Vocabulary: how to count it, expand it and why it is needed. Vocabulary: optimal size and ways to increase it

Active Vocabulary includes words that are used in speaking and writing.

Passive Vocabulary includes words that a person recognizes by reading and hearing, but does not use them himself in speech and writing. Passive vocabulary is several times larger than active vocabulary.

Vocabulary of the average person

Russian language

“Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by V. I. Dal has about 200 thousand words. The most common words, according to the “Frequency Dictionary of the Russian Language” edited by L. N. Zasorina, are about 40 thousand words, and the highest frequency is just over 9 thousand words, covering more than 90% of the texts processed in compiling the dictionary. By modern estimates A secondary school student's vocabulary is about 5,000 words. A highly educated person knows about 8,000 words. It is interesting that the “Dictionary of Pushkin’s Language,” containing the words used by the classic, contains an unsurpassed figure so far - approximately 24 thousand words. The unpublished “Dictionary of the Language of V. I. Lenin”, according to some sources, should have contained about 30 thousand words.

English language

According to official data Oxford Dictionary, V English there are 250 thousand words and about 615 thousand word formations. But some researchers argue that when counting English words It is necessary to take into account all neologisms, including words from Internet blogs and other informal resources, as well as words used only in varieties of English, for example, in China and Japan. So, Global company Language Monitor counted 986 thousand words in English.

Japanese

The Japanese language contains about 50 thousand characters. The active vocabulary of the Japanese is formed by the Ministry of Education; it is they who recommend 1,850 hieroglyphs to their compatriots for everyday use, of which 881 are studied in elementary and high school. On average, a Japanese person gets by with 400 characters per day. everyday life, and newspapers and magazines use 3000 hieroglyphs.

Sight reading vocabulary- for beginners to read - words that they can read quickly (“from sight”) without explicit phonetic decoding. Children who are taught to read using the whole-word method typically have larger sight-reading vocabularies than children who... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary in psychology and pedagogy

Undoubtedly, a rich vocabulary is an indicator of high intellectual development person. If you have a beautiful speech, then modern world you will be perceived as a person with good education and culture, creative personality. People who have an extensive vocabulary, as a rule, command more respect in society than those who cannot “string together a few words.” Even if you have already left childhood, this does not mean that you are unable to enrich your speech - this is possible at any age. Read books that develop speech Surely you know that reading books is useful for many reasons. This process can help improve memory, diction, and, of course, can have a positive impact on the quality of your vocabulary. Start with those writers whose work is close and understandable to you. Over time, move on to more complex works. Pay attention to text that contains interesting expressions that you would like to remember and use later. Re-read these hearing expressions - this way you will remember them better. The most interesting of them can be written down in a separate notebook. Expand your vocabulary when communicating with smart people If you want to expand your vocabulary with interesting participial phrases or just with clever words, then, of course, you should not neglect communication with intellectuals. If you notice that the speech of the people around you is very poor, then, of course, you should understand that you will not learn the necessary skills from communicating with them. Moreover, you yourself may lose your acquired vocabulary. Don’t be afraid to seem stupid when you start communicating with people who know a lot interesting information- this is one of the most effective ways increase your intellectual level, and it was unwise not to take advantage of it. Improve your speech and vocabulary by learning new words When you hear or notice a new word while reading, under no circumstances try to “skip” it - look up the definition in the dictionary. In addition, it is important to note for yourself in what particular turn of speech this word is used. After that, try to mentally replace it with a suitable synonym. Subsequently, having fully understood the meaning of a previously unfamiliar word, you will be able to add it to your vocabulary. To make it easier to remember, try to visualize it in your mind, adding images related to this word. Let the picture in your imagination be as rich as possible. What literature should I read to develop literate speech? For our time, the speech of the mid-twentieth century can be called the standard - it is as close as possible to modern, but has not yet absorbed various jargons and barbarisms that appeared subsequently. Therefore, it is advisable to give preference to literature predominantly from this period. The most effective books will be Russian and English classics. It is also worth noting that there are special books that help in speech development. Let's name some of them. First of all, pay attention to “The Mastery of Broadcast Performance” by B. D. Gaimakova. First of all, the book will be of interest to people who plan to work in television and radio. However, this work will be useful for everyone else. Includes three parts that talk about the rules public speaking, technology and culture of speech. We advise you not to ignore N. Gal’s book “The Living and the Dead Word.” The author is a famous translator, but her work will be of interest not only to her colleagues. The work will help you find your own style, avoiding the “dead” language.

