When learning a foreign language, many people often get stuck on grammar. They recognize all the words, but don't know why they use sentences incorrectly. Now, when encountering these troublesome grammar problems, the familiar green "Qingler" can explain things clearly. Duolingo recently announced that the AI feature Explain My Answer, previously only available on the paid Duolingo Max plan, is now officially available free of charge to all learners.
This update is seen as a significant milestone for Duolingo in terms of product experience in recent years, demonstrating that Duolingo continues to incorporate artificial intelligence into its learning system to lower the barriers to language learning, help learners move beyond simply memorizing answers, further understand grammatical context, and deepen their grasp of language structure, culture, and practical usage.
Learning grammar through understanding
The core idea of "Explain My Answer" is to provide immediate, personalized explanations after learners answer a question correctly or incorrectly, rather than simply displaying the correct answer. Mistakes are almost inevitable in language learning, but simply knowing you're "wrong" without understanding why often leads to repeating the same errors. By explaining rules, exceptions, and usage contexts, learners can better understand the logic behind the language, build confidence, and are more likely to make the right choice next time.
Deep learning of complex systems such as French and Korean
The new "Explain My Answer" feature dynamically generates feedback based on the type of error a user makes and common learning difficulties encountered in their native language. For example, grammatical gender is a major challenge for many native English speakers learning European languages. In French, for instance, all nouns, whether referring to people, animals, or inanimate objects, must be categorized as masculine or feminine, affecting articles, adjectives, and even past participles. For instance, "une table" (a table) is feminine, while "un livre" (a book) is masculine. This categorization often lacks intuitive rules and requires extensive memorization and practice. Such errors are common for learners whose native language lacks a concept of grammatical gender. "Explain My Answer" specifically points out the reasons for gender judgments and consistency, helping learners gradually internalize these concepts.
Besides grammatical gender, French also presents challenges such as complex verb conjugations, diverse tenses and moods, and significant discrepancies between written and spoken forms. For example, the same spelling may be silent or connected in different contexts, which are common points of confusion for beginners. Immediate explanations allow learners to understand the rules as they make mistakes, rather than having to refer to the instructions afterward.
As for Korean, the difficulty stems from a completely different system. Korean word order is typically subject-object-verb, which isn't intuitive for beginners. Furthermore, Korean verbs and adjectives change according to tense, honorific class, and speaking context.
In this context, "Explain my answer" goes beyond simply pointing out "where it's wrong," explaining "why it's used that way." Learners can choose whether or not to view the explanation, maintaining control over their learning pace; they can also immediately understand the correct form after answering, deepening their memory and comprehension. For beginners, this reduces frustration; for more advanced users with high Duolingo scores, it helps refine grammatical details and word accuracy.
Currently, "Explain My Answer" supports most Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Korean courses, and is expected to expand to more languages in the coming months. Duolingo stated that making this new feature free is to create world-class education and benefit users worldwide.
This article, "Duolingo's Free Release of Explain My Answer: Enhancing Understanding-Based Learning of Complex Grammar," first appeared on ABMedia, a ABMedia .
