Alternatives to Duolingo for European Portuguese

Duolingo teaches Brazil. These teach Portugal.

10 Oct 2026Gustavo Mendonça

Does Duolingo teach European Portuguese?

No. Duolingo's Portuguese course teaches Brazilian Portuguese, and there is no setting that switches it to the Portuguese of Portugal. The words, the recordings and the grammar are all Brazilian.

That is not a small detail if you are moving to Lisbon or Porto, or you have a partner or family from Portugal. People in Portugal will understand your Brazilian Portuguese, but you will have a hard time understanding them back, and some of the everyday words you learned are simply not the ones used there.

What you would learn differently

A few examples of what a Brazilian course teaches you, and what you will hear in Portugal instead:

The train and the bus. Duolingo teaches trem and ônibus. In Portugal it is o comboio and o autocarro.

Breakfast and your phone. Café da manhã and celular in Brazil; o pequeno-almoço and o telemóvel in Portugal.

What you are doing right now. Brazil says estou falando; Portugal says estou a falar.

Talking to a friend. In Portugal you use tu with friends and family, with its own verb forms. Brazilian courses mostly teach você, which in Portugal can sound distant.

The sound of it. European Portuguese swallows its unstressed vowels, so telefone sounds closer to "tlfon". If your ear was trained on Brazilian recordings, real speech in Lisbon sounds fast and blurred, and that is the hardest part to fix later.

So the question is not which app is best in general. It is which app teaches the Portuguese you will actually hear. If you want the longer list, with the Brazilian apps compared as well, read our guide to the best apps to learn European Portuguese.

What a Duolingo replacement needs

Most people who look for an alternative like what Duolingo does and only want the right Portuguese. So we looked for four things:

Portugal's Portuguese. European audio, tu used the Portuguese way, estar a + infinitive, comboio and not trem.
Short daily lessons. Something you can do in ten minutes on the bus, like Duolingo.
A path to follow. Levels and an order, not a pile of words to sort out yourself.
Speaking and listening. Something that makes you hear real European speech and open your own mouth.

The alternatives at a glance

Prices are in US dollars as published on 7 October 2026, and may have changed.

#	App	European Portuguese	Price	Best for
1	Speeku: European Portuguese	Built for European Portuguese	$19.90 one time	A Duolingo-style course for Portugal
2	Portugal Lifestyle Pro	Built for European Portuguese	Free download; $49.99 / year	Lessons plus moving to Portugal
3	Drops	European Portuguese option	Free 5 min a day; $64.99 / year	Five minutes of vocabulary a day
4	Linguno	European and Brazilian audio	Free	Free verb drills and listening
5	Conjuguemos	European forms included	Free for learners	One tense at a time, against the clock
6	Michel Thomas Portuguese	European Portuguese	$152 one time	Understanding how sentences are built
7	Pimsleur Portuguese (European)	Dedicated EP course	$19.99 / month, or $300 for the full course	Speaking out loud from day one
8	Frazely	European Portuguese	$24.99 / 6 months; a few stories free	Reading short stories
9	Anki	Whatever you put in it	Free; $24.99 on iPhone	Making words stay, for good
10	Memrise	Community EP decks	$61.99 / year; limited free tier	Flashcards without the setup
11	italki	Filter for tutors from Portugal	About $10 to $25 an hour	Speaking with a tutor, from A2
12	Tandem	Filter for partners in Portugal	Free with ads; $69.99 / year	Chatting with people in Portugal
13	Duolingo	Brazilian only	Free with ads; Super $83.99 / year	Building a daily habit
14	Babbel	Brazilian course	$89.99 / year	Structured lessons that explain
15	Busuu	Brazilian Portuguese	Free with ads; $79.99 / year	Corrections from native speakers

Like Duolingo, but for Portugal

Short lessons, a path and a daily habit, with European Portuguese from the first word. If you are leaving Duolingo, start here.

Speeku: European Portuguese

Built for European Portuguese$19.90 one time, no subscriptionAndroidspeeku.com

Three screens of the Speeku app: the course map, a picture drill asking for comboio, and the verb ter conjugated — The course map, a picture drill and a verb table in Speeku

Speeku is the closest thing to Duolingo for European Portuguese, and we built it because we wanted exactly that. It has the same shape: a map of short lessons, a few new words at a time, and exercises that keep changing so you do not get bored. The difference is the Portuguese. It teaches o comboio, o pequeno-almoço, estou a falar and tu the way people in Lisbon and Porto use them.