Learn a new word every day If you enrich your vocabulary with a new word every day, then, of course, after some time you will be able to show off your new knowledge very effectively. There are many applications and sites on the Internet that offer to learn new words. There are also communities with this focus on VK. It's important to remember that you don't just need to learn unfamiliar words - they should be used in everyday life. Learn a new concept in the evening, and the next day try to apply it in a conversation with someone. This way, memorization will be much more effective. When you hear an unfamiliar word, be sure to Google its meaning. As soon as you hear a word whose meaning is unknown to you or is rather vague for you, remember it. To be sure, you can write it down on a piece of paper. Subsequently, at the first opportunity, look up the meaning of this word on the Internet. Read aloud, retell, learn poems Reading aloud, as well as memorizing poetry, is doubly useful. This way, you not only develop your memory, but also learn vocabulary and syntax. In Russian, the order of words in a sentence can be called quite free, but not everyone uses this freedom to the fullest. Almost every one of us has familiar syntactic constructions at the ready, thereby limiting our lexical range. If you have a task to expand this range, then you should use a creative approach when constructing phrases. For example, if you are used to using the phrase “I want,” then try replacing it with others - “I wish,” “I would like,” and the like. Of course, reading certain works will help you easily replace previously chosen phrases. However, often, when we start reading, we become immersed in the plot, practically not focusing on the vocabulary. As a result, the linguistic abundance of a work often passes us by. To avoid this, use this psychological trick: Read books that the author wrote in the first person. When you study them slowly and thoughtfully, ready-made phrases will be stored in your memory, which you can later use when talking about yourself. Replace simple words with complex ones that broaden your horizons Try to use more complex words in your speech, replacing those simple words that you are used to using before. To do this, look for synonyms for any words that you regularly use. This way you will significantly enrich and diversify your vocabulary. Do not treat this task as something very difficult and requiring serious energy expenditure - this is a natural process that can continue until the end of your life. Solve crosswords Solving crosswords is not just fun, but also a great way to improve your vocabulary. Do not neglect this opportunity on vacation, at home, on the road. Pay attention to crossword puzzles that are published in well-known, well-established publications.

Listen to audiobooks If you spend a lot of time driving and have little free time to read works of art and study dictionaries, then start listening to audiobooks. This technique is also useful for those people who better perceive information by ear. Don’t even doubt that if you while away the time in a traffic jam while listening to a good audiobook, these minutes will do you good. Watch the video Sometimes, vocabulary enrichment can occur while watching a variety of videos. It's about about all kinds of quizzes, intellectual talk shows, and documentary projects. Also, do not discount special courses that help expand your vocabulary. This way, you can not only have a good time, but also benefit your own self-development. Of course, it is important to distinguish materials that are worthwhile from those that you do not need. For example, if you see in a television program that the time is approaching for the next youth reality show or stupid action movie of the 90s with the corresponding translation, then it is better to devote time to something else, because such viewing will not only not bring you any benefit, but can also harm . Notes method Perhaps you are faced with the fact that it is very difficult for you to remember new terms. In this situation, the already mentioned “notes method” will help. Get a pack of stickers, then write a new word on one side of a piece of paper and its meaning on the other. Now put stickers around the apartment. Now “difficult” words will constantly catch your eye, and you will be able to re-read their meanings again and again until they are fully assimilated and included in your usual vocabulary. Write You will quickly learn to use new expressions correctly if you take up writing. To do this, of course, you don’t have to be a writer - just set aside at least half an hour a day to write some short text. This can be a simple statement of your own thoughts on this or that matter. For example, you can write what you dream about, what kind of people you dislike, what you can admire in another person, and the like. You can even write a multi-page article on a topic that interests you. Having started writing any text, you will have some time to think about your thoughts, thanks to which you will have the opportunity to learn how to correctly use new phrases, laconically inserting them into the text in the right place. Writing is definitely one of the creative activity, which activates your mental potential. Naturally, this trains the brain wonderfully, allowing you to remember words that you practically never used in speech before. Every day we communicate with other people, pronounce hundreds of words, work with documents, browse the Internet, correspond with friends and relatives, read magazines and newspapers, watch films and television shows. In the process of communication, transmission and perception of information, our consciousness processes many words. Exactly how many words does a person need to know in order to fully communicate, understand the world and the surrounding reality?

