Duolingo teaches in fragments. It's fun, it's easy, but ineffective. It touches a bit on this, and a bit on that, never covering a topic in full. It overloads working memory though it's good for learning vocabulary. For everything else - it creates an illusion of progress
.The goal of any language learning is PRODUCING language, and to be able to do that you must know the rules on how sentences are formed in Spanish. Learning vocabulary is great, LATER, as it will give you flexibility of expression. The longer you delay learning basics of sentence formation, the longer you will wait until you can respond in a conversation in Spanish. This feeling of mastery is not a nice to have. Delay it for too long and you'll get discouraged, and risk quitting your language learning journey.
So catch up now on the basics. Learn how sentences are formed in Spanish, then find someone to converse with, to practice what you learn.