How many words do you need for B2? - Steve Kaufmann & the Power of Reading
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
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Steve has an amazing ability to get to the essence of difficult topics in a concise, articulate way. Love this.
Hey Olly, your content is awesome, keep up the good work! :)
Because he has been doing it his whole life
Lots of people don't understand Steve when he talks that you need 15 or 30 thousand words. Yes, you need 5 000, but when Steve says that you need 15 000 he considers "Be - was/were - been" and etc as 4 different words. For example "Run, ran, running, runs" are different words, if you consider it, you need 15-30 thousand words, but lots of people don't consider them as different words and in this case, you need 5 000 words.
Ok i dont think you understand langauge, your just saying the same words in different tenses, past future present etc, they are all the same words, i dont know what its called in english but the word in french is conjugation/conjugaison
@@zzdahaewae It's just a question of how he defines a word
@Asbest
You are wrong, he explained this in this very video. He specifically said that you should know around 15 000 words in general for languages, but if it is a language that has inflections in it, it should be closer to 30 000. Inflections are any types of grammatical add-ons to the root word. For example a verb like "talk" can use only a few inflections - talkS, talkED, talkING. But for example nouns in slavic languages like Croatian can go through a lot of different inflections because of the fact there is 3 genders, singular and plural and 7 cases, so let's say a house (kuća) can be - kuća, kuće, kući, kuću, kućo, kućom, kućama...
So if it is a slavic language, or finnish or something like that, then it is 30 000 words.
DoomCro1 lmao no, just no. The average native speaker of a language knows 20 000 words. Therefore you theory states that native speakers are only a B2 level of the language. HE IS OBVIOUSLY COUNTING CONJUGATIONS. B2 level is obtained when you know about 5000 base words:)
@@DoomCro1 Again, you're confused with "words" and "unique words". For example "fly, flying" are 2 words but at the same time they're 1 unique word. Yes, your word "kuća" and it's forms are a lot of just words and they are one "unique word".
I really like Jan's accent. You can notice that he's not native in english, but has a really good pronunciation. The level I would like to achieve.
Well said!
Yes he’s got excellent pronunciation, but his accent is nice to listen to as well.
Exactly.
Getting to B2 in Korean has been a lot more difficult than getting to B2 in French and Portuguese because I don't really have prior knowledge of any language like Korean. I studied Spanish before studying French and Portuguese. It's also difficult to memorize all that vocabulary in Korean. I'm not going to stop working on it though (:
Of course it was. French is category 1 language and Korean is category is category 5.
I hear you well I feel the same with Greek which is not similar to any other European language.
I'm learning English, it's easy for me, I'm native to the Portuguese language, but Russian is difficult. но я продолжаю идти!
Had the same experience with Hungarian. There's just zero connection between my French and English, not a single cognate lol. And obviously no other European languages are related to it. Hope you kept up the Korean
ibarix important to remember that the DLAB measures a subject's flexibility with linguistics, not the language's difficulty itself. It's a very problematic test. Cat5 languages approach mood/mode etc. from completely different trajectories even amongst themselves, for example, and a native ENG speaker might not be able to make a dozen sounds on the Cat5 IPA across the board!
It greatly depends on definiton of "a word", but 15 thousand for B2 seems appropriate. It is also important to realize that the difference between C1 and C2 is not based on number of words already, but rather on elegance of expression, factual knowledge of the environment where the language is spoken and various rhetorical figures, like number of idioms, collocations, proverbs etc.
Dang, I saw some other people say that for German around 5,000 is B2. Looks like I'm going to have to increase my study time, if 15,000 is the number.
Count Otto von Gruber It depends how you're counting them. If you know all forms of a word and count it as 1, you're fine. The way Steve counts it is via lingq which adds a word for any form, singular or plural which makes it seem more than it is.
In my opinion I prefer the way lingq does it to any other way.
@@countottovongruber778 Don't worry, most german people don't use more than 500 words. Plus german vocabulary is very composite, you create new words by combining others.
For everyday conversation 100-200 are even fine. 500 for newspapers, 1000 for tv shows, 2000 for easy books, 5000 for complex books.
