How many do you want to order

Minimum Order Quantity: How to Calculate MOQ for Your Ecommerce Business & Tips on Navigating Them

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In the world of ecommerce, inventory is typically a business’s greatest asset. You want to have enough of it so that you can meet demand but not so much that you can’t sell through it.

Purchasing inventory or raw materials isn’t always so simple. Not only do you need to find a manufacturer that sells the right supplies at the right price but also one that allows you to order an optimal amount of units.

Many manufacturers institute a minimum order quantity (MOQ) to get you to commit to buying enough so they can be cost-effective in production and make a profit. It’s why you buy a dozen eggs at once rather than a single egg at a time.

However, your ideal unit count or reorder quantity may not match your manufacturer’s MOQ, which is one of the joys of running an ecommerce business.

Of course, the suppliers you work with may change over time, as will your production runs. Your first 20,000 units may look very different from the inventory of your 1 millionth unit — not just in terms of the physical product itself but your cash flow, profitability, and financial health.

In this article, we’ll give an overview of minimum order quantity, take a look at some vital factors to consider when calculating MOQ requirements, and provide tips on how to make the most of MOQs.

What is minimum order quantity (MOQ)?

M inimum order quantity is the fewest number of units a business wants to sell to a customer at one time. In ecommerce, it’s most often used by a manufacturer or supplier in the context of a production run, though a merchant can put MOQs in place for different types of orders.

A couple examples:

How to calculate minimum order quantity in 4 steps

There is no one right MOQ amount, as many businesses have different requirements. Of course, there is often a tradeoff between having a higher MOQ or paying a higher price per unit. While there isn’t a go-to formula for calculating minimum order quantity, you can use the steps below as a starting point.

1. Determine demand

As a merchant purchasing inventory, demand forecasting takes product type, competition, seasonality, and other factors into account in estimating how many units you will sell. This data can help inform your next purchase order. Inventory forecasting goes hand in hand, to match supply with demand in this equation.

A few tips on monitoring demand especially during volatile times:

2. Calculate your break-even point

If you’re trying to establish a minimum order quantity of your own, you’ll need to know your break-even point. This may happen on the second transaction for DTC orders, when you recover the customer acquisition cost and your customer comes back through email marketing efforts.

For wholesale relationships, consider what the lowest per-unit dollar amount you’re willing to charge in exchange for a higher order value. It can’t be so low that your profit margins are next to nothing, but volume discounts are expected if you’re not just paying for smaller quantities at a higher price.

3. Understand your holding costs

Some products are more expensive to store than others (due to size, duration of storage, and special warehousing requirements). It’s financially beneficial to ensure such items are not kept in your inventory for too long.

Your inventory holding cost is the true cost of storing all of your products and something you must consider before investing too heavily in inventory.

4. Come up with your MOQ

Let’s say that you consistently have relatively high demand. Your partners purchase 200 units per order on average, and you need to sell at least 150 units per order to be profitable.

If your partners or customers have been willing to buy 200-unit orders in the past, you could set 200 units per orders as your minimum order quantity, or even go down to 150.

How to make the most of minimum order quantities

MOQ terms may seem awful when you’re on the purchasing side but awesome when you’re on the selling side. Many ecommerce businesses work with manufacturers that have minimum order quantity requirements in place, and some brands will be in the position of implementing their own MOQs through wholesale partnerships or minimum spend thresholds.

No matter where you are, here are some tips on how to work with MOQs.

Incentivize a higher spend on your orders

If you’re getting into wholesale or retail, you can require MOQs for bulk buyers to help ensure retailers pay you a minimum amount. In exchange for a minimum spend, you may choose to offer order volume discounts, where you charge the retailer less per unit in exchange for a higher guaranteed overall spend.

Also, you can adjust the prices to help incentivize higher spend. To do this, you need to set MOQ based on volume or cost. For low-cost items, you need to set a higher MOQ. This ensures you make a profit. For higher-cost items, having lower MOQ works, as the items are already more expensive. Following this strategy helps you make a profit no matter if you sell small or large quantities.

You can also try this with a free shipping minimum spend threshold, where you require customers to spend a certain amount of money to qualify for free shipping.

Eliminate slow-moving SKUs

Oftentimes, brands will have more SKUs than they should, and they’ll be stuck paying for storage and doling out cash to fulfill MOQs for products that don’t sell or drive revenue.

Keeping your SKU count simple and minimal helps with inventory forecasting. The difference between 20 and 40 SKUs can be hard enough to manage, let alone managing up to 400 SKUs. It’s easy to overestimate the use of new colors and slight variations in products. A lot of the time for ecommerce store experiences, having more than three options is too much to think about.

“Don’t go crazy with your SKU count. Focus on keeping a catalog small while still being able to increase lifetime value and new sales. For a lot of brands, 3 SKUs make up 50% of sales. You probably don’t need hundreds of products that aren’t driving revenue.”

Ryan Treft, Founder & Partner of Coalatree and Peejamas

Boost inventory turnover

Ordering excess inventory incentivizes you to have a higher inventory turnover ratio, meaning there’s pressure to sell your inventory quicker because you invested more cash upfront. This doesn’t mean only run flash sales to deplete inventory but seek out creative ways to attract and retain customers.

If the minimum order quantity amount is too high and you haven’t proven out your business model or product-market fit yet, it’s best to look elsewhere. Otherwise, you’ll have spent too much money that you may not be able to recover, while also paying for warehousing.

Find other suppliers or distributors

If your manufacturer has a higher MOQ than you’d like, you can always attempt to negotiate with them. There’s no harm in trying! If the manufacturer doesn’t budge and still requires an MOQ that’s too high for you, consider working with a trading company or wholesale distributor, the middlemen who buy in bulk from a manufacturer and resell smaller quantities to others.

Ask other questions

You’re allowed to get creative in your conversations with manufacturers and suppliers. Try rephrasing questions or thinking outside the box:

Focus on relationships

It’s possible to start with good terms from a manufacturer, but it becomes even easier over time especially when you build a good relationship with them.

Here’s how it works:

“Manufacturers want you to succeed. The last thing they want is for you to go out of business. If you’re not going through inventory or selling it, they have no motivation to help you. Sell the vision of your company, let them see the potential, your creative marketing, and how you’re differentiated. If they believe in your brand, they are not just your supplier, but a partner.”

Sam Lewkowict, Co-Founder & CEO of Black Wolf

We’re all human and want to succeed. Over everything else, remember:

Successfully implementing minimum order quantity with ShipBob

ShipBob is a leading 3PL that fulfills DTC ecommerce orders and even some B2B ecommerce orders for merchants.

