How english words do you know

How many English words do you know?

Have you ever wondered how many English words you know? The question is not very precise — what does it mean to ‘know’ a word? is teacup a word or a combination of two words? how about tick off? is game (something you play) a different word from game (wild animals)? Nevertheless, it feels good to put some kind of number on your vocabulary.

Testyourvocab.com will estimate the size of your passive English vocabulary (the words that you can understand; not necessarily use in a sentence) by showing you a sample of words from a dictionary to determine your general level, and then another sample to get a more precise measurement. You can then compare your result with native speakers and non-native speakers of various ages.

The authors have also published some interesting charts based on the data they’ve collected.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, my score was 26,400.

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35 Comments so far ↓

hello tom,
nice to see you back.

btw. my score is 13.400 with a lot of words I’ve met frequently, but couldn’t remember their meaning

I followed instructions carefully. My vocab score was 18,100. There were some words which I could recognize but I don’t remember their meanings now. I did not check them. Now Tom has to answer how big one’s passive vocabulary should be in order to understand everything that is thrown at you both spoken and written.

I tried again, checking the words I had heard of but couldn’t remember their meaning (not those I heard for the first time) just to see what options there are for people who answer about 98% on the first page. The choice of words offered on the second page includes a large number of those that originate from other languages (French, Latin) or those not especially important to know (in my opinion) such as tureen and similar stuff
So I don’t see why getting the top score (for ex. 35 000) would be especially praiseworthy

My score is 3,990 words 🙁

I have to improve my English using Antimoon method 🙂

So, what?
how do you know if your vocab is poor?

My score was 20,000, quite good
, still not good enough 🙂 I’ve finished SuperMemo Speed Up, now I am learning with SupermemoUX. When I am done with all its parts uo to proficiency, I will tackle SM proficiency:)

you guys know a lot about dishware and parts of pens

Hi,
17500, I’ve been using supermemo for 2 years and keep using it.

Having a huge passive vocabulary is pointless. We need a small number of words to express ourselves eloquently but what we need is solid fluency that will come only with constant interaction with native speakers on a daily basis.Also, having a decent pronunciation goes a long way. Source: Experience

after taking the test second time my vocabulary was estimated as 16 600

I’ve got the biggest Aug 5, 2011 at 4:01 pm

I think this website is very stupid, and the only purpose of it is for people to pretend, having the biggest ePenis.
I’ve seen this site before, on an ordinary non-ESL themed forum, and half of the people there pretended to have a result between 10000 – 20000 words.
That’s quite ridiculous If you compare this to the statistics.
Only people who have been abroad for 2 years have a score higher than 10.000, and only people who’ve been abroad for over 10 years have a score of 20.000 or more.

I’ve never been abroad, but I’m a passionate English learner. I listen to native speakers on a daily basis. I read English texts on the Internet every day. I watched a TV series in English. I played and finished computer games in English.
I’ve been chatting with native speakers. etc.

Well, my score is always between 7.500 and 10.500. I only checked words, that I could translate to my native language.
When I mark all words, that I think I’ve seen or heard before, my score is 19.600.

There are words, like “sparge” which are not even listed in the longman, oxford, or cambridge dictionary.

The test doesn’t check if you really know the word. I bet, most people didn’t even read the description, and just checked words, that they think, they’ve seen before.
On the other hand, people will think that they know a word, because it’s spelling or pronunciation is very similar to a word in their native language. However, most of those words are false-friends.
Another thing is that people will confuse words,
for example:

dissemble, disassemble
dairy, diary
lessor, lesser
sapling, sibling
reproach – has nothing to do with approach
grouse, goose
bawl, bowl
pittance, has nothing to do with pitty
befit, benefit
stirrup, sirup
squall, squirrel
abscond, ascend
chaste, chest
bludgeon, dungeon
botch, crotch
burgeon, has nothing to do with burglar
prig, prick
captious, captive, has nothing to do with capture

and I could give you 50 other examples.

some other things:
people might know that ostrich is an animal (with feathers), but do they really know which kind of animal it exactly is? If not I wouldn’t check the box.

tandem – that’s a bicycle in many languages, but did you really know that tandem is tandem in English, and not a false friend? If not you shouldn’t check it.

I’ve got the biggest Aug 5, 2011 at 4:08 pm

by the way, the forum I’ve mentioned, was not even an English forum.

How many English words do you need to know

How many English words do you need to know to speak like an Englishman?

One option is to measure your vocabulary and determine how well it matches the average native speaker. At the same time, you need to understand that vocabulary is not the only component of the language. You can memorize the translation of a thousand words, but not be able to connect them.

One way or another, we decided to figure out how many words are used by those who speak English fluently.

What words are in our vocabulary?

First, it is worth deciding how we can define one verbal unit. Is it possible to consider a word, its forms and derivatives as different words (to dance, dancing, danced)? In the matter of counting vocabulary, they are most often taken as one unit.

Secondly, you need to clearly understand that there is an active and passive vocabulary. That is, words that you can easily use in speech, and words that you can understand when reading or hearing them from a native speaker, but not use. Naturally, our passive verbal piggy bank is always more active. When counting, we will only talk about active vocabulary.

How many words does an Englishman know?

Surely you have a hefty dictionary at home, which is a little intimidating with its impressive volume. The latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionnary does indeed include over 300 articles. But this does not mean at all that any Englishman owns such volumes of words.

Thus, this number of the most frequent words is enough for an Englishman to serve everyday everyday communication.

How many words do you need to learn?

So, we found out that in order to communicate in simple and ordinary situations, you only need to know 2000 words. Naturally, not any. First of all, you should pay attention to the most commonly used English vocabulary. If you are studying English for professional purposes, for example, to work in the United States as a cook, you will need to add a certain amount of special vocabulary to the «top».

There is evidence that 120 of the most useful words will be enough for «survival» in the country (for an explanation in the most elementary communication situations).

The speed and success of mastering English vocabulary will depend solely on you. It will be great if you make it your goal to convert your passive stock to active stock.

That is, reading, listening to English texts, you will notice new words and wonder in what situations you could use them, build your own phrases with them.

To give you a rough idea of ​​how a non-native speaker learns vocabulary in courses, here are the vocabulary correlation data (active vocabulary) and the level of English proficiency according to CEFR:

We strive for such indicators in English courses in Yaroslavl with our students. Of course, blindly memorizing isolated words will not help you successfully master the language. As usual, we advise you to memorize words in collocations (phrases), actively use new vocabulary in speech. Attend classes on a regular basis and work independently.

How many words do I already know?

Check how many lexical units are in your passive dictionary you can, using the curious resource Myvocabularysize.

A source: http://dnschool.ru/events/skolko_angliyskikh_slov_nuzhno_znat_chtoby_govorit_kak_anglichanin/

Minimum English vocabulary

Hello everybody! Each language contains a certain number of tokens. The complete vocabulary of English is about 300 words. Of course, such a figure will discourage a beginner from learning a foreign language. However, I hasten to reassure you that you will not need to learn all these lexemes, since even educated native speakers have an arsenal of about 000 words. Today we will find out how many English words you need to know to speak English fluently.