There is a huge difference between spoken and written german, spoken it is just a few phrases.
@@franziv4593 Hmmm I don't think that's true. I know about 2,000 unique words in German, and I can definitely not understand everyday conversations. Sure, I could order a bratwurst or ask for the bathroom. But I could not follow along with an everyday conversation of someone explaining why their sister got divorced or talking about the local election or explaining how someone is sick.
@@franziv4593 Dude you're way off, even with a broad definition of a "word". Even if a "word" is defined as "any version of the word" you'd need 1000-2000 for everyday conversations and probably something like 5000-10 000 for more complex literature. Where do you even get your numbers from?
Steve is extremely honest about language learning and how he approaches it as someone that has worn 16 languages or more to different degrees of proficiency. I enjoy listening to what he has to say because he’s been there and done that already while the rest of us are still trying to go forward within our own language learning urine. He also is a very positive person that enjoys the process and doesn’t rush it. He’s willing each language situation in a clear and objective way. He’s also a positive person that loves learning languages and sharing his knowledge of language learning with the world and his own way. There should be more people in the world like him out there. He’s a true inspiration and language learners Who enjoy the process and the journey of learning languages regardless of their background, culture, disability, gender, economic status, education status etc. He’s a true language aficionado. Keep up the good work Steve. This was a great interview.
it is more important to learn phrases/sentences than just learning words in isolation... you may understand but you won’t be able to communicate if you just learn/memorize words alone
It is so good to see Mr. Kaufmann here.
I'm glad that I found this channel and just subscribed to it, I like seeing languages communities.
Much love to everyone out there and all the best with your languages learning journey.
I found just what I needed. Thanks again Steve!
As a native English speaker I certainly felt my vocabulary stagnated all the years I was not reading. After I started the habit of reading I now effortlessly use new words in conversation and writing. In general articulating myself is easier.
It's very cool to see Steve and you in the same video!
I love how humble Steve is. You can tell he’s genuinely passionate about languages by the way he doesn’t even wanna plug his own company. I’m fersure gna be a new customer !!
Even though Steve is not a professional of the linguistic field, he is highly respected everywhere. I totally agree with him.
What does a linguistics professional do ?
Speaks 20 languages but isn't considered by YOU to be a professional??? Your standards are Godlike.
J Milton did a pretty interesting study on this, and from what I recall, he found that around 3500 word families (not inflected forms, as they are counted in Lingq) were sufficient to achieve a B2 level in English, ceretus paribus. In reality, you'd probably need more in order to comfortable pass a test at this level. A C1 level would require around a thousand more words. The numbers for French were a bit lower, but in the same ballpark.
It is little by little. Steve is a master of language learning.
MANY THANKS
I have two conversation teachers and they have said my level is intermediate. Buy I don't believe it. I need to improve my English and I did a test yesterday and it showed me I have 3.400 words.
I'm not worried about "to get in the intermediate level". I'm worried about to learn every single day.
Anyway, I'm really happy because I have been studying English just for two years.
I like when you make your videos outside... :)
What are these two guys on about? The word samples in a B2 test in English are derived from the 3,500 most frequent word families, 4,500 at C1, and around 5,000-5,400 at C2.
15,000 words? Even the average native speaker don't know that many words in his/her own language. These guys are crazy
MrKarlozz In some languages it's not useful to count by word family because the forms are so different (even if there's grammatical rules they obey) that some amount of memorization and getting used to those other forms is required. Of course in some languages it's completely intuitive and you get a few variations on a word for free.
I speak English as my first language. I don't even use 3,000 words. I obviously speak very well. But, I doubt I even know thousands of words. It's just the words I do know. I can speak with really well.
@@brendon2462
They're just the words you use and can recall actively - obviously you can passively understand way more, but you needn't use that many. I'm more or less bilingual in both Danish and English (my Danish being a tad better), and I use 2-3,000 words actively in both languages I guess, whereas I passively can understand around 15-17,000. No need to make language learning sound more insurmountable than it really is.