ShipBob’s software, algorithm, and analytics work together to help you make better data-driven decisions to optimize the supply chain.

1. Built-in inventory management

ShipBob offers powerful technology with built-in inventory management software features including the ability to set reorder points for individual SKUs. ShipBob also has a free analytics tool that provides advanced data visualizations, inventory forecasting, real-time inventory counts, and more. Get answers to questions like:

“ShipBob’s analytics dashboard has a lot of valuable reports that show our top-selling states, order revenue and costs, units sold, sales by SKU, days of inventory, SKU velocity, sales vs. inventory distributions showing where our customers are and where we’re shipping from, and more.”

“ShipBob’s analytics tool is really cool. It helps us a lot with planning inventory reorders, seeing when SKUs are going to run out, and we can even set up email notifications so that we’re alerted when a SKU has less than a certain quantity left. There is a lot of value in their technology.”

Oded Harth, CEO & Co-Founder of MDacne

2. Distributed inventory

ShipBob has a number of warehouses strategically placed across the United States (and even some abroad). We let you distribute your inventory across multiple warehouses to optimize order delivery times and shipping costs. When a customer places an order, it will be picked, packaged, and shipped from the nearest location. The reduction in shipping costs can help offset the higher spend due to MOQ requirements in some cases.

3. Wholesale shipping capabilities

With ShipBob, online store owners can create and manage wholesale orders entirely from one central dashboard. While ShipBob primarily specializes in DTC fulfillment, its B2B fulfillment capabilities are expanding more over time.

Conclusion

One of the biggest barriers to starting a business is the capital required to get up and running. A minimum order quantity may prevent some businesses from working with a manufacturer altogether, but an MOQ can often be better in the long run for some brands rather than buying a smaller batch of inventory at a higher per-unit cost (when you factor in the higher average cost over time as well as freight costs to account for the higher frequency of reorders).

The best minimum order quantity will vary across businesses, and determining the right benchmark requires a lot of research, thoughtful sales planning, and luck. Finding an MOQ that works for you can help you scale your business while keeping it profitable.

To learn how ShipBob can help with fulfillment, storage, and inventory management, click the button below to learn if we’d be a good mutual fit.

Minimum order quantity FAQs

Ecommerce store owners have many questions regarding minimum order quantity requirements, and rightfully so. We’ve provided answers below to some common FAQs.

1. How do you find the minimum order quantity?

There is no standard formula for calculating minimum order quantity. To determine the right MOQ for your business, it’s worth forecasting demand, doing scenario planning, calculating volume discounts, and inventory carrying costs. You can then decide the lowest quantity that works for your business.

2. When should minimum order quantities be applied?

If you are a manufacturer who needs to produce products, then enforcing MOQ terms is important to stabilize your profit margin and make it worthwhile to produce in the first place. Ecommerce businesses that supply products typically sold in sets, such as kitchenware, should also have minimum order quotas through packaging or bundling to increase average order value, and they could also explore MOQs for wholesale partners.

3. What is MOQ in the supply chain?

In the ecommerce supply chain, MOQ is the minimum number of units of a single SKU that a business must purchase from a manufacturer or seller in one production run or purchase order.

4. What is the difference between MOQ and EOQ?

Economic order quantity (EOQ) is an equation used to determine the ideal quantity of inventory to stock in your warehouse so that you don’t spend too much on storage but also don’t run out of products. MOQ is the amount of product a supplier or seller requires a purchaser to buy at one time. An MOQ can cause an ecommerce business to purchase more inventory than they need at one time, causing them to be nowhere near their EOQ.

Kristina Lopienski

Kristina is the Director of Marketing Communications at ShipBob, where she writes various articles, case studies, and other resources to help ecommerce brands grow their business.

Read all posts written by Kristina Lopienski

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SQL Order of Operations

SQL is not a traditional programming language in which you write a sequence of instructions in a given order of execution. Instead, SQL is a «declarative» language, which means that by writing a SQL query, you declare what data you expect as a result of the query, but you don’t indicate how to obtain it.

Six Operations to Order: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, and ORDER BY

By using examples, we will explain the execution order of the six most common operations or pieces in an SQL query. Because the database executes query components in a specific order, it’s helpful for the developer to know this order. It’s similar to following a recipe: you need to know the ingredients and what to do with ingredients, but you also need to know in which order do the tasks. If the database follows a different order of operations, the performance of the query can decrease dramatically.

The best way to learn SQL order of operations is through practice. I recommend LearnSQL.com’s SQL Practice track. It contains over 600 hands-on exercises to practice your SQL skills. Or select the best course for you from over 30 interactive SQL courses we offer at various levels of proficiency.

The Employee Database

In this article, we will work with a database for a typical company that has employees distributed in different departments. Each employee has an ID, a name, and a salary and belongs to a department, as we can see in the following tables.

Sample of the EMPLOYEE table:

Sample of the DEPARTMENT table:

In this article, we will also use frequent SQL queries used in a company: «Obtain the names of employees working for the IT department» or «Obtain the number of employees in each department with a salary higher than 80.000.» For each of these queries, we will analyze the order of execution of its components.

Let’s start with a simple query to obtain the names of the employees in the IT department:

Changes in the Order of Operations If We Add ORDER BY

Suppose your boss receives a report based on the query in the previous example and rejects it, because the employee names are not in alphabetical order. To fix it, you need to add an ORDER BY clause to the previous query:

Adding GROUP BY and HAVING Clauses to the Query

Third, GROUP BY is applied, generating one record for each distinct value in the GROUP BY columns. In our example, we create one record for each distinct value in DEPARTMENT :

Finally, we apply the ORDER BY clause, producing the final result of the query:

The order of execution in this example is:

Suppose we now want to obtain all the departments, except the SALES department, with an average salary higher than 80,000. The query for this situation is:

Second, the WHERE clause, excluding the SALES records, is processed:

Third, GROUP BY is applied, generating the following records:

Fourth, HAVING AVG(SALARY) > 80000 is applied to filter the group of records generated by GROUP BY :

Finally, the SELECT clause is applied, producing the final result of the query:

The order of execution in this example is:

Adding a New Operation: The JOIN Clause

The previous examples dealt with one table. Let’s add a second table using the JOIN clause. Suppose we want to obtain the last names and employee IDs of employees working for departments with a budget higher than 275,000. The query for this situation is:

Second, we apply the JOIN clause generating a new intermediate result combining both tables:

Third, WHERE BUDGET > 275000 is applied:

Finally, SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME is executed, producing the final result of the query:

The order of execution in this example is:

Closing Words

In this article, we covered the execution order in SQL queries through examples. From these examples, we can see that there is an order of execution, but this order may vary depending on which clauses are present in the query. As a general guideline, the order of execution is:

However, if one of these clauses is not present, the order of execution will be different. SQL is an easy, entry-level language, but once you are inside, there are a lot of exciting concepts to explore. Check out this online course to enter the fascinating world of SQL, and see where it can take you!

