Is 10000 words enough to speak English?
People who know 250 to 500 words are beginners. Those who know 1,000 to 3,000 words can carry on everyday conversations. Knowing 4,000 to 10,000 words makes people advanced language users while knowing more than 10,000 words puts them at the fluent or native-speaker levels.
Thornbury (2002) mentions that students need approximately: Between 1,000 to 2,000 high-frequency words for basic conversation and everyday texts. More or less 8,000 words for advanced conversation. In the region of 10,000 to 20,000-word families (excluding fixed phrases and expressions) to read at a university level.
Generally speaking, knowing an average of 2000-3000 words should be enough for everyday conversations and basic understanding (A2-B1 level). To become proficient in English, you need a vocabulary of about 5000+ words.
Learning 10,000 English words can vary greatly depending on the individual's language learning abilities, study habits, and the time they dedicate to the task. However, some language experts suggest that it might take around 1,000 hours of dedicated study to learn 10,000 words.
The study (which was based on the English language) revealed the following: Most adult native test-takers have a vocabulary range of about 20,000-35,000 words. Adult native test-takers learn almost 1 new word a day until middle age. Vocabulary growth stops at middle age.
Having a vocabulary of over 10,000 words in English means that you have a very extensive and diverse range of words at your disposal for communication. This indicates a high level of language proficiency and the ability to understand and express complex ideas and concepts.
The idea that learning 10,000 words of a language makes you fluent is a generalization and not a strict rule. Fluency in a language is multifaceted and encompasses not only vocabulary, but also grammar, pronunciation, comprehension, and the ability to effectively communicate in various contexts.
Specifically, a year is the average amount of time it will take an adult to become fluent enough to work in English if he starts out as a beginner and studies at least 5 hours a day. But everyone is different. How long it will take you to learn English depends on many things: Your current level of English.
Intermediate. An intermediate language learner will have stored about 1,000 – 3,000 words in their arsenal. With an intermediate-level knowledge of a new language, you can confidently navigate life situations like shopping and many social interactions.
It's possible — and you might learn something. Whether you're preparing for NaNoWriMo or just want to boost your output, you're capable of writing way more in a day than you think you are. Here's a challenge: try writing 10,000 words in just three days.
How hard is it to write 10,000 words?
Writing 10,000 words per day takes considerable focus and time. If you write 1,000 words per hour, you'll need 10 hours to complete this challenge. Deadlines force you to stay on task. Sometimes you won't feel like writing.
Writing 10,000 words will take about 4.2 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 8.3 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 33.3 hours.
The researchers found that native adult speakers of English understand an average of 20,000 to 30,000 vocabulary words, and native speakers learn about one word a day from ages 16 to 50.
As per this Wikipedia article: The largest Korean dictionary contains 1,100,373 words. Which appears to be an official government-approved source. This is the single-largest number of words in any dictionary for any language.
| Age | Vocabulary size (median) | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | 23,520 | 6.69% |
| 25 | 25,306 | 7.59% |
| 30 | 27,109 | 7.12% |
| 35 | 28,639 | 5.64% |
10,000 words is a lot but it's not crazy. That's 323 words a day. You can do that in 30 minutes a day.
12,000 individual words as an ACTIVE vocabulary – not passive – could potentially enable you to speak somewhat fluently, with a lot of practice. For your active vocab to be 12K, you would need to have a passive vocab, i.e.: words marked on LingQ as “known,” of probably 2 to 3 times that, so in the 30,000 + range.
If 98% coverage of a text is needed for unassisted comprehension, then a 8,000 to 9,000 word-family vocabulary is needed for comprehension of written text and a vocabulary of 6,000 to 7,000 for spoken text.
Fluent – you have the ability to express any idea without hesitation, with good vocabulary and grammar; people understand you easily. Both your spoken and written skills are good.
| Learning | from | Words |
|---|---|---|
| English | Spanish | 6114 |
| Esperanto | Spanish | 2276 |
| French | Spanish | 2407 |
| German | Spanish | 2370 |
Can I speak English fluently in 3 months?
It is possible to make significant progress in learning to speak fluent English within 3 months, especially with dedicated practice and immersion in the language. However, achieving complete fluency in such a short time frame may be challenging for many people.
- Frisian. Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. ...
- Dutch. ...
- Norwegian. ...
- Spanish. ...
- Portuguese. ...
- Italian. ...
- French. ...
- Swedish.
Fluency is the stage of learning a language when things just “click.” It takes a lot of time and effort to reach this level, so many learners don't think it's realistic. But thousands of people learn how to speak English fluently every year, and with enough determination, you can, too!
Fluent: 10,000+ words.
At around 10,000 words in many languages, you've reached a near-native level of vocabulary, with the requisite words for talking about nearly any topic in detail. Furthermore, you recognize enough words in every utterance that you usually understand the unfamiliar ones from context.
Intermediate (B1-B2)
You can communicate about most everyday topics (work, leisure, environment, personal experiences) using a good range of structures and vocabulary. The mistakes in your speech and writing occasionally make your message difficult to understand.
References
- https://www.ef.edu/blog/faq/how-long-to-learn-english/
- https://www.lextutor.ca/cover/papers/nation_2006.pdf
- https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-if-my-English-vocabulary-reaches-over-10000-words
- https://blog.focusmate.com/10000-word-challenge/
- https://blog.cyracom.com/ciiblog/the-lifelong-pursuit-of-language-learning-how-the-vocabularies-of-native-and-non-native-speakers-compare
- https://capitalizemytitle.com/writing-time/10000-words/
- https://www.berlitz.com/blog/easiest-languages-to-learn-for-english-speakers
- https://megdowell.com/2017/09/10/it-only-takes-3-days-to-write-10000-words-heres-how/
- https://anglo-link.com/level/
- https://promova.com/blog/how-many-words-do-you-need-to-know-to-be-fluent-in-english
- https://uctlanguagecentre.com/blog/learn-vocabulary/english-words-many-enough
- https://marcguberti.medium.com/so-you-want-to-write-10-000-words-every-day-2e1f5ef964b3
- https://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-take-to-learn-10-000-English-words-What-should-a-person-do-to-know-them
- https://www.stordar.com/41-how-to-talk-about-your-english-level/
- https://wordcounter.io/blog/how-many-words-does-the-average-person-know
- https://preply.com/en/blog/how-to-speak-english-fluently-12-powerful-tips-and-tricks/
- https://forum.lingq.com/t/will-12000-words-and-phrases-be-enough-for-me-to-speak-english-like-a-native-speaker/60656
- https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-speak-fluent-English-within-3-months
- https://akorbi.com/blog/learning-a-foreign-language-how-many-words/
- https://thelanguagedoctors.org/which-language-has-more-words/
- https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-if-you-learn-10-000-words-of-a-language-you-re-considered-fluent-in-it
- https://wordsrated.com/how-many-words-does-the-average-person-know/
- https://www.fluentu.com/blog/how-many-words-do-i-need-to-know/
- https://ardslot.com/duolingocrowns.html