@@MrKarlozz According to my theory the level B2 requires an active vocabulary of 2,000-2,500 words and a passive vocabulary of 4,000-5,000 words. I speak two other languages in level B2 and this is the amount of words than I can use and understand. Now obviously for level C1 and C2 even your active vocabulary must be very big
Jan is my favourite polyglot :)
Yeah, I don't always feel like I have this bubbling wealth of words to draw from if I'm just talking to myself in the target language, but the minute I get in front of people and get asked specific questions, the words I need show up way more often (but not always), and I think it's just due to a lot of exposure in listening and reading. It's a slow grind, and it sometimes feels like there isn't progress, but keeping at it yields results in the long term.
I have found this to be super true
I have started to mix reading, with watching movies and to have conversations over Italki. I find this approach to be the most efficient to me. I used to only read and listen but it gets boring after a while.
its not boring if you read topics of your personal interest
I agree. You have to develop all 4 skills. Reading is good, but on its own it is passive and you need to turn the passive into active by speaking and writing.
I agree with you now. Back then, when I wrote the comment I had studied Russian for about a year and struggled to find interesting content at a decent level for me. I'm currenly reading and listening to actual books now and is having a great time . @AntonioSilva-zl9lk
I agree that when you have a certain level, reading (and thus increasing primarily your passive vocabulary, and at certain points try using a small percentage of those words) is very useful and very important.
I wouldn't recommend it to start out with, but after a certain level it'll just be all about the input, and like Steve said reading is far more efficient than listening.
But overall it'll always be the best to combine all the channels.
Anyway, I'd like to know where that level is; when I learned the one language where I noticed this effect, there was no CEFR (although I can kinda retrace my steps).
I'd say it only starts at C1, Steve seems to say that the effect will start quite a bit earlier.
What do the others think?
You're very right.
WHEN you reach a certain level, input is 95%.
But I do have the feeling that lazy people try to abuse this to skip any grammar and vocabulary memorization on a beginner level - and you just can't skip it.
@@JapanischErfahren I know I might be a bit late, but I feel like one can already start reading at A2. Of course, one should first learn the most basic grammar, etc., but from personal experience, the earlier one starts reading, the better. I had English in school for about 4 years before I started reading, but I couldn't form basic sentences or understand anything. Once I've started reading in English, I got to a conversational level (around B1) after only 4 months. It's incredibly effective. Now, almost 3 years later, I'm fluent. Not once did I learn grammar or vocabulary in that time nor did I really practise speaking. I just absorbed the language.
Steve has said that something is more powerful than links O_O
I see some people panic here. Steve's counting is different. In my experience you need 5-6 000 dictionary headwords for a strong B2. So not to worry. If you do a 300 page Collins pocket dictionary you can reach a (lower) advanced level.
Knowing a lot of words doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to speak that language impeccably. You need to connect those words perfectly for a lot of topics. So focusing only on learning just words is not very productive.
Nice....😊😊😊 How much it takes for you to learn one language I mean to be able to make a fluence conversation...thank you😊
bro what does that fluence conversation means? i mean a fluence conversation is a conversation where you can understand and speak properly but a fluence conversation does not need to be a PHILOSOPHY conversation with a lot of hard senteces and stuff if you are able to explain your ideas to someone you are already making a "fluence conversation"
Those numbers of words seems very high because he counts every verb form as a different word. If you counted different forms of the same verb as just one word, it would be significantly lower.
30k English words enough to read the newspaper, literature, history, daily life, novels, story, politics, and any kind of activities around the world but if we added the words that we acquire from a scientific job may be the number of words reach to 50-60k and don't forget the number of words in the English language approximately 500k so 50-60k from 500k I think is not bad lol.
4000 words are sufficient for B2. Do not be that harsh on ordinary learners, who still need to work and earn a living, unlike u guys who make a living out of language learning.
No. Lots of people don't understand Steve when he talks that you need 15 or 30 thousand words. Yes, you need 5 000, but when Steve says that you need 15 000 he considers "Be - was/were - been" and etc as 4 different words. For example "Run, ran, running, runs" are different words, if you consider it, you need 15-30 thousand words, but lots of people don't consider them as different words and in this case, you need 5 000 words.
