How many words in the english language?
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- "How many words in the english language?"
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How many words in the english language?
Why the question "how many words are there in English?” is really, really difficult to answer
What is the number of common words in English?
How many words do native speakers know?
◆ TRANSCRITPT
How many words are there in the English language?
Good morning, good afternoon, or of course even good evening, depending on where in the world you happen to be right now. I'm Julian, and this is doing English.
Yesterday we answered the question "Which language has the most words" and we said it was English, but how many words are in the English language? This, unfortunately, is an incredibly difficult question to answer. It depends on how we count a word. For example, "eat" and "ate". Is it one word or two words? Are they the same; "eat" and "ate"? In one sense, "ate" is simply the past form of "eat," but the word is spelled different. It's pronounced different. It has a different meaning, therefore, surely it should be a different word.
How about "eat" and "eats," or "eat" and "eaten," or how about "eating." Are these all the same word, or are they different words? Again, they're similar but they do have different meanings and they are pronounced differently, but at the same time, they have the same root word, "eat." Do we count them as one, in which case it's one word, or do we count them as five, in which case it's five words? Clearly, how we decide to count words like this is going to make a massive difference to the number of words that we count in the English language. For this reason, basically nobody is agreed on this.
There's a fantastic discussion on this in the book "Vocabulary in Language Teaching" by Norbert Schmitt. He writes that estimates vary from somewhere between about 400,000 and 2 million, again depending on how you count the words and depending on who is doing the counting; 400,000 to 2 million. That is a massive difference. We generally accept that there's about 250,000 in common use, again depending on how you count them, and again depending on who is doing the counting. The problem again is we don't really know how to count these words, but generally an accepted figure is about 250,000 words in common use, and about 1 million words in the language.
I will say, however, that it's also estimated that a native speaker who has graduated university, at about the point of graduating university only actually knows about 10% of the words in common use. If there is about 25,000 words in common use, then the average native speaker at the point of graduating university will know about 25,000 words, a very tiny percentage. To answer the question, probably about 1 million, but about 250,000 in common use, but about 25,000 that people actually know and use, and the words that are actually used on a daily basis is much, much smaller than that as well. About a million is a good estimate, I think.
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Arabic: 12.302.912
English: 600.000
Russian: 150.000
French: 130.000
Spain: 115.000
Interestinly, who counted the number of words in Arabic? Figure is funny!
And Hindi
In Hindi 72000
Sanskrit has 2.5 billion words....
In Kazakhstan 600.000 words🇰🇿
arab language have 12,302,912 word !!
👍👍
Why that too many words sounds like similar. Shlambuhklgharuahuaallahuakbar
😂😂😂😂@@whispersaihna
1 million that's a mountain of words! Phew! I need to keep working. Thanks Julian.
I heared that Arabic have over than 16 million words
How am I going to learn so many words tho! I want to know all the words in English & Dutch & Welsh etc - I know about 60k to 100.000 words in Modern English / Scottish dialect / Middle English and over 6.500 base words in Dutch and more than 3.500 words in Norwegian and also in Swedish! And if a word has more than one meaning it should also count as different words!
I highly recommend Dutch & Welsh & Norwegian etc - they are perfect languages, like English! Modern Dutch is the prettiest and most refined language in the world with the most pretty / poetic words, just like English, and all should be learning / speaking Dutch as Dutch & English are to be the universal languages in TNW! Dutch words are so pretty, I feel like reading them all the time - they are so pleasing to the eye / ear, and Welsh reminds me a bit of Dutch (I’m also learning Welsh, and I’m learning all the other Celtic languages as well, and all the Germanic languages) and are also very refined, and, both Dutch & Welsh have the H / CH sound!