How many do you want to order

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Q1. When you have a subquery inside of the main query, which query is executed first?

Q2. You need to export the entire database, including the database objects, in addition to the data. Which command-line tool do you use?

Q3. You must ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data in your database. You assign some constraints to limit the type of data that can go into a table. What type of constraints are you assigning?

Q4. Which option of most MySQL command-line programs can be used to get a description of the program’s different options?

Q5. MySQL uses environment variables in some of the programs and command-line operations. Which variable is used by the shell to find MySQL programs?

Q6. How can you create a stored procedure in MySQL?

Q7. If you were building a table schema to store student grades as a letter (A, B, C, D, or F) which column type would be the best choice?

Q8. Management has requested that you build an employee database. You start with the employee table. What is the correct syntax?

Q9. You are working with the tables as shown in this diagram. You need to generate the list of customers who purchased certain car models. Which SQL clause do you use?

Q10. Which query would NOT be used to administer a MySQL server?

Q11. MySQL server can operate in different SQL modes, depending on the value of the sql_mode system variable. Which mode changes syntax and behavior to conform more closely to standard SQL?

Q12. MySQL programs are a set of command-line utilities that are provided with typical MySQL distributions. MySQL is designed to be a database.

Q13. Which MySQL command shows the structure of a table?

Q14. MySQL uses security based on _ for all connections, queries, and other operations that users can attempt to perform.

Q15. Which MySQL command modifies data records in a table?

Q16. What is the best type of query for validating the format of an email address in a MySQL table?

Q17. In MySQL, queries are always followed by what character?

Q18. How can you remove a record using MySQL?

Q19. Which choice is NOT a statement you would use to filter data?

Q20. What does the following SQL statement return?

SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE EmployeeName LIKE ‘a%’

Q21. In SELECT * FROM clients; what does clients represent?

Q22. How does MySQL differ from SQL?

Q23. If you need to order a table of movies by name, which query will work?

Q24. A trigger is a database object that is associated with a table, and that activates when a particular event occurs for the table. Which three events are these?

Q25. You are working with very large tables in your database. Which SQL clause do you use to prevent exceedingly large query results?

Q26. What is the default port for MySQL Server?

Q27. How can you filter duplicate data while retrieving records from a table?

Q28. What is the difference between DROP and TRUNCATE?

Q29. How do you select every row in a given table named «inventory»?

Q30. In an efficiently designed relational database, what does every table have?

Q31. MySQL option files provide a way to specify commonly used options so that they need not be entered on the command line each time you run a program. What is another name for the option files?

Q32. After installing MySQL, it may be necessary to initialize the _ which may be done automatically with some MySQL installation methods.

Q33. You need to export the data in the customers table into a CSV file, with columns headers in the first row. Which clause do you add to your MySQL command?

Q34. One form of backup, replication, enables you to maintain identical data on multiple servers, as a _ configuration.

Q35. What is the requirement for using a subquery in the SELECT clause?

Q36. Each time MySQL is upgraded, it is best to execute mysql_upgrade, which looks for incompatibilities with the upgraded MySQL server. What does this command do, upon finding a table with a possible incompatibility?

Q37. What mysql statement is used to check which accounts have specific privileges?

Q38. What cannot have a trigger associated with it?

Q39. later versions of mysql support the native json data type for storing json documents. What is a drawback of json columns?

Q40. Which statement is true for the diagram below

Q41. Which statement can you use to load data from a file into the table?

Q42. You are working with the tables as shown in this diagram. You need to make sure that any record added to the purchases table consists of a customerID, which already exists in the customers table, and a carID, which already exists in the cars table. You decide to use a trigger to do the validation. Which one do you use?

IF EXISTS and CROSS JOIN are not valid for a trigger.

Q43. Which is the correct syntax of an extended insert statement?

insert into cars (make, model, year) values (‘Ford’, ‘Mustang’, 2002) (‘Mercedes’, ‘C’, 2003)

insert into cars (make, model, year) values (‘Ford’, ‘Mustang’, 2002) values (‘Mercedes’, ‘C’, 2003)

insert into cars (make, model, year) extended (‘Ford’, ‘Mustang’, 2002), (‘Mercedes’, ‘C’, 2003)

insert into cars (make, model, year) values (‘Ford’, ‘Mustang’, 2002), (‘Mercedes’, ‘C’, 2003)

Q44. You need to make an exact copy of a table, with all columns and indexes. How can you get all of the information needed to accomplish this?

Q45. you need to make your mysql system secure against attackers. What are you not supposed to do?

Q46. You manage a database with a table «customers». You created a temporary table also called «customers» with which you are working for the duration of your session. You need to recreate the temporary table with different specs. Which command do you need to run first?

Q47. You need to run a complex query with recursive subqueries, but without creating a stored procedure or a function. Which command or clause do you use?

This is exactly what WITH clause is designed for

Q48. Which choice is not a processing algorithm for database views?

Q49. What is the MySQL perror command-line utility used for?

Q50. How can you list all columns for a given table?

Note: DESCRIBE tablename is a shortcut for this command

Q51. How would you list the full set of tables in the currently selected database?

Q52. Which choice is not one of the table maintenance statements?

Q53. In which table does MySQL store passwords for user accounts?

Q54. Management has requested that you build an employee database. You need to include each employee’s current position and salary, as well as all prior positions and salaries with the company. You decide to use a one-to-many structure: an employee table with the main information such as name and address, and an employment table with position and salary history. You can use the employeeID field to connect them. What is employment.employeeID an example of?

Q55. In recent versions of MySQL (8.0+), what’s the correct syntax to declare a CTE (Common Table Expression)?

Q56. What is one reason to introduce data redundancy into a normalized database design?

Note: «to make the system faster» can also be correct. For example we can calculate some heavy query in advance and store its result in some column (use it as a cache). So if «system» means «application which uses mysql» then it’s correct too.

Q57. The code snippet below is used to read data from an XML file into a table. Which XML structure is _not_ supported by the statement?

Q58. You are loading data into a table. Which command can you use to make sure that all data is inserted and duplicates rows are discarded?