Harsh ? Ordinary learners shouldn't be pressured by anything if they are wise
Great video, but Steve focused on "words" and claimed there are more words in Russian, but really the focus should be on "lemmas". 10,000 lemmas in any language is enough for normal proficiency. The Russian Learners Frequency Dictionary has 10,000 lemmeas, and the introduction states that anything over that occurs 8 times or less per 1 million words, and so is basically not worth learning.
I was so happy with my 4.000 words before that video... lol
:´(
Depends of how you count the words. Steve counts the be/will/was/ as three words when in reality is one word. If you count play played and playing in one word then yeah 4,000 words= B2. I know that because I know between 4,000-5,000 words and this is the level B2
How do you measure the level of a language, or the number of words ?
LingQ
thank you very much. so basically watching a movie and listening to conversations and reading the subtitle would get me really fast to B2?!
Does Level B2 require such a large number of words? The basic state exam in Czech Republic assumes knowledge of cca 4000 words.
Steve uses a definition of a word that counts each form as a separate word. So in English for example "was am are" would be considered different words but a linguist would consider this one word. When talking about Slavic languages Steves number is higher due to more complex verb forms, and declentions of nouns and their adjectives. So for Czech 4000 words might equate to 1500 for someone who knows their verb conjugations and does a good job with case endings.
From Vietnamese love. Eternal love.
Me llamos es Jacqueline. Yo soy de donde eres Vietnam. Bienvenido Senor.
Lucas Bighetti,can you make a video about top 5 most difficult languages you have ever learned?
For Spanish I always hear 4,000 for B2, but my target is at least 5,000 at the moment.
Yeah knowing the most basic 4,000 words in a language is essential for basic fluency. However knowing only words isn’t not the only part of it, you need to be able to form sentences, to understand sentences different topics. Knowing many words is just one part of the language. For example someone may know 10,000 words but someone might be more proficient with 6,000 words if he knows how to use the language more proficiently
lol, 15,000 words but Steve considers every word from a separate word... how many lexemes are that? maybe 3,000? English is certainly not a language with much inflection, but if we consider the fact that every English verb has at least 4 forms (cook, cooks, cooked, cooking), we can say that the total number of words you need to know in order to have a B2 level should be much lower
yes, and a lot of people quite don't understand that he means exactly what you've said. He talks about it a lot in his interview with other polyglots and other language learners
Several people have raised the question of how to determine the number of words that you know. I have been speaking Russian for nearly 40 years - I am married to a Russian woman and Russian is the language at home - and according to the IRL scale, I am between Levels 4 and 5.
I have taken several tests which are supposed to give you an approximation of your word stock, both active and passive vocab. They show that - in theory, at least - I have a Russian vocab of around 50,000+ words. I imagine that the larger part of that word stock is passive.
Are those tests accurate and useful? They are the only measuring tools for determining word stock that I know. For Russian, it makes no difference now. I have no language problems in most situations. I do not understand all of the expressions my children use, but my Russian friends are in the same position with respect to their children. There, the problem is not linguistic. It is generational.
There are two receptive language skills (auditory and reading) and one productive skill (speaking) . Each is a different skill , requiring time, training, repetition and practice.
If you want to have an adequate level of language ability you must address all three of these skills areas.
15.000 just to be an upper intermediate speaker? Omg, i thought 15k would make you advanced level speaker so easily. I was able to have a conversation about language families, the relationships between them while making comparisons and pointing out crucial differences.. so sorth at the time i had 5-6 thousands words in my vocab eventually, i disagree with this requirement. A kind of subjective claimbing i think.
His system of counting words is different. In the language learning site that he owns (which is called Lingq), every word counts. It would be drive, drives, drove or act, action, active etc. (I will spam the same message in case some other people make the same kind of a comment)
In my experience you need 5-6 000 dictionary headwords. So not to worry. If you do a 300 page Collins pocket dictionary you can reach a lower advanced level.
I want to see someone has B2 in Brazilian's Portuguese if English you need 15 thousand words in portuguese you need some else
I know something around 12000 words in my first language. Why do I have to know 15000 for B2? Are you counting different forms of words? If yes, that’s alright
Yes he is.
Then around 5000 different words are ok!
wwefb4 12000? That’s seems a little
I'm American and obviously English is my native language. I don't even know 15,000 words.
