Very often, someone who starts learning English wants to start speaking it as quickly as possible. But many are faced with the fact that no matter how carefully they learn the rules, no matter how much they discuss, there are still difficulties in understanding foreign speech. This word is incomprehensible, then another unfamiliar. So how many words in English do you need to learn in order to freely speak and understand other people? Let's figure it out.
Number of words in English
First, find out how many words are in the English language. Of course, it is worth noting that this figure can be very approximate, because assessing the actual number of words is quite difficult. Typically, these statistics are based on a study of existing dictionaries.
You cannot call it inaccurate. Rather, it is incomplete, because each editor has his own approach to work, so all existing words simply cannot appear on the pages of dictionaries. However, we can still get a more or less accurate idea of the number of words in the English language. For example, we analyze the data from the Oxford Dictionary. This dictionary has about 600,000 words. It is worth noting that this figure also includes variants of the English language (American, Canadian, British, etc.), obsolete words, words rarely used, a certain number of borrowed words in English, etc. Those. it contains the words of absolutely all varieties, so you should not assume that all 600 thousand are in use. No, the volume of modern and widely used vocabulary is much less.
How many words in Russian
And now let's compare the number of words in Russian and English. Statistical data is usually based on the information contained in the Large Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language.
It contains about 150,000 words. At first glance, this figure clearly loses, compared with 600,000. But only at first. The Large Academic Dictionary contains the words of the modern Russian language, and the Oxford Dictionary, as mentioned above, contains words of all varieties. If you add to the list of Russians various dialectic words and outdated ones, then this list will not be inferior to the data of the Oxford Dictionary.
How many words do we know
Of course, hardly even one person can master all the existing words. And you do not need to teach them 600 thousand to speak English fluently. This is impossible to do. What then to do? First of all, it is worth getting acquainted with the concepts of active and passive vocabulary. Active vocabulary are those words that we know well and regularly use in our written and spoken language. Passive stocks are those words that we are familiar with, but do not use them regularly.
So how many words do you need to learn in English to communicate freely? It is necessary to focus on an active vocabulary. Each person has his own, of course, but on the whole they are approximately similar. There are lists of the most frequently used words for each language (Frequently used words). This list is the first thing you need to master in order to begin to communicate freely and understand other people.
English Levels and Word Count
Learning English is divided into several levels, or rather 7.
The first level is the initial one, the second is higher than the initial, then the average beginner, intermediate and high intermediate, advanced and professional. Each level corresponds to the approximate number of words that need to be mastered. Let's consider each level separately.
First level
Or the initial one. At this stage, it is necessary to master the simplest and most elementary vocabulary. These are pronouns, various auxiliary verbs, simple nouns, verbs and pronouns. Usually, at this level, they master a greeting, a short story about themselves, the ability to ask someone else about something, to involve another person in the conversation. This level requires the ability to master approximately half a thousand words.
Second level
This level is already above the initial. Here you need to be able to participate in more detailed dialogs, use common phrases, be able to perceive and understand simple phrases by ear. It is also necessary to complicate the grammar somewhat. Those. to study how different types of questions are asked, to learn about the use of prepositions, etc. One of the most difficult topics is words denoting numbers in the English language, as well as countable and uncountable nouns. These important topics may be raised already at this stage. On average, at this level you need to know somewhere between 1000-1300 words. Those. Compared to the previous level, vocabulary doubles.
Third level
This is already a mid-entry level. At this stage, you already need to be able to talk about your interests and hobbies in several sentences, as well as express your opinion on new topics studied. Also at this stage, learn the ability to request some necessary information. Usually themed dialogues are played out for this. The number of words in English in the active vocabulary at this stage should be approximately equal to 1600.
Fourth level
This is the middle stage. Usually at this stage, students feel more comfortable, because they can already express some of their thoughts in another language. Here, not only grammar is studied, but also a wide variety of topics are touched on, a fairly active replenishment of the vocabulary takes place. It can contain about 2500 words.
Fifth level
This stage is above average. Usually, those who have mastered this level easily communicate on various everyday topics. They may even support some kind of spontaneous conversation. This level may even be sufficient for some kind of tourist trips, as it will allow a person to feel quite comfortable among those who speak another language, and it is easy to understand other people. The number of English words in the active vocabulary is about 4000.
Sixth and seventh levels
These levels are considered the most difficult. Having mastered them, a person will be able to easily and without obstacles understand foreign speech, build complex sentences, use various synonyms and advanced vocabulary, and build argumentation without difficulty. The seventh level allows you to communicate even on fairly narrow topics, such as law or medicine. The sixth level allows the use of approximately 7000 words in the active vocabulary, and the seventh - about 12000. Although there is no limit to perfection.
For many, the fifth stage is suitable, since it allows you to easily express your thoughts and perceive someone else's foreign speech. And with the regular use of the English language in everyday life, the level of proficiency will only improve, and new words will quietly penetrate the speech and be fixed in it.