> It works well to learn the basics, which means a few thousand words and the core grammar.

This is not entirely accurate. The better courses on Duolingo teach an excess of 7000 words (8000 for french) as can be seen on DuolingoData[1] and clicking on the W column to sort the courses by words taught.

Clozemaster is a good resource for vocabulary building if you want to supplement Duolingo.[2]

[1] https://duolingodata.com/

[2] https://www.clozemaster.com/

A lot of those word counters count the same words but in different conjugation.

Run, running, ran,... Gosto, gosta, gostamos, gostou, gostei ....

Which I do not. Though your count might be more accurate.

"Your father isn't trying"

fucking lol, the audacity

I meant not trying to learn a language. Plenty of people use Duolingo as a game or puzzle to pass the time without ever going beyond it. I don't see what's wrong with calling a spade a spade.

You are probably right to be honest. I think Duolingo is hyperhyped because of the main market it operates, americans tring to learn a second language, which has a very low bar.

I speak already most of the main languages Duolingo teaches and the other courses are pretty weak

It is not entirely useless, but it is an extremely inefficient way to learn.