The language is quite difficult. Complex and big story Great Britain led a very large number of words. The Oxford English Dictionary, known in many circles, has approximately 600,000 words and expressions. And if you add dialect and slang to this list, then the number of words will exceed 1 million. But do not be afraid of this a large number, because even native speakers do not know all English words. Average educated person, native speaker, knows 12000-18000 words. Well, the average resident of the UK knows 8000-10000 words.

How many words do you need to know?

If a person is not a native speaker and does not permanently reside in English speaking country, then it will be practically impossible for him to bring his stock to the cherished 8000-10000 words. A good indicator is 4000-5000 words.

There is a standard and generally accepted gradation of the language. If the number of learned words is in the region of 400-500 words, then the level of proficiency is considered basic. If the active stock is in the range of 800-1000 words, then you can safely communicate on various everyday topics. If such a quantity refers rather to a passive vocabulary, then you can safely read simple texts. The range of 1500-2000 words will allow you to communicate freely all day long. If the vocabulary is 3000-4000 words, then you can safely read the English press or various thematic materials. A dictionary base of 8,000 languages ​​guarantees fluency in English. With such a number of learned words, you can freely read any literature or write texts in the language yourself. Those who have more than 8000 words in their luggage are considered highly educated people who learn English.

According to the standard vocabulary base is distributed as follows:
- beginner - 600 words;
- elementary - 1000 words;
- pre-Intermediate - 1500-2000 words;
- intermediate - 2000-3000 words;
- upper-Intermediate - 3000-4000 words;
- advanced - 4000-8000 words;
- proficiency - more than 8000 words.

Thanks to this data, you can determine your level of language proficiency, as well as set goals for yourself. But how many words have already been learned? No, you do not need to measure anything with a ruler for this. Everything is much easier. There is a test capable of determining the number of studied words with a margin of error of 10%.

To create this test, 7000 words were taken from the dictionary. Outdated and rarely used words were removed from there. Also removed the words, the meaning of which can be determined through the usual logic. As a result, 2 small pages with words remained.

How to pass the test?

The test must be taken with extreme honesty. The first page contains a list of words in columns. If at least one of possible values English word, then a tick is placed next to it. The same columns with words appear on the second page. But there is already a selection of previously unknown words. This program checks whether these words are really unknown. To complete the test, there is another page that indicates age, gender, how many years English has been studied and others important questions. After specifying all the data, the end button is pressed and the number of words in the vocabulary of the tested person appears on the screen.

Every serious lover of anything in the world sooner or later sets on fire with the desire to measure his collection: in money, in volume, in quantity ... The philatelist carefully blows dust off the hundredth stamp in the album, Henry Ford polishes the new tire, Rockefeller looks at the number of zeros in the amount stored in the bank, etc. How to be an English lover? Love for English can also be measured. Hours dedicated to study? Words that make up an active vocabulary!

Stocks vary.

No, not firewood for the winter and not sweets under the pillow, as you already understood, but English words in the lexicon. In dimension vocabulary there is nothing shameful or boastful: in the end, perfection has no limit, but there are intermediate stages on the way to the goal.

Statistics, backed up by practice, says that in order to freely express your thoughts in English, you need only 2000 words. Statistics, backed up by optimism, call the figure 1000-1500 words, and the creators of Basic English are magicians and ours. best friends- only 850 words. Realists and optimists, wait a little with skepticism! Basic English is divided into thematic groups words (objects and phenomena, actions and movements, expression of qualities) - a kind of selection of the most hit copies from each category. In fact, the most commonly used monosyllabic words(514 out of 850), easy to remember and pronounce.

We want to ask everyone who relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief after the announced figures: what do you personally mean by the concept of “speaking freely”? Of course, in order to ask for a window seat at the check-in desk at the airport or order a veal chop in a restaurant, 2000 words are enough. Diving begins where, when answering a question, you will not catch the meaning of unfamiliar words spoken or you will not be able to talk about specific gastronomic preferences in the company of gourmets. And then we multiply 2000 by two and get 4000 words, which will surely allow you not to lose face and keep a conversation in English well done.

Another nuance: so far we have been talking about active vocabulary, i.e. layer of those words that you regularly use in conversation. What you once wrote out in a dictionary and on occasion it is possible (!) Remember the meaning is called passive reserve - words that you seem to know, but most of them lie on the shelves of memory under a layer of dust. Yes, they get into the overall standings, but they do not bring special dividends.

