Learn vocabulary. The best English textbooks to improve your vocabulary

The fact that the language's dictionary contains approximately 300 thousand words is only of theoretical interest for a beginner learning this language. Perhaps the main principle for the reasonable organization of your studies, especially at the initial stage, is the economy of words. You need to learn to remember as much as possible less words, but do it as best as possible.

Let us emphasize that our approach is directly opposite to the guiding principle of “suggestopedia”, with its emphasis on the abundance of words presented to the student. As you know, in accordance with its canons, a beginner needs to be literally “showered with words.” It is best to give him or her 200 new words every day.

Is there any doubt that any normal person will forget all those numerous words with which he was “showered” using this, so to speak, method - and most likely very soon, in just a few days.

Don't chase too much

It will be much better if at the end of a certain stage of study you know 500 or 1000 words very well than 3000 - but poorly. Don’t let yourself be led into a dead end by teachers who will assure you that you need to first learn a certain number of words in order to “get into the swing of things.” Only you yourself can and must decide whether the vocabulary you have mastered is sufficient for your goals and interests.

Language learning experience shows that about 400 well-chosen words can cover up to 90 percent of the vocabulary you need for everyday communication purposes. In order to read, you will need more words, but many of them are only passive. Therefore, with knowledge of 1500 words, you can already understand fairly meaningful texts.

It is better to master the words that are most necessary and important to you than to constantly rush to learn new ones. “He who pursues too much risks missing everything,” says a Swedish proverb. “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch either,” the Russian proverb answers.

Vocabulary in oral speech

Very roughly speaking, about 40 correctly chosen, high-frequency words will cover approximately 50% of word usage in everyday speech in any language;

  • 200 words will cover about 80%;
  • 300 words - approximately 85%;
  • 400 words will cover about 90%;
  • Well, 800-1000 words are about 95% of what would need to be said or heard in the most ordinary situation.

Thus, the right choice lexicon helps you understand quite a lot with very modest efforts spent on cramming.

Example: if a total of 1000 words are spoken in an everyday conversation, then 500 of them, that is, 50%, will be covered by the 40 most common high-frequency words.

We emphasize that these percentages, of course, are not the result of exact calculations. They just give the most general concept about how many words approximately will be needed to feel confident when entering into a simple dialogue with a native speaker. In any case, there is no doubt that by correctly choosing from 400 to 800 words and remembering them well, you can feel confident in a simple conversation, since they will cover almost 100% of those words that you cannot do without. Of course, under other, less favorable conditions, 400 words will cover only 80% of what you need to know - instead of 90 or 100%.

Reading vocabulary

When reading, having correctly chosen and well remembered about 80 of the most common, most frequent words, you will understand about 50% of a simple text;

  • 200 words will cover approximately 60%;
  • 300 words - 65%;
  • 400 words - 70%;
  • 800 words - approximately 80%;
  • 1500 - 2000 words - about 90%;
  • 3000 - 4000 - 95%;
  • and 8,000 words will cover almost 99 percent of the written text.

Example: if you have a text in front of you with a volume of approximately 10 thousand words (this is approximately 40 printed pages), then, having learned the most necessary 400 words in advance, you will understand about 7000 words that are used in this text.

Let us note again that the figures we give are only indicative. Depending on various additional conditions, 50 words will cover up to 50 percent of the written text, but in other cases you will need to learn at least 150 words to get the same result.

Vocabulary: from 400 to 100,000 words

  • 400 - 500 words - active vocabulary for language proficiency at a basic (threshold) level.
  • 800 - 1000 words - active vocabulary in order to explain yourself; or passive reading vocabulary at a basic level.
  • 1500 - 2000 words - active vocabulary, which is quite enough to provide everyday communication during the whole day; or passive vocabulary sufficient for confident reading.
  • 3000 - 4000 words - in general, enough for almost fluent reading of newspapers or literature in the specialty.
  • About 8,000 words - provide complete communication for the average European. There is practically no need to know more words in order to communicate freely both orally and in writing, as well as read literature of any kind.
  • 10,000-20,000 words - the active vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).
  • 50,000-100,000 words - the passive vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).

It should be noted that vocabulary alone does not ensure free communication. At the same time, having mastered 1,500 correctly chosen words, with some additional training, you will be able to communicate almost freely.

Concerning professional terms, then usually they do not present any particular difficulties, since in most cases this is international vocabulary, which is quite easy to master.