@@brendon2462 Well I'm glad this video's teaching you to set goals for yourself.
I have a hard time to memorize. I feel distressed every single day because I suffered anxiety. My gosh
One word for you to not forget. Meditation
I find that when learning a language, learning new vocabulary words is a constant nagging battle. Also, I’ve recently noticed that some people advocate for learning new vocabulary in context. I like the efficieny of spaced repetition and flash cards. I just realized that both methods could be combined by using flash cards that present the new foreign word on one side of the flash card, in context and high lighted. Has anyone tried this???
Yes. Some words, especially verbs, are best learned in context. I put phrases on flash cards. That teaches multiple words at once, and their context as well as grammar e.g. Ich bin mit dem Auto zur Arbeit gefahren. I find this far more effective.
I see many disagreements in the comments section.
I bet all of you don't even have better experience in learning languages than Steve does. He spends his life learning and can speak 20 languages.
I even read some articles that say an average English native speaker knows 20000-35000 words. So, 15000 words for B2 level is not surprising
Not necessarily. He counts every word as word. But was be been is technically one word. Different words are calm calmly those different words not have been had been has been. He counts all of that that’s why he says 15,000 . There’s no way B2 needs 15,000. I have B2 in English and my vocabulary is somewhere at 4,000-5,000. Knowing 15,000 words you are basically C2
@@footballfan283 I have read some articles. They said that an average native speaker knows 20,000-30,000 words, most of them are not even C2. Perhaps Steve is using a different method to measure. But I don't think less than 15,000 is enough to be fluent
@@nguyenconguc2737I saw a study once that B2 needs 4000 words, C1 needs 8000 words and C2 needs 16000 words. However it’s not only about the words. It’s about how good you can interpret and communicate in that language. For example knowing 6,000 words in English won’t make you better from someone who knows 4,000 words and can’t connect them properly in a sentence. A big amount of vocabulary is indeed needed however if your focus is only vocabulary is not gonna work out well. For example aside from my native language i speak two other languages. I can say in both I have the same amount of words however the other language i speak it a lot better since I have lived there for 10 years. Basically you also need communication not only just study. The last 2 years I have moved to a different country and I’m friendless right now and I used to speak a lot of English with my friends just for practicing and it’s been 2 years without speaking English with someone and my speaking skills have decreased a lot.
@@footballfan283 4000 words for B2? That's insane because the students in my country (Vietnam) have to learn English from grade 3 to grade 12 (at least). So they obviously have more than 4000 words.
However, I'm sure that over 90% of them cannot even read an English book for kids. I'm not talking about communicating, reading is just about using passive words you have.
4000 words is just not enough.
@@nguyenconguc2737 it is more than enough, that’s my vocabulary and I have the B2 Michigan. I don’t know how you count words as I said write wrote written it’s one word. Also you have to remember the more words you know the more you can comprehend it’s not always about the words but how proficient you are in that language.
Russian language is not the main Slavic language. There are some reasons to doubt if it a Slavic language at all?
Not true. 3500 to 4000 words should be enough for B2. 7000 to 8000 for C1 (conjugacions not included)
What’s mean whe he says “using link” ?
LinQ. His website where people post stories in their native tongues for learners to read.
@@ManForToday LingQ*
how do you know how many words you know? Pretty hard to count up to thousands.
That's pretty easy. You need to take native books written for people of different ages and read them. If you understood the whole text for 20 year old people or senior, you know about 30-40 thousand words.
It's really hard to nail down a hard and fast rule. I have no idea how many words I know in any language.
+Nendo Akuma Here's something to that ; testyourvocab.com/
For more accurate result try several times.
@@suaptoest according to that test, I know just over 35,000 words in English, the top of the range for a native speaker, which sounds about right for me. When I was younger, I had book eith me at all times, and I read at any possible chance.
I found a Swedish vocab test that says that I know just over 5,000 words, the level of an 8 year old. Surprised me, since I have only been studying Swedish for less than 2 months. I took it again for French and it is the same, which I didn't expect since I haven't studied French in a dozen years.
