Does Duolingo Have Frisian? No. What to Use Instead

Does Duolingo offer anything close to Frisian?

Duolingo teaches Dutch, which is genuinely useful in Fryslân: every Frisian speaker also speaks Dutch, and modern Frisian has borrowed a lot of Dutch vocabulary. But Frisian isn't a Dutch dialect. It's a separate language, official in Fryslân alongside Dutch, with its own spelling, sounds and literature, and a Dutch speaker who has never learned it struggles to follow a conversation.

English is the other surprise: Frisian is among its closest relatives, so the start of an old rhyme reads almost like English. Bûter, brea en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries: butter, bread and green cheese; whoever can't say that is no true Frisian. Babbel and Busuu don't offer Frisian either (checked November 2026).

How to learn Frisian with Qlango

Qlango teaches West Frisian at A1 and A2, the first two levels of the CEFR scale. At these levels you introduce yourself, talk about daily life in simple sentences and get through everyday exchanges.

In a lesson you work through short Frisian example sentences, each with the translation in the language you learn from. You answer them in several ways, such as flashcards, picking one of two answers, matching pairs, putting scrambled words in order and writing the translation yourself, which is where the circumflex on hûs and bûter has to go in. Every lesson comes back after one, two, four and eight days and then once more, and examples you needed a hint for come back in harder questions later.

You pick the language you learn from: English, or your own native language if you'd rather.

Between Dutch and English

Next to Dutch and English, you can see why speakers of both recognise so much, and why neither can simply guess it:

Tsjerke shares the softened first sound of church, where Dutch kerk kept its k, and skiep has a vowel much closer to sheep than to schaap.

Then there's breaking. Some vowels change when a word gets an ending: stien, stone, sounds roughly like "stee-un", but stiennen, stones, is closer to "styin-un". Foet, foot, becomes fuotten, feet, said "fwot-un". Stien and stiennen look almost alike on the page, so this is something you learn by ear.

Your first Frisian words

The hj in hjit sounds like "y". And moai is the word Frisians reach for whenever they approve of something. Our full guide to learning Frisian covers the spelling, the word order and a plan for your first month.

FAQ

Is Frisian on Duolingo?

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

Can I learn Frisian with Duolingo's Dutch course?

Not really. Dutch helps you read some Frisian and get by in Fryslân, but the spelling, pronunciation and many everyday words differ, so you'd be learning a different language.

What is the best app to learn Frisian?

It depends on what you need. If you want a course organised by CEFR level that teaches West Frisian from English, with a fixed review schedule, Qlango teaches it at A1 and A2. Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu don't offer Frisian (checked November 2026).

Is there a free app to learn Frisian?

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

How do you learn Frisian?

Start with the spelling, what ea, oa, ie and the circumflexes stand for, and a few greetings. Then learn the core verbs and the word order, which works much as in Dutch.

Will Duolingo add Frisian?

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

Dutch is the nearest Duolingo course to Afrikaans too, with the same caveat: see does Duolingo have Afrikaans. Or browse every language Duolingo doesn't teach and compare Qlango and Duolingo side by side. Your first Frisian lesson takes about five minutes.