How many words in another language must you know to consider yourself a speaker of it?

Question

I seem to remember that it as abput 1200 or 2000 or more but I cannot recall. Any ideas?

I thought it was 1200 or 2000 or so, but I may be remembering badly. Any ideas?

Answer 1

This is kind of an opinion question, and I think people will have different opinions on it.

However, I think you're driving at how many vocabulary words you need for everyday conversation in a language. The figure is around 3,000, according to a recent article in ARAL (Annual Review of Applied Linguistics).

Answer 2

That certainly depends on the language.

Yes, while most people use the same 2000 words over and over (think about the stock words you use constantly such as I, you, he, she, it, go, do, have, today, tomorrow, nice, good, bad, ....), but we used many other words to express those words better.


In English, I'd say 5.000 words and you could consider yourself a non-fluent speaker.

Answer 3

You need to be able to have conversations with fluent speakers. It's not just about words (by the way 2000 is not that many) it's also about grammar and syntax.

Answer 4

I sure don't think it is a matter of how many words you know. You also need to know how to put them together in that language's grammer.

You need to be able to carry on a rational conversation.

I know LOTS of German, but I am far from fluent.

Answer 5

i think when you get beyond having to think about "what does this word mean in my language" or translate in your head, but when you can just speak and understand without even being concious of it--when you get the jokes

Answer 6

ah - reads more like "How many miles a man must walk before ... " - ask Bob Dylan !!!

Answer 7

That's not it; it's how fast you can speak it. And how fast you can understand it.

Answer 8

1,250