How many English words have you learnt?
By qianyun6
@qianyun6 (2067)
China
November 12, 2010 10:54pm CST
Hi, my friend!
I'm very curious about this problem because I found its too difficult for my bad memory to remember so many English words. It is said that there have been 3 million English word now, I think nobody can learn them all.
So how many English words can you recognize, how many can you use expertly? Please let me know whether you are in English-speaking country or not.
I heard that the famous premier of the U.K., Winston Churchill, knew 40 thousand English word, but he did the worst in English among all premiers of the UK.
I don't know whether it's true or not, but ... OMG, 40,000 words, I don't think I can learn that more in my whole life...
So how many words are needed for a basic living in the US/UK/Canada? How many is the average of natives in the US/UK/Canada?
It seems that a lot of people think that Chinese is the most difficult language to learn, but in my opinion, Chinese is the simplest if your aim is only using it... because we have only 60,000 Chinese letters, and only 5% of them are commonly used. Our government set a list of "3500 usual used Chinese letters", but I bet even the chairman don't know such many. Actually, if you have learnt roughly 2000 Chinese letters, you can live in any main city of China without any problem (not everywhere becaue of dialect).
Why there are soooooo many words in English? 
Why there are soooooo many words in English? 1 person likes this
3 responses
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
13 Nov 10
hi qianyuyn6 for profesing not knowing many English words I am
impressed with your use of English in your discussion.I am an
American from the US. I think the reason we seem to have so ma ny
words is that we are a sort of melting pot as we have people who'come here and become American citizens from all over tthe world. they have added words to our vocabulary and we learn from them as the years have passed. I have never counted how many words are the average of us native Americans. I just learn new words as I go along over the years. Do not fear our language as you are learning pretty rapidly from the sound of your written discussion. yes I am in an English speaking country and am a born native. Why not pick a couple of words daily that you did not know, learn the meaning and how to pronounce it then do the same the next day. Do not count as that defeats just learning them. when your ount all the words all you are doing is scaring and frightening yourself. you will pick up many many words and just using them you will automatically learn them.I have read a lot all my life so I have a large vocabulary but I never count words as that would scare anyont. just relax and use the ones you are comfortable with.
@qianyun6 (2067)
• China
13 Nov 10
Hi, Hatley!
Maybe I used a lot of words in my discussions which covers up my poor English, that's because I have my Lingoes - an English-Chinese dictionary software. One of my strong motivation for posting in myLot is practicing my English, I look up every word I'm not fimiliar with and every meaning I don't know how to express in Lingoes. I think this can help me remember those words better than reciting words list because the former makes me sleepy. I worship some of my classmates who can recite the whole GRE vocabulary, OMG, how can they scan word lists again and again without being hypnotized?
I'm a Ph.D. I student in Chinese Academy of Science now. Maybe I will go abroad to do postdoctor research after graduation if I can't find a satisfied work at that time. So I want to know how many words are needed in daily life in a English-speaking country. I know it's so difficult to count the exact number - I don't know how many Chinese letters I have learnt either. But what about the order of magnitude, thousand? five thousands? or more than ten thousands?
And I want to request help from all my friends, especially from the US/UK/Canada, if you find improper usage of English in my posts, please point them out in responses or comments. Thanks!
@cmoneyspinner (9219)
• Austin, Texas
30 Aug 17
I live in America. I speak English, although my husband says we don't speak "the real English". He was born and raised in The Bahamas before they gained their independence from England. There are so many jokes you can make about the English language. Watch the Austin Powers movie where Austin and his father (played by Michael Caines) are speaking in English (as spoken by the British) but there are subtitles translating their words into English (for the Americans to understand). The jokes are endless.
But flip your question around and ask me how many Chinese words do I know?
I think I know how to say “Thank you” but don't ask me to spell it or write it out. 
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
13 Nov 10
I have never counted the number of English words that I have memorised, nor do I intend to do so. Nowadays I learn new words mainly through reading of books and other printed materials.
If I remember it right we need between 500 to 600 basic words in any language in order to communicate with speakers of the same language. New words are added to our repertoire as we go along. Knowing around 2,000 words should enable a person to communicate rather well in daily matters.