There are techniques for learning English in which students are forced to learn up to 200 words every day. For some, this approach is applicable, but for the majority, these numbers remain incomprehensible, and the words learned do not bring them closer to free communication with native speakers. In my opinion, the best organization of classes is, on the contrary, saving words, that is, memorizing less, but more efficiently.

You should not chase after quantity, you should have quality in your prerogative. It is much better if you know 1000 words by heart than knowing 3000-4000 bad lexemes. Each teacher defines their own minimum required number of lexemes. But only you can decide how many words you need to know in order for them to be necessary and sufficient to achieve your goals.

How many English words do you need to know?

Experience shows that the minimum vocabulary of 450 correctly chosen lexemes can compensate for about 90% of the vocabulary arsenal required for fluent everyday communication in English. For comfortable English reading, you need a little more words, but passively. With a knowledge of approximately 1600 lexemes, you will be fluent in fiction and journalistic texts.

The famous teacher, polyglot and methodologist E. Gunnemark made calculations of the required vocabulary for the English language, dividing them into several categories.
So, he calculated that for oral speech it will be enough to learn from 40 to 1000 correctly selected, most frequent words:

I note that these indicators are not exact calculations, but a general idea of ​​how many units you need to remember in order to feel confident when communicating with native English speakers.

Again, these are indicative figures only. In some cases, you will be able to understand the text, knowing only 45 words, and in others, you will not have enough knowledge and 1.

Why know 100 words?

What a rich vocabulary gives:

Thus, for you as a foreigner, knowing 9 English words will be enough to confidently study, work and live among English speakers.

I also note that knowledge of this vocabulary alone does not guarantee you free communication. To be able to speak a foreign language requires practice and constant training, knowledge of basic knowledge of English grammar and syntax.

As for international vocabulary and special terms, here you should not have any special difficulties. Since it is enough to check these words once with the term in the native language and remember.

Core vocabulary levels

In teaching practice, teachers and linguists identify several levels of the core vocabulary that serve as a guide for the beginner. They significantly reduced the huge gradation, creating a list of three main levels:

According to this graduation, 2 words are enough for a beginner for everyday communication in English. Again, I note that everything is relative, and only you yourself determine how many English words you need to know. But you shouldn’t overload yourself with a lot of unnecessary information either.

Track which words you come across most often, clarify their translation, preferably in context, write them down and memorize them. And when you master your minimal vocabulary arsenal, if you have the time and desire, you can always learn a few dozen more new foreign words.

Good mood to you all and pleasant study!

A source: https://englishfull.ru/znat/slovarnyj-zapas.html

How many words do you need to know in order to speak English fluently?

The Oxford Dictionary contains over 1 million words. But, of course, no one knows all the words of the English language. In everyday life, in standard situations, we use no more than 7-10 thousand words. But here we are talking about native speakers. How many words do you need to know in order to feel confident in an English-speaking environment?

The Oxford Dictionary contains over 1 million words. But, of course, no one knows all the words of the English language. In everyday life, in standard situations, we use no more than 7-10 thousand words. But here we are talking about native speakers. How many words do you need to know in order to feel confident in an English-speaking environment?

Not necessarily a few thousand, sometimes a couple of hundred words are enough. If you learn the most commonly used words, you will be able to navigate in any language situation and conduct full-fledged communication. We have already talked about how to memorize new words. How many words in your stock will you be able to communicate freely with?

If you know 400-500 words

This is the lowest or threshold level that will give you the ability to communicate in standard situations. Once abroad, you will be able to answer questions in monosyllables, orient yourself at the very least in a conversation, and understand what is happening by intonation. But you will not be able to claim the title of the best interlocutor.

If you know 800-1000 words

You not only perceive English-language information well by ear, you are guided in standard situations, but you can also enter into dialogues if the topic of the conversation is familiar to you.

If you know 1500-2000 words

You will be able to communicate freely throughout the day, unless the topics of conversation are too sophisticated. You can talk about everyday topics, but in a conversation about art, politics, philosophy, you can hardly act as an active interlocutor.

If you know 3000-4000 words

You communicate freely in an English-speaking environment, read the press and fiction. You, most likely, can be considered by many as an interesting interlocutor.

If you know 8000 words

The fact that you are not a native speaker can only be indicated by an accent, if you have not managed to get rid of it. You can read and write English fluently and conduct daily and business communication.

This vocabulary is enough to get higher education abroad.

Owning so many words, every day, almost unconsciously, you will replenish your vocabulary with new lexical units: you will hear something, read an unfamiliar word, pay attention to an interesting neologism.

If you know more than 10 words

This vocabulary is owned by an educated native speaker. Have you reached this point? In this case, you will hardly need our tips on how to learn English words and replenish your vocabulary.

A few tips for those who want to quickly become a participant in live communication in English:

You can check your vocabulary using the testyourvocab.com service.

A source: https://enguide.ru/magazine/skolko-slov-nuzhno-znat-dlya-togo-chtoby-svobodno-govorit-na-angliyskom

How many words do you need to know in English for normal communication?

The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 1 million words. In order to communicate fluently in English, you do not need to know even a tenth of this amount. So how many words does a person need to know to communicate?

Here’s a simple example: The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 1 million words. Do not be intimidated by this figure, because in order to communicate in English, you do not need to know even a tenth of this number. And yet, how many words does a person need to know for free communication in a foreign language, including English?

We will talk exclusively about oral speech and your ability to maintain a conversation, which means about an active vocabulary, which, as you know, is much less passive. A person can pronounce about 7 thousand words in their native language per day (and this is according to the most conservative estimates). Of course, this is only a quantitative indicator, many words are repeated in our speech.

Here you will definitely understand that English is easy, you just have to want it!

We will not talk about how to memorize English words more effectively, we will tell you how many words you need to learn for full communication. For example, knowing 50 irregular verbs, you will already be able to navigate in familiar situations:

You have 400-500 words in your vocabulary

This is the threshold level, the so-called survival level. If suddenly with such a vocabulary you find yourself in an English-speaking environment, then you can survive in it, but hardly anyone will consider you an interesting interlocutor.

And yet, if you have chosen the right words, that is, you know the most frequently used vocabulary, then even 400 words will be enough to understand a foreign speech in the most ordinary situations and communicate with other people.

In most cases, with such a margin, you will remind the interlocutors of a cute dog with an all-understanding look.

800-1000 words

When you cross this line, you go from being an active listener to a participant in the conversation. You can explain yourself in English in a familiar situation. But as soon as the conversation touches on topics unfamiliar to you, you will again feel like at the previous level.

1500-2000 words

3000-4000 words

With such a margin, you can not only actively communicate, but also read newspapers. Therefore, you will be able to discuss the latest events with friends and colleagues, talk on various topics and even be known as an interesting interlocutor.

8000 words

If you get rid of the accent, it is quite possible to pass for the average Briton. With so many words, you will be able to speak, read and write in English, in rare cases feeling a lack of vocabulary.

