Does Duolingo Have Hausa? No, and Where to Start

No, Duolingo doesn't have Hausa. There is no Hausa course on Duolingo for English speakers, and none from any other language either: we read Duolingo's full course catalogue on 11 November 2026, and Hausa isn't in it.

A disclosure: we make Qlango, a language app that teaches Hausa, so we have an interest here. The Duolingo fact above is plain fact, and you can check it yourself on Duolingo's course list.

Does Duolingo offer anything close to Hausa?

No. Hausa is a Chadic language, part of the Afroasiatic family. Swahili and Zulu, the Bantu languages Duolingo teaches, belong to a different family altogether.

The nearest thing is Arabic, and it isn't near. Arabic is Afroasiatic too, but the branches parted so long ago that a learner can't see the kinship. What the two share came later, through centuries of trade and Islam: loanwords like littafi (book) and the days of the week, from Litinin (Monday) to Lahadi (Sunday). For centuries Hausa was written in Arabic script, called ajami, and it still is in religious and traditional writing. None of that makes an Arabic course a Hausa course. Babbel and Busuu don't offer Hausa either (checked November 2026).

How to learn Hausa with Qlango

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

A lesson works like this. You get a set of short example sentences in Hausa 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, which helps with the tones and long vowels that ordinary Hausa spelling doesn't show. 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.

Hooked letters and grammatical gender

Today Hausa is written in the Latin alphabet, called boko, with four extra letters: ɓ, ɗ, ƙ and ƴ. Swap one for the plain letter and you can get a different word:

Plain	Meaning	Hooked	Meaning
da	and, with	ɗa	son
kasa	to be unable	ƙasa	ground, country
baki	mouth	baƙi	black; guests
ya	he (ya zo, he came)	'ya	daughter

For ɓ and ɗ, as in ɓarawo, "thief", you pull air slightly inward; ƙ is a k with a sharp pop. In Nigeria ƴ is usually typed 'y, as in 'yan Najeriya, "Nigerians".

Every noun is masculine or feminine, and gender shows beyond the noun. "He came" is ya zo but "she came" is ta zo, and "you" is kai to a man but ke to a woman. Even "of" changes: littafin Musa is "Musa's book", but motar Musa is "Musa's car", because mota is feminine.

Your first Hausa words

Hausa	Meaning
Sannu	hello
Ina kwana?	good morning, literally "how did you sleep?"
Lafiya lau	fine, very well
Na gode	thank you
Ee, a'a	yes, no
Sai gobe	see you tomorrow

Hausa greetings take their time, and the answers stay positive: to Ina gajiya?, "how's the tiredness?", you reply Ba gajiya, "no tiredness", however tired you are. Our full guide to learning Hausa covers the sounds, the grammar and the full greeting exchange.

FAQ

Is Hausa on Duolingo?

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

How do you start learning Hausa?

Start with the greetings and the four hooked letters. Then learn the three patterns that carry tense in the pronoun rather than the verb: na zo, "I came"; ina zuwa, "I'm coming"; zan zo, "I'll come". Learn every noun with its gender and plural, and listen to Hausa radio. Our guide on how to learn Hausa has a four-week plan.

What is the best app to learn Hausa?

It depends on what you need. If you want a course organised by CEFR level, with a fixed review schedule and audio you can slow down, Qlango teaches Hausa at A1 and A2. Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu don't offer Hausa (checked November 2026).

Is there a free app to learn Hausa?

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

Will Duolingo add Hausa?

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

Working in Lagos rather than Kano? There you'll mostly hear Yoruba: see does Duolingo have Yoruba. Or browse every language Duolingo doesn't teach and compare Qlango and Duolingo. Your first Hausa lesson takes about five minutes.