When you already know about 1500 words, you can start reading at a fairly decent level. With passive knowledge of 3,000 to 4,000 words, you will be fluent in reading literature in your specialty, at least in those areas where you are confident. In conclusion, we note that, according to calculations carried out by linguists based on a number of languages, the average educated European actively uses about 20,000 words (and half of them are quite rare). In this case, the passive vocabulary is at least 50,000 words. But all this concerns the native language.

Basic vocabulary

In the pedagogical literature you can find the terminological combination “basic vocabulary”. From my point of view, at the maximum level the vocabulary is about 8000 words. It seems to me that teaching large quantity words, except perhaps for some special purposes, are hardly necessary. Eight thousand words will be enough for full communication in any conditions.

When starting to learn a language, it would be wise to make do with shorter lists. Here are three levels that I have found in practice to provide a good guide for a beginner:

  • level A("basic vocabulary"):

400-500 words. They are enough to cover approximately 90% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 70% of simple written text;

  • level B(“minimum vocabulary”, “mini-level”):

800-1000 words. They are enough to cover approximately 95% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 80-85% of written text;

  • level B("average vocabulary", "medium level"):

1500-2000 words. They are enough to cover approximately 95-100% of all word usage in everyday oral communication or about 90% of written text.

An example of a good dictionary of basic vocabulary can be considered the dictionary published by E. Klett in Stuttgart, 1971, under the title "Grundwortschatz Deutsch" ("Basic vocabulary fund German language"). It contains 2000 of the most necessary words in each of a select six languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

Eric W. Gunnemark, Swedish polyglot

What should it be? vocabulary) to solve certain problems (reading English literature, communicating in household topics, conducting business correspondence, watching TV shows, etc.)? Many students learning English ask themselves this question.

Today we will talk specifically about vocabulary in English for different levels and you will find out what opportunities each of these levels opens up for you. First, let's find out what vocabulary is. Vocabulary is the set of words that a person knows. It is divided into active (words that a person uses himself in written and spoken speech) and passive (words that a person recognizes when reading or speaking, but does not use them himself). It is obvious that the passive stock significantly exceeds the active one. It is worth noting that vocabulary should be understood not only as knowledge of words, but also as their correct pronunciation, writing and recognition in speech.

How many words are there in English?

It is quite difficult to answer this question. The history of Great Britain is complicated in this regard - the Iberians (the most ancient population of the British Isles), the Celts (came from modern Belgium and France), the Picts (lat. pices- colourized), the 400-year domination of the Romans, the invasion of West Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Nomes, Frisians), the raids of the Scandinavians and, finally, the Normans (Northern France, King William the Conqueror), led to the fact that words in the English language became very a lot of. The famous Oxford English Dictionary, which contains only English words and expressions, there are about 600,000 English words. But according to the linguistic portal Global Language Monitor, which also includes hybrid words from dialects (Chinese English, Spanish English, computer jargon and others), there are already more than a million words in English. In practice, the vocabulary of a native speaker is an order of magnitude smaller than all the words in the language. For example, the average vocabulary of an educated English speaker is 12,000 – 18,000 words. For comparison, I will say that V. I. Dahl’s “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” contains about 200,000 words, 30,000 of which are the most used, and a person with higher education knows about 10,000 Russian words. (Wikipedia).

English vocabulary for different levels

How can you use this or that English vocabulary?

  • In order to be able to express yourself fluently or read at a basic level (Elementary/Pre-Intermediate), you need to have about 1000 words in stock.
  • If you have about 2,500 words under your belt, you can already communicate fairly well on everyday topics and read at an intermediate level.
  • With 4000-5000 words, you communicate freely on various topics, read newspapers and specialized literature, watch and listen to television/radio programs (understanding the main meaning).
  • Having a vocabulary of 8,000 words or more, you can already communicate at the level of an average native speaker. This reserve is enough to feel confident among the carriers in almost any situation. You can read any English literature, watch movies, have conversations on a variety of topics.

Now you understand what English vocabulary You need it to achieve your goals in your life. Having reached a certain level of English proficiency, you need to constantly maintain it. It should be remembered that if you are not actively using the language, you are not practicing English in Everyday life, you can easily lose your skills acquired through such painstaking work. Your active English vocabulary will shift towards passive. How can we make sure this doesn’t happen? The ideal solution would be to stay in English speaking country. In this case, you will have constant practice and your level of language proficiency will naturally improve and increase. But what to do if this is not possible? In my article, I described in detail various approaches to learning English and effective ways maintaining motivation. To test your English vocabulary you can use good service Test your vocabulary.

