No: Duolingo has no Shona course, from English or any other language. Why Swahili and Zulu won't get you there, where to learn Shona, and first words.
Author: QlangoPublished: 4 min read
No, Duolingo doesn't have Shona. There is no Shona 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 Shona isn't in it.
A disclosure: we make Qlango, a language app that teaches Shona, so we have an interest here. The Duolingo fact above is plain fact, and you can check it yourself on Duolingo's course list.
Two relatives, but no substitute. Duolingo teaches Swahili and Zulu, Bantu languages built on noun classes, like Shona. Some roots are even shared: "person" is munhu in Shona, mtu in Swahili and umuntu in Zulu.
Related isn't the same as understandable, though. Knowing Swahili or Zulu won't let you follow a conversation in Harare, and the words you need first have nothing in common: "thank you" is ndatenda in Shona, asante in Swahili and ngiyabonga in Zulu. Zulu is close to Ndebele, the language you'll hear most around Bulawayo, but for Shona, the first language of most Zimbabweans, neither course will do. Babbel and Busuu don't offer Shona either (checked November 2026).
Qlango teaches Shona at A1 and A2, the first two levels of the CEFR scale. At A1 you greet people properly, 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 get through everyday exchanges.
A lesson works like this. You get a set of short example sentences in Shona 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 hear the whistle in zvakanaka. 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.
Bantu languages sort nouns into classes, each marked by a prefix that usually changes in the plural. Set Shona beside Duolingo's two Bantu courses and you see the shared system, and how far apart the words are:
| Meaning | Shona | Swahili | Zulu |
|---|---|---|---|
| person, people | munhu, vanhu | mtu, watu | umuntu, abantu |
| child, children | mwana, vana | mtoto, watoto | umntwana, abantwana |
| thing, things | chinhu, zvinhu | kitu, vitu | into, izinto |
| tree, trees | muti, miti | mti, miti | umuthi, imithi |
In Shona the class then runs through the sentence: mwana anotamba, "the child plays", but vana vanotamba, "the children play"; munhu uyu, "this person", but vanhu ava, "these people". Change the noun and everything that agrees with it changes too.
What neither Swahili nor Zulu has is Shona's whistled sv and zv: s and z said through rounded lips, with a faint whistle, as in zvinhu, "things", and Masvingo, the city near the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. English has nothing like them, so learn them by ear.
| Shona | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mhoro | hi, to one person; Mhoroi to more than one, or respectfully |
| Mangwanani | good morning |
| Masikati | good afternoon |
| Manheru | good evening |
| Makadii? | how are you? (respectful) |
| Ndiripo, makadiiwo? | I'm fine, and you? |
| Ndatenda | thank you |
Respect is built into the greetings. You say makadii, the plural form, to an elder even when you're talking to one person, and a polite reply is Ndiripo kana makadiiwo: "I'm well, if you are well." Our full guide to learning Shona covers the whistled sounds, the noun classes and a plan for your first month.
No. As of November 2026, Duolingo has no Shona course from English or from any other language.
Only a little. You'd get used to noun classes, but you'd still meet Shona's vocabulary, greetings and whistled sounds for the first time.
It depends on what you need. If you want a course organised by CEFR level, with a fixed review schedule and translations in English or your own language, Qlango teaches Shona at A1 and A2. Duolingo, Babbel and Busuu don't offer Shona (checked November 2026).
Qlango is free to download on iPhone and Android, and you can start your first Shona lesson without creating an account. It also works in your browser.
We can't say. Duolingo adds and removes courses over time, so check its catalogue if you're reading this much later.
Shona isn't the only gap. See every language Duolingo doesn't teach, or compare Qlango and Duolingo side by side. Your first Shona lesson takes about five minutes.
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