One of the best somewhat new additions to Duolingo is Duolingo Stories! Duolingo Stories are short stories that you listen to while you read along. As you go along, you fill in the blanks in the conversation and practice vocabulary as well as your listening skills.
UPDATE: Duolingo Stories no longer has its own tab, instead they are dispersed throughout the course itself.
If you want Stories on their own, Super Duolingo has added that as a new feature in their Practice tab.
What Languages Have Duolingo Stories?
Not every language has Duolingo Stories as an option. Here are the languages that currently have Duolingo Stories available:
- Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and German for English speakers
- English for Portuguese speakers
- English for Spanish speakers
- English for Chinese speakers
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If the language course you are currently completing doesn’t have the book icon on the bottom of the app, then that language does not have Duolingo Stories available yet.
However, Duolingo is constantly adding new updates (one of which is FINALLY Italian Duolingo Stories YAY!) so keep an eye out for the language you are learning!
How Many XP Can You Earn When Completing a Duolingo Story?
One of the best ways to earn XP SUPER fast is by completing Duolingo Stories. In the first set of Stories, you earn 14 XP per story. In the second set, you earn 16 XP.
From there, it varies depending on your language and how many stories they have created. In French, you can get up to 28 XP per story in Set 24.
Not every language will have that many sets. Your language might have more beginner stories available, so the XP that you earn will be less.
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How to Unlock Duolingo Stories
In order to unlock Duolingo Stories, you need to reach Checkpoint 1 or earn 10 crowns on your Duolingo tree. After that, you have to complete all of the stories inside of a set before you can move on to the locked stories in the next set.
Do Duolingo Stories Get Harder?
Yes, Duolingo Stories get more difficult as you get further along. The stories that are more difficult will earn you more XP.
Unlike the main lessons of Duolingo, you can definitely tell when the stories get more difficult. As you progress through the sets, there will be less and less English and more of the language you are learning.
The native speakers will speak faster and they will use more words that you may not be familiar with.
That is why you have to unlock the sets before moving on, since the later stories may be too difficult for the level you are currently at language-wise.
If you want to learn a language faster than ever, I also highly recommend reading Benny Lewis’s book on how to learn a language in JUST 3 months.
How is a Duolingo Story Different from a regular lesson?
In a Duolingo Story, you are listening to a conversation between two people. The Story has a name that is the theme of the conversation, like a short story.
As you go through, there are different exercises that Duolingo has you do that test your listening and reading comprehension.
The first one is having you listen to a phrase and then you have to choose what words you heard. First, they will just have a few words missing like this:
Then they will have you fill in an entire phrase without any hints which will be slightly more difficult.
One of the best parts about Duolingo Stories is that they also act as a reading comprehension test like you used to take back in school.
Throughout the lesson, they will ask you questions about what’s going on, like “What is so-and-so upset about?” or “What is so-and-so feeling right now?”
These questions require you to have a deeper understanding about what is happening in the story.
They aren’t translation based, but comprehension based, which is somewhat new for Duolingo!
The last part of a Duolingo Story takes new vocabulary from the lesson and has you match them to their English translation.
This helps you realize what words you learned during the lesson through context alone or through the questions in the lesson.
I really enjoy this part because it shows the power of comprehensible input, which is when you understand enough about what is going on that you can infer the meaning of the words that you don’t know.
Duolingo Stories does this well by making the stories only slightly more difficult as you go on and taking away bits of English as you progress as well.
I hope you enjoy listening to Duolingo Stories!
Language Learning Must-Haves
- iTalki Language Classes: The #1 reason why I’ve been able to learn languages from home. Take conversation classes from a native speaker for only $5-$10 an hour.
- How to Be Fluent Books: Two of my favorite books about language learning have definitely got me super excited about learning a language and I highly recommend reading both!
- Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It
- Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World
- A Language Planner: Keep track of your scheduled language classes, set language goals, and organize your study schedule with my favorite planner ever.
- Harry Potter in Your Target Language: Reading a beginner book that you’re familiar with is an incredible way to learn vocabulary quickly!
- The Perfect Language Notebook
More About Duolingo:
- Duolingo Crowns Explained: What You Need to Know
- The Ultimate Guide to Gems and Lingots in Duolingo
- Understanding Duolingo Leagues
- What is XP in Duolingo?
- A Simple Guide to Restoring Skills in Duolingo
Dayna Brockbank is a travel and language-learning blogger who has lived around the world but has now settled in Nice, France. She speaks 3 languages at varying levels of fluency: Spanish, Italian, and French, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Spanish Education. She and her husband focus on making travel part of life by living cheaply and traveling on a budget.
Rod Barratt
Sunday 11th of September 2022
Love the stories. Done all available on mobile. Says more will appear. But it’s been a year - no new stories! Disappointing.
Andrew
Saturday 21st of May 2022
Stories appear in the tree now. Do the Stories appear in the tree where they should be learned, or is that random?
Andrew Viceroy
Thursday 7th of July 2022
Okay, I think that I'm where I am in the stories is where I am on the tree now. This is because they just bumped the stories up closer to where I am on the tree, and the content of the story related to the lesson. The story was "Too Nice" in set 45, and it relates to "Probably" in Level 7 of the tree, as there was a subjunctive conjugation with an expression of doubt in the story that I hadn't seen yet as well. Hope that helps if anyone is trying to figure out which stories they should be doing compared to where they are on the tree.
Andrew
Friday 10th of June 2022
So, once I finished the next row, it asked if I wanted to do some stories. I said OK and it updated my stories (which were half done), but it both stayed at the level I was at, and it didn't "follow" me down to the next row. So, I would presume, I'm "behind" in where the stories are compared to where I am in the tree. Next I will just keep on working on stories, until I clear out the section and see if it bumps me way up to where I know it's too advanced for me. Keep you posted.
Andrew
Wednesday 25th of May 2022
@admin, I've tried knocking several of them out and they've just been repopulating with three more each time, but I can't know if maybe that's just because I'm really behind in the Stories for where I am on the tree. Now I'm going to leave them there and continue with the tree for a while and see if the stories "follow" me.
Andrew
Wednesday 25th of May 2022
@admin, Yeah, I don't want to do them all too early, when it isn't relative to the current/proximate lesson, but I don't want to lag behind either. I wish they'd tell us.
admin
Tuesday 24th of May 2022
I've noticed them pop up in the tree or after finishing a lesson as well. I'm guessing it's the next story that you should finish, but it could be random as well! You can still do stories in the story tab though, the tab in the app looks like a book.
N
Tuesday 22nd of February 2022
Stories have disappeared from my duo, I think. Did I lose them?? Is there a way to get them back?
admin
Friday 4th of March 2022
What language course were you studying? Try quitting the app and reopening it. Also, check other courses to see if Stories is still there. Not every language has Duolingo Stories so that might be the problem. I hope you get it figured out!
Sapna
Monday 28th of December 2020
The real benefit of stories comes from doing them a second time, because then Duolingo hides entire dialogues, which really tests your listening comprehension.
Paul
Friday 13th of January 2023
@Sapna, I think stories are a real benefit to learning a language. Mine says they have temporarily disappeared and will be back after a quick fix. It's been two days and they're not back.