Duolingo English Test speaking practice

The Duolingo English Test (DET) is taken online and lasts about an hour. Four of its tasks are spoken: you describe a photo, answer a written prompt, have a short conversation with an animated character, and record a longer Speaking Sample that institutions receive as a video. You get at most 30 seconds to prepare, and your answers are evaluated by Duolingo's grading engine rather than by a live examiner.

Airi is a voice AI partner you can rehearse those tasks with. Ask her for a topic and talk for 90 seconds, describe a photo to her, or have her ask short questions one after another. She answers out loud and shows one small fix at a time. She does not score you; she gives you practice at speaking at length before the timer is real.

A quick example with Airi

Let's rehearse Interactive Speaking. I'll say each question only once. First: what do you usually do on weekends?

On weekends I usually go to the beach near my town with my friends. We swim, and after that we eat seafood at small restaurant.

A full answer. Small fix: "at a small restaurant." Follow-up: why do you like the beach more than staying in town?

Because the town is very crowded on weekends, and at the beach I can relax and clear my head.

That's a clear reason. One more on this topic: how has that beach changed since you were a child?

It has changed a lot. There used to be only a few fishing boats, but now there are cafés and many more visitors.

Try a conversation like this, free600 free credits, about 8 minutes of speaking. No card.

The four Duolingo English Test speaking tasks and their timings

Duolingo's Official Guide for Test Takers (2026) describes a test of about an hour: about five minutes of setup, roughly 45 minutes of adaptive questions, then about 10 minutes for the Writing Sample and Speaking Sample. Each of the four speaking tasks appears once per test. The timings below are from the Duolingo English Test help center.

Task	Preparation	Speaking time	What happens
Speak About the Photo	20 seconds to look	Up to 90 seconds	The photo stays visible while you speak. You get one recording.
Read, Then Speak	20 seconds to read	Up to 90 seconds	The prompt stays visible while you speak. Answer every part of it.
Interactive Speaking	None: the timer starts when the character stops speaking	Up to 35 seconds per answer	An animated character asks 6 to 8 questions on two topics. Each is heard once, and the follow-ups depend on your answers.
Speaking Sample	30 seconds to read	1 to 3 minutes	One topic at length. Institutions receive it as a video, along with the topic.

The guide's rules apply throughout: no notes, no headphones or earbuds, and eyes on the screen. Plan in your head.

What the DET grading engine evaluates in your speaking

There is no live examiner. The guide says open-response answers are evaluated by a grading engine trained to understand English proficiency the way expert human raters do, while human proctors review every test session for security. The aspects it lists for speaking include:

Content: relevance and development. Answer every part of the question, then support it with a reason or an example.
Discourse coherence: clarity, cohesion, and progression of ideas. Link each step with words such as "first", "because", and "that's why".
Vocabulary (lexis): diversity, sophistication, and word choice. Reach for the precise word: "a crowded market", not "a market with many people".
Grammar: complexity and accuracy. Combine simple and complex sentences, and keep your tenses consistent.
Fluency: speed, natural use of pauses, and reliance on filler words, repetition, and starting and stopping. Duolingo's Scoring Guide for Teachers (2026) adds that some hesitation is natural; it is frequent disruption that makes speech harder to follow.
Pronunciation: intelligibility, individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress, and intonation. The same Scoring Guide says any standard English accent is accepted if it is easy to understand.

The guide reports Speaking as one of four individual subscores and says their average, rounded to the nearest 5, is your overall score, from 10 to 160.

DET speaking practice prompts, and how a strong answer begins

These prompts imitate each task; they are not real test questions. The guide says questions are drawn from an extremely large pool, so you are highly unlikely to meet the same one twice. Practice the task type, not a list of answers.

Task	Practice prompt	A strong answer begins
Speak About the Photo	A photo of a street market at night.	This photo shows a busy night market. In the foreground, a vendor is handing a customer a bag ...
Read, Then Speak	Talk about a place in your town that visitors should see. What can they do there? Why do you recommend it?	I'd recommend the old harbor. You can walk along the water, and on weekends there's ...
Interactive Speaking	How do you find out what is happening in your city?	Mostly from my phone. I follow a couple of local news accounts, and ...
Speaking Sample	Should every student have to learn a musical instrument? Why or why not?	I don't think it should be required, though everyone should get to try one. My main reason is ...

Phrases that keep a Duolingo English Test answer moving

The moment	Say
Guessing what is happening in the photo	It looks as if they've just left work, because they're both wearing suits.
You don't know a word	He's holding a tool for cutting branches. I'm not sure what it's called.
You said the wrong word	The man is cooking, or rather, serving the food.
Moving to the next part of the prompt	As for why I recommend it, ...
No time to prepare	Off the top of my head, I'd say ...
Wrapping up the Speaking Sample	So overall, I'd still choose the smaller city, mainly because of the cost.

