Hi,
Good question. Here are some interesting numbers based on my limited knowledge. Please note, these numbers are just estimates.
Vocabulary Count
Grade 1 Student = 1,000+ words
Normal Person (Graduate) = 5,000 to 6,000+ words
University Professor = 15,000+ words
Spelling Bee Winners = 30,000+ (as claimed by them)
College Dictionary (Abridged) = 50,000 - 70,000
Total Words in English Language = 250,000+ (Growing)
Dictionary (Un-abridged) with derivatives = 450,000+
Shakespeare used 60,000 words
The above claims must be wrong. While English has hundreds of thousands of words, many are obsolete. Scientific words enter the language faster than obsolete ones die. I know a great many words, but surely not all. My guess: maybe 8,000 or 9,000 tops. Personal judgement keeps me from ever using the 2,000 or 3,000 oddballs. My education includes six years of Classics in prep school, four years at no mean college, a year of law school, and grad school at the US's supposedly top university. A working English vocabulary uses the 2,000 commonest words over and over. Shakespeare is our language's acknowledged master. An exact count of all words from works published using Shakespeare's name, totals 17,300-plus, not 60,000! Some of his as yet undiscovered works might yield a few hundred new ones, but doubtful. An English professor at a top university with a word-collecting proclivity might know 11,000 to 14,000 English words--half or more oddball words. Anyone with the basic 2,000 plus 4,000 more in a range of the more everyday specialties can read, hear, write, or speak very broadly. Claims that an accomplished master of English knows 12,000 or even 20,000 words needlessly scare any trying to master English at a higher level. [The imagined professor is an extreme word-collector not a word-user.] Knowing 6,000 words is challenge enough. The estimated extra words I know over 6,000 are just for my personal amusement. People would justifiably either shun me or throw things at me for using those oddities. I urge all to quit hyperventilating like Chicken Little and unthinkingly repeating others' claim. So if I said "The sky is falling!" would you repeat it? If that question still has intuitive appeal, try this instead: "Your retrievable vocabulary needs not over 6,000 words to make you a master of the English language."
If you mean the functional English vocabulary of a person whose first language isn't English, it's impossible to say. Many who don't have English as their native language have an English vocabulary larger that that of native English speakers.
Professor David Crystal, known chiefly for his research in English language studies and author of around 100 books on the subject says, "Most people know about 50,000 words easily. A reasonably educated person about 75,000 An ordinary person, one who has not been to university say, would know about 35,000 quite easily."
1 zillion catrillion gabillion!
There isn't any exact translation in English of TAGALOG WORDS KA DYAN. It is just an expression that the speaker seems not to be willing to say some Tagalog words.
Clarity
Accurately hearing what is said by focusing attention on the speaker
Plain English is simple, straightforward, easily understood English,in other words the opposite of the English used by lawyers which uses long words, out-of-date words, technical words and Latin words.
There are about 228,132 words total in the English language.
How many words does the average native English speaker use in hisher everyday speech?
Check out the link... Click on the speaker icon. Assuming of course your speaker works.
The language with the most words is English, with over 1 million words. However, the average native English speaker knows around 20,000 to 35,000 words.
5,000
There isn't any exact translation in English of TAGALOG WORDS KA DYAN. It is just an expression that the speaker seems not to be willing to say some Tagalog words.
A native English speaker is a person whose first language they learn as a baby is English, so its not something you can become unless you are born to it. If your antive language is another language you can lean to speak English like a native by listening carefully to English speakers and practicing saying words the way they do.
To become a native English speaker, you typically need to learn the language from birth or at a very young age, ideally in an immersive environment where English is spoken as the primary language. Additionally, constant practice, exposure to English through various mediums like books, music, and movies, and interacting with native speakers can help improve fluency and proficiency in the language.
The word bee is useless because words are meaningful only because of the meanings given to them by their users. Therefore, the word bee might not mean the same thing to a non-English speaker.
Practice with a native speaker. If you want to practice alone, you can record yourself with a microphone and compare to a native speaker. You might have better success by repeating the words of someone who you like, or consider a hero, or a celebrity you have similarity to. 1. Find a video with a native English speaker. 2. Record yourself repeating what the native speaker says. 3. Listen to your recording, and compare to the native speaker.
хлеп - khlyep -- Probably among the hardest single syllable words for an English speaker to say.
Anything that could possibly come up in conversation. However, that's a pain to do, and it's easier to just expose yourself to massive quantities of English--movies, newspapers, books, music...--and then learn to figure out words based on context.Given that English is one of wordiest (yes, that is a word) languages on Earth, you'd be memorizing a lot of words to become fluent.It is calculated that the average English speaker uses about 2000 - 4000 words in ordinary conversation.
The Oxford English contains 171,476 words in current use and 47, 156 obsolete words so that will all the explanations there could be 250,000 words. In all, however the full explanation is that there could be more than 750.000 available to the English speaker