Vocabulary spoken by an educated native speaker. If you have reached this line, you can safely correct mistakes in the speech of less educated native speakers.

You can check your vocabulary thanks to the testyourvocab.com service.

Let’s note a few main rules that should be followed in order to start fluently speaking English as soon as possible:

The funny series «Extra English» will help you to increase your vocabulary and quickly speak English.

We wish you success in communicating in English!

A source: https://enguide.ua/magazine/skolko-slov-neobhodiom-znat-na-angliyskom-dlya-normalnogo-obshcheniya

How many English words do you need to know | Articles in English on Study.ru

And it’s true: how many English words do you need to know in order to understand what they sing about in songs and speak in films? What vocabulary should you have in order to reflect the speech of a native speaker in the slightest degree? How can a beginner not be intimidated by the dictionary given by the teacher, which, oh mine god, contains 355000 words? Do they need to be learned directly?

And here it is worth considering:

The well-known «group of British scientists» were still puzzled by the question of how many words are in their native language:

You’ve probably heard about the 80/20 Pareto method: to assimilate 80% of the information, you need to put in 20% of the effort. This method also works in learning English vocabulary.

To understand 95% of the text, it is enough to have vocabulary about 3000 words.

Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to set yourself the goal of knowing every word of the English language. You will not reach it. Even a native speaker has a vocabulary of no more than 20000 words. It is suspected that he does not even know about it.

No, no, no doubt, a rich vocabulary is important and really needs to be increased. What is really worth focusing on is using words that you already know as often as possible in speech.

Focus on sentence formation, not the number of words learned. The skill to build a sentence from the current vocabulary will lead you to the desired result faster.

How many words do you need to know at each language level

As we know, the levels of the English language have their own hierarchy. And each of them corresponds to the approximate number of words with which you should be able to operate.

Beginner A0

At the stage of acquaintance with the language, it is too early to talk about a certain amount. The vocabulary is limited to the knowledge of the letters of the alphabet and a maximum of 200 words from the series: dog, cat, London, please, no / yes.

Once you find yourself in the environment of native speakers, you will only feel pain and sadness, so you shouldn’t dive in there yet.

Elementary a1

About 2000 words will become available to you at the A2 level. This means that you have already stopped stuttering with excitement when you are asked something about life views, leisure time or upcoming travels.

You are already at a fairly confident level with a vocabulary of 3000 units. You will not be at all embarrassed by the question: «What do you feel about me?» You will be able to describe your emotions without being afraid to choose the appropriate epithet. It is no longer scary to be alone in an English-speaking city and ask for directions to the airport. And sometimes the most detailed description of it to a lost tourist of level A1.

At this stage, you can no longer lose face and must deftly master a vocabulary of 4000 words. You already have everything you need to communicate with native speakers: a good speed of perception of someone else’s speech, the ability to verbally and in writing express your thoughts and personal views.

Advanced C1

Fluent c2

Native speaker level. Ideally, here your vocabulary reaches such heights that it is difficult to count: more than 6500 words. Even if a highly educated Englishman is «slipped» into you during a conversation, you will not be at a loss and tell him about your dissertation in colors.

How many words do you need to know to speak fluently

And again, back to the question: how many words do you need to have in the lexicon in order to speak fluently and understand a native speaker?

The level of a fluent speaker is not measured by the number of words in your vocabulary, but by your ability to use them in everyday speech. You are simply wasting time if you focus solely on the desire to learn as many words as possible.

To reach the level of fluency in English, you must activate your passive vocabulary. How to do it? Learn and practice. And then practice and learn again. There are no more options.

Fluent English can be considered an Advanced level with 5000-6000 words in the arsenal. As practice shows, it will take 3-4 years to reach this peak from «scratch».

American writer Dr. Seuss, author of the famous «The Grinch Who Stole Christmas», wrote a book in 1960 using only 50 words.

As you can see, in order to be understood, it is not necessary to study the vocabulary from cover to cover. Gradually increasing your vocabulary is important, as is learning to incorporate it into your speaking practice.

A source: https://www.study.ru/article/sovety/skolko-angliyskih-slov-nuzhno-znat

Vocabulary: how many words do you need to know?

The fact that the dictionary of the language contains about 300 thousand words is only of theoretical interest for a beginner to learn this language. Perhaps the main principle for the rational organization of their studies, especially at the initial stage, is the economy of words. You need to learn to memorize as few words as possible, but do it as best you can.

Let us emphasize that our approach is directly opposite to the leading principle of «suggestionstopedia», with its emphasis on the abundance of words presented to the student. As you know, in accordance with its canons, the beginner should be literally “showered with words”. It is best to ask him or her 200 new words every day.

Don’t chase much

Experience in language learning shows that about 400 correctly chosen words can cover up to 90 percent of the vocabulary you need for everyday communication. It takes more words to read, but many of them are only passive. Therefore, with knowledge of 1500 words, you will already be able to understand sufficiently meaningful texts.

It is better to master the words that are most necessary and important to you than to constantly rush to learn new ones. “Anyone who has chased too much runs the risk of missing everything,” says a Swedish proverb. “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch a single one,” a Russian proverb answers her.

Oral vocabulary

Very roughly, about 40 correctly chosen, high-frequency words will cover about 50% of word usage in everyday speech in any language;

Thus, a well-chosen vocabulary helps to understand quite a lot with a very modest effort spent on cramming.

Example: if only 1000 words are said in everyday conversation, then 500 of them, that is 50%, will be covered by 40 of the most common high-frequency words.

We emphasize that these percentages, of course, are not the result of precise calculations. They just give the most general idea of ​​how many words it will take to feel confident, entering into the simplest dialogue with a native speaker.

In any case, there is no doubt that, having correctly chosen from 400 to 800 words and memorizing them well, you can feel confident in a simple conversation, since they will cover almost 100% of those words that you cannot do without.

Reading vocabulary

When reading, having correctly chosen and well remembered about 80 of the most common, most frequent words, you will understand about 50% of the simple text;

Example: if you have a text of about 10 thousand words in front of you (this is about 40 printed pages), then, having learned the most necessary 400 words in advance, you will understand about 7000 words that are used in this text.

Note again that the numbers we give are only indicative. Depending on a variety of additional conditions, 50 words will cover up to 50 percent of the written text, but in other cases, you will need to learn at least 150 words to get the same result.

Vocabulary: 400 to 100 words

It should be noted that vocabulary by itself does not yet ensure free communication. At the same time, having mastered 1500 correctly chosen words, with some additional training, you will be able to communicate almost fluently.

As for professional terms, they usually do not present any particular difficulties, since in most cases this is an international vocabulary that is easy enough to master.

When you already know about 1500 words, you can start reading at a fairly decent level. With a passive knowledge of 3000 to 4000 words, you will be fluent in reading specialty literature, at least in those areas where you are confident in your orientation.

In conclusion, we note that, according to the calculations carried out by linguists on the material of a number of languages, the average educated European actively uses about 20 words (and half of them are quite rare).