Q59. Which statement about the TRUNCATE TABLE statement is true?

Q60. You are working with the tables as shown in this diagram. You need to get the number of cars sold per the home state of each customer’s residence. How can you accomplish this?

Explanation: THe difference between 2 and 3 is that LEFT JOIN will return 1 row per customer before grouping. If replaced with RIGHT JOIN it would return the correct info.

Q61. In data migration, there is often a need to delete duplicate rows as part of data cleanup. Which statement works best?

Q62. When working with MySQL cursor, what must you also declare?

Q63. Which type of backup includes all the changes made to the data since the last full backup was performed?

Q64. You need to restore a MySQL database from a backup file. Which command-line tool do you use for the actual data import, after re-creating the database?

Q65. You are importing data as JSON into a new table. You run CREATE TABLE json_data ( city JSON ); and insert rows into this table. What is the correct syntax to see the list of cities?

Note: the last option is valid too but the results will be enclosed with quotation marks

Q66. If you want to use MyISAM instead of InnoDB, which option do you need to specify in the CREATE TABLE statement?

Q67. You are working with the table in this diagram. You want to use full-text search to find the customers who live on a street or a drive. What is the command to do that?

Table name: customers

Q68. Which query lists the databases on the current server?

Q69. What is the product of the database designing phase?

Q70. Which choice is not a valid model for a stored procedure parameter?

Q71. What is the advantage of using a temporary table instead of a heap table?

Q72. Which is a valid constructor for a class named User?

Q73. What is the maximum number of columns that can be used by a single table index?

Q74. Which command will return a list of triggers in the current database?

Q75. Which statement is true about TIMESTAMP and DATETIME data types?

Q76. What is the equivalent of the mysqladmin reload command?

Q77. Explain the security aspect of stored procedures

Q78. How would you retrieve data on all the customers where no phone number is stored?

Q79. In the diagram below, the price field is declared as type DECIMAL. What would be a more efficient declaration for this field?

Q80. Which choice is not an available string type for a column?

Explnation: BIT is not a string type

Q81. This diagram shows what type of relationship between customers and cars?

Q82. A stored routine is a set of SQL statements stored on the server and takes form as either a procedure or a function. Which statement cannot be used inside stored routines?

Explanation: Both SET and DECLARE are used to create variables. Reference: MySQL STORED PROCEDURE Tutorial With Examples

Q83. When a new student is added to a new database, you want new records to be created in the related tables such as Exam, Score and Attendance. How would you accomplish this?

Q85. Why would you use a common table expression (CTE)?

Explanation: CTEs do not create temporary tables, they only work within a signle query. Reference: 13.2.15 WITH (Common Table Expressions).

Q86. Which option modifier tells a program not to exit with an error if it does not recognize the option, but instead to issue a warning?

Q87. What does this SQL statement return?

Q88. You are working with the tables as shown in the diagram. You need to generate the list of price totals for each make and model of car, with subtotals for each make, and the grand total of all prices. Which SQL clause do you use?

Q89. The left and right joins are also known as _.

Q90. What is the valid way to create a database view in MySQL?

Q91. How are permissions implemented in MySQL?

Q92. Inside a transaction, several operations need to be performed. What would you do if an exception happens during that transaction?

Q93. What function finds the current time or date in MySQL?

Q94. What is the correct usage of ENUM in MySQL?

Q95. The mysqldump command cannot generate output in _.

Q96. You are working with the tables as shown in this diagram. You need to generate the list of all cars, whether or not they had been sold, with the purchase date of the cars that were sold. Which statement accomplishes that?

Q97. Which code snippet from a stored procedure should be rewritten as a CASE statement?

Q98. Why would you use stored functions?

Q99. What steps do you need to take to normalize the table from this diagram?

Table name: superheroes

Q100. What is valid way to create a database view in MySQL?

Q101. A table Item has a Boolean field endOfLife and a field makeYear of type YEAR(4). How can you set the Boolean to true for all Items that have been made before 2019?

Q102. Which choice is an example of an aggregate function?Which choice is an example of an aggregate function?

Q103. You are working on UPDATE trigger on the employee tablein this diagram. How can you access the new value for the address inside the trigger?

Q104. You are working with the tables as shown in this diagram. You need to generate the list of customers who purchased certain car models. Which SQL clause do you use?

Q105. You are managing a database with a table called «customers». You created a temporary table also called «customers» with which you are working for the duration of your session. You need to re-create the temporary table with different specifications. Which command do you need to run first?

Анкета на британcкую визу 2022

Получив кучу вопросов к статье про самостоятельное получение английской визы, я решила открыть анкету и заполнить её от начала до конца. Ниже вы увидите практически все возможные комбинации вопросов из анкеты и мои комментарии к ним.

Где взять анкету на визу?

Анкета заполняется on-line. Для дипломатов; официальных лиц; членов семей тех, кому виза не нужна; бизнесменов и военных, отправляющихся на туманный альбион по работе или учёбе, предусмотрен отдельный вход. Про оформление этих виз я ничего не знаю. Читайте соотвествующие рекомендации на сайте.

Если вы турист-обыкновенный (что я и подразумеваю), то смело переходим на сайт визовой службы и ищем там зелёную кнопку

На следующай странице вам предложат выбрать язык. Я советую выбирать английский.

К сожалению, анкета не переведена полностью, а там, где переведена… в общем, лучше не надо. Если вы сомневаетесь в уровне своего владения языком, то гораздо удобнее будет воспользоваться переводчиком, встроенным в браузер, чем продираться через смесь языков с ошибками в переводе.

Ниже в вопросах из анкеты и комментариях к ним я буду использовать английскую формулировку со своим переводом, если он нужен.

Если вы выбрали русский, то на сдедующей странице не забудьте указать, что хотите видеть вопросы на двух языках.

И, последнее замечание: какой бы язык вы не выбрали, все ответы должны быть на английском.

Транскрибирование вашего имени и фамилии уже выполнено официальными лицами в вашем загранпаспорте. Срисуйте его оттуда без ошибок. Перевод адреса ул. Кржижановского д. 38 a стр. 5 кв. 4 на латиницу остаётся на ваше усмотрение. Гугл в помощь, но если вы ошибётесь, то это не конец света.

Анкета заполняется на английском языке

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В связи с пандемией короновируса вам предлагается сначала проверить, можете ли вы подать документы в выбранной стране и подтвердить то, что вы это сделали.

Выбираем I have checked available biometric enrolment locations and can travel to a location in my selected country. If no location is available in that country, then I confirm that I can travel to a location in the redirected country.