🙏💯💪
what!?( respect)
Whilst obviously an old and silly man, Steve clearly has been around the block (definitely not with the ladies) with languages and knows his shizzle. Nice interview!
15,000 words in English is significantly higher than B2.
See this: testyourvocab.com/blog/.
According to Paul Nation, who knows a lot more about this, we need to know 8-9,000 word families to read, while native speakers know 20,000 word families.
But it depends on how we define a word. If we consider "bicycle" and bicycles" to be two different words, then 15,000 might not be all wrong. However, this can be rather misleading and is not how testyourvocab.com/ and other vocab tests measure your vocab size.
I think Seve is the real deal. A genuine language learner, but I also think his method of counting vocabulary known is grossly inflated and not even remotely related to his real vocabulary known.
In Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, the Abbe Faria tells Dantes, "I find that 1000 words in a language is sufficient, for essential requirements".
Je pense un message pour que je vois parler de vous que j'ai pas donné tu vas parler avec un homme stars qui va rester avec vous c'est lui qui va marcher le type c'est lui qui voit accepté que je veux retrouver pour toi et pour tout le monde si vous avez un drapeau ça que je vois donner alarme rentrer à n'importe vidéo que je vois que je dois contacter pour que je voie connais parce que toujours qu'il va rentrer avec un homme ou une femme qu'il va accepter qu'il n'accepte pas l'homme
30.000 lemmata and you are there.
I disagree with that number of words for B2. 15 000 is a lot and it's C1 I'd say.
15000 words for B2? The old man is nuts! I would say learning the 4000 MORE important words would be enough.
For a B2?! never. But remember that steve Counts every form of the verbe. Car and Cars are two words, same for eat ans eats, work and worked and do and did.
His system of counting words is different, as cyrus zahed mentioned. In the language learning site that he owns (which is called Lingq), every word counts. It would be drive, drives, drove or act, action, active etc.
Shut the hell up
This man speaks 16 languages. Dont disrespect him.
+@@justafighter1346 So having a different opinion is akin to "disrespect" in your book? He is beyond criticism? You are NOT entitled to tell ANYONE to "shut the hell up"!
50k of words omg
Mr. Steve Kaufman can speak many languages so I sometimes forget that he is a native English speaker😂
15,000 words? No way. I think he was thinking of C2 maybe.
Yes! 😊 C2 is about 30-40 thousand. If we assume that C2 eguals the avreage adult native level.
U need 5000 words to read newspapers and warch movies
all you need is subtitles
15.000 ? I give up.
Your ability to retain words in a language increases exponentially as you gain more words. The first few hundred words in the language are going to be the hardest. However, as you become more familiar with the vocabulary base and the surrounding grammar you will be able to make more connections between new and pre-existing words. It's also much easier to absorb vocabulary when you are able to start comprehending content more quickly.
TL:DR - Keep at it.
10 million words to understand japanese.
No way you need 15k words to get to B2, 15k is on average the amount of words C1 / C2 speakers know.
a native English speaker knows at least 20 000 words. 15 000 for a native is really little.
I implore everyone to boycott his software. The owners have attacked and shut down Learning With Texts and Foreign Language Text Reader, two free open source software platforms used by people who don't want to fork out 120 a year to put up with LingQ and it's terrible design, poorly written code and broken ass website.
15 thousand words??? Clearly Steve has lost his mind. That would take ten or fifthteen years of concentrated study. Even native speakers don’t put in that kind of dedicated study of their language. Yup, Steve has really gone insane this time.
He's referring to all word forms. For example (word conjugations, adjective forms, feminine/masculine,etc) If just single words 4-6 thousand.
10 words a day in average. 3600 words a year. 4,5 years. 😎 And many words have the common pattern so you don't have to learn many words that have the same root. And many European languages have common words like theater or democracy.
@@putinisakiller8093It doesn’t work like this, at some point you’ll start forgetting a lot of words you have already studied. That’s why it takes so many years to achieve like C2 level. Your brain won’t be able to process so many words at once. Your brain needs years to accumulate these words and you also need repetition and using them
@@user-np6qz2ed7i
I partly agree with you. We remember what we use. I've been learning English for many years and still dream about C1. :D