According to various estimates by scientists, in English there are about one million words, in Russian - from two hundred to five hundred thousand, Czech has about fifty thousand words. But this does not mean at all that in order to master a language, you need to learn such a huge number of words. The fact is that our vocabulary is divided into two types - active and passive. Active vocabulary is words that a person knows and actively uses. Words whose meaning a person knows, but which he rarely uses, constitute passive vocabulary. Of course, the passive reserve is several times larger than the active one. Researchers of the works of William Shakespeare have calculated that he used about twenty thousand words in his works; Karel Capek’s literary heritage includes almost thirty thousand words. However, this does not mean that in everyday life, great writers expressed themselves in a complex and ornate way, using all their lexical baggage.

According to linguists, the vocabulary that a European, including the average Russian, uses in everyday communication is about a thousand words. The active vocabulary is approximately two to three thousand words. Thus, to master a language at an initial level, a few hundred frequently used words are sufficient. Here is an approximate gradation of vocabulary size:

1. 400-800 words– lexical baggage necessary for basic level language knowledge;
2. up to 1500 words– a reserve that allows you to explain yourself and read literature at an elementary level;
3. up to 3000 words- a reserve with which you can confidently communicate in household level and read non-specialized literature fluently;
4. 5000 words in the lexical baggage they will provide free reading of the press and specialized literature;
5. 8000 words enough for comprehensive communication, reading literature of any complexity, viewing television programs and films.

It should be taken into account that these figures are only an approximate estimate of the number of words needed to communicate at a certain level, and, as a consequence, the number of words that those wishing to learn a foreign language need to know. Note that the active vocabulary is dynamic; it changes depending on the environment in which a person lives, what he does, where he works, etc. For example, the specifics of a person’s work determine the lexical baggage he uses in labor activity. Therefore, it is important not only to expand your active vocabulary, but also to ensure that words do not disappear from use and do not pass from active to passive.

There are various ways enrichment of active vocabulary. Let's look at some of them:

1. The most common, effective and accessible method– live communication method. When two interlocutors communicate, as a rule, there is a mutual enrichment of their vocabulary.
2. Reading aloud allows you to use not only visual, but also auditory memory, facilitating and speeding up the memorization process.
3. Retelling what you read. When retelling what you read, the brain actively processes the information received, and you need to try to make maximum use of those words from the text that you encountered for the first time or that caused difficulty.
4. Working with a dictionary of synonyms is interesting and useful. Many words have a number of synonyms, and a small game, the goal of which is to use a dictionary to replace words in the text with synonyms as much as possible, will significantly expand your vocabulary.