Perfectionists who want more! outside language environment learning 8,000 words that make up the active vocabulary of an English-speaking citizen is quite difficult. It is possible, of course, but with great energy consumption, diligence and methodicalness. With a baggage of 4-5 thousand words, you can safely pack your bags to Britain, the USA or Canada, where you are doomed to expand your vocabulary to the cherished 8-10 thousand units.

Vocabulary gradations

Or how much is needed complete happiness? You can start with the top 10 or top 100 words of the English language and already rejoice. A selection of the most commonly used English words around the world will set the right vector for vocabulary replenishment. And we again pick up the ruler and return to simple arithmetic, this time dedicating you to gradations (types) of vocabulary.

400-500 words of active vocabulary - a pass to the world of English and a certificate of language proficiency in basic level
. 800-1000 "assets" of words will give you the opportunity to explain yourself and talk about everyday topics, the same amount of "passives" will allow you to read simple texts
. 1500-2000 words of "assets" will be rewarded with the opportunity to communicate freely during the day, or the same number of "passives" - with confident reading of more complex texts
. 3000-4000 words bring you closer to almost fluent reading of newspapers or books and magazines in your specialty
. 8000 words guarantee full communication for the average European. This is also enough for free reading and presentation of thoughts in writing.
. up to 13,000 words characterize a highly educated person learning English as a foreign language.

How to determine and check the vocabulary of the English language?

Find out on the accounts? Marking familiar words in the dictionary? Let's not reinvent the wheel and borrow the answer from the creators of the test, which can weigh your weight in 2-3 minutes. vocabulary baggage with an error of up to 10%. Link to the test will be in a minute, but for now short instruction on its application and the answer to the question "how it works".

The developers took as a basis a dictionary of 70,000 words, discarded obsolete, compound words, scientific terms and derivatives from each other, having received as a result already 45,000. Then they sorted by frequency of use, sincerely admitting that the last 10,000 out of 45,000 are extremely rare, so that even a respectable Briton may not feel remorse, having never used them in his life. From the test for English vocabulary, words were excluded, the meaning of which can be obtained by friendship with logic.

The whole test consists of two pages: each contains English words in several columns without any logical sequence. If you know at least one of the possible meanings of the word, then confidently put a tick next to it. The task is the same on two pages, only on the second page the program selects words from those unfamiliar from the first page, as if wanting to make sure that you really do not know them. No sleight of hand, no cheating: the only condition is to be honest with yourself and not overdo it with the number of ticks.

We invite you to take a test for a couple of minutes, and then return to our article for debriefing. We have already prepared a line :)

We measure the results

And now you are left alone with your test result. How did others do? Statistics collected after passing this test, says that among non-native speakers, the majority of respondents received in the end from 3 to 7 thousand words. There are noticeably fewer owners of 7-10 thousand words, and even fewer from 11 to 30 thousand (oddly enough, even 30-thousanders honored this test with their attention).

Among those for whom English is their native language, the situation looks different: space for not native speakers a vocabulary of 30 thousand words is the norm for 30-year-old English-speaking friends. Average result the previous category of 3-7 thousand is characteristic of children 5-6 years old. Do not forget that just at this age the world is actively explored and the entire surrounding family with 30,000 deposits around is not actively silent.

Summing up

Evaluation of the number of learned and memorized words foreign language is primarily interesting for understanding how far a person has advanced in the “passive” perception of information: texts, speech, films, etc. I propose to familiarize yourself with several methods that I used, found on the net and "home-made". Below - a couple of tests for assessing vocabulary, a technique for searching important words, which have not yet caught on in the brain, a few arguments and a few links.

Online tests

Of the many tests for evaluating the number of words, I liked two. A couple of years ago I came across a rather simple Test Your Vocabulary . As you go through three screens of words, you tick off the ones you think you know, and then you get a grade. total learned words. Many of my friends complained about his inadequacy - they received an amount less than "the one about whom I know for sure that he knows worse." But when passing, there may be a mistake of a different kind - it seems that you know the word, but in fact you have already forgotten it. They say that the hand itself reaches out to put a tick next to a word that seems vaguely familiar, so you can subconsciously overestimate your overall rating.

You know at least 10,500 English word families!

What do my results mean?