Use these to get past a moment, not as a script. The guide asks you to respond naturally, in your own words, with answers that are specific to the topic.

DET speaking mistakes, and what to say instead

Instead of	Say	Why
There is a man. There is a dog. There are trees.	A man is walking his dog along a path lined with trees.	A list of objects leaves the listener guessing what is happening. Duolingo's tip is to describe the image as if explaining it to someone who can't see it.
This image depicts a fascinating scene with many interesting elements.	Three children are flying a kite on a windy beach.	A sentence that fits any photo describes none of them. Memorizing answers is also against the test rules.
In the photo have a woman. She sit in the left side.	There's a woman in the photo. She's sitting on the left.	Use "there is" to introduce someone, the present continuous for an action you can see, and "on the left".
My city is ... my city has ... it have many parks.	My city has a lot of parks.	The guide lists repetition and starting and stopping under fluency. Finish the sentence you started and move on.
Yes, I do. (Asked: "Do you cook at home?")	Yes, most evenings. I usually make something quick, like fried rice, because I get home late.	Duolingo's tip for Interactive Speaking is to speak as much as you can before you submit, while still addressing the question that was asked.

A DET speaking rehearsal with Airi

Airi does not grade your answers or estimate a DET result. Free credits cover about eight minutes of speaking, so rehearse one or two tasks per sitting, with your own photo and timer. In the test you read the prompts for Read, Then Speak and the Speaking Sample on screen; here Airi says them out loud.

Interactive Speaking: "Ask me six short questions on two topics, one at a time. Say each question only once, and make your follow-ups depend on my answers." Allow 35 seconds each.
Speak About the Photo: study any photo for 20 seconds, then say: "I'll describe a photo you can't see. Afterward, tell me what you pictured." Talk for 90 seconds.
Read, Then Speak: "Give me one topic with three questions, then listen while I answer all three." Plan silently for 20 seconds.
Speaking Sample: "Ask me one opinion question about education and let me talk for up to three minutes." End on a natural conclusion.
After each small fix, repeat the corrected sentence once, then redo that answer inside its time limit.

How to get the most from it

Answer on the first hearing

Interactive Speaking questions are heard once, and the 35 seconds start when the character finishes speaking. Practice answering right away, without asking for a repeat.

Rehearse on camera

The Speaking Sample goes to institutions as a video. Record yourself answering one opinion question with your eyes on the screen, then watch it back.

Natural pace, clear words

Duolingo's own tip is to speak at a natural pace and enunciate clearly. If you stumble on a word, recover and keep going.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Airi follow the DET speaking format?

As a role-play, yes. Ask her for a round of Interactive Speaking and she will ask short questions one at a time and respond to what you say; ask for a Read, Then Speak or Speaking Sample topic and she will give you one and listen. She is a practice partner, not the test software and not a scoring tool, so bring your own photo for Speak About the Photo and keep your own timer.

Is this official Duolingo prep?

No. Airi is an independent AI speaking partner, not affiliated with or endorsed by Duolingo. For official material, go to englishtest.duolingo.com: Duolingo publishes its Official Guide for Test Takers there, and the guide says you can take the free practice test as many times as you want.

How do I practice without a partner?

Talk to Airi in your browser at any time. She answers out loud, reacts to what you said and shows one small fix at a time, so you get two-way practice on your own. Signing up with Google gives you 600 free credits, about eight minutes of speaking; after that there are one-off credit packs, with no subscription. Duolingo's guide also suggests talking to yourself in English: narrate what you are doing, or describe a childhood memory out loud.

How long should I speak in each Duolingo English Test speaking task?

The Duolingo English Test help center gives Speak About the Photo and Read, Then Speak 1 minute 30 seconds each, and Interactive Speaking 35 seconds for each of its 6 to 8 questions. Duolingo's official guide says the Speaking Sample allows a response of 1 to 3 minutes. The help center's advice for the Speaking Sample is to speak for as long as you can and come to a natural conclusion before you submit.

Can I take notes or wear headphones during the DET speaking tasks?

No. The rules in Duolingo's Official Guide for Test Takers include: don't take notes, don't use headphones or earbuds, don't speak until instructed, and don't look away from the screen except when typing. The guide accepts that looking up while you search for a word is natural, but asks you to try to look at the question as you answer it. Rehearse the same way: plan silently and keep your eyes on the screen.

Do universities see my DET Speaking Sample?

Yes. Duolingo's guide says institutions that receive your results also receive your Writing Sample and Speaking Sample, and that the Speaking Sample is sent as a video recording, so they can see you as well as hear you. The help center adds that the topic is shared with them too, so make sure your answer stays on that topic.

Last updated: 2026-10-03