In this case, the passive vocabulary is at least 50 words. But all this concerns the native language.

Basic vocabulary

In the pedagogical literature, you can find the terminological combination «basic vocabulary». From my point of view, at the maximum level, the vocabulary is about 8000 words. It seems to me that it is hardly necessary to learn more words, except perhaps for some special purpose. Eight thousand words will be enough for full-fledged communication in any conditions.

When starting to learn a language, it may be wise to get by with shorter lists. Here are three levels that I have identified in practice as providing a good guideline for a beginner:

400-500 words. They are enough to cover about 90% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 70% of a simple written text;

800-1000 words. They are enough to cover about 95% of all word usage in everyday oral communication, or about 80-85% of the written text;

1500-2000 words. They are enough to cover about 95-100% of all word usage in everyday oral communication, or about 90% of the written text.

An example of a good dictionary of the basic vocabulary is the dictionary published by E. Klett in Stuttgart, 1971, under the name «Grundwortschatz Deutsch» («Basic vocabulary of the German language»). It contains 2000 essential words in each of the selected six languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

Eric W. Gunnemark, Swedish polyglot

A source: https://www.native-english.ru/articles/words

How many English words can you learn per day: myths and reality

Without a rich vocabulary, you won’t be able to speak English fluently. However, few people know how to replenish it.

Many people ask the question: «How many new English words can you learn per day?» We are convinced that there are effective ways and methods for the competent and easy use of new vocabulary in speech.

The main one is to immediately learn phrases in which the necessary words are often found. Then you can immediately use them in speech without any problems.

How many English words should you learn per day?

Teachers believe that it is worth teaching five to ten phrases a day. Few? Nothing like this! It turns out 150-300 words per month, and 1800-3600 words per year. The «slow» approach expands and builds up the active stock. The vocabulary is fixed in memory, and a person can easily apply it in speech.

Which English words and phrases to learn first?

What’s the best way to improve your vocabulary?

Even knowing how many English phrases to learn per day, not everyone does it effectively and correctly. A number of simple rules will help not to waste time:

How to memorize new words, phrases and phrases?

There are many ways to learn English words and phrases. We have listed the most common and effective ones:

Top Ways to Improve Your Vocabulary

Take a look at the picture and try to describe it in as many sentences as possible. This method is great for expanding vocabulary.

This way you will learn many new words and practice using them.

Learn phrases every day, and the result will not be long in coming. The main thing is to believe in yourself.

A source: http://ilanew.spb.ru/blog/skolko-anglijskih-slov-v-den-mozhno-vyuchit/

How many English words do you need to know to speak fluently

How many words do you need to know to speak fluently? How many words do you need to know in order to speak English fluently. OTs Intensive offers to visit the center and sign up for English courses for travel and lrugmh needs

Very often, those who are studying a foreign language ask themselves: how many words do you need to know in order to speak the language fluently? Much depends on the purpose of the training. For example, if you signed up for an English for travel course, you only need to know general vocabulary and speak fluently. But a technician who travels to an English-speaking country for work needs a completely different vocabulary.

How many words are there in English

In terms of exact numbers, the Oxford English Dictionary is 171 words. This is the approximate number of words that are used in modern English. So, it turns out, it is enough to learn all the words from the dictionary, be like weekend English courses, and that’s it, you already know the language perfectly?

As you can imagine, even the most experienced and educated linguists do not know the entire 171 thousand. In general, it is rather difficult to calculate how many words you know. After all, one term can have several meanings. Plus verb conjugations, singular and plural, tenses.

An adult native speaker has an average vocabulary of 20000 words or more. The figure determines the age, the growth of occupations, the degree of education, the well-read of a person. For a foreigner to speak a language at a professional level, knowledge of 6000 to 8000 words is required.

All these numbers are average values. In addition, we will not really actively use all of the studied words.

Active and passive vocabulary

The vocabulary of any person is of two types:

An adult usually has a much larger active reserve than a passive one. At the same time, the number of terms is constantly changing as we learn new words. In childhood and adolescence, this process goes much faster, gradually slowing down.

You don’t need a lot of words to speak and understand English. It is a different matter if you are going to take a language proficiency test. In the English IELTS Preparation course, you will learn the vocabulary necessary to successfully complete the Writing and Speaking sections.

Most of the vocabulary from a foreign language belongs to passive vocabulary. Even if you live in an English speaking country, you hardly use most of the words you know.

The 80/20 Principle in Language Learning

The rule, deduced by the social scientist Wolfred Pareto, is applicable to any area of ​​human life. It says that 20% of the applied effort gives 80% of the effect. The remaining 80% of the actions that we take, give a result of 20%. This allows us to stop at some point, since there is no point in improving anything further.

On the Internet, you can find references to the fact that to understand 90-95% of English-language texts, it is enough to learn 3000-3500 words. Therefore, here English language courses for teenagers in Moscow often report such a figure to guide beginners.

3000 words seems like an insignificant number. After all, an adult native speaker knows up to 20000. But remember that vocabulary knowledge alone is not enough. You need to be able to handle it, to build sentences correctly. Then the words will work, and not lie «dead weight», gradually disappearing from your memory.

How many words do you need to know for each level

If you are a beginner who is not going to take the entrance exams for English courses in Cambridge with us, 200-300 words will be enough for you. At this stage, there is an acquaintance with the English alphabet, they learn the most elementary words: good morning, thank you, forest, day / night, etc.

It is absolutely not necessary to reach the last level. But reaching the 3000-4000 word mark is something to strive for.

How to memorize English words

There are many different techniques to help you learn words in a foreign language. All of them are guided by the peculiarities of our perception. It is believed that teaching a foreign language to adults in a learning center is more difficult, because memory deteriorates with age. In fact, it all depends on whether the person is training her or not.

Let’s consider some techniques for effective memorization:

On courses or on your own

Remember that blindly memorizing words every day is useless. To truly speak a foreign language, vocabulary must be used constantly. The prices here for English language schools in Moscow have now become much more affordable, and classes with a teacher are still needed to acquire high-quality knowledge.

In addition to expanding your vocabulary, in the classroom you will understand grammar, learn to write and read in English, talk about yourself and maintain conversations on various topics. The courses will be a great incentive for you, will help you not to retreat halfway and, finally, learn English.

A source: https://intensiv.ru/articles/skolko-nuzhno-znat-anglijskih-slov-svobodno-govorit/

How many words do you need to know to understand English?

To understand 90% of everyday English speech, it is enough to have an active vocabulary in 3000 words. Moreover, you need not only to know these words, but also to be able to understand them by ear. Having learned how to distinguish these words from the general mass of English sentences, you will be able to understand the lyrics of simple songs, news on a general topic.

But your level will still be Pre-Intermediate. Complex constructions and text not adapted for a beginner will still be incomprehensible to you. Yes, you will understand 90% of the text, but you will not understand the most important thing. For example:

— Your neighbor is a juvenile []
— Your neighbor is young []

Young who? Young junkie, young champion, young genius? Not knowing the last word, we do not understand the whole essence of speech, and knowing 90% of the words did not help us in order to hear the most important thing that they want to warn us about.

