When you are doing something serious, for example, learning a foreign language, it is useful to know your goals. In language learning, such a goal could be the number of words learned.
Read how many specific words you need to learn in order to speak any language fluently. The article talks about English, but I assure you, in all other foreign languages the same.
There are more than 1 million words in the Oxford Dictionary. 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?
It doesn’t have to be several 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 can you communicate freely with?
If you know 400-500 words
Is this the most minimal or threshold level, which will give you the opportunity to communicate in standard situations. Once abroad, you will be able to answer questions in monosyllables, at least navigate the conversation, and understand by intonation what is happening. But you can’t claim to be the best conversationalist.
If you know 800-1000 words
You not only perceive English-language information well by ear and navigate standard situations, but you can also engage in 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, as long as the topics of conversation are not too sophisticated. You will be able to talk about everyday topics, but in a conversation about art, politics, philosophy, you are unlikely to be able to act as an active interlocutor.
If you know 3000-4000 words
You communicate freely in an English-speaking environment, read the press and fiction. Most likely, many may consider you an interesting interlocutor.
If you know 8000 words
Only an accent can indicate that you are not a native speaker if you have not managed to get rid of it. You can read and write fluently in English, conduct everyday and business communication. This dictionary is enough to get higher education abroad. Knowing so many words, you will daily, almost unconsciously, 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 10,000 words
So lexicon It is spoken by an educated native speaker. Have you reached this point? In this case, you are unlikely to need our advice on exactly how to learn English words and expand your vocabulary.
Some tips for those who want to quickly become a participant in live communication in English:
- an extensive vocabulary in itself will not provide you with free communication; it is better to start learning words with the most commonly used lexical units
- speak. At meetings of speaking clubs or with native speakers on Skype, with English teachers and just friends. Learn not to be afraid to make mistakes
- if you attend speaking clubs, prepare for meetings. If you know the topic, learn the vocabulary for that topic.
- learn words daily. It’s better to memorize 10 words every day, repeating previously learned ones, and therefore remember them well, than to memorize 300 words in one day and forget most of them the next day
- If you already have about 2000 words in your vocabulary, start reading. Reading will allow you to enrich your vocabulary in the shortest possible time. The more words you know, the easier and more words you will remember when reading a new book.
- Set yourself a goal of 8,000 words. Go towards this goal, regardless of difficulties.
Let's take a simple example: The Oxford English Dictionary contains about 1 million words. Don't let this number scare you, because in order to communicate in English, you don't need to know even a tenth of this amount. And yet, how many words does a person need to know to communicate freely 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, and, as you know, it is much smaller than a passive one. A person can speak about 7 thousand words per day. native language(and this is according to the most conservative estimates). Of course, this is only a quantitative indicator; many words are repeated in our speech. And this is the main key to achieving our goal: fluent communication in English. After all, you can learn a certain number of the most frequently used words in oral speech and - welcome to the world of full-fledged communication in English!
Let us note a few main rules that you should follow in order to start speaking fluent English as soon as possible:
- vocabulary alone will not ensure free communication; you need to start with the most commonly used words
- In order to learn to communicate fluently in English, you need to try to engage in conversation every day. Chat with friends, visit speaking clubs - this is the only way you will achieve your goal
- learn general vocabulary for conversation; there will be no problems with terms and special words, since this is most often international vocabulary
- It’s better to memorize 20-30 words every day, good, than 300, but bad
- Once you have 1500 words, you can start reading. Reading is one of the best sources of vocabulary enrichment
- your final goal is 8000 words. With such a reserve, you will feel confident in any situation.
We wish you success in communicating on English language!
How many words do you need to know to communicate fluently in English?
The fact that the language's dictionary contains approximately 300 thousand words is only of theoretical interest for a beginner learning this language. Almost main principle for the reasonable organization of your studies, especially at the initial stage, this is an economy of words. You need to learn to remember as much as possible less words, but do it as best as possible.
Let us emphasize that our approach is directly opposite to the guiding principle of “suggestopedia”, with its emphasis on the abundance of words presented to the student. As you know, in accordance with its canons, a beginner needs to be literally “showered with words.” It is best to give him or her 200 new words every day.
Is there any doubt that any normal person will forget all those numerous words with which he was “showered” using this, so to speak, method - and most likely very soon, in just a few days.