The word afon (pronounced avon) which means river in Welsh is similar to the Dutch word avond - and words such as derwen / bedwen / helygen / haid / blodyn etc kind of remind me of Dutch words as well, for some reason! Both Dutch & Welsh have that royal feel to them, being such a superior language (like English) representing me - so they are one of the first languages on my list and I prioritize them at the moment! I noticed that Dutch / Welsh / Norwegian etc follow the most logical patterns, just like English, which explains why the words are so pretty and have that perfect flow and harmony - they have such good letter combinations (letters that go well 2gether) and almost all the words in these languages are so well-constructed (without repeating the same syllable) with pretty letter combinations that follow the most logical patterns, and, all Germanic languages and all Celtic languages (and even most Latin languages) follow logical patterns, which is why they sound so good and have mostly pretty words, and I want to learn all the pretty languages, as fast as possible!
My list of languages that I highly recommend, starting with the prettiest and then the easiest (for an English speaker, at least) etc...
...Dutch & Norwegian (they are really perfect languages, like English + Scottish dialect, with almost only pretty words and beautiful sounds, and should be learned with the soft G and the soft / Americanized R, and are very poetic and refined, so they are a must-know, just like English / Scottish)
...Swedish (it’s almost as pretty as Norwegian, but it’s easier to read Swedish words after learning more than 3k Norwegian words, so that’s why one should start with Norwegian, as most Norwegian words are very easy to read and memorize)
...Portuguese / Galician / Catalan / Gallo / French / Occitan / Esperanto (most words are very pretty words, a bit more prettier than many Spanish words, even though Spanish is way easier to learn, and one should definitely choose a more open / non-nasal pronunciation / soft R tho, because a soft accent with open vowels can make these languages sound so good and pretty)
...Frisian / Afrikaans / Luxembourgish / German / Limburgish (very pretty words in all these languages, even though a lot may find German grammar more complicated, and by the way, one should use a soft R and soft G, which will make them sound so pretty)
...Spanish / Italian / Corsican (lots of pretty words and many neutral words, and Spanish is definitely the easiest Latin language to learn, which makes it a great option to start with, and Italian is as easy as Spanish honestly, from what I’ve noticed, and I highly recommend a soft R in these languages and all other languages, which will make them sound very pretty)
...Icelandic / Danish / Faroese (very pretty words, but it’s easier to learn these languages once one knows Norwegian and Swedish, because they are not as easy to read as the other two Nordic languages, and the pronunciation can be more complicated in Danish, for example, which has many words and rules that are similar to the Norwegian word and others that are more similar to the Swedish word, so that’s why they should be learned after learning a lot of words in Norwegian and Swedish, and, Icelandic is a bit easier to read than Faroese)
...OId Norse / Latin / OId English / Norn / MiddIe English etc (I highly recommend learning at least one of these languages, even though they aren’t used a lot nowadays, and all other Germanic languages that I didn’t list here, but I have them on my list tho, and they are interesting, and can be used in poetry / lyrics because they are very poetic sounding, so I am going to learn them all, plus I already know a lot of words in Middle English, which I use in many of my lyrics, and I can understand it because it’s mostly the spelling that is a bit different from Modern English, but OId English is completely different tho, so it’s more similar to German)
...Welsh / Scots Gaelic / Irish / Breton / Cornish / Manx etc (I recently found lyrics and read words in these Celtic languages, and they all seem very interesting, have so many pretty words, from what I read, and they are completely different, and kinda have an elf-like sound to them, so they are perfect for me, but I also recommend them to all because they sound very poetic, and can probably be learned in a few years, I don’t know, but I seem to be able to remember the words I learned so far, so they don’t seem difficult to memorize, but they are definitely more difficult to spell than to memorize tho)
...Hungarian (I know two songs in Hungarian that I learned years ago, so it doesn’t seem that difficult to memorize, and many words are so pretty, so I would definitely recommend this language, which is very different)
...Finnish / Estonian (these two languages have a lot of pretty words and a lot of neutral words, even though other words aren’t pretty and are opposites, but I would recommend at least the pretty words and the neutral words, which I am also learning)
And, I also recommend learning the pretty words from Indonesian & Filipino & Sundanese, because these three languages have a mix of very pretty words, as well as lots of neutral words, but then they also have a lot of funny words that are not pretty (so a lot of opposites too) but, I am definitely learning all the pretty words that I find, which can be used mixed with other languages and in poetry / lyrics!
