Thread: How many words to learn?

Originally Posted by blacky

Originally Posted by Ramil

I read somewhere that an average native speaking child (in any country) at the age of 10 knows 15,000 - 20,000 words. An educated man knows 120,000 - 150,000 words. A foreigner knowing about 30,000 words can be considered fluent provided that he knows grammar as well.

I can't believe these numbers.
A 10 year-old child knowns 15 000 - 20 000 words?..
I heard even Pushkin A. S. knew only about 25 000 - 30 000 words. Was he an educated man? =)

No, they counted words in all of his works and got that figure. I'm sure Pushkin didn't use all the words he knew in his poetry. )))
And 80% of our vocabulary we learn in our early childhood, when we are 5 to 7 years old. Usually 15,000 - 20,000 words would be enough, but a native speaker would know more than that. To read newspapers, for example, you would only need about 5000 words.

Well, here's a link (it's in Russian):
https://www.quora.com/Can-fluency-in...-words-learned

It gives these rough figures:
1. 400 - 500 words are necessary for basic conversations.
2. 800 - 1000 words are necessary for basic reading.
3. 1,500 - 2,000 words are enough for all day activities and sufficient enough for average reading.
4. 3,000 - 4,000 - enough to read newspapers and specialized reading.
5. 8,000 words and more is enough for nearly fluent conversations, reading and listening.
6. 10,000 - 20,000 words - active vocabulary of a modern European.
7. 50,000 - 100,000 words - passive vocabulary of a modern European.