You can also check out other articles on learning vocabulary.

Every even remotely serious lover of anything in the world sooner or later has a desire to measure his collection: in money, in volume, in quantity... The philatelist carefully blows the dust off the hundredth stamp in the album, Henry Ford polishes the new one to a shine tire, Rockefeller glances at the number of zeros in the amount stored in the bank, etc. How to be an English lover? Love for English can also be measured. The hours devoted to studying? Words that make up an active vocabulary!


Supplies vary

No, not firewood for the winter or sweets under the pillow, as you already understood, but English words in the vocabulary. There is nothing shameful or boastful about measuring your vocabulary: after all, there is no limit to perfection, but there are intermediate stages along the way.

Statistics, supported by practice, say that to freely express your thoughts in English you only need 2000 words. Statistics, also supported by optimism, put the figure at 1000-1500 words, but the creators of Basic English are wizards and our best friends - only 850 words. Realists and optimists, hold off on your skepticism! Basic English divided into thematic groups of words (objects and phenomena, actions and movements, expression of qualities) - original selections of the most hit copies from each category. Essentially, frequently used, mostly monosyllabic words (514 out of 850), easy to remember and pronounce, were selected.

We would like to ask everyone who relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief after the figures were announced: what do you personally mean by the concept of “expressing yourself freely”? Of course, asking for a window seat at an airport check-in counter or ordering a veal chop at a restaurant requires 2,000 words. Diving begins where, when answering a question, you do not understand the meaning of the unfamiliar words spoken or cannot talk about specific gastronomic preferences in the company of gourmets. And then we multiply 2000 by two and get 4000 words, which will certainly allow you not to lose face and keep up your conversation in English.

One more nuance: so far we have been talking about active vocabulary, i.e. layer of those words that you regularly use when speaking. What you once wrote down in a dictionary and, on occasion, perhaps (!) remember the meaning, is called passive stock - words that you seem to know, but most lie on the shelves of memory under a layer of dust. Yes, they fall into the general standings, but they don’t bring any special dividends.

Perfectionists hungry for more! Outside the language environment, learning the 8,000 words that make up the active vocabulary of an English-speaking citizen is quite difficult. It is possible, of course, but with great energy consumption, diligence and methodicalness. With a luggage of 4-5 thousand words, you can safely pack your bags to Britain, the USA or Canada, where you are doomed to expand your vocabulary to the treasured 8-10 thousand units.


Gradations of vocabulary

Or how much is needed for complete happiness? You can start with the top 10 or top 100 words in the English language and be happy. A selection of the most commonly used English words around the world will set the desired vector for replenishing your vocabulary. And we again pick up the ruler and return to simple arithmetic, this time introducing you to gradations (types) of vocabulary.

400-500 words of active vocabulary - a passport to the world of English and a certificate of language proficiency at a basic level
. 800-1000 “active” words will give you the opportunity to explain yourself and talk about everyday topics, the same amount of “passives” will allow you to read simple texts
. 1500-2000 words of “assets” will reward you with the ability to communicate freely throughout the day or the same amount of “passives” - confident reading of more complex texts
. 3000-4000 words bring you closer to almost fluent reading of newspapers or books and magazines in your specialty
. 8000 words guarantee full communication for the average European. This is also enough for free reading and expressing thoughts in writing.
. up to 13,000 words characterize a highly educated person learning English as a foreign language.


How to determine and test English vocabulary?

Find out on the accounts? Marking familiar words in the dictionary? Let's not reinvent the wheel and borrow an answer from the creators of a test that can weigh your vocabulary in 2-3 minutes with an error of up to 10%. The link to the test will be in a minute, but for now brief instructions on its application and the answer to the question “how does it work”.

The developers took a dictionary of 70,000 words as a basis, discarded outdated, compound words, scientific terms and derivatives from each other, resulting in a total of 45,000. Then they sorted them by frequency of use, sincerely admitting that the last 10,000 out of 45,000 are extremely rare, so even a respectable Briton may not feel remorse for never using them in his life. From the English vocabulary test, words whose meaning could be obtained through logic were excluded.

The entire test consists of two pages: each contains English words in several columns without any logical sequence. If you know at least one of the possible meanings of a word, then confidently put a tick next to it. The task is the same on two pages, only on the second the program selects words from unfamiliar ones from the first page, as if wanting to make sure whether you really don’t know them. No sleight of hand, no cheating: the only condition is to be honest with yourself and not overdo the number of checkmarks.

