hello this is jack from tofluency.com
now in today's lesson we're going to
learn how many words you need to know to
be able to speak English with confidence
so I'm going to give you a breakdown on
this and then also to go over some key
points to consider because it's not just
about the words you know but it's also
how you use them now this video is
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lesson now like I've said in this video
it's not just about the words you use
but how you use them so when you learn a
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okay so let's now talk about how many
words you need to know in order to speak
English with confidence and while
researching this I found two fantastic
articles that broke this down so I'm
going to share what they found and I'll
leave a link to those articles in the
description so the first article broke
it down in this way that if you know one
to three thousand words then this means
you are conversational conversational if
you know three to ten thousand this
makes you advanced and then ten thousand
plus you are a native or you you have
the ability to speak like a native so
just before we talk more about this it
is important that you know words in
English this is an important part of
being able to speak English because
obviously if you don't know words you
can't say anything you can't express
yourself if you if you know a few words
but you're thinking there's a better
word for this what is it then you can't
express yourself freely so knowing words
is important and I like this breakdown
because what it's saying is after a
thousand words it means you can have
conversations in English and you know
this like there is a point when you
start learning English and you know
enough words that you can have good
conversations in English but I imagine a
lot of you don't want to just be able to
have conversations you want to be able
to speak well so we're looking at
between three and ten thousand words
here so be able to have an advanced
level of English and then once you have
over ten thousand words then this is
when you can start speaking more like a
native speaker with a very advanced
level so that is one way to look at it
okay
the next way is this and I love this one
because I talk about levels in this way
so if you know two thousand words then
you have a b-1 level of in the
okay a b-1 level if you want to test
your level I made a video on this a few
years ago now but click the link in the
description to learn about a1 a2 b1 b2
c1 and c2 but very briefly a b-1 is like
a lower intermediate level a lower
intermediate level where you can have
conversations with people but you're
constantly thinking about grammar it's
not very natural you can't understand
what people say in natural situations
and you can only talk about a small
amount of topics so you can't talk about
complex things and that makes sense if
you know 2,000 words now
c1 level this is the level that I think
most people who are learning English
should aim for I see one level now c2 is
where you are very close to being native
where you make no mistakes you know
every word your accent is perfect etc or
every words you need to know that's kind
of like this so 8,000 words is just
below that native level both of these
make sense to me but a c1 level is
something that you should gain for this
is a great goal to have most students I
taught to are between a2 and b2 high
beginner high intermediate but once you
get to the c1 level then things are just
so much easier you can understand most
things you listen to you can understand
TV shows you can have great
conversations with people you can write
well you can read novels in English
you're not perfect
you still make mistakes you're still
learning but you've reached the level
where things are just so much easier and
to have this level what they're saying
is you need to know 8,000 words 8,000
words okay so this is a good level to
get to now to learn vocabulary
I recommend that you listen to things
you read new books and you also do a
little bit of dedicated practice for
words but be sure to learn new words
through sentences okay and this is my to
fluency method this is what I teach
inside my program learn more about that
in the description but I want to go
through four tips here because this is
going to help you become more efficient
and it's going to help you learn new
words okay number one maildrop verses
want what does that mean mail drop
versus want this is highlighting that
some words are more important than other
ones want to want you're going to use
this a lot when you speak English so
it's saying that this is more important
than this now you can do your own
research and find out what maildrop
means I'm not going to say in this
lesson but feel free to leave an example
of mail drop below but again this just
highlights that high frequently use
words are important so focus on those
ones focus on the types of words that
people use in everyday English because
if you learn 3000 words that nobody uses
anymore then it's not important but if
you learn 500 words that people use
every day then that's going to make a
big difference so how you frequently use
words number two learn words through
sentences
I can't highlight how important this is
enough because it's okay learning a word
but you need to know how to use that
word within a context of a sentence
this is grammar this is how you learn
grammar you repeat sentences and you
internalize the different patterns the
different grammar rules you're not
studying rules instead you're
internalizing the rules so it feels
natural to you and you need to do this
for
all types of words it's really going to
make a big difference so learn through
sentences
check out the to fluency method to get
the full program on this 8020 tip number
three 80/20 focus on the words that you
need to know not just the high frequency
frequently use words but also the words
that you're going to use for example
let's say that your job is in the world
of real estate and you need to talk to
people in English
about houses it's important that you
learn new words that are specific to
real estate and that you learn those
words through sentences this just makes
sense that you're going to learn the
type of English that you need to know
for your specific situation ok so be
smart about it also passive versus
active when you learning a new word
think about whether this is passive or
active active means words that you're
going to use passive means that words
that you're not going to use but it's
good to know to understand a good
example of passive vocabulary is slang
so slang that is specific to a certain
type of group of people for example
people in northern England have specific
slang that they use if you are
interacting with people from northern
England like me then it's a good idea to
be able to know the types of words and
the slang that they use but you don't
need to say it you don't need to use it
and you can think of lots of examples of
passive vocabulary like the type of
vocab that people use if they are a
judge you you don't say these things but
it's good to know if you're watching TV
shows based on this subject so I think
this is a really good thing to think
about how many words you need to know to
get to see one level
I think this one is the most important
statistic here 8000 c1 but focus on
words that are important that people use
learn them as part of a sentence get the
to fluency program to do that 8020 the
Pareto principle focus on things that
are going to make a difference was that
you need to know and then think about
active versus passive vocabulary and
what you do to learn those two things
okay so if you've enjoyed this lesson
then please like and share it be sure to
get my book the five-step plan for
English fluency if you don't have it
already
you can download that for free check out
my to fluency program in the description
subscribe if you are new and please
leave me a comment below tell me what
you think about this lesson and try and
estimate how many words you know I think
that'll be fun to read so leave a
comment tell me how many words you know
in English thanks again for watching bye
bye
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