Duolingo sentences are madness

Whilst I sourced some of these myself, a big ol thanks for the help from Twitter @DuolingoStrange for the rest. I don't know how that Twitter user's sanity is robust enough to look through these crazy phrases every goddamn day, good luck to em.

[darkshado]

Norwegian has a bunch of good ones that form a story "My wife hates me", " I am getting divorced", "She is taking the kids" and " I am eating bread and crying on the floor"

[EarlHare]

The silly and weird sentences are very deliberate. They are something you are extremely unlikely to hear out in the wild so it trains you to listen to each word and actually comprehend what is being said rather than just guessing the sentence based on what it's most likely to be saying.

[pacifistcowboy]

they could make a horror movie out of someone learning a language but all the translations get gradually more specific, personal, and threatening

[nadie]

1:59 Love is blind, but the neighbour ain't (El amor es ciego, pero el vecino no) is an actual proverbial phrase in spanish. It means that the lovers may not see the toxic traits or red flags that their couples may have because they are in love, but people outside the relationship can see them more objectively because their judgement is not affected by the feeling of afection, thus why it is a good idea to look for advice from friends or people outside of the relationship

[videoket]

For real though, Duolingo actually DOES make me think about what a sentence really means. It's easy to lapse into "auto mode" when translating sentences like "where is the bathroom?" and "do you want dinner?" but it's hard to do that with a sentence like "the boy eats 23 beetles."

[Eggslovemetoo]

My mum used to do Dutch on Duolingo (before giving up and doing Welsh instead) and one phrase she used to get quite frequently was "You might be a duck."

[Alicia-zfnq]

I was once having a bad day and figured some Duolingo might cheer me up. The sentences I then had to learn: "You're a complete disappointment", "You will fail" and "You are annoying and unlikable". Needless to say, it did the opposite of improving my mood

[ToranDoesGaming]

I love how "I want to live in your shoes so I can be with you every step of the way" is really wholesome and then after that its just "The end is soon."

[minecraftgames]

"love is blind, but the neighbours ain't"
this sounds a lot more like a sun tzu quote than a stupid duolingo sentence

[rayeraykaydenn]

I’m currently learning Greek. So far, I’ve only learned one color. Pink. It pops up in practically all my sentences. The pink water. The pink toast. The pink soup. The bread and the fish are pink. The pink water. The pink water. THE PINK WATER. STOP TELLING ME WATER IS PINK.

[isaacharvey]

Questionable sentences I’ve gotten from the Korean course: “A man is not food.” “I am slow.” “Duo is a police officer.” “There is no bed in the park.” “The men fall down together at the library.” “Movies are meaningless.” “Books are meaningless.” “Is an orange a vegetable?” “Is coffee a fruit?” “He buys a fox.” “The cat eats a banana.” “The doctor lies in the room.” “The cat is going to school.” "Germans and Russians are learning the Korean alphabet together."

A few my brother has gotten from the Norwegian course: “My husband doesn’t eat children.” “Bears have bicycles.” “Are they eating spiders?” “I don’t know who I am.”

[tandemdwarf]

My new favorite sentence from German Duolingo is "Markus is going for a walk with his plants"

[thekrautist]

When I was attempting to learn Spanish it would throw such interestring phrases my way, like "I am a horse" and "I have a knife". Clearly very useful phrases to know, and I suppose their strangeness is what makes them stick in the mind so it works BECAUSE it's weird.

[annalisasauter]

"Love is blind, but the neighbors ain't." That quote had me rolling. 🤣

[mekafinchi]

one of the more interesting parts of this is that much of it is by design, ridiculous sentences that are still grammatically correct are good for challenging your understanding

[Robin_Gray]

I don't remember any disturbing sentences, but once I was learning English and I got this: "The princess wanted to kill the monster, but then she saw three baby monsters. The monster had a family!" and it was so cute 😭✨

[Picobits]

The absolute comedy gold of "the end is soon" and then the video ending. Matt Rose is truly a genius of comedic timing. 10/10

[embercat]

Once on Duolingo, I got a “choose the right response” which was: “My brother is really smart.” The answer choices were either: “Is he single?” or “Where is the nearest hospital?”. Apparently the right answer was to ask whether he was single. Strange conversations the Duolingo staff must have…

[sackkharine]

fun fact: all duolingo sentences are made by language experts, and they make the sentences weird on purpose for their own amusement. I think it’s also to help users learn more :D

[Zendro_s]

I got a weird duolingo sentence,
“The horses are cooking the farmers”