Doe NormaalLearning Dutch after Duolingo: what to use next
Updated
Duolingo's Dutch course takes you to about A2: that's the level its last section is marked with. Duolingo added more advanced lessons in 2026, but only for nine languages, and Dutch isn't one of them. (Not sure you're really at A2? Our Dutch level test takes five minutes.)
So if you've finished the course, or the lessons have stopped teaching you anything new, you haven't done anything wrong. You've reached the end of what an app that starts from zero can give you. Here's what's still missing, and what fills each gap.
What Duolingo gave you, and what it skipped
You know well over a thousand words, you can read simple Dutch, and you can build a correct sentence when you get time to think. That's a real base, and it wasn't wasted time.
What it didn't train: Dutch at normal speed, Dutch the way people really write it (a group chat is full of ff, wss and sws), the small words that carry the tone (toch, eigenlijk, gewoon), and speaking without a word bank to tap on.
None of that needs another beginner course. It needs real Dutch, a lot of it, at a level you can just about follow.
1. Read Dutch that wasn't written for a course
Reading is the quickest way from A2 to B1, because you meet thousands of words in sentences that mean something. Start with short texts about everyday life: news for children, easy-to-read books, messages.
This is the gap we made Doe Normaal for. You read (fictional) Dutch dating profiles and follow a group chat full of drama, written the way Dutch people really text. Tap any word for an explanation in English, and a quiz brings the words you looked up back until you know them. It's free, and it expects you to know the basics, which you now do.
More to read, with four short texts to try right away: Dutch reading practice for A2 and B1.
2. Listen to Dutch at real speed
Duolingo's audio is one clear sentence at a time. Real Dutch is fast and swallows half its letters, so your ears need practice of their own.
Start with the NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal: the news in easy Dutch, every weekday on NPO 1 and afterwards on NPO Start. Then the podcast Een Beetje Nederlands, in clear Dutch with a free transcript for every episode, and Easy Dutch on YouTube: street interviews with subtitles in Dutch and English.
And switch on the Dutch subtitles when you watch Dutch television. Hearing and reading the same sentence is the easiest listening practice there is.
3. Start speaking before you feel ready
Nobody feels ready. Book a tutor for conversation only (italki and Preply both have Dutch tutors, paid per lesson), or go to a taalcafé: many Dutch public libraries run one, free, where you talk Dutch with volunteers and other learners.
One warning: outside the classroom, Dutch people tend to answer in English the moment they hear an accent. There are ways around that: how to stop Dutch people switching to English.
4. Keep the words you find
From here on, nobody hands you a word list. Every word you look up is one you needed, so save it, together with the sentence you found it in, and look at it again a few days later.
Doe Normaal does this for you: every word you tap goes on your list with its sentence, and the quiz brings it back until you can type it from memory.
Should you keep your Duolingo streak?
If the streak is what makes you open a Dutch app every day, keep it. Five minutes won't hurt. Just stop counting it as your practice: at A2, that time does more for you in a text or a podcast.
A week that works
Ten minutes of reading a day. Two podcast episodes or news broadcasts a week. One real conversation a week, however short. And the words you looked up, repeated. Keep that up and you'll notice the difference.