Как только формальности устранены наступает очень важный этап: регистрация.

Email address

Введите действующий e-mail, придумайте пароль (запишите на всякий случай) и обязательно дождитесь подтверждающего письма. Это очень важно, потому что попасть в свою анкету вы сможете только по ссылке. Эта ссылка у каждой анкеты своя. Её можно получить в регистрационном письме и при сохранении анкеты по ссылке Return to this application later (Вернуться к заявлению позже).

Если вы ошиблись, вводя e-mail, то исправить его можно только на этом этапе: If your email is wrong, click here to change it. В дальнейшем вы можете попытаться это сделать через службу поддержки и внезапно, это платная услуга даже если вы связываетесь с ними по электронной почте.

После ввода e-mail дождитесь письма и только после этого начинайте заполнять анкету

Who does this email address belong to?

Кому принадлежит этот электронный адрес? Подтвердите, что это ваш e-mail (или укажите, что не ваш, если вы заполняете анкету за кого-то другого), укажите второй e-mail, если хотите, и переходите к заполнению анкеты.

Provide your telephone number

Вводим телефоный номер с международным кодом, т.е. +79998887766

Where do you use this telephone number?

Здесь нужно выбрать, где вы доступны по этому номеру. Первая галочка — в Великобритании, вторая — за её пределами.

Если вы не используете этот номер в поездке, выбирайте только вторую.

Select whether this is your home, mobile or work telephone number

Укажите, что это за номер: домашний, рабочий или мобильный. Обычно это мобильный, значит, последняя галка.

Do you have any other telephone numbers?

Если вы хотите поделиться другими своими номерами, то выбирайте «Yes» и вводите их. Я считаю, что одного достаточно.

Are you able to be contacted by telephone?

Нужно выбрать, как с вами связаться по указанному телефону:

Если вы выбираете что-то, кроме первого пункта, вас попросят объяснить, почему. Например, люди, имеющие проблемы со слухом, вряд ли могут общаться по телефону кроме как по SMS: I have hearing problem.

Enter your name, as shown in your current passport or travel document

Given name(s) — Имя и отчество.

Other family name — Фамилия

Несмотря на то, что в вопросе просят ввести имя, так как это указано в загран паспорте, где отчество пишется только по-русски, в пояснении к этому вопросу чётко написано: если у вас есть отчество, вы должны его ввести вместе с именем.

При получении визы впрошлом году я не вводила отчество, потому что этот вопрос анкеты был сформулирован по-другому. В предыдущих трёх моих визах отчество указано.

In addition to the names already provided, are you now or have you ever been known by another name?

Тем, кто официально менял имя и/или фамилию, нужно указать все предыдущие имена/фамилии.

Замужние дамы, менявшие фамилию, — это, в том числе, про вас. Отвечаете «Yes» и пишите девичью фамилию.

Если фамилию меняли несколько раз, то снова отвечаете «Yes» и пишите следующую фамилию. Когда предыдущие фамилии закончились, отвечаете «нет».

Если вы никогда не меняли имени и фамилии, сразу отвечаете «No».

What is your gender, as shown in your passport or travel document?

Какой пол указан в вашем загран паспорте? Male — мужской, Female — женский.

What is your relationship status?

Семейное положение. Учтите, что civil partnership (партнёрство) — британский термин для официального однополого брака, а не «гражданский брак», как это перевели в анкете.

Если состоите в браке, что придётся доложить о своём супруге:

Address

Пишем адрес проживания, а не прописки.

Is this address also your correspondence address?

Получаете ли вы почту по этому адресу? С вами могут связаться по указанному адресу, поэтому важно указать реальный адрес, по которому вы можете получить почтовое отправление.

How long have you lived at this address?

Как долго вы проживаете по этому адресу? выбираем дни/недели/месяцы или годы и ставим число.

What is the ownership status of your home?

Кто вы по отношению к этому жилищу?

Если выбираете последний пункт, придётся дать пояснения. Например, если квартира принадлежит вашим родителям или супругу, это нужно написать:

Passport number or travel document reference number

Полный номер загран паспорта с вместе с серией.

Issuing authority

Issue date / Expiry date

Дата выдачи / окончания срока действия. Даты везде пишутся по одному и тому же принципу: день, месяц числом и год в 4 цифры.

Do you have a valid national identity card?

National identity card number

Номер российского паспорта (или свидетельства о рождении для детей младше 14 лет), вместе с серией.

Issuing authority

Место выдачи — RUS или Russia.

Issue date, Expiry date (if applicable)

Дата выдачи и окончания срока (если применимо). У российских паспортов дата окончания срока действия не указывается, так что вторую дату заполнять ненужно.

Country of nationality

Гражданство: Russian Federation

Country of birt

Страна рождения: Russian Federation или для тех, кто рождён в СССР — USSR в выпадающем меню.

Place of birth

Место рождения как указано в паспорте / свидетельстве о рождении.

Date of birth

Do you currently hold, or have you ever held, any other nationality or citizenship?

Есть ли у вас гражданство других стран? «No»

Если вдруг есть, то так выбираете «Yes» и отвечаете на дополнительные вопросы.

FAQ по переводу документов для визы в Великобританию

What is your employment status?

Занятость. Можно выбрать несколько вариантов:

Для студентов, пенсионеров и безработных вопросов по работе дальше нет.

Для самозанятых вопросов всего два:

Всем работающим придётся рассказывать о своём работодателе:

Employer’s name

Название компании, где вы работате.

Лучше всего аккуратно скопировать с бланка на английском языке, на котором вам уже сделали справку с работы. Если приходится переводить самому, то для ООО используем Ltd., для ЗАО — CJSC, для OAO — JSC. Сокращения ставятся после названия компании, ИП перед ФИО.

Рабочий адрес

Employer’s telephone number

Рабочий телефон. Здесь внезапно код страны вынесли в отдельное окно. +7 для России.

Date you started working for this employer

Дата начала работы. Месяц, год. Если не помните, то загляните в справку с места работы.

Your job title

Ваша должность. Например, Sales manager (менеджер по продажам).

How much do you earn each month — after tax?

Ваш ежемесячный доход за вычетом налога. Эту цифру вам тоже напишут в справке. Остаётся правильно выбрать валюту.

Describe your job

Опишите вашу работу. В паре предложений описываете то, что вы делает на работе. Например, я написала: «Deal with web-sites; writing goods descriptions and blogs; e-mail marketing; making photos; design web-banners and on-line ads; SMM».

