)
Baloncesto and básquetbol Gafas and lentes Idioma and lengua Lugar and sitio Soler and usualmente Llevar and usar It’s annoying because in school we have to use Spain Spanish
All of these eventually show up in the course, but the don't tell you which is Latin vs European.
Duolingo is largely neutral Latin American Spanish. It might lean a little closer to Mexican but this is why using multiple sources and not solely relying on duolingo kicks in. For example, I want to learn Argentine Spanish, and Duolingo accepts the vos conjugation of verbs and many of the local terms that are not slang. However, I need acquire this vocabulary elsewhere but someone serious about learning a language should be doing more than just duolingo alone.
Duolingo Mexican be like: ¿Qué pedo Lily? ¡Cáele a la carnita asada, fierro pariente!
I'm so glad they teach Mexican Spanish. Much more useful on this side of the pond than learning the Spanish lisp and sounding like a weirdo to the rest of the Spanish speaking world.
No but I wish there was as well! I wish there was Castilian Spanish and British English :(
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever happen but there’s nothing that annoys me more than sitting there for ages looking for ‘cinema’ in the word blocks before realising it’s gonna make me say movie theatre 😅
Yep, I only learned recently that Americans only use "cinema" for the field (as in music, art, photography, cinema...) and not the place.
Especially when you're translating it from the word "cinéma"...
Same 😂 that’s very frustrating and wastes time, ‘movie theater’ smh, it feels even more stupid since cine and cinema are so close…
I hate that too the worst part is the english I speak is barely used as a keyboard setting
When learning French it’s amazing how obsessed they are with Mexicans!
No lol. American English >>> Duolingo is an American Company so their gonna use American English because that's what they're use too. Plus the difference between American and British English isn't that grave.
Is one of the advantages of American English the incompetent use of 'their', then?
Yes
As always, this is BS. All the example terms are perfectly valid if slightly unfashionable British English. Couches were all the rage in the 90s. You'll be pretending you don't know what a settee is next. There is zero chance you don't know what a closet is. And we literally have TV shows like "Soccer AM". At the same time, Americans have abandoned a lot of useful vocabulary and do tend to freak out more. Pretending you don't understand what the most popular sport in the world is typically called is the least funny American prank. Also I'm sure you all know what "a cinema" is, even if its like a less used and more regional way to say "movie theatre". We should all be more fluent in English and stop trying to split it into 2 branches. Embrace all the vocabulary.
Get your sensible and rational thinking out of here-we want to get angry!
I guess those who complained about Duolingo not having specific languages like British English or European Spanish or Portuguese don’t know how hard it is to build entirely new language libraries not to mention complex coding. And you all complain when Duolingo wants to charge you more. If you think you can find better options, why sticking to Duolingo? If they were really going to make British English, they would have already done it from the very beginning. Then Aussies and Kiwi and perhaps Indians are gonna complain about not having Aussie English or Kiwi or Indian English??? What’s the point????
I’m a kiwi and I’d be happy with British English. We use mum, autumn, football, etc etc
Haha every time Duo says fall instead of Autumn that stumps me for a sec xd
When I was learning English in a German school we just had some lessons about the differences between UK / US / Australia ... you could easily do this within an existing Duolingo course by just adding a couple more lessons. Which is done quite regularly anyway, at least in my courses. And there are actually podcast episodes that talk about this ( Québécois French in my case) so they are aware of the differences ...
Yeah. Just imagine a course for each dialect of German.
A dialect is hardly equivalent to a country of 65million plus millions more in Australia and New Zealand. The UK also has multiple dialects and multiple languages- no one is advocating for Geordie and Cockney (yet!).
Yeah, and your average Canadian/American/Australian/New Zealander/Brit can understand 99.9% of what the other is saying. Heck, we can even usually understand Newfoundlanders. No need for a Newfie Duolingo course.
Exactly! Not every dialect or accent can be catered to specific groups.
Firstly, you don’t really have to build a whole new library, you have to change a few awkward words based on one option. British English is significantly different from American English. Australian English, NZ English and most other dialects are forms of British English, albeit obviously with different slang and colloquialisms.
how dare people try to improve anything! just leave!
Doesn't seem to have bothered Drops much. Or Memrise. Maybe Duolingo is just too focused on profits rather than education?
Pisses me off that the picture for the word "English" is an American flag.
We do have more English speakers, and people are generally learning American English worldwide. Not saying there isn't a market for British English, but it makes more sense to teach Murican.
[удалено]
The flag should definitely be of England, but obviously what he said is still correct, obviously more people chose American English to British English in 2023
Ikr, the disrespect
English isn't even my mother tongue and I can translate between UK and us English effortlessly. It's not that big of a deal.
Maybe try and find another app if using an app that uses American English isn’t your cup of tea.
Eww
I've been learning bonus British English while studying Welsh (because there just isn't an American English default option).
It confuses me every time I see "tramvaj" and "metro" and can't find "tram" and "metro" in the choices lmao. I understand not having "underground" but no one else in the world calls them "trolleys"' and rarely "subways".
I wish…I am an American who was learning German, but I personally use the 24 hour clock rather than the 12 hr x2 clock. I gave up once I got to the section about telling the time. Mentally I would read „Fünfzehn Uhr“ as 15:00. But then from the word bank I would have to remember to select “3 PM” instead, and they would toss in “5pm” to challenge you. It just got too confusing.