It really helps to start at the Secondary and University level.
12 lakh words in punjabi language
This language spoken by sikhs
Who lives in all the world...
Back in the year 1994 the English Language is and was quite hard for me to understand,
I watched this while i was searching for more vocabulary to improve my language thanks man you gave me hope i will through myself from the balcony (the 12 % part was relieving by the way although it still alot )
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Of course are EAT and ATE different words.Want a proof?-write eat instead of ate at school and try arguing with your teacher they are the same!
Thank you
Great 👍 Satisfactory Answer
The arabic language has 12,302,912 words
English is 2nd with 600.000 words 😂😂😂😂😂
Habibi is wining
12 million? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂Ok
@@Χρίστος-ξ8τ And millions more if u dont know !!
@@osamayaseen2072 yes, ok. Nationalism rages... 100% Islam, the richest language, hahahaha!
@@Χρίστος-ξ8τ hahaha
This arabic before islam already , and we dont talk about what we speak , we r talking about the real arabic , the classical that we can understand it but alot cants speak .
In english u have the word 'love' , but in arabic there are 44 word that means 'love' in english .
Lets talking about lions , there are more than 1500 word that means 'lion' in english , even my name Osama is one of them and each one is different !!
I gave u just 2 exampels can u imagine ?
What if we combined every single word into every single combination to make sentences of X Number of words and then we should have every single sentence that is combined from X number of words.
This will have all what will happen in the future and everything that happened in the past that can be described in X number of words also will have every lie told and every truth that can be said in X number of words.
It is mathematically possible even if trying to get every combination with 600 000 words sounds impossible 🤯
I have a book here called homework for grown-ups stating that the Oxford English Dictionary contains definitions for over five hundred thousand words in current use some studies record over 900, 000 English words it says the next largest language is German which comes in that 175000 words the average English speaker probably uses about 1/60th of these words in his lifetime. It also says that Shakespeare's vocabulary is reckoned to have run over 24, 000 words so I feel like based on this book, this video is inaccurate...
Arabic has 12 million and Sanskrit has 10 million words so English and German can go eat a sausage.
Awesome video! Quick question: What kind of camera do you use? The quality is outstanding. (and so is the content!)
and also the numbers are infinite so there are also infinite of words since numbers can also be words
Dwight Gatchalian Jr. 🌚omg blows my brain 🧠
Hi Julian! I'm not sure you're right. Portuguese is very dificult to learn, 'cause have to many words.
Could you tell me if that's correct?
Hugs!
Theres only 600k+ in the english language
Nobody
Arabs : Arabic has 12M+ words
thank you for making this video
do you know any channels that make videos like yours but about Arabic not English ?
Thumb up👍
12302912 Arabic
While 600,000 English
There are analyst world's in this world
Hows manys name ? family name ? Anime word ? cartoon word ?aliens words ?divinity word ? Pokemon words ? All language ?
i need your help? will you?
World should learn SANSKRIT .
Yes
good job
First of all english has around 400.000 words not one million second of all greek has 76.000.000 words i think that's more words but my math might not be correct i'm greek so i wouldn't know anything about mathematics so who knows it's up to you guys to go nuts and start saying your language is is bigger and better not really admitting to yourselves greek is the first language that was spoken by man but hey it's a free world and idiots like this julian dude are welcome you guys make us smart guys look GOOOOOOOOOD ;)
Perhaps you'd care to look up the meaning of the words 'punctuation' and 'capital letters'. And wtf is a 'hoker'? Have you been reading Chaucer lately?
Actually u r confusing sir,u r counting the letters in a word but the question is how many words in english language. So u si!!!,,, count the words....
Sanskrit has 102,78,50,00,000 words
Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world...
