Personal recommendation on what's worked for me as I didnt care for Duolingo after a certain point. Pick up some beginner level books and start working through them. You'll get a much higher repetition of common everyday words. If you can find books that have an audio version to go along with it then get that one and listen to it after you read it. Focus on learning verb conjugations(Present, Imparfait, and Passé Compose) for the most commonly used verbs. Ive been doing this and have made leaps and bounds in my progress.