Also, the following sentences will be difficult for you to understand:

A cogent argument is one that the truth of its premise makes the conclusion more ly to be true than false.

Of course, as always, the environment in which you will be immersed is very important. If your team is at the same level as you, a common language will be found without difficulty. Even if the team is diverse, native speakers and more experienced comrades are already accustomed to communicating “easier”.

Well, plus even 1500 words will almost completely cover your need for English for shopping, for booking hotels or a car, in order to find out the way and support the simplest small talk.

And only being at the C1 level, knowing approximately 10 words, you will be able to understand English very well. This is the level at which you can watch an English film without the need for subtitles and understand it well enough. This is the level where you go beyond the 1v1 dialogue with someone.

You begin to understand not only what is being said to you, but also what is being said around you. You understand not only the speech itself, but also the shades of this speech, because you catch what synonyms were used, what shade they carry.

This is really an advanced level when you enjoy communicating in English to the fullest.

A large vocabulary that you know and can understand by ear not only allows you to do something better than a beginner in English does, but simply opens up new opportunities for you:

A story of 50 English words

The most popular English-language children’s book of all time, Dr. Seuss’s children’s book is called Green Eggs And Ham and is only 50 words long.

The book was the result of an argument between Seuss and Bennett Cerf that the former would not be able to write a book using so few words.

What is the vocabulary of a native English speaker?

It is estimated that a native speaker uses an average of 20 words (active vocabulary). The educated person (from the University Degree) has an active vocabulary of 000 words.

How do I check my vocabulary?

In order to find out what your English vocabulary is, we have developed a special test. In it you will be offered words, from the simplest to the most difficult ones, and you must check the boxes of those words for which you know at least one translation.

Start a new test now!

A source: https://kreekly.com/articles/skolko-slov-angliyskogo-nujno-znat/

How many words do you need to learn to speak English?

Everyone who studies a foreign language sooner or later asks himself a question: «How many words should I know?». The answer is very ambiguous. Everything determines the purpose for which you are learning the language.

To travel safely in English-speaking countries? Or in order to pass an international exam and continue your studies abroad? Or perhaps you want to read Shakespeare in the original? Linguists around the world are heatedly debated about this, but the generally accepted opinion, today, does not exist.

How many words do you know in your native language? Is it enough for you or do you have difficulty communicating? This question is purely individual, but we will try to generalize it a little.

What is vocabulary?

First you need to understand what is vocabulary. In simple terms, this is the set of words that a certain person owns. Any person’s vocabulary can be divided into active and passive.

So exactly how many words do you need to know?

Let’s take a closer look at the statistics on the vocabulary of a modern person:

Which course suits your needs?

But how do you know which words to learn? All kinds of dictionaries to help. Among the many types of dictionaries, you can find frequency. In these dictionaries, words do not go in the classical order in which we are used to seeing them in ordinary explanatory dictionaries, but in the order of frequency of their use in a particular language. You can take a frequency dictionary of ordinary vocabulary, you can take a specialized one, you can even find a dictionary of Shakespeare’s vocabulary (he probably knew enough words!)

Conclusion

In any case, the number of English words required is too subjective. Enjoy learning a language by delving into topics that interest you, but also not ignoring all the others.

And vocabulary, for the most part, will come by itself, provided there is good systematic training.

But this is already a topic for another conversation.

A source: http://indigo-centre.ru/blog/slova-english

Vocabulary size: how many English words you need to know for fluency

English students often ask, «How many words do I have to learn to be able to keep up a conversation on any topic?» Good question, but before I answer it, let me ask another: how many words do you think there are in English? A question to which there is no intelligible answer.

For example, the Oxford Dictionary is said to have 464 meanings for the word set. Should we consider a polysemantic word as one word, or should each interpretation be considered a separate word? And what about phrasal verbs: “set up”, “set about”, “set apart”, etc.

In fact, the question should be posed like this: «Do you know how many words are in the largest dictionary of the English language?» If you roughly imagine the number of words in a language, it can be compared to the number of words used 90-95% of the time in everyday speech and in the news.

Talk less, work more

In 1960, the famous American children’s writer Theodore Seuss Geisel (better known under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss, author of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat, Lorax, etc.) published the book Green Eggs and Ham.

The book was written in just 50 words and was the result of an argument between Seuss and his publisher, Bennett Cerf.

The publisher believed that Seuss would not be able to create a finished work under such harsh conditions (before that, Seuss had already written «Cat in the Hat», which featured 225 words).

If it’s possible to write a book using just 50 words, does that mean we don’t need 40 words of vocabulary to communicate with each other? Note, however, that according to Susie Dent, a lexicographer, the average active vocabulary of an adult native English speaker is about 000 words, and the passive vocabulary is about 20 words.

What is the difference between active and passive vocabulary? In simple terms, active vocabulary includes words that you can remember on your own and apply. As for passive vocabulary, these are words that you recognize, the meaning of which you know, but which you are not able to use yourself.

How many words do you know, sir?

And here we come to the most interesting. On the one hand, an adult native English speaker has an active vocabulary of about 20 words. On the other hand, The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists claims that the first 000 words are used in 25% of everyday written texts, the first 33 words are used in 100%, and the first thousand words are used in 50% of such texts!

Thus, we can safely say that only 3000 words cover about 95% of texts on a general topic (news notes, blog posts, etc.). Liu Na and Nation proved that 3000 is an approximate number of words that we need to know in order to understand the rest from context when reading non-simplified texts.

Count it yourself!

The Oxford English Dictionary contains 171 common words. 476% of general texts cover a vocabulary of only 95 words. That’s 3000% of all words!

That’s right: knowing 1,75% of the English vocabulary, you will be able to understand 95% of what you read. This is only 7,5% of the average passive vocabulary of a native speaker (40 words). Isn’t it great?

On Pareto’s law and the importance of linguistic guesswork

You may have heard of Pareto’s Law, also known as the 80/20 Principle. The Italian engineer and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto studied numerous phenomena and subjects, from land ownership to pea pods, and as a result he came up with a rule that is called Pareto’s law: 20% of causes give 80% of effects. Or, if you apply the law to school or work: 20% of the effort gives 80% of the result.

English learners need to understand 90–95% of the words most commonly used in everyday life. Where exactly are these numbers from? About so many words you need to know in order to understand well what is written and said. Besides, having learned just that many words, you can guess the meaning of the remaining 5-10% just from the context! Not exactly 80/20, but the principle is the same: only a small fraction of your efforts will bring meaningful results.

Weigh your vocabulary baggage!

So, if you reach an understanding of 95% of the most frequently used words in the language, you can understand the rest of the unfamiliar words from the context.

This is the ideal number, and this is the number of words you need to learn for the experience of reading foreign texts to be successful. This is also an approximate number of words that you need to know in order to grasp the meaning of the rest of the words from the context.

«Golden» 3 thousand words

Mobile version for iPhone:

How to evaluate your vocabulary

On the most popular website //testyourvocab.com/, you can roughly estimate the size of your vocabulary baggage.

