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

«How long does it take to learn English?» — the question that we are asked, perhaps, more often than any others, and to which it is still impossible to give any answer. First of all, because it is difficult to decide what it means to “learn”. Learn to understand a foreigner? Talk to him about simple everyday topics? Communicate with him on an equal footing? Measuring «knowledge» of a language is not easy.

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.

In fact, the active vocabulary of a young native speaker is only about 10 — 000 words, depending on the level of education. Some scholars have a vocabulary of more than 20. A five-year-old child knows about 000 words and communicates easily in simple everyday situations.

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».

To read simple texts, it will be enough for you to have 4000 — 5000 words in passive vocabulary. 10 — 000 for reading more complex texts.

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:

A1 — vocabulary volume approximately 800-100 words (active)

A2 — vocabulary volume approximately 1200 words (active)

B1 — vocabulary volume approximately 2000-2500 words (active)

B2 — vocabulary volume approximately 5000 words (active)

С1 — vocabulary volume approximately 6000 words (active)

С2 — vocabulary volume approximately 7000 words (active)

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.

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.

Minimum vocabulary

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:

• 40 lexemes will cover about 50% of everyday use in communication
• 200 words will already raise this indicator to 80%
• 300 lexical units will add a few more percent — 85%
• 450 words is almost 90%
• 900-1000 — almost 98% of what you can say or hear in everyday conversation

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.

E. Gunnemark

A well-known polyglot figured out that for reading, you need to pick up and learn about 80 — 8000 high-frequency words in order to understand an ordinary simple text:

• 80 words will help you understand about 50% of the text
• 200 units — 60%
• 400 tokens — will cover about 70%
• 2000 words — about 90%
• 8000 lexical units will help you to understand written or printed text 100%

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?

Why do you need 100 words, you ask, if only a few thousand are enough for communication? On the one hand, you are right — this number of tokens is quite enough for everyday conversations. BUT is the minimum vocabulary. If you want to become a full-fledged, educated member of society who will be able to maintain a conversation on any topic that a native English speaker suggests, then you need to constantly increase your vocabulary.

Rich vocabulary

What a rich vocabulary gives:

• 350-700 words — enough for a language proficiency at the threshold level
• 800-1200 lexemes — active arsenal for communication or passive reserve for reading at a beginner level
• 1500-2500 units — confident reading or fluent communication on everyday topics
• 3000-7000 words — free reading of special literature and the press
• 8000-9000 lexemes — full-fledged oral and written communication, reading any kind of literature
• 10-000 words — active native speaker vocabulary
• 50-000 units — a passive arsenal of words for an educated native speaker of English

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:

• Level A — basic vocabulary — 350 — 500 lexemes. This amount is quite enough to cover about 85-90% of all uses in daily oral conversation or about 70% of plain text in writing.
• Level B — mini-level or minimum vocabulary-phrasal stock — 900-1000 units. This number is sufficient to cover approximately 95% of everyday spoken word usage and approximately 85% of uncomplicated typed text.
• Level C — copper-level or average vocabulary — 1200-2000 words. This amount is enough to compensate for almost 100% of the use of phrases in everyday oral communication or about 90% of a literary text.

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!

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:

• an extensive vocabulary by itself will not provide you with free communication, it is better to start learning words with the most used lexical units
• speak. At meetings of conversation clubs or with native speakers on Skype, with English teachers and just friends. Learn not to be afraid to make mistakes.
• if you go to conversation clubs, get ready for meetings. Know the topic — learn the vocabulary for this topic
• learn words daily. It is better to memorize 10 words every day, repeating previously learned, which means — to memorize well than memorize 300 in one day and the next day to forget most of them
• if you already have about 2000 words in your stock, start reading. It is reading that will allow you to enrich the vocabulary as soon as possible. The more words you know, the easier and more you will memorize words as you read a new book.
• set yourself a goal of 8000 words. Go to this goal, not paying attention to the difficulties.

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

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.

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! By the way, the school of English in Kharkov My English World will help you with this. From Beginner to Advanced, in a group or individually, only you can choose.

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

Active vocabulary. This amount of words is enough for you to communicate throughout the day. The only drawback is that you will only be able to communicate on everyday topics, so it is better not to interfere in discussions about art, politics or philosophy — you will not be able to save face. 

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.

