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95% Fluency with 3000 Words Possible? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5816 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 67 09 May 2010 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Datsunking:
Which frecuency dictionary do you have for Spanish? I see my local Barnes and Noble has one but it's only 5,000 words for about $30.00. 20,000 sounds much better to me as I probably already know the majority of the 5,000. I keep 2 dictionaries next to me while reading novels. One is a Spanish/English from Oxford which has proved very valuable ($6.00) and the other is pure Spanish by Larousse with more than 50,000 words. It's good, but the print is super tiny ($7.00 paperback). The idea of a frequency dictionary with 20,000 words used as a separate tool sounds interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5946 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 10 of 67 09 May 2010 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You can shrink the link by dropping the referral section... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frequency-Dictionary-German-Routledg e-Dictionaries/dp/0415316332/ If that referral was against your associate account, please remember that it's good manners to mention that when you post the link, and offer a non-affiliate link for those who don't want to provide you commission. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| zorglub Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 6935 days ago 441 posts - 504 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 11 of 67 09 May 2010 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
? OUt of curiosity, what does this mean ? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5773 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 12 of 67 09 May 2010 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It doesn't work like that!
You need to have the grammar right, you need to understand and use expressions, correct word order, patterns of speech, polite phrases etc. Although 3000 words is a good start, just because you know them you are not fluent. Start reading in that languages (lots!!!) listening to music, watch TV and film with subs. And keep learning words.. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6638 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 67 10 May 2010 at 1:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I made word counts for all my languages about one year ago, using the method where you take samples from a number of dictionaries of different sizes for each language. With a small dictionary you will of course never get a high number - if it contains 10.000 head words (as some micro dictionaries do) then knowing half the words may tell you more about the size of your vocabulary than the number in itself. With 30-50.000 head words the estimate is more realistic - but as anyone here will know there are always words that you can't find in any given dictionary (and some of those words may be part of your personal vocabulary). So any quoted number should be regarded with deep suspicion.
Having said that I have noticed that I need to pass a passive vocabulary of at least 10.000 head words before I can read newspapers and magazines reasonably fluently without a dictionary, and I don't feel quite at home in a language before I have passed the 20.000 word mark. So 3.000 is definitely not enough. On the other hand an active vocabulary of 3000 well-chosen words would probably be enough for most purposes - but estimating a person's active vocabulary is much more difficult than counting passive words, so I don't even know where I stand in my own languages. I just know that the better I know a language the higher the proportion of words I also might use actively - especially if I am in a suitable situation like a travel where I use the language all the time. Edited by Iversen on 10 May 2010 at 1:29am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5287 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 14 of 67 10 May 2010 at 2:54am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Agreed. Especially when I was the one who recommended that book to you to begin with ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5287 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 15 of 67 10 May 2010 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||||||||
When people click on the link to go to view the website, he would make a small percentage of money from it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5520 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 16 of 67 11 May 2010 at 12:06am | IP Logged | ||||||||
To Brian and hyper: I have this one :) I bought it for 50 cents, I had it shipped to my house for less than 4 dollars in GREAT shape. http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Language-Dictionary-David-Schuma ker/dp/0517057956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273529169& sr=8-1 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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