You can use the following resources to assess vocabulary:

So, despite the fact that the active vocabulary of a native English speaker is 20 words, and the passive vocabulary is 000, learning English will be successful if you learn only 40 words!

95% of general texts will become available to you, and the remaining 5% you will understand intuitively. Success in your study!

We read further:

7 effective ways to memorize English words

An effective technique for memorizing English words

A source: https://skyeng.ru/articles/razmer-slovarnogo-zapasa-skolko-anglijskih-slov-nuzhno-znat-dlya-svobodnogo-vladeniya-yazykom

How many words in English do you need to know and learn per day

The vocabulary of the English language is rapidly and quickly filled with new lexical units. Scientists have calculated that an average of 15 new words appear per day, but not all of them take root in the language, but only those that are most widespread.

If it were not «Selfie» in 2013, we would never have known that a snapshot of ourselves has a specific name.

After him came the well-known today «Bookfie»,«Shelfie», «Legsie» and others, which can often be found on social networks in the form of hashtags.

If you are a person who does not complain about fantasy, you can come up with your own word ending in «Sie» / «fie», post it on a social network and see what the effect will be.

Printed dictionaries and word count

About 15 years ago, you could buy an English dictionary containing 500 000 words. At that time, such a number seemed pretty decent even for a linguist, because, according to scientists, the average person uses about 5000 words in his speech. This is what is called the active dictionary. All other lexical units remain passive: we can recognize and understand them in texts, but not use them in everyday speech.

How many words do you need to know?

Now let’s move on to the question of how many words in English you need to know. It all depends on how to speak, with whom to speak and what topics to discuss. In order to communicate with a pen pal, 500-1000 words will be enough, including verbs, nouns and adjectives.

For comparison, the active vocabulary of a native speaker is 15 to 000 words. However, it is worth making a reservation here so that every English learner does not think that you can master a thousand words and chat freely. This thousand is different for everyone.

And if you look into the frequency dictionary, it becomes clear that most of the vocabulary is made up of prepositions, pronouns, numerals, interrogative words, which may not be used at all in a conversation.

According to the authors of the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, in order to understand 80-90% of the text, 3 words are needed, which roughly corresponds to the Intermediate level.

GLM and new words in English

If we look at the GLM (Global Language Monitor), we can see how many words in the English language regularly appear and become popular. And this is neither more nor less than 1 (at the time of this writing). And this number is constantly growing. Despite such a vocabulary boom, this does not mean that everyone will be able to actively use new words, so you should focus on the most frequently used units.

You may ask, how do words become popular, who popularizes them? Of course, the media and social networks. In order for a word to be included in the GLM list, it must be repeated at least 25 times, while affecting a certain breadth and depth of use. Depth is the form of words in the media, and breadth is its spread throughout the world.

Do You Know the Origins of English? 16 English Words with Cool Life Stories

What if we told you that there’s a way to learn multiple English words at the same time?

All you have to do is learn one little English word and—poof!—you now know two, three or ten new words. Wow!

No, it’s not magic. All you have to do is learn a word’s origin along with its definition.

The origin of a word is the language it originally came from. English has many words that originally came from other languages. Some have been changed over years, others have stayed pretty much the same. When you learn a word, you should learn where it came from too!

But how will this help you double or triple your English vocabulary learning?

Often, when a foreign word is adopted by English, it takes on many new forms in the English language. This one new English word is put together with other English words, and these combinations create many more new words. However, these combinations are all related to the original word! If you know the original word, you’ll understand all of the combinations.

The more origins and original meanings you learn, the more you’ll see these words used and reused in English.

Through just one additional step to the vocabulary learning process—learning word origins—you can improve your understanding of English as a whole. Now that’s magical.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

English Is Always Growing

Last December, the Oxford English Dictionary added 500 new words and phrases to the dictionary. Not 500 words for the year—the English language gained 500 officially recognized words and phrases in just three months!

English is a living language. That means it’s always growing and changing. Many things influence the English language and its growth, but no matter how new or old a word is, you can probably trace it back to an original word or the moment when it was accepted into the language.

Whether the word is fleek (meaning “nice,” from 2003) or fleet (meaning a group of military ships, from the year 1200), most English words came from somewhere else.

Some words are borrowed from other languages and turn into English words with few or no changes, like the Italian words for pizza and zucchini. Other words are changed a lot more and become barely recognizable, like the Latin word pax which turned into peace in English.

No matter how different a word is from its origin, though, knowing where it came from can help you become a better English learner.

How Learning Word Origins Can Improve Your English

When you learn a new word, do you remember to learn its different forms and tenses as well? After all, knowing the word “to see” isn’t enough when you want to talk about something you saw last week. You’ll need to say “to see” in different forms and tenses, such as “I see,” “I saw,” “I’m going to see” and “you’ve seen.” You can apply the same idea to word origins.

When you learn the origin of a word, you might see it again in another word. When that happens, you might be able to get a basic understanding of the new word.

For example, look at these words:

Notice anything similar about them? They all have the word trans in them, which comes from the Latin word meaning “across.” Now even if you don’t know the full meaning of the words you can figure out that they deal with something going across.

Now look at the original meanings of the other parts of the words:

So, it makes sense that to transport something means that you carry something across a space. For example, a bus might transport people from one city to another. A plane might transport people from one country to another.

To transgress means that you cross a boundary, rule or law.

A transaction usually involves an exchange or trade of some kind. For example, when you give money to a cashier to buy a new shirt, this is a transaction.

You can probably figure out what the words mean from this information. See how much we knew before you even thought about opening a dictionary? It’s all thanks to knowing word origins!

Roots, Prefixes and Suffixes

English words are often made from root words, with prefixes and suffixes joined to them.

A prefix is added to the beginning of a word. The bi in bicycle is a prefix that means “two” (as in two wheels).

A suffix is added to the end of a word. The less in endless is a suffix that means “without” (which is why endless means “without an end”).

Once you remove all the prefixes and suffixes on a word, you’re left with its root, which is the part of the word that gives its main meaning. The words cycle and end in the above words are roots.

Different prefixes and suffixes are added to a root to change its meaning and create new words. For example, the root word hand can become unhand (to let go), handout (something you give for free) or even handsome (good looking).

All three words have different meanings, but they’re all related in one way or another to hand. The first two words seem related to hand, but how is handsome related to hand? A long time ago, the word used to mean “easy to handle” and then later became a term you use to show appreciation for someone.

Understanding roots and word origins like this will make it easier to understand new words, and even why they mean what they mean. The next time you see a word that has hand in it, you’ll be one step closer to understanding it before you even look it up.

The Fascinating Origins of 16 Common English Words

Below are just 16 words. From these 16 words, you’ll learn the meanings of more than 30 other words! Once you know each word’s origin, you’ll begin to notice it in other words.

A majority of English word roots come from Latin and Greek. Even English words that come from other languages like French or German are sometimes originally Latin anyway—so they were Latin first, then became French or German and then they became English.