10 — 000 words

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:

• vocabulary alone will not provide free communication, you need to start with the most used words
• in order to learn to communicate fluently in English, you need to try to enter into a conversation every day. Chat with friends, visit conversation clubs — this is the only way to achieve your goal
• learn the general vocabulary for conversation, there will be no problems with terms and special words, since this is most often international vocabulary
• it is better to memorize 20-30 words daily, good than 300, but bad
• once you know 1500 words, you can start reading. Reading is one of the best sources of vocabulary enrichment
• your ultimate goal is 8000 words. With such a margin, you will feel confident in any situation. 

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

We wish you success in communicating in English!

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

1. How many words do you need to know at each language level
   1. Beginner A0
   2. Elementary a1
   3. Pre-Intermediate A2
   4. Intermediate B1
   5. Upper Intermediate B2
   6. Advanced C1
   7. Fluent c2
2. How many words do you need to know to speak fluently

Surely everyone who speaks English above the Pre-Intermediate level has heard the question: “Do you really understand what she sang about? What about? And translate ?! » Or: «How many words from the dictionary do you know?»

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: 

• How many words are there in English? 
• What about words that have more than one meaning? The Oxford Dictionary, for a second, has about 460 meanings of the word «set».
• Counting phrasal verbs in one word or in two?
• What about words like ice cream and hot dog?
• read, reading, read — are they different words or different grammatical forms?

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

• 171000 that are used in everyday life;
• 47000 obsolete words.

It turns out that in order to speak fluently and understand the language, the poor beginner needs to learn 171 thousand new words ?! 

No.

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

New level (survival level) — new words. Here your vocabulary expands to 1000. You can already tell your new English friends about yourself, your family, where you live and what you do. But at the level of general phrases and everyday superficial conversations.

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

Notice that you have already crossed the 3000 word threshold that we talked about at the beginning. More than 90% of the submitted information in articles, books, news and films is more than available. You understand and use idioms, you can read between the lines and catch the hidden meanings of words. By the way, at the Advanced level you don’t even think about it, but how many words from the Oxford Dictionary do you already know ..?

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.

Do not forget the fact: a person’s vocabulary is divided into active and passive. Active — these are the words and expressions that you use in your speech constantly, with understanding and pleasure. Passive vocabulary — those words that you recognize in the speech of the interlocutor, but do not use your own. 

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.

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

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.

Is there any doubt that any normal person will forget all the many words that he was “showered” with in this, if I may say so, method — and most likely very soon, in just a few days.

Don’t chase much

It will be much better if at the end of a certain stage of the lesson you know 500 or 1000 words very well than 3000 — but poorly. Don’t be overwhelmed by educators who will assure you that you need to learn a certain number of words first in order to «get on top of things.» Only you yourself can and must decide whether the vocabulary you have mastered is sufficient for your goals and interests.

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;

• 200 words will cover about 80%;
• 300 words — about 85%;
• 400 words will cover about 90%;
• well, 800-1000 words is about 95% of what will need to be said or heard in the most ordinary situation.

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.

Of course, under other, less favorable conditions, 400 words will cover only 80% of what you need to know — instead of 90 or 100%.

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;

• 200 words will cover about 60%;
• 300 words — 65%;
• 400 words — 70%;
• 800 words — about 80%;
• 1500 — 2000 words — about 90%;
• 3000 — 4000 — 95%;
• and 8000 words will cover nearly 99 percent of the written 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

• 400 — 500 words — active vocabulary for language proficiency at the basic (threshold) level.
• 800 — 1000 words — active vocabulary for explaining yourself; or passive vocabulary for basic reading.
• 1500 — 2000 words — active vocabulary, which is quite enough to ensure everyday communication throughout the day; or passive vocabulary sufficient for confident reading.
• 3000 — 4000 words — in general, it is enough for practically free reading of newspapers or literature in the specialty.
• About 8000 words — Provide complete communication for the average European. You practically don’t need to know more words in order to communicate freely both orally and in writing, as well as to read literature of any kind.
• 10-000 words — active vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).
• 50-000 words — passive vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).

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:

• level A («Basic vocabulary»):

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;

• level B («Minimum vocabulary», «mini-level»):

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;

• level B («Average vocabulary», «medi-level»):

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

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.

However, these are just numbers. If you feel that you are capable of more, go for it — maybe you are comfortable working with 15-30 phrases a day. Experiment and find the number that works best for you.

Which English words and phrases to learn first?

