Does Duolingo Have Estonian? No. What About Finnish?

Does Duolingo offer anything close to Estonian?

Yes: Duolingo teaches Finnish, Estonian's closest relative. Both belong to the Finnic branch of the Uralic family, and they share much of their basic vocabulary and grammar. Speakers of one can often follow some of the other, especially in writing. But the phrases you'd learn first are often different words, and some identical words mean something else.

Duolingo also teaches Hungarian, another Uralic language, but it's a far more distant relative: a beginner will find almost nothing in common with Estonian. Babbel and Busuu don't offer Estonian either (checked November 2026).

How to learn Estonian with Qlango

Qlango teaches Estonian at four CEFR levels, from A1 to B2. At A1 and A2 you introduce yourself, talk about daily life in simple sentences and get through everyday exchanges. At B1 you handle most everyday situations and talk about your experiences and plans, and at B2 you hold real conversations on familiar topics and follow the main points of articles.

A lesson works like this. You get a set of short example sentences in Estonian with the translation in the language you learn from, and you answer them in different ways, such as flashcards, picking one of two answers, matching pairs, putting scrambled words in order, writing what you hear and writing the translation yourself. Each example is read aloud by an AI voice, and you can slow it down to catch õ, a vowel Finnish doesn't have. When you finish a lesson, it comes back after one, two, four and eight days and then once more, and any example you needed a hint for returns in harder questions later.

You also choose the language you learn from, so it can be English or your own native language.

Close to Finnish, but not the same

Side by side, the two show shared words, near misses and a few traps:

The numbers show a habit of Estonian: it dropped many of the final vowels Finnish kept. It also has no vowel harmony, so its endings don't change to match a word's vowels the way Finnish ones do.

Like Finnish, Estonian has no grammatical gender, so ta means both "he" and "she", and no separate future tense. It has 14 noun cases, and it distinguishes three degrees of length in vowels and consonants, not always marked in writing: linna can mean "of the town" or "into the town", depending on how long you hold the n. The spelling otherwise follows the sound so faithfully that Estonians like to show off jäääär, "the edge of the ice", with four ä's in a row.

Your first Estonian words

Palun does double duty: you say it when you ask for something and again when someone thanks you. Our full guide to learning Estonian covers the cases, the partitive and a plan for your first month.

FAQ

Is Estonian on Duolingo?

No. As of November 2026, Duolingo has no Estonian course from English or from any other language.

Can I learn Estonian with Duolingo's Finnish course?

Only partly. Finnish gives you shared vocabulary and a feel for the grammar, and helps you read some Estonian. But greetings, many everyday words, spelling and pronunciation differ, and false friends will catch you out: you'd be learning a different language.

What is the best app to learn Estonian?

It depends on what you need. If you want a course organised by CEFR level that goes past the beginner stages, with a fixed review schedule, Qlango teaches Estonian from A1 to B2. Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu don't offer Estonian (checked November 2026).

Is there a free app to learn Estonian?

Qlango is free to download on iPhone and Android, and you can start your first Estonian lesson without creating an account. It also works in your browser.

Will Duolingo add Estonian?

We can't say. Duolingo adds and removes courses over time, so check its catalogue if you're reading this much later.

Estonian isn't the only gap. See every language Duolingo doesn't teach, or compare Qlango and Duolingo side by side. Your first Estonian lesson takes about five minutes.