Many words on this list have gone through a few languages before getting to English, but in this post we’ll focus on just one main origin.

The “related words” sections give a sample of the other words you can learn using these origins, but there are many, many more out there. Most related words are broken down into their own origins, which are defined and then pointed out in parentheses (like these).

For example, if you see the words “together (sym),” you’ll know that the root sym means together. Simple!

And now, the words!

Greek

1. Phone

Meaning: A phone is a device that’s used to communicate with people from a distance (you might be using a phone to read this!).

Origin: The English word phone is actually short for telephone, which comes from the Greek words for sound (phon) and far away (tele).

Related words: Homophones are words that sound (phon) the same (homo) but are spelled differently, like hear and here. If you like hearing nice things you might enjoy a symphony, which is when many instruments play together (sym) to make a beautiful sound (phon)… usually.

2. Hyper

Meaning: Someone who is hyper is very energetic and lively.

Origin: Hyper actually a shortening of the word hyperactive, which combines the Greek word meaning “over, beyond” (hyper) and the Latin word for something that’s done (act).

Related words: When someone tells you they’re so hungry they could eat a horse, you know they’re just exaggerating by using a hyperbole—stretching the truth, like throwing (bole) something too far (hyper). No matter how exciting someone’s hyperbole is, try not to hyperventilate! That means to breathe or blow out air (ventilate) too much (hyper) in a way that makes you dizzy.

3. Sync

Meaning: When a few things happen at the same time or in the same way, they’re in sync. This word is a shortening of the word synchronize, but it’s used alone nowadays as a verb (your phone apps might even sync to make sure your files are up to date).

Origin: Sync comes from a Greek word that means to be together (sym or syn).

Related words: A synopsis is a summary of something like a movie or a play. It’s a way for everyone to see (opsis) the meaning together (syn). Synopsis and summary are actually synonyms, which are words that share the same (syn) meaning but have a different sound or name (onym).

Stay away from a play if the synopsis says the actors lip-sync. That means they move their lips (lip) together (syn) with the music without actually creating the sounds themselves.

4. Air

Meaning: Air is all around us. It’s the invisible gas that creates our atmosphere. Without air, we wouldn’t be able to breathe!

Origin: The word air has gone through a few languages before ending up in English, but it probably comes from the Greek word aer, which means to blow or breathe. You can actually find words that use both aer and air.

Related words: An airplane is a relatively flat object (plane) that flies in the air (air). Airplanes are aerodynamic, which means they use the air (aer) to power (dynamic) their flight. Don’t forget to look down when you’re in that plane, since aerial (of the air) views are pretty amazing!

Latin

5. Dense

Meaning: Something dense is packed tightly or very thick. For example, a fog can be so dense, or thick, that you can’t see much through it.

Origin: Dense comes from the Latin for “thick” (densus).

Related words: You can see condensation when evaporated water molecules join together (con) and becomes thick (dens) enough to form droplets. Density is the measure of how thickly packed (dens) something is, like people or things in one space.

6. Finish

Meaning: To finish something means to be done with it. In a few seconds you’ll be finished reading this sentence.

Origin: Finish comes from the Latin word finis which means “end.” In many words, this is shortened to fin.

Related words: You’ve probably defined a lot of vocabulary words in your English learning, which means you’ve looked up what the words mean. You could say that you’ve brought an end (both de and fin), to your lack of understanding! Don’t worry, there’s a finite number of words in English, which is a noun (ite) that means something that has a limit or end (fin). If English were infinite, or without (in) a limit, we would be learning it forever!

7. Form

Meaning: The form of something is its shape. As a verb, the word to form means to create something in a specific shape.

Origin: The word form comes from the Latin words for a mold (forma) and the Latin verb to form or to create (formare).

Related words: Many jobs and schools require people to wear a uniform, which is clothing that all looks the same or has one (uni) style (form). When places don’t have strict rules about what clothes to wear, they’re informal, or without (in) a specific shape (form).

8. Letter

Meaning: A letter is a symbol that represents a sound in a language, like a, b, c, or the rest of the alphabet. A letter is also a message you write and send to someone. Emails are digital letters!

Origin: In Latin, a letter was called a littera, and the lit and liter parts of this word appear in many English words that are related to letters.

Related words: If you’re reading this, you’re literate—you know how to read (liter). You probably read literature (books) and hopefully don’t take fiction too literally (seriously and exactly). All these words are forms of the stem liter, but their suffixes turn them into someone who reads (literate), something that exists (literature), and someone who does things to the letter (literally).

9. Part

Meaning: A part is a piece of a whole, something that isn’t complete. In verb form, the word to part means to divide or remove something.

Origin: This word comes from the Latin partire or partiri, which means to divide or share among others.

Related words: Somebody impartial has no (im) opinion about something (they take no part in the debate). You can be impartial about whether you live in a house or an apartment. An apartment is the result (ment) of dividing a building into smaller spaces (part). Wherever you live, make sure it’s safe—you wouldn’t want to put your family in jeopardy, which is a dangerous situation or, according to the original definition, an evenly divided (part) game (jeo).

10. Voice

Meaning: Your voice is the sound you use to speak. You can also voice, or state, an opinion.

Origin: The Latin word for voice is vox, and the word for “to call” is vocare. These two related words are the origin of a number of English words related to speech or voices. They usually include the root voc or vok.

Related words: An advocate is someone who calls (voc) others to help him (ate) support a cause or a person. Even someone who means well might end up provoking someone who doesn’t agree with them. To provoke someone means to call someone (vok) forward (pro) and challenge them in a way that usually makes them angry.

Old Norse

11. Loft

Meaning: A loft is a room right under the roof or very high up in a building. The loft in a house is usually used for storage, but building lofts are rented out as (usually smaller) living spaces.

Origin: The Old Norse word for air or sky was lopt, which is written as loft in English.

Related words: Something aloft is up in (a) the air (loft). If something is very tall, you would say it’s lofty, which is the adjective form of loft. In the same way, someone lofty has a very high (loft) opinion of themselves, which makes them act proud or snobbish.

French

12. Question

Meaning: Asking a question means trying to get information about something. Questions end in question marks (?).

Origin: Originally from Latin, English borrowed the Old French word question and never gave it back. The word means “to ask” or “to seek,” and it shows up in a number of ways in other words, from quire to quest. This one can be tough to spot since it switches between using the French and Latin versions of the word.

Related words: Some fantasy books have the main characters going on a quest, or a long and difficult search (quest) for something. Maybe you’re more interested in murder mystery books, which often have an inquest, or an official investigation (quest) into (in) someone’s suspicious death. If these types of books sound interesting, you can inquire, or ask (quest) about (in) them at your local library.

13. Peace

Meaning: Peace is a calm state of being. It means no wars or troubles. Peace is a wonderful thing!

Origin: The Latin pax and Old French pais both mean peace, and English words use both as prefixes and suffixes. Look for words with pac or peas in them (just not the kind of peas you eat. That’s a whole other word).

Related words: To pacify means to make (ify) someone calmer (pac). To calm someone, you can try to appease them, which means to (a) bring them peace (peas) by giving them what they want.