In general, there is no minimum vocabulary size. Language ability is related to vocabulary size, so the more words you know, the more you will be able to understand. However, if you want to set a learning goal, Paul Nation's (2006) research suggests that the following sizes might be useful:

How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?
Skill Size estimate Notes
Reading 8,000 - 9,000 Word Families Nation (2006)
listening 6,000 - 7,000 Word Families Nation (2006)
native speaker 20,000 word families Goulden, Nation, & Read (1990)
Zechmeister, Chronis, Cull, D'Anna, & Healy (1995)

What is a word family?

There are many different forms of a word, so this test measures your knowledge of the most basic form of a word and assumes that you can recognize the other forms. For example, nation, a noun, can also be an adjective (national), a verb (nationalize), or an adverb (nationally). There are also forms which can be made with an affix such as de- or -ing which also modify the way that the word is used or adds to the basic meaning. For a test of receptive vocabulary knowledge such as this one, word families are considered to be the most accurate way of counting words.

Frequency Dictionaries

After registering on www.wordfrequency.info, you can download the exelnik frequency dictionary American English. There is also a text version.

Like this:

Rank Word Part of speech Frequency Dispersion

1 the - a 22038615 0.98
2 be - v 12545825 0.97
3 and - c 10741073 0.99
4 of - i 10343885 0.97
5 a - a 10144200 0.98
6 in - i 6996437 0.98
7to-t 6332195 0.98
8 have-v 4303955 0.97
…
…
4996 immigrant - j 0.97
4997 kid - v 5094 0.92
4998 middle-class-j 5025 0.93
4999 apology - n 4972 0.94
5000 till - i 5079 0.92

The file contains 5000 English words, sorted by frequency of occurrence. The frequency was calculated on a huge heterogeneous array English texts. I recently saw a friend of mine look up words he didn't know by checking his vocabulary. Looking through the first 500, I did not find any unknowns. He showed an extract on his smartphone - about a dozen words from the second thousand (that is, from 1000 to 2000) and about 20 from the third. It's funny that when you go through the list, you come across sequences of words that successfully add up to phrases or even short sentences. The logic is very simple - if the word is very common according to statistics, and you don't know it, then it's better to learn it and see examples of use.

After reading the list of words unknown to him (already with translation), I saw the following thing. I knew about 50-60% of these words unknown to him, but some of the meanings of the translations recorded there were unknown to me, there were several words completely unknown to me.
In general, the site tries to be commercial, they sell lists over 5000 long, but this is not so interesting anymore.

So far, this friend of mine is writing a program with a convenient interface to look up unknown words - for learning purposes. I suggested to him that for a global assessment, not use this list, but a thinned one: every seventh word from general list for 60,000 words. In fact, even watching the first couple of thousand is disheartening, not everyone will get to 5000. Although I can’t say for all 100, but the thinned dictionary will certainly show at least one word from the “family”, and the time will be spent, respectively, 7 or 10 times less (depending on the frequency of thinning).
By the way, such frequency dictionaries of the Russian language contain about 160 thousand words, including abbreviations and abbreviations. There are several different similar "corpuses" of English words from different organizations.

I'm interested in another question: how accurate are the tests that estimate the number of words you know? It is possible that this could be determined just by checking the frequency dictionary, as well as comparing the list of selected unknown words - their number and entry into different "families".

There is general laws remembering and forgetting. One of the main things: if a person has learned something and does not repeat, does not use it, the information is forgotten exponentially from time to time. On the other hand, a few repetitions lengthen, stretch the falling exponent to an acceptable level. I was very surprised when a friend who worked as a tutor for schoolchildren told me that there is a sequence of time intervals for deep memorization: say, after 20 minutes, then after 8 hours, another day, etc., after which the information is planted firmly in the brain . That is, the statistically maximum level of the excitation signal is provided in the brain when it encounters this information.

Ebbinghaus curve, from Wikipedia.

How I learned words at the institute.