The richer a person's vocabulary, the more succinctly, colorfully and accurately he can express his feelings and thoughts, the brighter his picture of the world. You should strive to expand your vocabulary not only of the language you are studying, but also of your native language. This seems all the more relevant for speakers of the Russian language, about which the French writer Prosper Merimee spoke so wonderfully: “The Russian language, as far as I can judge about it, is the richest of all European dialects and seems deliberately created to express the finest shades. Gifted with wonderful conciseness, combined with clarity, he is content with one word to convey thoughts when another language would require whole phrases for this.”

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,” a 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 vocabulary helps you understand quite a lot with very little effort 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 accurate calculations. They just give the most general concept about how many words it will take to feel confident when entering into 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 simple conversation, since they will cover almost 100% of those words that you cannot do without. Of course, with others, 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 throughout the 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.

Regarding 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 pedagogical literature You can find the terminological combination “basic vocabulary”. From my point of view, on maximum level vocabulary is about 8000 words. It seems to me that teaching more 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

- this is not a myth. At the time when I was at school, I didn’t know why we needed such subjects as Russian literature. I wasn't interested classic books Pushnikin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and other Russian classics. To the same extent, such subjects as philosophy, rhetoric, Tatar language(I live in Tatarstan). And only when you become an adult do you understand that such things as a rich vocabulary are very important for achieving success in life and play, if not the role of the main factor in victories, but this is another contribution of your parents to your future competitiveness. When we become adults, we are willing to pay a lot of money to learn what we were taught in school for free.

Vocabulary Shakespeare according to philologists it was 12 thousand words. To communicate more or less fluently in English, you need to know and understand about 1000 words in the vocabulary and know some set expressions and designs. But this vocabulary will clearly not be enough to express yourself freely and have a rich speech.

You need to improve your vocabulary

To express your thoughts well, you need to have a serious vocabulary. Many experts agree on this. It often happens that successful person He performs well in business, but at a business meeting he cannot speak even a few words. How to improve your vocabulary? Eat different ways. Many people advise reading more diverse literature, and thereby you indirectly improve your vocabulary, literacy and the quality of your oral speech.

By the way , know a lot interesting words and speak beautifully- this is not the same thing. Your vocabulary should be complemented by a broad outlook and knowledge, beautiful speech, expressiveness. Here it is worth paying attention to such a thing as rhetoric. They teach you to speak beautifully. Try listening to other people, and also try speaking in public yourself. The quality of your speech will improve very quickly.

Having a rich vocabulary - you will become a stronger negotiator. This is a real business skill that exploits philology for capitalist purposes. You really will easier, when you finally learn to string together at least a few words, and not speak in broken sentences.

Ways to improve your vocabulary

3. Read the specialized and fiction, as well as popular science books. It wouldn't hurt to study something from the non-fiction series.

Inset: non fiction - nonfiction is a special genre of documentary literature, where the presentation is based on real events. Documentary prose. The amount of fiction in this genre is small and is only needed to give more vividness to the presentation. The style of presentation is journalistic. The story is told from the words of eyewitnesses, based on real documents. Documentary prose also reveals the subjective view of the author, which may not coincide with the generally accepted point of view.

4. Watch cultural St. Petersburg authors on Youtube. In general, it is true that in cities like St. Petersburg human capital is more developed, and therefore speech is more developed. I watch Konstantin Zarutsky, a famous car video blogger, and it turns out that familiar words can be used in very interesting formats. I recommend it.

5. Each new word - type it into Google and look what does it mean? This will help in vocabulary development. For example, I just learned what nonfiction is and became the owner of a slightly richer speech.

6. They say that you can improve your vocabulary by writing your articles or by listening audiobooks. Useful for those who have a long commute to work. The player is in your ears. I think that I should go to graduate school, start writing a dissertation, or at least study for several years in good university- Greatly expands vocabulary.

7. Studying foreign languages also greatly expands your ability to speak beautifully, for example, using borrowings.

8. Use new phrases, words and sayings in speech. It is useful to study poetry.

Bottom line rich vocabulary is of great importance for a person and his success. This is an indicator of the intellectual and social level of your personality and your professionalism.