Do you have another income or any savings?

Имеются ли у вас другие доходы или сбережения?

Если вы выбираете первый пункт, то появляются дополнительные вопросы про тип вашего дохода.

При выборе сбережений требуется указать их размера в фунтах. Если сбережения — ваш единственный источник денег, то будут нужны документы, подтверждающие наличие этих сбережений.

What kind of regular income do you have?

Какого типа ваши регулярные доходы?

Total amount of money that you get in a year

Общая сумма годового дохода. Берёте доход за месяц и умножаете на 12, ужасаетесь сумме.

Если ваш единственный источник денег на поездку — это сбережения, то понадобятся документы, подтверждающие их наличие

How much money are you planning to spend on your visit to the UK?

Сколько вы собираетесь потратить на поездку в Великобританию?

Сложный вопрос. Берём приблизительно стоимость авиабилетов, добавляем отель, а затем минимум 75 фунтов за каждый день пребывания. Полученную сумму округляем.

Например, едем на 5 дней (£75 * 5), перелёт, скажем, £125, отель — £250. Получаем £750.

Разумеется, ваш банковский счёт должен подтвердить, что у вас есть такая сумма.

What is the total amount of money you spend each month?

Укажите cумму своих ежемесячных расходов, включая расходы на иждивецев и выплаты по кредитам. За подсказкой можно обратиться к статистике по вашей банковской карте.

Will anyone be paying towards the cost of your visit?

Принимает ли кто-то участие в оплате вашей поездки?

Если вы всё оплачиваете самостоятельно, то ответ «No».

Если за вас полностью или частично платит кто-то другой (папа, работодатель, супруг и т.д.), отвечаете «Yes».

При положительном ответе появятся дополнительные поля:

Who is paying towards the cost of your visit?

Кто оплачивает расходы по вашей поездке?

При выборе 1-го или 3-го пункта нужно будет ввести данные лица или компании: имя/название и адрес.

Затем указать, сколько денег вам дают и почему:

How much money will they be paying towards your visit?

Сколько денег они выделят на Вашу поездку?

Сумма в рублях или фунтах.

Why are they helping to pay for your visit?

Почему они помогают оплачивать расходы по вашей поездке?

Date you plan to arrive in the UK и Date you plan to leave the UK

Планируемые даты поездки.

Можно подавать документы на визу за 3 месяца до поездки. Например, отправляя анкету 13 июля, вы можете указать начало поездки на 12 октября.

Что касается ближайших дат, то учтите, что в стандартном режиме виза делается за 15 рабочих дней, в ускоренном (за дополнительную плату) — 3 рабочих дня.

We may have to talk to you about your application.
Which language would you prefer to use?

Нам может понадобиться поговорить о вашей заявке на визу. Какой язык вы предпочитате использовать? Можно выбрать русский Russian, но говорить с вами на русском вам не обещают. На самом деле в 99% случаев это формальный вопрос. На собеседование вызывают крайне редко.

What is the main reason for your visit to the UK?

Какова основная цель вашей поездки в Великобританию?

Поскольку я пишу только про туристические визы (про другие внимательно читатайте соотвествующие документы), то предполагаю, что вы выбрали первый пункт. Обратите внимание, что имея туристическую визу, вы не сможете заключить брак на территории Великобритании. Для этой цели нужно получать «визу невесты».

Что касается обучения, то по туристической вызе вы можете обучаться до 30 дней. Т.е. для краткострочных языковых курсов ненужно оформлять студенческую визу.

После это вопрос повторяют ещё раз:

What is the main reason for your holiday visit to the UK?

Опять выбираем туризм. Если вы едете к родным или друзьям, выбирайте соответствующий пункт. И, очевидно, при этом нужно будет указать данные этих людей.

Give details of the main purpose of your visit and
anything else you plan to do on your trip.

Предоставьте детали вашего визита и что-либо другое, что вы планируете делать в поездке.

На самом деле от вас не требуют расписать ваше путешествие пошагово, как это происходит для японской визы. Можно использовать самые общие слова: Sightseeing (осмотр достопримечательностей); visiting board game conventions (посещение конвентов по настольным играм) и т.д.

Если вы планируете расширенный маршрут с передвижением по стране, то так и пишите: Visit Salisbury in order to see the Cathedral (шутка про Солсберийский собор).

Если в анкете вы написали, что собираетесь посетить Кембридж, а сами поехали в Оксфорд, никто вас наказывать не будет. Тем более, что вы пишите только про свою первую поездку по этой визе, а их может быть несколько.

Does anyone rely on you for financial support?
Include both those travelling with you and those who are not.

Нуждается ли кто-либо в вашей финансовой помощи? Включая тех, кто путешествует с вами и тех, кто остаётся дома

При положительном ответе вас попросят ввести данные этих людей независимо от того, едут они с вами в Англию или нет.

Если этот человек едет с вами, что нужно ввести:

Give details about 2 of your parents.

Введите данные о своих родителях (даже если они уже умерли): имя, фамилию, дату рождения и гражданство.

Удивительно, но при попытке указать у родителей гражданство СССР, обнаруживается, что такого нет. Так что пишите, что гражданство они не меняли.

Если у вас нет данных об одном из родителей, то заполните данные на одного, а затем нажмите на ссылку What if I do not have my parents’ details? ( Что делать, если у меня нет данных родителей?) и выберите появившуюся галочку.

Если у вас нет данных по обоим родителям, нажмите на эту ссылку сразу.

Do you have any family in the UK?

У вас есть родственники в Великобритании? Список включает:

Ряд вопросов ниже будет только в анкете для несовершеннолетних путешественников:

How many adults do you want to list on your visa?

Сколько взрослых должно быть указано в вашей визе?

В британской визе для лиц младце 18 указываются до двух взрослых, которые могут сопровождать ребёнка. Ни с кем другим ребёнка не пропустят на границе.

Which adult will travel with you?

Кто из взрослых поедет с вами?

Для выбора будут предложены родители, данные о которых внесены в анкете ранее.

Нужно будет заполнить дополнительные поля:

И либо указать, что ребёнок проживает с родителями, либо предоставить адрес.

В случае, если ребёнок едет не с родителями, выбираем пункт:

И предоставляем информацию об этом лице:

Если ребёнок едет без родителей, то необходимо разрешение на поездку с указанным взрослым.

Если выбран третий вариант, то нужно указать, кто этот сопровожадющий:

Give details — Предоставьте более подробную информацию.

Например, Trainer (тренер), Teacher (учитель), My friend’s mother (мама моего друга).

