People search for Uzbek on Duolingo, do not find it, and ask for it in reviews. The short answer is that the course does not exist. The longer answer is that Uzbek is taught elsewhere, by smaller products that are easy to miss.
We make Uzbekcha, which is not available yet. It is mentioned once, at the end. Check each product’s current listing before you decide.
Key points
- Duolingo had no Uzbek course on 17 September 2026, as a language to learn or to learn from.
- The same is true of Babbel, Busuu, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Mondly and Drops on that date.
- Ling, uTalk, Mango Languages, Glossika, Talkpal and a few Uzbek-only apps do list Uzbek.
- Tutors, exchange partners and one university textbook cover what apps leave out.
What we checked
Duolingo publishes its course list. On 17 September 2026 it contained 313 courses covering 44 languages to learn. Uzbek was not one of them. The list does include Turkish, the closest relative of Uzbek on Duolingo, along with small languages such as Navajo, Hawaiian and Scottish Gaelic. Duolingo’s App Store listing describes it as “the fun, free app for learning 40+ languages through quick, bite-sized lessons”, and that is what it is good at for the languages it carries.
This is a statement about one date, not a prediction. Course lists change, so check Duolingo’s current one.
Other large apps that do not offer Uzbek
If Duolingo was your first stop, these were probably next. On the same date Uzbek was absent from the language lists published by Babbel, Busuu, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Mondly and Drops. Memrise is a partial case: Uzbek is not among the languages listed on memrise.com, but we could not check whether older community-made Uzbek decks still exist inside the product.
What does teach Uzbek today
| Option | What kind of tool it is | What its own listing says |
|---|---|---|
| Ling | Course app with games | An Uzbek course with native audio, games, flashcards and a dialogue feature |
| uTalk | Words and phrases by topic | Over 2,500 Uzbek words and phrases, recorded by speakers from Uzbekistan |
| Mango Languages | Conversational course | Uzbek is on its list of available languages; details of the Uzbek course are not stated |
| Glossika | Sentence trainer | Uzbek sentences with native-speaker audio, a placement test, levels from A1 to C1 |
| Talkpal | AI chat | Uzbek is one of the 130+ languages its AI conversation partner supports |
| italki, Preply | Human tutors | One-to-one lessons; a handful of Uzbek tutors on each at the time of writing |
| HelloTalk, Tandem | Language exchange | Practice partners, no lessons or curriculum |
| Uzbek: An Elementary Textbook | Textbook | Grammar and integrated skills, with audio and video for every lesson online |
Everything in the right-hand column is the product’s own description on 17 September 2026. We did not install or test any of them.
How to choose
Start from what you wanted Duolingo for.
A daily habit with short lessons. Ling is the closest in shape: a course with games and flashcards, and its page says lessons are “written and reviewed by native speakers”. uTalk is also game-based, and is built around vocabulary and phrases by topic.
Phrases for a trip. uTalk’s topic lists and the small Uzbek-only phrase apps on the App Store are made for this. Our own phrasebook is free and covers greetings, numbers, the bazaar and taxis, from Assalomu alaykum to Bu qancha turadi?
Understanding how sentences work. Uzbek builds meaning by adding suffixes to a root, which is the part most beginners need explained. The Georgetown textbook takes what its publisher calls a functional approach to grammar, and a tutor can explain it live. Our post on whether Uzbek is hard shows the system in a few minutes.
Speaking with a person. A tutor on italki or Preply, or an exchange partner on HelloTalk or Tandem. Both marketplaces list only a handful of Uzbek tutors, so the choice is narrower than for a large language.
Learning from a language other than English. uTalk says its Uzbek course can be learned from many languages and defaults to the language of your device. Ling asks you to select your native language. For Russian speakers, the App Store also lists IZI, an Uzbek course whose listing is written in Russian.
For the full list, including dictionaries and free material, see the best apps to learn Uzbek and free resources.
Where Uzbekcha fits
Uzbekcha is the app we are building, and it is pre-launch: you cannot download it yet. It is meant to be an AI tutor that writes each lesson for you, explained in your own language (English, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi or Korean at launch), with every Uzbek word split into root and suffixes and spoken aloud. If that is what you hoped Duolingo would offer for Uzbek, the waitlist is open.