Does Duolingo Have Persian (Farsi)? What to Use

Farsi, Persian, Dari: one language

Farsi is what Persian is called in Iran. In Afghanistan its local standard is Dari, and in Tajikistan the national language, Tajik, is Persian written in Cyrillic letters. Speakers of the three understand each other reasonably well. Most learning material follows the standard of Iran. If Central Asia is your goal, Qlango also teaches Tajik as a separate course.

Does Duolingo offer anything close to Persian?

Duolingo teaches Arabic, and at a glance the two look alike: Persian is written right to left in the Arabic script and took in many Arabic words. They're still different languages from different families. Persian is Indo-European, a distant cousin of English, which is why مادر (mādar) is "mother" and برادر (barādar) is "brother". Its grammar and everyday words are its own, it adds four letters for sounds Arabic doesn't have, پ (p), چ (ch), ژ (zh) and گ (g), and it pronounces several shared letters differently. An Arabic course teaches you Arabic. Babbel and Busuu don't offer Persian either (checked November 2026).

How to learn Persian with Qlango

Qlango teaches Persian at A1 and A2, the first two levels of the CEFR scale. At A1 you introduce yourself and handle simple, familiar phrases. By the end of A2 you can talk about your family, work and daily life in simple sentences and manage routine exchanges.

A lesson works like this. You get a set of short example sentences in Persian script 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 building the sentence yourself. While the script is still new, you can show a Latin transliteration under the words and hide it once you read on your own. Each example is read aloud by an AI voice, and you can slow it down. 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.

Written Persian and spoken Persian

Persian grammar is kinder than it looks. There's no grammatical gender: او (u) means both "he" and "she". The ezafe, a short -e- that is usually not written, links a noun to what describes it: کتابِ من (ketāb-e man) is "my book".

What surprises learners is how much everyday Tehran speech shortens what you read:

Learn both from the start, the written forms for reading and the spoken ones for talking, or you'll sound like a newspaper. Seeing the pairs again and again on a schedule is what makes both stick.

Your first Persian words

Yes, the everyday thanks is the French word, and nobody in Tehran finds that odd. Our full guide to learning Persian covers the alphabet, verb stems and a plan for your first month.

FAQ

Is Farsi on Duolingo?

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

What is the best app to learn Farsi?

It depends on what you want. If you want a course organised by CEFR level, in Persian script with an optional transliteration and a fixed review schedule, Qlango teaches Persian at A1 and A2. Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu don't offer Persian (checked November 2026).

Is there a free app to learn Persian?

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

Will Duolingo add Persian?

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

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