We invite you to take the test for a couple of minutes, and then return to our article for a debriefing. We have already prepared a line :)


We measure ourselves by results

And now you are left alone with your test result. How did others cope? Statistics collected after completion this test, says that among non-native speakers, the majority of respondents ended up with between 3 and 7 thousand words. There are noticeably fewer holders of 7-10 thousand words and even fewer from 11 to 30 thousand (strangely enough, even 30-thousand people paid attention to this test).

Among those for whom English is native, the situation looks different: a cosmic vocabulary of 30 thousand words for non-native speakers is the norm for 30-year-old English-speaking friends. The average result of the previous category of 3-7 thousand is typical for children 5-6 years old. Do not forget that it is precisely at this age that the world is actively being explored and the entire surrounding family with 30 thousand deposits around is actively not silent.


Let's sum it up

Test control is one of the most popular forms of testing knowledge of the English language. The undeniable advantages of tests are the speed and ease of assessing knowledge, as well as the mandatory availability of keys (correct answers) to them.

English vocabulary tests can be:

a) to determine the number of vocabulary units in your passive and active dictionary;

b) to determine the acquired vocabulary on any topic.



Here are some examples online tests.

Test http://testyourvocab.com/ allows you to determine your vocabulary. It consists of two mandatory parts: the first determines the knowledge of general vocabulary of the English language, the second - special. On average, the result of non-native English speakers ranges from 2,500 to 9,000 words, while the result of native speakers is 20,000-35,000 words.

Why know your vocabulary? The answer is very simple: each level of language proficiency corresponds to an approximate number of words that need to be learned. Yes, for the levelBeginner- This 500-600 words. In order for the language level to be close toElementary, the student needs to know about 1000 words.

Level

Word count

Beginner

500-600

Elementary

1000

Pre-Intermediate

1500-2000

Intermediate

2000-3000

Upper-Intermediate

3000-4000

Advanced

4000-8000

Proficiency

more than 8000

Test http://www.efl.ru/tests/formal2informal-1/ will show how well you speak spoken British English. What's happened 'comfy‘ and how to dress if you are invited to ‘barbie‘, you will find out by taking this fun test.

Next test http://www.efl.ru/tests/colours/ will help you better understand English colors and shades. In the first part, knowledge of the colors of the main palette is tested, in the second, attention is paid to shades of colors, in the third part, knowledge is trained English idioms containing the name of the color. Why is it bad to get ‘pinkslip', And what color is a lie? You will find all the answers in this test.

Test How strong is your vocabulary? from Merriam - Webster consists of only 10 questions, the content of which is constantly changing. The test checks synonymous vocabulary at an advanced level, but thanks to it you can significantly enrich your vocabulary.

Test MyVocabularySize It is distinguished primarily by its impressive size: it contains 140 questions. The test has a language selection option: when choosing Russian, you will need to select a translation of the word given in the context; when choosing English, you will find a synonymous phrase.

On the site Quizlet.com There are a huge number of vocabulary tests created by teachers from all over the world. Some of them are based on vocabulary from English textbooks, which you yourself probably study from. Other tests test knowledge of specialized vocabulary, which can also be useful for those who want to deepen their knowledge.



Some tips for those who want to increase their vocabulary

1. Read in the original! Will it be fiction, world News, culinary recipes or advertisements - not so important if you have acquired the habit of working with the dictionary while reading. Each new word is another step towards learning the English language.

2. Work with a monolingual dictionary! Not immediately, but gradually accustom yourself to abandon the usual “word-translation” scheme. Sometimes it can be difficult to explain a concept even in your native language. However, by working with a monolingual (written in one language) dictionary, you will have a better chance of understanding the meaning of many words.

3. Learn words in context! When maintaining your personal dictionary, write down not individual lexical units, but phrases and sentences. Thus, your language will quickly sparkle with new, lively phrases.

Where to practice vocabulary?

On the site LearnEnglishTeens There is an opportunity to practice words on a wide variety of topics. Each topic is presented at three language levels - from A 1 to B 1 – and is accompanied by five exercises.

On the site http://lengish.com/tests/vocabulary Exercises for training thematic vocabulary necessary in everyday life are also presented.

Resource Merriam -Webster offers not only dictionaries and tests, but also a huge number of exercises and games to improve your vocabulary.