14. Liberty

Meaning: Liberty is the state of being free. The Statue of Liberty in New York is a symbol of freedom.

Origin: Another originally Latin word, liberty found its way into English through the Old French liberete, usually shortened to lib.

Related words: A liberator is a person (ator) who sets others free (lib) from a situation like slavery, jail or a bad leader. Becoming free means being open to changes, so it helps if you’re liberal—someone with a personality (al) that’s open to (lib) new ideas or ways of thinking.

Italian

15. Gusto

Meaning: Doing something with gusto means really enjoying it and being enthusiastic about it.

Origin: The Italian word gusto actually means taste, and comes from the Latin for taste, gustus.

Related words: You won’t do something with gusto if you find it disgusting. That’s the negative feeling you get about something you think is unpleasant—literally, without (dis) taste (gust).

Arabic

16. Check

Meaning: To check means to take a close look at something, or to make sure of something (verify it). For example, before you leave for work in the morning you might check that you have everything you need. Check can also be used as a verb that means to stop or slow something down.

Origin: The word check has an interesting history, moving from language to language and changing its meaning a little with each one. The word is originally from Persian and then Arabic, where it meant “king.” Over time, the word started being used in the game of chess and was defined as “to control.” Eventually the word’s meaning changed to what it is today. So much history in such a small word!

Related words: Leaving something unchecked means leaving something without (un) limits or control (check). If you leave weeds to grow unchecked in your yard, for example, they’ll take over and destroy your other plants. The word check on its own also refers to a piece of paper worth a certain amount of money (you write checks to pay bills). A raincheck used to be a ticket given to people attending outdoor events that had to be stopped because of rain. Today a raincheck is just a promise to do something another time.

The more roots and word origins you know, the easier it will become to learn new words.

Don’t stop learning here! Can you find words that use the related roots, too?

There are always new words to discover, and now you know exactly what to look for!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

LearnEnglishBest / Тесты / How much vocabulary do you know? [Test]

The words at the beginning of the list below are high frequency and the words at the end of the list are very low frequency. Put a check next to each word for which you know the meaning. This short test will help you to get a feeling for how many words you know. Multiply the number of words you know in this list by 500 to find your vocabulary size.

1. bird
2. fell
3. improve
4. barn
5. fatigue
6. kettle
7. combat
8. resent
9. redeem
10. hurrah
11. conversion
12. fixture
13. accede
14. avocation
15. calyx
16. conclave
17. hierarchy
18. monologue
19. tamper
20. acanthus
21. blowout
22. crupper
23. gloaming
24. minnesinger
25. perpetuity
26. riffle
27. behindhand
28. embolism
29. angst
30. blowhard
31. devolute
32. envoi
33. golliwog
34. neonate
35. plainchant
36. astrochemistry
37. nondurables
38. carboxyl
39. eyestalk
40. curragh
41. gunlock
42. dipole
43. rigorism
44. localist
45. benchboard
46. stirabout
47. hypothallus
48. doombook
49. paradiplomatic
50. poroplastic

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Monday, February 11, 2013

How many words do you need to know in a foreign language?

When looking into what seems to be the never-ending abyss of learning a language, it’s nice to have an idea of where your finish line might be. Most of the individual pieces of language data that you’ll be storing in your head consist of vocabulary, so knowing how much vocab you’ll need to reach the vaunted native level is a pretty good indicator of where your finish line is.

So how many words does an average native speaker know? Good numbers are pretty hard to come by and the jury still seems to be largely out on any conclusive numbers, but there does seem to be a rough consensus that with 20,000 or so words you’ll pretty much be covered in anything you want to use the language for.

When I first put this post up, my web searching somehow failed to bring me to this very thorough on-point post on How to Learn Spanish. That’s worth a read on its own, but the key thing I’d highlight from it is a quote from Alexander Arguelles (a guy who has devoted his life to language learning):

And as I do have the computer skills to draw circles in this post, here are those numbers in a proportional bull’s-eye target:

Let’s dive into some specific languages to see how those numbers play out.

English

English seems to have some fairly good data. To sum up the findings of a number of sources, native-English speakers know somewhere around 15,000 to 20,000 «base words», which are actually word families that include all inflected and derivative forms («run», «runs», «running», «runner», etc.). According to this indirect source, each base word equals about 1.6 actual words, so the total range of words would be approximately 24,000 to 32,000 words.

English, however, might not be very representative of other languages:

Spanish

German

Japanese

Chinese

In the last few months, I have focused on memorizing the useful words of my dictionary chosen by my Chinese friends. My dictionary has 120,000 words and 2,000 pages. I have noticed that on average they choose between 10 to 11 words per page which might mean 21,000 words when I finish this project in 3 or 4 years. … (What I mean by word includes chengyu and other stuff as you can see in the attachment.)

Russian

What to take home from all this? The numbers are far from exact, but it seems like 10,000 words and 20,000 words are two pretty reasonable goal posts in whatever foreign language you’re learning. If you reach the 10,000 marker and find you’re struggling to come up with new vocab (as might happen in Spanish or German), then you might be able to forego the 20,000 marker altogether and just pick up words as they come. In English, Chinese or Japanese, on the other hand, it seems clear that 20,000 would be a better marker. No number of words will ever be a clear end point (as even native speakers will continue to learn new words throughout their lives, including words that aren’t yet created when any given word count is made), but as far as language-learning goal-setting goes, they make for good rough estimates of what you should be aiming at.

If you’ve got any info on how many words native speakers of other languages know, or anything else on the languages mentioned above, please drop a line in the comments!

Update: There were a bunch of updates to the post above based on Andrew’s comment below, which pointed me to some great resources I had missed earlier (luckily those resources ended up with the same 20,000 rule-of-thumb number I had settled on previously).

27 comments:

Actually, yes, I wrote a very long and detailed article about this exact subject as it regards Spanish a couple of years ago and it’s become one of my most popular posts: How Many Words Do You Need to Know in Spanish (or any other foreign language)? And WHICH Words Should You Be Learning?
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The funny thing is that the data on this for Spanish is shockingly sparse, only 2 solid studies as I recall in the last 50 years or so, though luckily the more recent one by Mark Davies was superb and has been turned into a book in the form of a frequency dictionary which is readily available to anyone who wants to read it.

The more interesting aspect of this, for me and language learners in general, is the discovery that you really only need a relatively small vocabulary (generally estimated at around 2000 words, but they have to be the right 2000 words) in order to be functional and capable of expressing pretty much anything you want to—you may not be able to be poetic or sophisticated in your speech, but you will be able to express whatever you need to, though it may be in somewhat simplistic terms, and you should be able to understand almost everything anyone else says in the language even when they use words that are not part of that 2000 word vocabulary because you’ll be able to infer their meaning from the context most of the time. This is where frequency lists and dictionaries come in: learn the most commonly used words in either speech or text (depending on your focus, and yes they’re different, see my link at the top) thereby making the most efficient possible use of your «vocabulary learning time» while learning a language. Make sense?