How many words do I need to learn to be fluent in a language?

Answer 1

If you’re learning a language to learn how to speak and understand it, it is important to internalize the grammar of the language. I was thinking of how children (say, 6 or 7 years old) can speak better than most of us will ever learn to in our target languages. Is this because they have huge vocabularies? I don’t think so. I think it’s because they have a thorough understanding of the grammar in their language. This doesn’t mean that a 2nd grader could explain how to conjugate “go” in future, present, past, and conditional tenses; it means that the 2nd grader is fully comfortable with using “go” in any tense she chooses to, at an unconscious level. This, I think, is the key to fluency. If you want to learn to speak a language without hesitation, you must learn the grammar and core verbs of the language (to be, to go, to have, to see, etc) nearly as well as you know them for your own language. It is said that one only needs to know a few thousand words to have more than 90% of the common oral vocabulary of a language. I agree. The next time you watch a soap opera, try counting the total number of words used in conversations. Count all conjugations of a verb as one word (is/am/was/were/etc), and don’t count personal pronouns (he/she/we/me/etc). You’ll notice that very few words - only a few hundred - are used after these. What is important is not to have a tremendous vocabulary - what is important is to internalize the grammar of your language, to the point where you can say things spanning tenses like “I was going to do it, and I would have done it if you had told me you hadn’t done it” without pausing to conjugate any of the verbs. Notice in the above sentence that the only words that aren’t conjugations of core verbs (the auxiliary verb “have”, the verb “to be”, the verb “to do”, the verb “to go”, the verb “to tell”) are the words “it” and “if”. That’s it. But most of us learning langauges would not be able to say the above sentence in our target languages anywhere near the speed with which we could say it in our native language. I argue that if one is to become fluent, one must have the grammar of such verbs and their conjugations so deeply embedded in one’s mind that it requires almost no effort to produce them. This is the primary key to spoken fluency. Once the grammar and core verbage is internalized, it becomes peaches to add vocabulary. Just ask a child.

Answer 2

Being fluent has nothing to do with how many words you know. Lots of people speaking english doesn't even know half the words in the language, and yet, they're fluent. It's got to do with how well you use the language to communicate effectively.

Answer 3

well, once you know grammar and are able to communicate and understand some of the language, they say it takes around 10,000 words to be fluent, of course there are always certain subjects that you will have trouble with, for instance professions, if you talked to a scientist or mechanic you might have trouble because even in english you learn a different vocabulary for the terms they use

Answer 4

Fluency in a language does no longer rely on vocabulary by myself. Knowledge of grammar and sentence constitution also are integral. With identical competencies of grammar, a vocabulary of 1500 to 2000 phrases might be a well begin towards fluency. Learning terms alternatively of memorizing lists of unmarried phrases is extra valuable in studying a language. English, with an anticipated one million,000,000+ phrases, has the most important vocabulary of any language. Fortunately for you, you look to be a local speaker. I want you luck together with your target.

Answer 5

Excellent question! I can't respond for every language, but a recent publication ARAL (Annual Review of Applied Linguistics) confirmed that it's necessary to have about 3000 words for everyday conversation in English.

Answer 6

read what chris C wrote. That is what you need to know to be fluent in any language that you want to learn. Good luck!

Answer 7

The number of words depends of you, if someone understand you and you can have a conversation with someone else, you have a fluent lenguage, you don´t need a especific number of words, if you understand and the other person understand you, you have all that you need, but if necesary lear all you can about other lenguage, you know to don´t make mistakes.

Answer 8

it's not the number of words. it's can you have a conversation about lots of things at a reasonable speed? learning a few phrases or how to ask donde esta la biblioteca does not make you fluent

Answer 9

Different languages would require different numbers of words for fluency...

Answer 10

Lots.