Here's a table I made of how many words can be learned per year, based on the number of words learned per day:
Code: Select all
# of
words
learned => => =>
per per per per
day: week: month: year:
1 7 30 365
2.74 19.2 74.1 1,000
5 35 150 1,825
5.48 38.4 164 2,000
8.22 57.5 247 3,000
10 70 300 3,650
10.96 76.72 328.8 4,000
13.70 95.90 411 5,000
15 105 450 5,475
16.44 115.1 493.2 6,000
19.18 134.3 575.4 7,000
20 140 600 7,300
21.92 153.4 657.6 8,000
24.66 172.6 739.8 9,000
25 175 750 9,125
27.40 191.8 822 10,000
30 210 900 10,950
30.14 211.0 904.2 11,000
32.88 230.2 986.4 12,000
35 245 1,050 12,775
35.62 249.3 1,069 13,000
38.36 268.5 1,151 14,000
40 280 1,200 14,600
41.10 287.7 1,233 15,000
43.84 306.9 1,315 16,000
45 315 1,350 16,425
46.58 326.1 1,397 17,000
49.32 345.2 1,480 18,000
50 350 1,500 18,250
52.05 364.4 1,562 19,000
54.79 383.5 1,644 20,000
55 385 1,650 20,075
This raises the important question: How big a vocabulary is needed to feel comfortable in a language? I found some answers to that, too:
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1000 words allow you to understand about 80% of the language which surrounds you, as long as it is not too specialized (Hwang, 1989; Hirsh and Nation, 1992; Sutarsyah, Nation and Kennedy, 1994)
3000 words allow you to understand about 95% of most ordinary texts (Hazenberg and Hulstijn, 1996).
5000 words allow you to understand about 98% of most ordinary texts (Nation (1990) and Laufer (1997)). Such a vocabulary size also warrants accurate contextual guessing (Coady et al., 1993; Hirsh & Nation, 1992; Laufer, 1997).
10000 words allow you to understand about 99% of most texts (Nation (1990) and Laufer (1997)). It is the pinnacle of language learning — a counterpart to having the vocabulary of a college graduate.
https://universeofmemory.com/how-many-w ... ould-know/
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Clearly it's a situation of diminishing returns. The quantities of words needed are measured in the thousands, but with each additional few thousand words one's percentage of understanding increases with smaller increments but can never hit 100%: 80%, 95%, 98%, 99%, etc. (Nobody can reach 100% since that would be like memorizing a huge set of dictionaries.)
But this raises another question: For which percentage should one aim, in practical terms? I found the answer to that on the same web site, using the official language levels:
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Language Level: Number of Base Words Needed:
A1 500
A2 1,000
B1 2,000
B2 4,000
C1 8,000
C2 16,000
Via my chart, that means level C2 can be reached, as far as vocabulary, in one year by learning 44 words per day, or in two years by learning 22 words per day, assuming that one can study grammar and other language topics in parallel or on the side. That's a lot of memorization, which is no fun. It reminds me of what happens every time I get interested in chess: ultimately it becomes a matter of memorizing openings, which becomes a turnoff after several months, whereupon I drop chess for another several years.
The above chart closely matches other statistics I've seen that claim the average active vocabulary size for English speakers is 20,000 words.
https://7esl.com/vocabulary/
Still, other problems crop up in this topic, especially: (1) Active vocabulary, which is the set of words the person can use accurately in a sentence, is only about half of the passive vocabulary, which is the set of words the person only somewhat understands. This can throw off the estimates by 50%. (2) The definition of "word" is highly flexible, and may or may not include conjugations, noun cases, prefixes, suffixes, and so on. (3) How exactly does a person review the vocabulary they have already learned, so as not to forget the older knowledge? There must be common strategies for doing this that don't involve repeated perusal of the entire list, but I don't know what strategies those would be. (4) Which words should be learned first? This is a big topic on which I found a few answers, but it's too much to get into here.
I'm finding this topic surprisingly interesting, especially since it seems to be the key topic that kept me from gaining proficiency in any of the languages I studied (although learning enough grammar was also rough).
Does anybody want to share their experiences or opinions on learning large numbers of words? Or recommendations of how to review words learned months ago? How does learning of conjugations or noun cases fit into the memorization of random words? Which sets of words do you learn? (How are they organized: by topic? frequency? by text book? as they are encountered?) How is learning words combined with learning grammar? (at the same time? in different sessions? by priority? by textbook order?)