Duolingo, one of our CNET picks for the best language learning apps, announced Monday that its Explain My Answer feature will be coming to free plans on iOS starting Jan. 1. This is something I have been wanting to see on the free version of the app ever since I tried to use it to learn Italian before traveling to Rome.
"Mistakes might be necessary for learning, but knowing the why behind rules and exceptions helps you build confidence and improve for next time," Duolingo wrote in its blog. "Explain My Answer crafts personalized feedback that takes into account the error you made and what about the pattern or rule can be challenging for learners like you."
Duolingo launched Explain My Answer in 2023, but it was limited to Duolingo Max, which costs $30 a month or $168 a year. The feature explains grammatical rules, such as grammatical gender, and provides further examples to help you understand why you got something wrong.
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After you answer a question in a language lesson correctly or not, an Explain My Answer button will appear near the bottom of your screen. When you tap this button the feature will explain the different parts of the question on either one or multiple slides depending on the question.
I find this feature helpful for learning certain language rules. The lessons do not always make it clear what the different rules are for tenses, for example, and these explainers feel more useful than rote memorization. The feature lets me understand why things are correct or incorrect, not just what a correct answer looks like.
Explain My Answer will be available for English speakers learning Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Korean. Duolingo is working to bring this feature to other languages and free plans on Android devices in the future.
For more on Duolingo, check out our review, and read what to know about chess lessons on the app. You can also take a look at our roundup of the best language learning apps.