The mostly words has Arabic 12.302.912
First of all tamil is the oldest language and the number you wrote is stupid it shoulf be written 102,785,000,000 which is insane no language needs that many words and sanskrit describes words instead of using a logical term
That's a bit of an exaggeration. In North India they say sanskrit in South India they say tamil. It is neither of them. Proto Indo European is the father of Sanskrit. Sanskrit was a White European Language before the white Europeans conquered Indian and made the Dravidian Locals learn Sanskrit. Kind of like English. Although Sanskrit does have more words than English it still only has 10 million words (But Counting) Arabic has 12 million. Sanskrit might be older but at least Arabic is not a dead Language.
Whoa 😯
there are 7.90000 world in the English language.
Great video!
Where can i find these 25,000 words, please?
Just count them as one m8
Yes yes we get it Arabic has the most words. Why does it matter that the Arabic has more words, just don’t keep commenting the same thing
Arabic has the most words with more than 12,000,00 words .. I can tell your pain
How many alphabet are in English?
Eat and ate are 2 words….
Greek language has 6.000.000 words....
In fact
You can't count the arabic's words
The Hindi Words
English भाषा के अपने कितने words हैं और दूसरे भाषा से लिये गए कितने words
हैं?
उत्तर जरूर दें
बेवकूफ
English doesn't have the most words tho... what are you on about???
Sanskrit language has 2.5 billion words
まずはターゲット1900がんばります。。。
I am learning japanes for real and I thought that japanes landgauage are tough around the world. tomodachi ni aritai
I speak English and Arabic Fluently and I studied both of them for years and from my recorded data, English doesn't nearly have as many words as Arabic which has 5 times as many Verbs than the English language. I think people exaggerate when they say there are 600 thousand words in English and 12 million in Arabic but from what I can tell Arabic is definitely far richer than English.
Alessio can you tell me how you learned English please help me
ABDELWAHAB BOUZABRA
Well, you look like you’re grammar is quite well.
I use Duolingo though for learning Japanese.
English has the most words ever, including all the technical terms and the descriptive terms and so many loanwords from many languages, and even synonyms for many of them, and almost all the words in English are a pretty word, while most words in Arabic are a non-pretty word, so why would one learn Arabic LOL - Germanic languages like Dutch & English etc are the prettiest / most refined languages in the world with most pretty / poetic words!
Anwy, the words dia / wil / Son (meaning Sun in Afrikaans) and ale and Ra and del etc cannot be in someone’s name or yt name, and all unsuitable names must be changed!
And, why would one learn Japanese / Chinese / Korean etc - they do not sound good, and most words are a funny or embarrassingly funny word that is poorly-constructed (with repetitions of the same syllable) and letter combinations that are not a good letter combination...
English is not the top. Arabic has about 12 millions. Why Arabic has a lot of words. Just have a look?
You use the word *Sleep*
We use a lot of words to describe the process of sleeping
1-The first moment of sleeping we call it "sinet"
2-After sinet, it comes the second word that describe the moment of sleeping after sinet which is *Nuaaz*
3-After Nuas, the *hucua* period starts
4. Rukuq.
The genral name of the word Sleeping means *naum* .
N there are 5000000 world in arbic language
Hi. I like to look at the number of subscribers on Your channel. From day to day there's more and more them :)
False start.
English is nowhere near that.
Check Arabic before broadcast😮
400k is nonsense respectfully
It's somewhere between 1m and 1.5.m
Irrespective of the analysis you first offered, convoluted and too subjecive tho it is IMO.
I speak OK German which has around half KNOWN published words in total.
Your video is basic fun and is not without value, but its content is collocation.
Your view is too subjective here, but well done anyway.
I can understand what you want to say.....mmmmm???
Η Ελληνική γλώσσα ειναι πλουσιώτερη απο την Αγγλική γλώσσα.
Ελληνικά?
Say whaaaaaaa
Indeed
20万，卧槽，还是常用的😪😪
His teeth tho
Wtf his teeth
He's british