Если несовершеннолетний путешественник едет не родителями или опекуном, то при подаче документов на визу нужно предоставить согласие от родителя или опекуна на поездку в сопровождении этого лица. Этот же документ понадобится при прохождении пограничного контроля в Великобритании.

Will you be travelling to the UK as part of an organised group?

Едете ли вы в Великобританию в составе организованной группы?

Сюда относятся туристические, спортивные, рабочие или учебные группы. Если ответ положительный, нужно указать название группы.

Если вы едете семьёй или дружеской компанией, то отвечайте «No».

Will you be travelling to the UK with someone
who is not your partner, spouse, or dependant?

Едете ли вы в Великобританию с кем-то, кто не является вашим партнёром, супругом или лицом на иждивении?

Do you have an address for where you are going to stay in the UK?

Вы уже сделали необходимые приготовления, связанные с вашим проживанием в Великобритании?

Если вы отвечаете «Yes», то дальше последует вопрос

Where are you planning to stay in the UK?

Где вы планируете остановиться в Великобритании? Здесь вы или указываете название и адрес отеля, либо имя и адрес человека, у которого запланировали остановиться.

Для получения британской визы не нужна бронь отеля

Поскольку для британской визы не требуется бронировать отель, то на момент заполнения анкеты, вы можете не знать адреса, по которому будете проживать. В этом случае отвечайте «No», а на следующий вопрос дайте подробную информацию о ваших планах.

Where do you plan to stay in the UK?

Где вы планируете проживать во время поездки в Великобританию? Напишите о своих планах.

Например, I’m going to stay at a hotel in London and at the University campus in Oxford.

Have you been to the UK in the past 10 years?

Были ли вы в Великобритании за последние 10 лет?

При ответе «Yes» нужно указать количество раз.

How many times have you been to the UK in the past 10 years?

Сколько раз вы посещали Великобританию за последние 10 лет?

Select why you were in the UK:

Какова была цель вашей поездки?

Date you arrived in the UK

Дата начала поездки.

How long were you in the UK?

Продолжительность поездки в днях, неделях или месяцах.

How many times have you visited the following places in the past 10 years?
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, Switzerland, European Economic Area (do not include travel to the UK)

Сколько раз за последние 10 лет вы посетили такие страны, как Австралия, Канада, Новая Зеландия, США, государства Шенгенской зоны?

Дальше нужно ввести данные по последним двум поездкам.

Which country did you visit? Do not include visits to the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland or the European Economic Area.

Какие страны вы посетили кроме Великобритании, США, Канады, Новой Зеландии, государств Шенгенской зоны?

Дальше вас ждёт заполнение поездок в другие страны.

For either the UK or any other country, have you ever been:

Были ли у вас в Великобритании или любой другой стране

Надеюсь, с вами такого не случалось. Если такое было, то нужно будет указать, что случилось и в какой стране, а также дать короткое объяснение проишедшему.

Have you ever:

At any time have you ever had any of the following, in the UK or in another country?

Совершали ли вы что-либо из перечисленного, находясь на территории Великобритании или другой страны?

Дальше идёт пачка вопросов про всякие правонарушения и мерзости. Везде отвечаем «No». вы ведь законопослушный гражданин?

Многие люди недоумевают, зачем эти вопросы в анкете, ведь нормальные люди к этому непричастны, а преступник никогда не признается, что он совершил преступление. Конечно, власти Великобритании не ждут, что отъявленные негодяи расскажут про свои преступления, но если их поймают, то у властей будет письменное подтверждение вранья иммиграционной службе, а это повод взять их за попу.

Have you ever worked for any of the following types of organisation?

Работали ли вы когда-нибудь на следующий тип организаций? Вопрос включает как оплачиваемую работу, так и нет. выбирайте всё, что подходит либо отвечайте, что нет:

Я, например, работала в СМИ, поэтому мне приходится заполнять дополнительные поля.

Служившим в армии мужчинам тоже досыпят вопросов.

If you needed to add more information about your application
but were not able to, you can write it here:

Если вдруг у вас какая-то особая ситуация и вам нужно прокомментировать подаваемые документы, это как раз то место, где вы можете уточнить нюансы.

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How Many Words Do You Need to Be Fluent? [Answered]

By OptiLingo • 12 minute read

How Many Words Does The Average Native Speaker Use?

When you set out to learn a new language, it’s common to want to know how long it will take to reach fluency. And one of the most common ways people try to gauge that is by counting the number of foreign vocabulary words they learn. So, how many words do you need to know to be fluent? The answer is quite complicated. In fact, many language learning experts often disagree.

The Problem With Counting Vocabulary Words

Despite being one of the most common ways people choose to evaluate fluency, counting words is not effective. And there are several reasons for this:

We’ve only just begun to touch on the difficulty in counting words to measure fluency. And the trouble goes deeper than just the dynamic nature of words in general. When it comes down to it, it’s even difficult just to get experts to agree on what a word is.

Defining What a Word Is

“What is a word?” is a very complex question. You might assume everyone means the same thing when they talk about a “word,” but that turns out not to be the case at all. Language experts sharply disagree with each other about the number of words people have in their vocabularies.

It doesn’t make sense. Why would people with more education have smaller vocabularies than people with less education? Where does this discrepancy come from?

The difference in the numbers comes from how experts measure data. They measure differently. And they don’t agree on the definition of “word” or the definition of “know.” So, it is not surprising that they come up with such different answers to questions about how many words people know.

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How to Define What a Word Is

Some experts count every form of a word as a separate word. For example, they count each form of the verb “to see” separately. By this measurement, “to see,” “see,” “sees,” “seeing,” “saw” and “seen” would be considered six individual words. These experts apply the same logic to nouns, counting “cat” and “cats” as two separate words.

Other experts count only the root word and not its different forms. As a result, they come up with much smaller numbers. These experts count “to see,” “see,” “sees,” “seeing,” “saw,” and “seen” as only one word because they are all forms of “to see.” They also consider “cat” and “cats” as a single word because the singular and plural are forms of the same root noun.

Their thinking is that when people learn a root word, such as “to see” or “cat,” they are learning a new word for the first time. However, when the same people then learn different forms of the root word, such as “seeing” or “cats,” that should be considered an addition to their knowledge of grammar instead of an expansion of their store of new words.

How Many Words Do You Know?

After all, these experts say, this is how we learn languages. First, we learn one form of a word. Then, as we learn more about the structure of the language, we can generalize the use of the word to other situations, using its other forms.

