How many words are in English? What do you need to learn to talk freely?

Many inquisitive personalities are interested in the answer to the seemingly simple question: "How many words are in English or any other?". Undoubtedly, many people try to answer it, it's another matter that ideas on this subject are very different. And there are several explanations for this at once.

First, English, like any other existing one, changes with time: new words or terms appear, and some, on the contrary, are forgotten. So, many people still remember the terrible modal verb "shall" from school, which the young children's minds have so hard choked. The paradox is that this was done in vain, since it has already lost its significance, and it happened not today. Exception can be considered only for certain areas of language use.

Secondly, it is possible to count words included in vocabularies of general vocabulary or specialized, for example, medical subjects. It is clear that the scatter in the figures in this case will be enormous.

Thirdly, the mass of words of the English language has not one but several meanings, for example, "bow". It can act as a verb (nod, bend, bend) and as a noun (arc, bow, bow). How to calculate in this case is unclear. You can take it for a language unit, but you can add up the number of its values. Complicates the situation and the fact that the already mentioned word, in combination with others, replenishes the treasury of his interpretations. There are many similar examples.

Thus , it is impossible to reliably determine how many words are in English . The average figure ranges from five hundred thousand to several million. A lot of such a scatter, I must say. In addition, we can recall the numerous dialects and dialects, which by no means simplify this calculation.

This statistics is certainly interesting, but even more exciting is the question: "How many words in the English language is actively used?" Actually this is for those who have just started to study it, and for those who have met with him for a long time.

English for Dummies: what to learn - words or grammar?

Until now, many teachers, especially the old school, convince their students that knowing the language requires a daily cramming of the mass of words. In practice, if you follow this path, you can memorize a lot of information, but it is unlikely to be used. Similarly, you can learn the so-called passive language, which is very useful when reading literature, but nothing more. Competently speak, knowing only the words, will not work.

Much more attractive is the method, according to which you need to master just a few hundred words in order to learn English. For tourists, for example, it will be sufficient to memorize five hundred words, but in such a way that no effort should be made to reproduce them, that is, it should happen automatically. It is more important to master the simplest grammatical constructions, such as word order in the affirmative and interrogative sentence, conjugation of verbs and so on. Masterfully owning them and possessing even a small vocabulary, you can express yourself fluently.

In general, the question of how many words in the English language, you can answer quite differently. In colloquial terms , no more than 1,500 units are used. The collection of dictionaries, which include medical, technical, legal terminology, can number several million words.