1. Only the right words. When we start to learn a new language, we often want to learn and “cram” something interesting and unusual, for example, “wither”, “emaciated” or “silkworm”. But why do you need this if you don’t remember how the “cash desk” or “pharmacy” would be in English? Do not waste memory resources and your time — learn only the necessary words that are often found in conversation. Then add sophistication to your speech.
2. Only words related to your interests and language learning goals. Google your professional question or just a topic that is especially interesting in English, select videos, podcasts or articles and study them, paying attention to the words and phrases that are most useful to you.
3. More verbs. Take them into account especially at the beginning of the training. After all, the verb in English is the main part of speech, and almost the entire language is held in it.

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:

1. Learn new phrases every day. It is important not to lose enthusiasm. Vocabulary, like muscles, requires daily pumping.
2. Compose stories about yourself, your family and friends. By building associations that are directly related to you and situations close to you, it will be much easier to remember new vocabulary and grammatical structures.
3. Learn the language in phrases, not in single words. So, you will memorize grammatical patterns, fixed expressions and can quickly build sentences based on the pattern. Plus, you’ll know exactly how to use words correctly in context.
4. Break down and learn English phrases by topic. Devote one list to nature, another to food, the third to relaxation, and the fourth to health. Pick up popular and common topics.
5. Learn English phrases with translation. It is important to remember not only pronunciation, but also meaning in context. Then you will know exactly in what situations you need to use the phrase, and avoid misunderstandings.
6. Do not try to grasp the immensity — clearly define how many English phrases you need to learn per day. The figure should be feasible: 5-10, 15-20, because the process should be enjoyable, not only useful, but also enjoyable.
7. Stay on course. Make daily lists for the week and complete the tasks step by step. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
8. Exercise before bed. At night, the brain is not distracted by outside thoughts and transfers knowledge from fast memory to long memory. Thus, new words and phrases are memorized more easily and firmly fixed in memory.
9. Last 21 days. Learn new English words and phrases every day and in three weeks you will have developed a habit. Further training will go like clockwork — you will not be able to live a day without English.

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:

1. Classical. We read the list of phrases, rest for 20 minutes, read it again. And so every day. By repeating the same thing regularly, you will train your memory, and everything will easily «pop up» in speech, and the list can always be expanded.
2. Visual. Write English phrases on cards and hang them around the apartment at eye level. This way, you can repeat them throughout the day — a great way for those with good visual memory.
3. Places method. Allows you to learn new English phrases every day, transferring them to spatial memory. Imagine a familiar place, such as a playground, and tie words to it. For example, associate “water” with an inflatable pool, “fly” with carousels, “slippery” with a slide, etc.
4. Associations. Remembering the «cup» («cup»), imagine that the drink flows out of it with the sound of «drip-drip». It is better to find the association yourself: this way it will be easier to remember. This method is especially suitable for those who have a well-developed associative thinking.
5. Dictations. Write in two columns the English phrases you want to learn and their translations, then close the first half. Write sentences in English from memory. Repeat the exercise several times. So you will not only learn new words and phrases, their meaning and correct pronunciation, but also improve your spelling by remembering how they are spelled correctly.

Top Ways to Improve Your Vocabulary

1. Singing. Who said learning English phrases every day is boring? Sing famous songs in the shower, while driving, while walking and taking breaks. You will not even notice how you will learn many different useful and colloquial phrases along with the songs.
2. Compositions.

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

3. Reading. Choose modern books, newspapers, magazines, news sites. Some English phrases are automatically stored in memory, so you don’t have to learn them.
4. Watching movies and TV shows in English is the most enjoyable way to expand your vocabulary. Relax and study at the same time. The main thing is not to use Russian subtitles.
5. Communication. Sign up for a conversation club, chat with foreigners on Skype or on social networks.

   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.

2019-01-11T11:04:27+00:00

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

August 8 2019

2019-08-08T13:42:00+03:00

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.

There are now many different lists on the Internet under headings like “100 Words That Will Help You Speak English” and the like. True, the compilers of these lists are often not indicated, and the number varies from site to site. Whether there is an exact figure or not — let’s try to figure it out in this article.

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.

Let’s say you know the word speak. But what about its form in the past tense — spoke (spoke). Is this all the same word or can you count it as a separate one?

