HOW BIG IS YOUR VOCABULARY?

HOW BIG IS YOUR VOCABULARY?

There are just three good ways of knowing how many words approximately
you know.

1) If you are using some kind of software, you should be able to check this
number by simply looking at stats.

But let’s be realistic. Not that many people do this.

2) You can take one of online tests. I have scoured the internet to find
the most reliable ones for you. However, you shoud be aware that they are
not very precise. The difference between the result you get and your vocab
size can be usually +-20% so take it with a grain of salt.

- AMERICAN ENGLISH - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML

- ARABIC - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- BAHASA INDONESIA - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- CZECH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- CHINESE - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- DANISH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- DUTCH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- ENGLISH - HTTP://MY.VOCABULARYSIZE.COM/
HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- FINNISH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- FRENCH - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- GERMAN - HTTPS://WORTSCHATZ.TK/
HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- ITALIAN - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- JAPANESE - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- KOREAN - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- JAPANESE - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- NORWEGIAN - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- POLISH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- PORTUGUESE - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- RUSSIAN - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- SPANISH - HTTP://WWW.ITT-LEIPZIG.DE/STATIC/STARTSEITEENG.HTML
- SWEDISH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- THAI - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
- TURKISH - HTTPS://WWW.AREALME.COM/GERMAN-VOCABULARY-SIZE-TEST/EN/
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3) The third method is the method of my own devising. It can be very reliabe but
as a downside, it takes more time than the other methods.

a) Choose an article (not too complex, not too easy).

b) Read it and write down a number of words you didn’t understand.

c) Use websites from this article -

http://www.universeofmemory.com/how-to-create-your-own-frequency-list-from-any-text/
to check how many words the article of your choice contains.

d) Divide the number of words you didn’t know by the number of words
the article contains.

For example:
You read an article and you don't know 100 words.
The total number of words in the article is 2678.

100/2678 = 0,037 what amounts to 3,7% -> number of words you didn't know

e) Compare it with the values quoted in the article

http://www.universeofmemory.com/how-many-words-you-should-know/

100% - 3,7% = 96,3% .

3k words allows you understand about 95% of all the words you might encounter while
5k words allow you to understand about 98% of the most frequently used words.

That's why knowing about 96,3 % of the words from the article you have read
puts you somewhere between 3 and 5k words.
In this case, I would say that it is about 3,5k.

Your vocabulary size: ~ 3,5 words

Try to run 3-5 tests like this to determine the average. Of course, the more
such tests you run, the more precise results you will get!
Personally, I would aim for about 5 articles.
It's worth remebering that if you choose specialized articles your results
might be skewed!

Another example:

So you read a 952 word article and there was one word.
You didn’t know so that means you understood 99.9%. That comes out to 0.001.
This would mean that you are at above the 10,000 word level based on the
results of that article alone.