When evaluating the number of words in people’s vocabularies, the experts who count every form of a word will come up with a much higher word count than will the experts who count only the root forms. And that’s the case even when both sets of experts are studying the same language and the same groups of people.

Which standard of measurement should you use? Neither one is right or wrong. They are both valid ways of measuring the size of people’s vocabularies. What’s important when you compare individuals or groups to each other is that you pick one method of measurement and then use it consistently in order to have meaningful results.

What Does It Mean to “Know” a Word?

Back to our original question: How Many Words Do You Need to Know to Be Fluent? We’ve defined what a word is (roughly), but we’re still not there yet. Now, we need to consider is what it means to “know” a word.

People who study languages make a distinction between what they call active vocabulary and passive vocabulary. Some think people “know” a word only if it is in their active vocabulary. However, others believe people “know” all the words in their active and passive vocabularies combined.

For both native and non-native speakers, the number of words in passive vocabularies tends to be several times larger than the number of words in active vocabularies.

People will generally absorb a new word into their passive vocabularies after they see or hear it the first few times. Then, as they encounter the word more often and as they better understand its context and different meanings, it becomes part of their active vocabularies.

One of the best ways to expand your knowledge of a language is to move words up from your passive to your active vocabulary.

How Many Words Do I Have in My Vocabulary Range?

Now that we have seen why language experts differ so widely when they count words in people’s vocabularies, we can return to our original question about how many words you need to know to be considered fluent. For the purpose of this discussion, we will measure vocabulary by counting only root words and not their different forms, and by counting only the words in people’s active vocabularies.

This is the approach taken by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which has become the de facto standard for grading an individual’s language proficiency. The CEFR is a current guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasingly, in other countries.

The Council of Europe created it as the main part of a project called “Language Learning for European Citizenship” between 1989 and 1996. Its main aim is to provide a method of learning, teaching and assessing which applies to all languages in Europe.

The 6 reference levels (see below) are becoming widely accepted as the de facto standard for grading an individual’s language proficiency. Using this method of measurement, we can sort people based on their language fluency into six groups or levels:

Learn the Right Words in the Right Order

A great way to accelerate your language learning is to pay attention to which words you should learn first, instead of trying to learn as many new words as fast as you can. Focus first on learning the words that will benefit you the most.

For example, in English, about 95% of everyday conversations draw from a store of only 3,000 words. Learning those 3,000 words first will be far more efficient than learning 3,000 words at random. By starting with a list of the most commonly used words, you can take a shortcut toward being able to carry on everyday conversations.

To optimize learning, someone studying English should learn to recognize the most high-volume words, such as “the,” “to be,” “and,” “have” and “you” before they tackle less common vocabulary words. Make sure you learn the basics before going on to study the names of animals and plants, current slang expressions, or other words that are not as essential to basic conversational skills.

How The Pareto Principle Helps You Reach Fluency

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was an Italian philosopher and engineer known for documenting the 80/20 rule (named after him). In short, Pareto discovered that 80% of the effects come from only 20% of the causes in many situations.

The Pareto Principle is useful in many fields because it helps people focus on the actions they can take that will have the greatest impact. For example, software developers find that fixing 20% of the bugs in a software product can eliminate 80% of the product’s defects. The trick is to concentrate on the correct 20%. In the software example, that means focusing on fixing the bugs that users report most often.

Traffic patterns also follow the Pareto Principle. In many locations, 80% of the traffic will occur during 20% of any given time period. This is useful information for city planners, who can focus their efforts to manage traffic where they will do the most good.

For language learners, this means most of your progress will come from targeted learning. While this may not break down exactly to 80 and 20%, the general rule is useful here.

Focus on High-Frequency Words in Your Target Language

That’s why many people often begin their language studies by attempting to memorize high-frequency words. Without getting into the pros and cons of this approach, adherents will often focus on the first 500–1,000 most frequently used vocabulary words in their target language.

If this is an approach you’re considering, give careful thought to where you pick up your vocabulary lists and how they were created. Going back to our exploration of “what is a word,” you may want to consider how you choose to study definitions.

You don’t need to memorize every definition of the words you are learning. That would be very time-consuming because some common words have several alternative definitions not commonly used.

For example, in English, the word “murder” normally means “to kill.” It is a word one often encounters in news reports. An alternative definition is “a flock of crows.” This second definition is not commonly known among native speakers, let alone students.

Instead, it is far more efficient to learn only a few of the most common definitions – the ones you are likely to need in ordinary conversations. Then, with experience, you will naturally learn more when you hear the words used in different contexts. In that way, through exposure to the language over time, you will assimilate the language, learning it in a natural way.

If you focus on learning words you will use the most and on learning the most useful definitions, you can learn the language far more efficiently than if you tried to learn everything at random.

How Many Words to Be Conversational?

There is no precise number that will answer the question of “how many words do you need to know to be fluent?” In part, that is because language scholars use different measurements when they count words and apply different standards to evaluate what it means to know a word.

Nevertheless, it is useful to consider how many words people know if you look at ranges, rather than at exact numbers. It then becomes possible to group people by their language proficiency according to a rough estimate of the number of words they know.

People who know 250 to 500 words are beginners. Those who know 1,000 to 3,000 words can carry on everyday conversations. Knowing 4,000 to 10,000 words makes people advanced language users while knowing more than 10,000 words puts them at the fluent or native-speaker levels.

How Many Words Do You Know?

When it comes to learning a language, all words are not equal. Learning some types of words will accelerate your progress more quickly than learning other types of words. To be most effective in learning a language, focus on the most common words in that language before starting to study more specialized sets of vocabulary. And learn the most common definitions first instead of trying to memorize every definition.

The Pareto Principle, which says 80% of effects come from 20% of causes, applies in a general way to learning a new language. That is, you will progress the fastest if you start by spending your time learning what you can use right away. If instead, you try to read a dictionary from cover to cover, learning every word and every definition in the language, much of your effort will be inefficient at best and wasted at worst.

Should You Count Words on Your Path to Fluency?

Learning the most common words and definitions puts you in a position where you can start assimilating the language in a natural way. The more you hear and read words in the language, the more you will understand new words and new meanings in context. This is similar to the way you learned your first language as a child. The more you expose yourself to your new language, the more fluent you will become.

So, how many words do you need to know to be fluent? Well, you don’t need to count the number of words you learn. You have much better things to do with your time. Instead, put your time and effort where they will do the most good. Speed up your language learning by focusing on the most commonly used words, then let your natural language-learning ability take over.

This combination of targeted studying and assimilating language by experience is the most powerful and efficient way to master a new language.