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Estimate your English vocabulary size

testyourvocab.com

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Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#161

Post by mrcalzone »

gimpf wrote: post #108

I'd be really interested in the percentiles of the non-native speakers. With an alarmingly low 10.700 words, there is not even a percentile for me... And I know that my fluency of English is at least above the median around here (edit: here = where I live). This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-o…

11.900, Norwegian. Worked in a multi-nation company where I spoke/wrote English daily for several years, and read books in English regularly. I guess this explains why I have to use the dictionary in the Kindle a lot, and probably should use it more.

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#162

Post by StavrosK »

white_devil wrote: post #157
RobertLowe wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 23, I took this thing half awake and came in at 24k. I'm not an avid reader. The test seems to pull random words from a dictionary and not words used in a general mannor. Not only that but it messed all the delicious skill-trade grammar I know and love. Bollocks.

Would you have checked the word "manner"?

Or "manor"?

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#163

Post by StavrosK »

mortenjorck wrote: post #62

The psychology of these things is interesting to me. My reflexive reaction was, of course, "I have to know!" and then my immediate counter-reaction was "This is just intellectual phallometry and is ultimately of no consequence to me." Of course, I very quickly rationalized away the counter-reaction and took the test anyway, and then considered sharing it with my friends. What drives this?

Phallometry is nice when you have the big phallus.

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#164

Post by chousuke »

pavlov wrote: post #152
gimpf wrote: post #108

I'd be really interested in the percentiles of the non-native speakers. With an alarmingly low 10.700 words, there is not even a percentile for me... And I know that my fluency of English is at least above the median around here (edit: here = where I live). This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-o…

I got a score of 26,000. I'm Finnish, and actually learned French as a second language in school and English as third. I've never lived in an English-speaking country, but English is so prevalent in Finland these days that I wouldn't be surprised if it gained some kind of official status within the next 50 years. Whether in formal meetings or informal bar encounters, people voluntarily switch to English if there's ev…

Another Finn here... I got 25,200. I guess I need to read a couple books. :P

My Swedish is atrocious. I can't recall a single time that I'd have had use for it outside school. In contrast, English is useful every day, though mostly in written form.

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#165

Post by Marwy »

gimpf wrote: post #108

I'd be really interested in the percentiles of the non-native speakers. With an alarmingly low 10.700 words, there is not even a percentile for me... And I know that my fluency of English is at least above the median around here (edit: here = where I live). This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-o…

5,160 words here. I was expecting a worse result for a man who never really learned English in school.

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#166

Post by officemonkey »

gimpf wrote: post #108

I'd be really interested in the percentiles of the non-native speakers. With an alarmingly low 10.700 words, there is not even a percentile for me... And I know that my fluency of English is at least above the median around here (edit: here = where I live). This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-o…

Don't worry, this article (http://howlearnspanish.com/2010/08/how-many-words-do-you-nee...) says that for most people, 3,000 words will get you to 94% of oral communication and 10,000 words constitute the active vocabulary of native speakers with higher education.

The difference between 10,000 and 30,000 is knowing the words "uxorcide" and "tricorn". Before this test, I've never seen the first one and the only time I've seen the second one is in reference to pirate hats.

Frankly, I'd rather have 10,000 word vocabulary in multiple languages than my current situation.

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#167

Post by babel17 »

gimpf wrote: post #108

I'd be really interested in the percentiles of the non-native speakers. With an alarmingly low 10.700 words, there is not even a percentile for me... And I know that my fluency of English is at least above the median around here (edit: here = where I live). This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-o…

I am a non-native speaker, too, I got 10800. I guess when reading books, I should quit my habit I developed lately of skipping over those words I don't know :-)

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#168

Post by Su-Shee »

gimpf wrote: post #108

I'd be really interested in the percentiles of the non-native speakers. With an alarmingly low 10.700 words, there is not even a percentile for me... And I know that my fluency of English is at least above the median around here (edit: here = where I live). This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-o…

I'm german - ignoring words I know but couldn't immediately place properly (raggamuffin for example) I got 19000.

My english comes mostly from watching movies and tv series long after I graduated, reading novels, articles, handbooks and later by chatting in english.

Due to movies and tv series, I adopted an us-american flavor of english.

Also keep in mind that this test didn't ask for domain specific vocabulary - if they would have made a section of computer related vocabulary, we probably would have all scored perfectly. :)

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#169

Post by officemonkey »

natural219 wrote: post #61

19,600. I'm willing to accept this, although I'm not going to lie -- I'm very upset at myself. I'm used to scoring 99th percentile in every standardized test; it's kind of a shock to realize that I'm nowhere near the median of even my age group , let alone the general populace (I'm 20). That said, I'm currently reading A Dance with Dragons and there are tons of words in this series (A Song of Ice and Fire) that I'm n…

GRRM tends to use a bunch of unusual words pretty frequently: "dandle", "garron", "palfrey", "hauberk", "solar".

Re: Estimate your English vocabulary size

#170

Post by lhnz »

natural219 wrote: post #61

19,600. I'm willing to accept this, although I'm not going to lie -- I'm very upset at myself. I'm used to scoring 99th percentile in every standardized test; it's kind of a shock to realize that I'm nowhere near the median of even my age group , let alone the general populace (I'm 20). That said, I'm currently reading A Dance with Dragons and there are tons of words in this series (A Song of Ice and Fire) that I'm n…

20.7K myself and I'm 24 from the UK. I think the test is a little harsh or doesn't really mean what people would think. On the second group of words, half of those words aren't in popular use any more -- it's almost like a lesson in history.
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