Without taking into account the standard course, where the requirements for the first three years were quite tough, I tried to read fiction. First big book it was old Soviet edition Conan Doyle "The Lost World". I don’t know how it was adapted, but there were plenty of Victorian words and expressions in the text, and this greatly delayed the progress towards the end ... Of course, it was possible to look into Lingvo from a computer, but I didn’t like to read at the computer, but to run back and forth for each new word quickly tired. Tablets were not common then, pocket electronic translator- an expensive rarity, so I worked out a paper system for myself. In a thick 96-sheet notebook, the spread was divided into 6 columns. Now I tried to find a notebook - I got lost. Will have to describe in words. Divided the alphabet into groups of letters, for example - a..d, e..f, g..j, k..n, o..q, r..t, u..w, x..z. Approximately, by eye, I estimated the statistical percentage of words that begin with these letters and divided the columns in the spread into rectangles. For example, the group a..d gave 2/3 of the first column, and so on. The group x..z was assigned the last remaining smallest piece in the 6th column. Then everything is simple. I met an unknown word - enter with the translation in the desired rectangle. Nothing inside the block is not in alphabetical order - it will not take long to find. To get the translation while lying on the bed, you need to get into the book dictionary. That is, the value of receiving a translation is quite large, more than now look at Lingua or an online translator like

The well-known Ellochka from the novel "12 Chairs" easily managed thirty words of the Russian language, but, apparently, great success never achieved it in my life. How many words do we need to know in English in order to communicate on everyday and professional topics? According to researchers, about 40 words make up necessary minimum for 50% understanding and speaking in everyday speech situations, 400 words should be enough for 90% of cases, and 1000 words will provide you successful communication by 95%. Native speakers use an average of 3,000 to 20,000 words, it depends on the education of each individual and the typical situations in which he has to communicate. Practice shows that for English learners it is enough to learn 1500-2000 words to feel confident in a conversation. As for professional terms, they usually do not cause difficulties, because in most cases this is an international vocabulary. But the most important thing is to understand that words should not just be written on beautiful cards and hung around the house, they should become your working tools. Let's see what steps will help you to firmly master the necessary vocabulary, that is, vocabulary.

1. Read carefully and draw conclusions

Whatever you read - fiction, market news valuable papers or a gardening blog - pay attention to how words are used, what combinations they make. Highlight, write out, copy what seems useful to you. For example, here is an excerpt from the article "How to Become an Early Riser" (by Steve Pavlina):

It seems there are two main schools of thought about sleep patterns. One is that you should go to bed and get up at the same times every day. It's like having an alarm clock on both ends - you try to sleep the same hours each night. This seems practical for living in modern society. We need predictability in our schedules. And we need to ensure adequate rest.

How can we analyze what we have read?

• "It seems" - it seems, apparently. We just take it as an introductory word.
• "This seems practical" - it seems practical. We understand that an adjective is used after “seems”, and now we can speak by analogy: “This seems interesting”, “This seems stupid”, “Your ideas seem nice”.
• "Predictability" - predictability. If we know that “predict” means to predict and “ability” means ability, then we can calculate the meaning of this word as well.

2. Watch videos with and without subtitles

The same work can be done when watching your favorite movies, series and TV shows. If you use subtitles, it will be more convenient for you to write out the phrase you like, if not, then train auditory perception pause and repeat after the speaker. We can recommend an excellent resource that provides the opportunity to watch TV shows in the original with super-useful subtitles: when you hover over a word, a Russian translation appears. It saves a lot of time and improves memorization.

3. Sing your favorite songs

We have already discussed how songs can help us learn English. Vocabulary expansion is one of the areas where songs can be applied particularly well. It is always much easier to remember what you like and what is related to positive emotions. There are many sites with lyrics on the Internet, for example:

By listening to your favorite songs and singing along to the performers, you learn whole phrases easily and with pleasure.

4. Take a cue from celebrities

Search for something like "Brad Pitt interview" or "chat show with celebrities" and you'll get tons of stuff to independent work. After reading or listening to the interview excerpts, you will surely notice that certain words are used more often. For example, "amazing" is a very popular adjective for expressing delight:

• "You look amazing!"
• "The film was amazing!"
• It was an amazing experience.

5. Mastering typical phrases for standard situations

If you like to travel, you will surely need a set of certain phrases and expressions that you may need at the airport, customs, hotel, shop, etc. As you know, such conversations do not differ in a special variety, therefore, for greater certainty, you can learn several mini-dialogues on desired topics. Various Internet resources will help you with this, where audio recordings and texts are collected, as well as tasks for them are presented. For example, you can start from this site

6. Learning words by topic

It is much easier to memorize new words that are related in meaning. If, for example, you are studying the topic "Food", you just need to learn the names of different products, ready meals, adjectives to describe them, etc. By discussing the tasks with the teacher, you will be able to activate these words, i.e. translate from passive reserve in a set of "working tools". Learning will be more effective if you use different types of memory: look at pictures, listen to pronunciation and repeat yourself. Use, for example, such a resource that will help you do all of the above and learn new words with ease.

