“I’m sorry you couldn’t find me. I have been in the woods. I put myself there because I couldn’t be good. I have been running with foxes and running with crows and I have found myself a home where no one goes.”
— Florence Welch, from “Useless Magic: Lyrics & Poetry,” published c. 2018 (via violentwavesofemotion)
That’s a question I asked myself many times. So I spent a lot of time on blogs and websites telling me that you can’t name an exactly number. Of course you can’t but I was just searching for an “around this” number. Everyone knows that there is no magical number like 1000 and then you’ll speak your target language but with 999 you wouldn’t. I just wanted “around this” numbers to be motivated, to have a goal, to have a direction I can keep in mind. It was a pain in the ass to get an answer to this. And I want to share it with you guys, so you don’t have to waste your time on several blogs and giant textwalls to get just a little bit closer to this answer. Don’t forget these are just “around this” numbers and it’s very(!) important that you also use them and SPEAK your target language. _______________________________________ 100 most common words make up 50% of conversations.
300 most common words make up 65% of conversations.
2.000 most common words make up 90% of conversations. _______________________________________ What are the different levels of a language?
A1: 500 words A2: 1.000 words
B1: 2.000 words B2: 4.000 words
C1: 8.000 words C2: 16.000 words _______________________________________
And here a little bit detailed:
250 words - without these words, you can’t make a sentence.
750 words - is needed for everyday conversations.
2.500 words - will allow you to say most things you want, but sometimes in an awkward way.
5.000 words - is an active vocabulary of a (not high educated) native speaker.
10.000 words - is an active vocabulary of a (high educated) native speaker.
20.000 words - is needed in your passive vocabulary to fully understand work of literature by a notable author.