Don't chase too much
It will be much better if at the end of a certain stage of study you know 500 or 1000 words very well than 3000 - but poorly. Don’t let yourself be led into a dead end by teachers who will assure you that you need to first learn a certain number of words in order to “get into the swing of things.” Only you yourself can and must decide whether the vocabulary you have mastered is sufficient for your goals and interests.
Language learning experience shows that about 400 well-chosen words can cover up to 90 percent of the vocabulary you need for everyday communication purposes. In order to read, you will need more words, but many of them are only passive. Therefore, with knowledge of 1500 words, you can already understand fairly 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. “He who pursues too much risks missing everything,” says a Swedish proverb. “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch either,” the Russian proverb answers.
Vocabulary in spoken English
Very roughly speaking, about 40 well-chosen, high-frequency words will cover about 50% of word usage in everyday speech in any language;
- 200 words will cover about 80%;
- 300 words - approximately 85%;
- 400 words will cover about 90%;
- well, 800-1000 words are about 95% of what would need to be said or heard in the most ordinary situation.
Thus, the right vocabulary helps you understand quite a lot with very little effort spent on cramming.
Example: if a total of 1000 words are spoken in an everyday conversation, then 500 of them, that is, 50%, will be covered by the 40 most common high-frequency words.
We emphasize that these percentages, of course, are not the result of exact calculations. They simply give the most general idea of how many words it will take to feel confident when entering into a simple dialogue with a native speaker. In any case, there is no doubt that by correctly choosing from 400 to 800 words and remembering them well, you can feel confident in a simple conversation, since they will cover almost 100% of those words that you cannot do without. Of course, under other, less favorable conditions, 400 words will cover only 80% of what you need to know - instead of 90 or 100%.
Vocabulary when reading in English
When reading, having correctly chosen and well remembered about 80 of the most common, most frequent words, you will understand about 50% of a simple text;
200 words will cover approximately 60%;
- 300 words - 65%;
- 400 words - 70%;
- 800 words - approximately 80%;
- 1500 - 2000 words - about 90%;
- 3000 - 4000 - 95%;
- and 8,000 words will cover almost 99 percent of the written text.
Example: if you have a text in front of you with a volume of approximately 10 thousand words (this is approximately 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.
Let us note again that the figures we give are only indicative. Depending on various 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: from 400 to 100,000 words
1. 400 - 500 words - active vocabulary for language proficiency at a basic (threshold) level.
2. 800 -1000 words - active vocabulary in order to explain yourself; or passive reading vocabulary at a basic level.
3. 1500 -2000 words - an active vocabulary, which is quite enough to ensure everyday communication throughout the day; or passive vocabulary sufficient for confident reading.
4. 3000 - 4000 words - in general, enough for almost fluent reading of newspapers or literature in the specialty.
5. About 8000 words - provide full communication for the average European. There is practically no need to know more words in order to communicate freely both orally and in writing, as well as read literature of any kind.
6. 10,000-20,000 words - the active vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).
7. 50,000-100,000 words - the passive vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).
It should be noted that vocabulary alone does not ensure free communication. At the same time, having mastered 1,500 correctly chosen words, with some additional training, you will be able to communicate almost freely.
As for professional terms, they usually do not present any particular difficulties, since in most cases this is an international vocabulary that is quite easy to master.
When you already know about 1500 words, you can start reading at a fairly decent level. With passive knowledge of 3,000 to 4,000 words, you will be fluent in reading literature in your specialty, at least in those areas where you are confident. In conclusion, we note that, according to calculations carried out by linguists based on a number of languages, the average educated European actively uses about 20,000 words (and half of them are quite rare). In this case, the passive vocabulary is at least 50,000 words. But all this concerns the native language.
Basic vocabulary
IN 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 purposes. Eight thousand words will be enough for full communication in any conditions.
When starting to learn a language, it would be wise to make do with shorter lists. Here are three levels that I have found in practice to provide a good guide for a beginner:
- level A ("basic vocabulary"):
400-500 words. They are enough to cover approximately 90% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 70% of simple written text;
- level B (“minimum vocabulary”, “mini-level”):
800-1000 words. They are enough to cover approximately 95% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 80-85% of written text;
- level B (“average vocabulary”, “medi-level”):
1500-2000 words. They are enough to cover approximately 95-100% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 90% of written text.
An example of a good dictionary of basic vocabulary can be considered the dictionary published by E. Klett in Stuttgart, 1971, under the title "Grundwortschatz Deutsch" ("Basic vocabulary German language"). It contains 2000 of the most necessary words in each of the selected six languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.
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