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 active dictionary includes all the words of a native or foreign language that we regularly use when communicating with each other, to express our own thoughts, in study and work;
• Passive stock — those words and expressions that we know, but in our everyday life we ​​practically do not use it. This also includes obsolete words, neologisms, etc.

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.

• Elementary level means that you can already maintain a simple conversation, tell about yourself and your life, hometown, hobbies. At this stage, the vocabulary can range from 850 to 1000 words.
• Level A2 (Pre-Intermediate, «initial intermediate») requires you numbers in the 1500-2000 words. You should be able to read English texts, understand well by ear, and also be able to explain the purpose of your visit, describe your impressions of something and maintain a fairly casual conversation.
• A person with knowledge of the intermediate level (Intermediate) or advanced intermediate (Upper-Intermediate) knows about 3000-4500 words. He can easily read newspapers in English, watch news and TV series without subtitles. In general, this volume is sufficient for a fairly comfortable stay abroad and communication with foreign friends.
• Further advanced levels are Advanced and Fluent. Here you are already independently looking for the interpretation of complex terms in English, memorize synonyms, and increase your knowledge of professional vocabulary. You can recognize subtle English humor, appreciate the beauty of the literary turnover in a novel, and calmly talk with native speakers without peeping into the dictionary.

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:

• Memory Tree This technique is designed for figurative thinking. Collect words on the topic and draw a large tree with many branches on a piece of paper. At the base of the tree, write the topic to which it is dedicated. For example, «Family» (Family). Then each branch will contain a word related to the selected topic: mother (mother), dad (father), daughter (daughter), son (son) and so on. You can add small pictures to the words. Looking at your tree, the brain will create associations and connections of terms, which means it will be better to remember.
• Cards. Don’t be lazy and make flashcards for yourself with new words. Write a word or phrase on one side, and a translation on the other. It is convenient to view such cards in transport, queues, at lunch during the day. You will constantly review the material you have covered and are less likely to forget it. If you don’t want to cut out the cards yourself, there are different ready-made sets, both for those who take English Beginner courses and for those who continue to study.
• Illustrations. They will be great help in memorizing the picture. Sketch each new word. Let them be sketchy or even funny. On the contrary, funny associations help much better than the standard photographs offered by mobile applications.
• Separate phrases. Try to learn not single words, but whole phrases or phrases. For example, you are trying to remember the word apple. Describe what it is: green apple, bad apple. You will memorize more than one word already and you will immediately know where it is applied.
• Storytelling. This method will require some effort and imagination from you. After you’ve learned 15-20 new words, write a little story with them. Don’t be afraid to combine the incongruous — the story should help you put words into practice. Did you get something ridiculous and strange? Fine. Imagine this. You will be surprised, but it will be easier to memorize words.
• A couple of words. Learn two opposite words. Here you can use the flashcard method again and write the word on one side and its antonym on the other. Good-bad, happy-unhappy, glad-sad, and so on. Another version of this technique: memorize synonyms, words that are close in meaning.
• Special applications. The choice of applications for the computer and mobile device is huge now. Many offer training in a fun game format. For example, Memrise, Rosetta Stone and others. Most have a basic set of words available for free.

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.

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

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

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are currently 171 words in use in the English language, not to mention 146 obsolete words. How many words do you need to know to speak English confidently on almost any topic? Very briefly — 10 words.

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.

From level B2 or consciousness 4000 — 5000 words, You will feel a kind of freedom of expression. You will not be able to pick up words for a long time, building sentences, and if the subject of presentation is rather difficult, you can easily find an easier way to convey your idea.

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.

Here are the fifty words: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, , may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

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!

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

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

08.05.2014

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.  

• Active vocabulary — these are all words that a person can freely use in oral and written speech. 

• Passive vocabulary — these are all words that a person recognizes by ear and when reading, but does not use them in spontaneous speech, neither orally nor in writing. A passive vocabulary is usually much larger than an active vocabulary. This is true not only for foreign languages, but also for the native one.  

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:

• 400-500 vocabulary is available for a person who speaks the language elementary level;
• 800-1 active vocabulary is necessary for a person in order to simply to explain or read an adapted book;
• 1-500 words make up a vocabulary asset for everyday communication or more or less confident reading of an unadapted book;
• 3-000 vocabulary allows a modern person to practically communicate freely on all topics and read specialized literature;
• 8-000 — vocabulary asset the native language of an educated European;
• 50-000 — vocabulary passive the native language of an educated European.  