There are more than 1,000 lessons from A1 to B1, with 11,500 exercises in 60 different kinds: pick the picture, build the sentence, fill the gap, fill in the verb table, answer in a dialogue. Every word and sentence is spoken aloud in Portugal's accent, and 70 lessons ask you to say the answer out loud. The app checks that you said the right word, on your phone, without recording or uploading anything. It does not grade your accent, and it does not pretend to.

A dictionary of 7,000 entries with European pronunciation and full verb tables is built in, and the whole app works offline. You pay once and keep it: no subscription, no ads, no streak to protect.

Good for

Leaving Duolingo without leaving the format
Portugal's accent on every line
Learning on the plane or in the metro

Watch out

Android only for now
A big download, because the audio comes with the app

Get Speeku on Google Play

Portugal Lifestyle Pro

Built for European PortugueseFree download; All Access $49.99 / year or $9.99 / monthiOS, Android, webportugallifestylepro.com

A newer app with lessons on the CEFR scale, audio recorded in Lisbon and Porto, games and an AI conversation partner. What sets it apart is that it is written for people moving to Portugal: there are guides to the districts, the culture and even the immigration paperwork alongside the language.

It is young and there are few independent reviews of it yet, so try the free part before you pay for a year.

Good for

People relocating who want the paperwork and the language in one app

Watch out

Few independent reviews so far

Drops

European Portuguese optionFree for 5 minutes a day, with ads; Premium $64.99 / yeariOS, Androidlanguagedrops.com

Drops is often what people reach for when they want a Duolingo that is not Brazilian, because European Portuguese is its own choice in the app. The sessions are five minutes of swiping beautifully drawn pictures, and as a daily habit it works.

But it only teaches words, by topic. There is no grammar and almost no sentences, so on its own it will not get you to a conversation. Use it next to a course, not instead of one.

Good for

A quick, pretty vocabulary habit

Watch out

No grammar or sentences; ads in the free version

For the grammar Duolingo never explains

Duolingo lets you guess the rules. These tools spell them out, and they all include the forms Portugal uses.

Linguno

European and Brazilian audioFree, no paid tierWeblinguno.com

A free website with verb conjugation drills, vocabulary with spaced repetition and listening exercises, where you choose to hear European or Brazilian speakers. That choice is rarer than it should be. It looks like a website and has no course path, so think of it as a practice room for the verbs your course has already taught you.

Good for

Conjugation and listening with European voices, for free

Watch out

No app and no curriculum

Conjuguemos

European forms includedFree for learners (schools pay for class tools)Webconjuguemos.com

Made for school classrooms and free for everyone. Pick a tense and some verbs, and race the clock. It includes the tu and vós forms that Brazilian courses leave out, which makes it a good fix for the gap Duolingo leaves. Verbs only, nothing else.

Good for

Ten minutes on a tense that will not stick

Watch out

Verbs only, in a browser

Michel Thomas Portuguese

European Portuguese$152 one timeAudio appmichelthomas.com

The opposite of Duolingo's method. Instead of tapping through exercises, you listen to a teacher building up the language with two other students, and by the end you are making sentences you have never heard rather than repeating ones you have. It suits people who like to understand why. It is a few hours of audio, not a daily app, so pair it with something that gives you vocabulary.

Good for

Beginners who want the logic before the drills

Watch out

Little to practise between lessons

For your ears

The hardest part of European Portuguese is understanding it at full speed. Duolingo's Brazilian audio does not prepare you for that.

Pimsleur Portuguese (European)

Dedicated EP course$19.99 / month subscription, or $300 one time for the complete European courseiOS, Android, webpimsleur.com

Pimsleur's European Portuguese page: Discover how to learn Portuguese (European) with the Pimsleur Method — pimsleur.com/learn-portuguese-european

One of the few big names with a separate European Portuguese course. Each lesson is thirty minutes of audio that asks you to answer out loud before you feel ready, and brings phrases back just before you forget them. It is great for pronunciation confidence in the first weeks, and you can do it in the car.

The European course has only two levels, so it ends early, and since it is audio only you never see the words written down. Do it first, then move on.

Good for

Learning while driving or walking

Watch out

Only two European levels

Frazely

European Portuguese$24.99 / 6 months or $8.99 / month; a selection of stories freeWeb, iOS, Androidfrazely.com

Short graded stories with the vocabulary explained as you read, and European Portuguese listed as its own language. Duolingo rarely gives you more than a sentence at a time; this is where you start reading paragraphs. Better once you know the basics than as a first app.

