Thread: Most common Russian words?

Hello! I registered here a long time ago, but I haven't posted for quite awhile. I've had to take a break from Russian, but now that I'm coming back to it it's a delight to realize how much vocab/grammar is still hanging out in my long-term memory. It's much easier to learn now with the basics down.

Anyhow, I'm looking for a list of most common Russian words that I can start working on as a vocabulary list. I've found lists of 100 or so words, but I'm looking for more, a list that will last me a long time. I'm sure someone's probably posted something like this before, but I'm having a hard time sifting through the posts here, especially in the Grammar and Vocab section, because most of the topics are titled in Russian. I apologize if I'm being redundant. All I need is a link!

Ну вот слово "овсянка" ничего так... Популярное.

oatmealia, I just wanted to say that "овсянка" (an oatmeal) is not bad word, for example. And that it is quite popular - that's true.

So I liked your nick.

5000 most popular words in order of their popularity:
http://www.artint.ru/projects/frqlist/5000lemma.num.zip

This list was made after the analyse of different fiction and non-fiction texts (app. 40 mln. words), written from 1970 to 2002 (but mostly between 1980 and 1995).

1000 words make up to 64.0708% of text.
2000 words make up to 71.9521% of text.
3000 words make up to 76.5104% of text.
5000 words make up to 82.0604% of text.

Example: (# of word - index - word - part of speech)
419 235.48 немного adv
420 235.11 впрочем misc
421 234.99 видно misc
422 234.74 являться verb
423 234.68 муж noun
424 231.93 разве misc
425 231.13 движение noun
426 230.76 порядок noun
427 229.66 ответ noun
428 229.48 тихо adv
429 229.36 знакомый adj
430 228.44 газета noun
431 227.34 помощь noun
432 225.26 сильный adj

The same 5000 most popular words in the alphabet order:
http://www.artint.ru/projects/frqlist/5000lemma.al.zip

PS. Since all these words are listed from the most popular to the less poular, I'd advise to delete the excess 'indexes'. All you need to know is the number of the word in Top5000.

Thank you! I had to run your comment through a translator and it didn't make a lot of sense when it came out. I'll make "oatmeal" my first vocab word. :)

Wonderful, gRomoZeka! Exactly what I was looking for. You posted while I was replying to Olya, but thank you so much!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookse ... 7928&itm=1

Originally Posted by oatmealia

Wonderful, gRomoZeka! Exactly what I was looking for. You posted while I was replying to Olya, but thank you so much!

You are welcome! I hope it will help.
But be aware that most popular words (the words you hear most often) and words you need to know are not the same. For example, the simple word "корова" (a cow) is #2066 here.
(Still it's an interesting list).

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by oatmealia

But be aware that most popular words (the words you hear most often) and words you need to know are not the same.
(Still it's an interesting list).

Good point. Actually, any vocabulary resources would be welcome, come to think of it.

Спасибо за ссылку, гРомоЗека. This seems like an excellent resource, especially for the price. I had actually looked at the book Yazeed linked before, but I decided I've spent enough on Russian books for the time being.

I do find the statistics a bit disheartening though. From my understanding, 5000 words is a pretty large vocabulary in a foreign language. The curriculum at Middlebury College, for example, suggests that their top level Russian students have a vocabulary of ~2500 words. If I'm reading those statistics correctly, even if I have a 5000 word vocabulary, I still have to pull out the dictionary and look up every fifth word I come across.

Guys...I've logged here before, but actually, I came across this article from a google search...so it brought me back to this topic.

The formula for determining the most popular words, is not what most people want. Authors, in general, command more words and its in their nature to try to vary the words they use for dramatic effect, so....looking through works of fiction is not going to produce the same count as looking through written letters.

The NY Times did this once with english, looked through letters written by 2000 different people, from doctors to lawyers, to ordinary people. And only 2001 different words were used in total by the 2000 different people!

Amazing....but anyway thats English.