Which course suits your needs?

• You can only determine the number of English words you need on your own. If you want to calmly travel in an English-speaking country, then 500 words is enough to engage in a simple dialogue of 5-6 lines. Specially designed for this travel course.

• In order to  communicate easily at an average level of language proficiency -1000 words should be enough for you and then it is better to sign up for general English course… This will cover approximately 95% of all vocabulary you might come across every day. 

• To discuss specific narrow topics and debate, you will need to add another 60-70% of professional terminology for the area in which you want to communicate.

• If you want to get a higher education abroad, then you can safely focus on various language exams type TOEFL, requiring knowledge of up to 10 words, which must be passed when entering a foreign university, because communication at the academic level is very different from everyday communication. 

• If you want to become translator English, which should not just specialize in a particular field, but have at least general knowledge in all topics, then to the approximately 15 words that you learn in the learning process, you should add about 000% more different terminology.  

Helpful helpers

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 know that the level of knowledge of the language implies — in addition to vocabulary — possession to a certain extent of other skills: first of all, the ability to understand oral speech, speak oneself, write and read. 

But this is already a topic for another conversation.

Source: http://indigo-centre.ru/blog/slova-english

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

One-two-three-four-five How many words should I know? Sam Gendreau, founder of the Lingholic project, will answer this question. He will talk about what the 95/5 rule is and how it works for those who are learning a foreign language. No magic, just math!

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.

Why? It is impossible to count the number of words in a language for one simple reason — it is difficult to decide what to count as a word.

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.

? What about the so-called open compounds — words like “hot dog”, “ice cream”, “real estate”? Add to this the singular and plural forms, verb conjugations, different endings, prefixes and suffixes — and you will understand why it is so problematic to answer how many words there are in English.

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.

This is an extremely important point! If you have already reached a high level of understanding of the language, it means that it is time to close the dictionary and allow yourself to learn «inductively», from context and by guesswork. You already do this every day — no one knows all the words in their native language. So why not do the same with English?

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.

Of course, knowing the words does not mean perfectly understand what you are listening to or reading, because language is also grammar, phraseological units and figures of speech that can (and will!) Get in your way. A sentence can consist entirely of words you know perfectly well and at the same time be completely incomprehensible — precisely because of such linguistic phenomena.

Despite this, in most cases, knowledge of 90-95% of the words in a sentence and the context allows you to understand and communicate in it without much difficulty — especially if it belongs to the same language family as your native language.

Yes, the English language has a huge number of words, so many people think of it as an impregnable fortress, which will take decades to capture. In reality, if from the very beginning you learn words in context, step by step completing your vocabulary «arsenal» up to 2500-3000 units, it is really possible in a short time to reach a level at which you can read texts of general topics and understand 90-95% of what has been said …

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

To make it easier for us to learn English, the authors of the Oxford English Dictionary tried to collect the TOP-3000 of the most important words to learn first — The Oxford 3000 ™:

//www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/wordlist/english/oxford3000/

Mobile version for iPhone:

//itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-the-oxford-3000/id939586542?mt=8 (US $ 7.99)

How to evaluate your vocabulary

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

Interesting:

• Most adult native speakers who take the test have a vocabulary of 20-000 words
• At the age of 4, the average English speaker owns a baggage of 5 words, and at the age of 000, of 8 words  
• The growth rate of an adult native speaker’s vocabulary is 1 word per day (however, this process usually stops in middle age)
• The average vocabulary size of non-native English test participants was 4 words
• Living in an English-speaking country enriches the vocabulary of an English learner to 10 or more words
• Living in an English-speaking country, foreigners learn and assimilate about 2,5 new words a day

You can use the following resources to assess vocabulary:

//www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/quiz/2014/aug/14/a-levels-how-big-vocabulary

//www.playbuzz.com/jonb10/how-many-english-words-do-you-actually-know

//dynamo.dictionary.com/

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

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.

In order for words not to go into passive, they need to be used regularly — repeated at regular intervals. Better yet, work with flash cards that allow you to repeat everything that has been passed at any time.

In order not to guess the meaning of the phrases, but to know them for sure, you will need a little more units — approximately 5 — 000… With such a margin, you can freely read books, watch films, and communicate on the most common topics.

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.

What words are popular today?

Source: https://lim-english.com/posts/skolko-slov-v-anglijskom-yazyke/