Good for

Reading after the first few months

Watch out

A supplement, not a starting point

Your own flashcards

If you liked Duolingo's reviews, a flashcard app with European decks does that part even better.

Anki

Whatever you put in itFree on desktop and Android; $24.99 one time on iPhoneDesktop, Android, iOSapps.ankiweb.net

The flashcard program serious learners swear by: free, open source, and very good at bringing a word back just before you forget it. It is European Portuguese only if your cards are, so you build your own decks or check shared ones carefully. Expect an evening of setup and a learning curve.

Good for

Your own cards, reviewed for years

Watch out

Setup takes time; no speaking practice

Memrise

Community EP decks$61.99 / year or $24.99 / month; limited free tieriOS, Android, webmemrise.com

Friendlier than Anki and closer to Duolingo in feel. The European Portuguese decks are mostly made by other learners, so the quality varies a lot from one to the next. Flashcards, not a course.

Good for

Vocabulary and phrases with no setup

Watch out

Uneven European decks; the best parts are paid

Apps that get you talking

No app replaces a real conversation. Once you can say a few things, these get you talking to people from Portugal.

italki

Filter for tutors from PortugalPer lesson; most tutors from Portugal charge $10 to $25 an hourWeb, iOS, Androiditalki.com

A marketplace of online tutors, with plenty from Lisbon, Porto and the rest of Portugal. It is the fastest way to improve your speaking and the most expensive hour on this page. Choose a tutor whose profile says Portugal, not just Portuguese.

Good for

Speaking, corrected by a person

Watch out

The cost adds up; no structure between lessons

Tandem

Filter for partners in PortugalFree with ads; Pro $69.99 / year or $14.99 / monthiOS, Androidtandem.net

A language exchange: you help someone with your language and they help you with Portuguese, by text, voice or video. It is free, and the easiest way to see how people in Portugal really write. You need a few words first, and some nerve.

Good for

Real messages from real people, for free

Watch out

Needs a base level to start

Not alternatives: also Brazilian

The other big apps have the same problem as Duolingo. Switching to one of them will not change which Portuguese you learn.

Duolingo

Brazilian onlyFree with ads; Super Duolingo $83.99 / year or $12.99 / monthiOS, Android, webduolingo.com

Listed here for comparison. Nobody builds a daily habit better, and if a streak is what keeps you going, that is worth something. But the Portuguese course is Brazilian from start to finish, with no European option, so it trains your ear on the wrong accent.

Good for

Showing up every day

Watch out

Brazilian only, with no European option

Babbel

Brazilian course$89.99 / year or $17.99 / monthiOS, Android, webbabbel.com

More grown-up than Duolingo and better at explaining what it teaches. The Portuguese course is Brazilian, so it is the same problem at a higher price.

Good for

Lessons that explain the grammar

Watch out

Brazilian Portuguese only

Busuu

Brazilian PortugueseFree with ads; Premium $79.99 / year or $9.99 / monthiOS, Android, webbusuu.com

Native speakers in the community correct your written and spoken answers, which no other app here does. But the course is Brazilian, and the people correcting you will mostly be Brazilian too.

Good for

Corrections from real people

Watch out

Brazilian; the useful parts cost money

Can I keep using Duolingo and add European Portuguese?

You can, but it is harder than it sounds. The grammar is mostly shared, so Duolingo will not teach you wrong rules. The trouble is the ear and the everyday words: every day on Duolingo trains you on Brazilian sounds and Brazilian vocabulary, and you then spend time unlearning them. If you already have a long streak, keep it for the habit, and do your main learning in a course built for Portugal.

Which one should I pick?

If you liked Duolingo and want the same thing for Portugal, take a course from the first group: Speeku if you want a full path from A1 to B1 that works offline, Portugal Lifestyle Pro if you are moving and want the practical side too. Add Pimsleur for your ears in the first month, and a flashcard app for the words that will not stick. Once you can hold a short exchange, book a tutor from Portugal on italki or find a partner on Tandem.

And before you pay for any app, check which Portuguese it teaches. If it does not say Portugal, it means Brazil.

Sources. The facts about the other apps come from our own guide to the best apps for European Portuguese, which draws on these three reviews:

Portugalist, The best apps for learning European Portuguese
Portugal Lifestyle Pro, Best app to learn European Portuguese
Actual Fluency, 15 best apps to learn Portuguese

Screenshots of the other apps are of their own websites, taken in October 2026. Speeku's are from the app.

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