My point for the would be learner...is, take me as an example. I got to about word 515 before I found the first word I didn't know. I then looked at 4900 through 5000 on the word list, and found I was still getting 55 out of 100 words correct.

So, going from 100% on the first 500 down to about little over 50% by the last 100...and assuming that means I know a signficant amount in the 5000 to 10000 word range (if there was a such a list)...

what would my vocab be...I estimate about 4000 words.

Just to let you know. I cannot understand a TV show. I cannot watch a movie to follow the plot. I cannot read a simple website to understand the story, and I cannot read any book except the simplest of childrens books.

I can read a reader designed for an intermediate student, and I can read certain children's books, like Dr. Aibolit (other children's books, full of rhymes and children's slang, also escape me)...but if its the right children's book, I do OK.

I can hold a 30 to 90 second conversation in a Russian chat board....sometimes even long enough that they don't think I'm American...that is a thrill.

But, the would be student should know, that in Russian, 4000 words isn't going to cut it. Not at all.

I am right now watching Татьянин день.

This is a show on Channel 1. Before they started playing this show, I used to watch Любовь как Любовь.

These soaps are full of dialogue, and for that reason, I pick up a sentence here and there...but not enough to understand the plot.

So, after I wrote this article, I glance at the tv, I hear a word I don't know, I type it into my dictionary...the word was показательный which means significant, explanatory, or representative.

I checked it against the 5000 list...not there. Not there, of course.
I know this is just anecdotal, but, it just seems typical to me.

Isn't there a phrase in Russian, the more I learn, the less I know.

I wanted to believe 3000 would get me a working vocabulary, when I first started...but now I'm convinced its at least 10000 and I'm afraid if I get to 10,000 someday, only then I'll figure out that I'm only half way there.

Even the NY times article hinted at that. English speakers only command 2,000 words, but they understand 20,000.

God, its probably 20,000. Dang it....I'm not even close yet. Geez.

OK, I've psyched myself out enough for today.

показательный

показательный

показательный

make that 4001.

You are thinking too linearly. You think that each word has to be learned separately. The fact is the learning curve is exponential! The more words you know, the easier it is for you to understand unfamiliar words. This is a human condition known as pattern recognition. In Russian, once you have learned the basic words, you have all the basic roots and from those roots come all the other "new" words and little by little, in no time you can guess what words like показательный mean. Did you not know what показать means (to show, explain)... that should have made it obvious!!!

So there is hope for you, my supermanfriend!

Keep it up!

to be quite honest, I don't think you need to learn Russian. I mean...you can fly, man.

Originally Posted by Superman

Even the NY times article hinted at that. English speakers only command 2,000 words, but they understand 20,000.

I'm not sure that the article is accurate. I've heard estimates that the average person's active vocabulary (that is, what he commonly uses himself in conversation) is more than 8,000, and his passive vocabulary (what he understands) is around 40,000 words. A well-educated person may have 2 or 3 times that number.

There may have only been 2,000 different words used in those letters, but that is a very specific area to take your sample from. For example, if you hang around a supermarket and were able to take note of all the words people were using, you might conclude that "people" use even fewer words than 2,000 (200?) because conversations are usually quite specific in a supermarket. Likewise, most letters are basically similar, not to mention simple.

I've got a similar problem to yours. I have what I thought (when I started) would be a more than adequate vocabulary (easily 5,000+), but I'm always confronted with new and unfamiliar words. You just have to realize that a native speaker's vocabulary is massive compared to a learner's.

What you're doing is good. Get familiar with as much actual situational speech as you can, and that alone will show what is and what isn't a "common" (and, therefore, needed) word.

Originally Posted by xRoosterx

to be quite honest, I don't think you need to learn Russian. I mean...you can fly, man.

Could it be that it is not necessarily always important what you think?

я только шутил...ты знаешь Superman, да?

Originally Posted by xRoosterx

я только шутил...ты знаешь Superman, да?

О да, какая смешная была шутка! "РЖУНИМАГУ!"

ты правда...ничего толкового не могу писать-сплошная вина получается. извини

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