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How many words do you need for each CEFR level?
The short answer: research on learners of English suggests about 1,500 words or fewer at A1, 2,500–3,250 at B1 and 3,750–4,500 at C1, counting only the 5,000 most common words. Reading a novel comfortably takes more: around 8,000–9,000 word families.
Vocabulary size by CEFR level
The best-known estimates come from James Milton, who matched learners’ scores on a vocabulary size test with their CEFR level. The test checks how many of the 5,000 most frequent words a learner knows.
| Level | Known words (of the 5,000 most frequent) |
|---|---|
| A1 | under 1,500 |
| A2 | 1,500–2,500 |
| B1 | 2,500–3,250 |
| B2 | 3,250–3,750 |
| C1 | 3,750–4,500 |
| C2 | 4,500 and up |
Read the top rows with care. Because the test stops at 5,000 words, it can’t show how far beyond that advanced learners go. Real C1 and C2 vocabularies include many rarer words that this method doesn’t count. Different studies also give somewhat different numbers.
How many words to read and listen comfortably
A different line of research asks how many words you need to understand almost everything in a text. Paul Nation estimated that to know 98% of the words in written English, which is roughly where reading becomes comfortable, you need about 8,000–9,000 word families. For spoken English, such as films and conversation, about 6,000–7,000.
A word family is a base word with its common forms: use, uses, used, useful, user. So the number of separate words is larger.
What this means for learning
- Learn the most common words first. The first couple of thousand words cover most of everyday speech, which is why the early levels move fast.
- Vocabulary isn’t the whole level. CEFR levels describe what you can do. