Thread: How many words to learn?

Does anyone here have figures on the number of words to learn when studying russian? For instance, 1000 words will allow you to buy eggs, take a taxi, etc, 2500 will allow you to be semi-conversational, 5000 is semi-fluent etc... i just have no idea. THanks

Man this is a toughy. I've been learning russian for 6 years and still (if i wasn't so lazy) could learn dozens of new words everyday. Theres no way to put a number on it. It kinda depends on what you want to talk about as well.

The thing about Russian is theres many words and in some cases many variations of combinations of words for only a single word we would use in English. It can get frustrating but all you can do is keep chugging along.

I don't know how many words you can learn in a year but if you practice everyday for about a year you'll have a pretty good idea of what you're doing.

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.

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? =)

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.

Those are big numbers but it seems to me that russian words tend to breed many others, in a more systematic ways than what happens in other languages. True this would deserve a real quantitative study but nevertheless I'm not afraid. Не боюсь.

It is interesting, but how find out how many words I know? At least I know minimum 2500 most common words (download 270 Kb).

Originally Posted by Ramil

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.

This is great, thank you.

Originally Posted by delog

It is interesting, but how find out how many words I know? At least I know minimum 2500 most common words (download 270 Kb).

What's the source of this list? where'd you get it from? (just curious)

Originally Posted by noheat

What's the source of this list?

From the book of Alexandr Vasiliev "English: pronunciation and reading rules, grammar, spoken language". Oh, I have clean forgotten that this list more useful for Russians studying English. Although it's useful for native English speakers, but little bit less.

Originally Posted by noheat

where'd you get it from? (just curious)

I'm studying English on that site and several others.

This is a very interesting topic, and I have been wondering about it.

Originally Posted by Ramil

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.

I don't think this is accurate. I have recorded all the words I learn in a flashcard app. So far I have memorised 6800 words, and I am absolutely unable to read a newspaper article without having to use the dictionary very repeatedly, without which I wouldn't grasp a lot of the information. I have read in other sources that newspapers required something in the magnitude of 18,000 words, which seems closer to my own experience...