7. Use Dictionaries

In our age information technologies paper dictionaries are no longer popular, and even schoolchildren are willing to use their online versions. Beginning with Pre-Intermediate level it is recommended to use the so-called "English-English dictionaries", that is, not to translate unfamiliar words, but to look for their definitions in English. In addition, dictionaries can provide you with a stock of synonyms, antonyms, and idioms, which include given word. According to Wikipedia, the following dictionaries are the most useful and reliable sources of information:

8. Playing word games

Crosswords, gallows, scrabble and other games can also help you enrich your speech, because thanks to them you will remember the spelling of the words you know in a fun way. In addition, in many word games you can play cheerful company, combining business with pleasure: learning English with friendly communication. Tip for the curious: try playing Scrabble with an open dictionary.

9. We arm ourselves with devices and gadgets

It takes a long time to write words on cards, there is no time to make sentences, but we always have smartphones, iPhones and other devices at hand. When a free minute appears, you can start learning new words, and you don’t need to carry any leaflets, printouts, textbooks with you. If you don't know which app to choose, take advice from the British Council experts.

10. Use it or lose it!

The most important thing in mastering vocabulary is to use it in your speech. Passive vocabulary is good for reading and listening, that is, for recognizing words. For speaking and writing, we need to learn how to retrieve words from memory very quickly, and this is achieved only by practice. According to researchers, in order for a word to become active in speech, it must be used in various contexts about 17 times. Therefore, before class, set yourself the task of speaking more than the teacher and be sure to use new words.

Big and Friendly family EnglishDom

If you are now looking at the Oxford Dictionary and thinking, “I will never learn that many words!” - take a break from sad thoughts and read this article. How many words do you really need to know? You may be pleasantly surprised!

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Word, show your passport!

English students often ask, "How many words do I have to learn to be able to hold a conversation on any topic?" Good question, but before answering it, let me ask you another one: what do you think? 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 consider as a word.

It is claimed, for example, that for the word "set" the Oxford Dictionary gives 464 interpretations. Do you count polysemantic word one word or every interpretation - single word? And what about ( phrasal verbs): “set up”, “set about”, “set apart”, etc.? And what about the so-called open compounds - words like "hot dog", "ice cream", "real estate"? Add to this the forms of the singular and plural, 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 put like this: “Do you know how many words are in the big dictionary in English?" If you roughly imagine the number of words in a language, it can be compared with 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 Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss, author of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, etc.) published the book Green Eggs and Ham. The book was written in just 50 words and was the result of a dispute between Seuss and his publisher, Bennett Cerf. The publisher believed that Seuss would not be able to create a finished work in such harsh conditions (before that, Seuss had already written "The Cat in the Hat", which featured 225 words).

If it's possible to write a book in just 50 words, does that mean we don't need 40,000 words to communicate with each other? Note, however, that according to Susie Dent, a lexicographer, the average active vocabulary of an adult English speaker is about 20,000 words, the passive one is about 40,000 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 the passive vocabulary, these are the 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 20,000 words. On the other hand, The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists states that the first 25 words are used in 33% of everyday written texts, the first 100 words - in 50%, and the first thousand words are found in 89% of such texts!

Thus, we can safely say that only 3000 words cover about 95% of the texts. general topics(news articles, blog entries, etc.). Liu Na and Nation proved that 3000 is the approximate number of words we need to know in order to understand the rest from the context when reading unsimplified texts.

Count yourself!

The Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 common words. 95% of general texts cover a vocabulary of only 3,000 words. That's 1.75% of all words!

That's right: knowing 1.75% 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 (40,000 words). Isn't it great?

On Pareto's Law and the Importance of Linguistic Guessing

Mobile version for iPhone:

An alternative from the creators of Merriam-Webster's 3,000 Core Vocabulary Words:

How to assess your vocabulary

So, even though a native English speaker has an active vocabulary of 20,000 words and a passive one of 40,000, learning English will be successful if you learn only 3,000 words!

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

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