Finally, we invite you to take our vocabulary test, based on vocabulary from New Headway Elementary.

1. If you… somebody, you take care of this person.

a) pay b) look after c) lose

2. My sister and I are very … and we phone each other every evening.

a) happy b) independent c) close

3. How many languages ​​do you…?

a) speak b) say c) tell

4. This book is really… !

a) interesting b) interested c) bored

5. I’m… in reading books.

a) interesting b) interested c) bored

6. Hey! Let's...a cake!

a) do b) make c) mix

7. New York is older…London.

a) then a) of c) than

8. If the weather is bad, we can….

a) have a picnic a) go for a walk c) watch a DVD

9. Let’s go to the… and buy some stamps.

a) library b) post office c) police office

10. How about having lunch?

a) I'll have some pizza and a coke. b) That sounds great! c) I can help you.

Keys to the test:

b

c

a

a

b

b

c

c

b

b

And finally, remember that objective can only be called comprehensive assessment of knowledge.

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    Minsk
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    Anton,
    28 years old, Khabarovsk
  • I usually don’t write reviews, I don’t like it (or maybe I don’t know how). But for my favorite site Puzzle-English I will make an exception :-) In my opinion, Puzzle-English is the best site for self-learning English, and even in game form. There is never a dull moment on the site; you can always choose a video to your liking, regardless of your level of language proficiency. The site will be interesting for both beginners and experienced students: in front of you is a huge catalog of cute songs for children, cartoons, musical hits that are booming all over the world, performances by famous artists and politicians, fragments of TV shows, educational videos and other videos of varying levels of difficulty. Your task is to listen to part of the video, try to hear the phrase well and assemble a mosaic of its words. I treat this service as a game, entertainment, when I want to take a break from my main work and relax for ten minutes, I just go to Puzzle-English and collect the video I like. There is an interesting effect with songs when you UNDERSTAND what the song is about.. Those who are interested in English grammar can go to the exercises section and practice the chosen topic, collecting specially selected sentences, of course, first listening to a short theoretical video explaining the intricacies of this Topics. All phrases in this section are voiced by a narrator. The Puzzle-English website has a unique “Serials” service. Before you are several dozen episodes of famous TV series and programs: “Two and a Half Men”, “Sherlock”, “Great Expectations”, “Life on Mars”, TED conference speeches, etc. You just watch your favorite series, and in difficult moments you press pause and there is an opportunity to read the script of the episode, listen to the phrase again, watch a video explanation of slang expressions and words. If you are a beginner, you can set subtitles to display in English and/or Russian. The site has a built-in player specially designed, and therefore convenient, for learning the language. All unfamiliar words can be placed in a “personal dictionary”. It is noteworthy that in addition to the word, the dictionary contains a corresponding phrase with a translation into Russian. And in the end I want to recommend you the Puzzle-English channel on YouTube, the guys share tips there self-study languages, and the entire collection of educational videos of the site is collected there. PS. In order to use the site, you do not have to be a user with a paid account. Many sections can be used for free, but an annoying sign with a payment offer will be displayed all the time. P.P.S. And yet, I urge you to pay for the site’s services, this money will help make the site even better, and its creators deserve to be paid for their work, in addition, a lot of additional opportunities will open up for you.

    Inga,
    hero city Sevastopol
  • When I started learning English in the eighteenth last century we had only boring and incomprehensible English manuals. At that time didn't exist the mp3 players, smartphones and laptops. I remembered even how People lived without the internet. And If I"d such stuff earlier, I"d been probably speaking English fluently now and could understand the English speech, movies and songs. Modernity given has us awesome facilities to study English. We can read the authentic books and newspapers, hear the English songs and audio books, watch the foreign movies and TV, communicate with native speakers. But we haven"t any time to practice this. Because I was glad when I found the site Puzzle English. On this website you can take a maximum of English stuff for yourself and spend a minimum of your time. Where are huge plenty of useful and interested English lessons, exercises, TV"s serials and so long. All of the ones were carefully prepared for education purpose. You can instantly find translation and pronunciation each English word or phrase and add one in your private vocabulary to try it later. All workouts are doing easy and fast. And I"m visiting on every day this site to improve my English language. Of course I use not only this website, but Puzzle English is my favorite one. And I hope with Puzzle English my awful English will have been reached the perfection.

    Vladimir Shchepkov,
    49 years old, Sergiev Posad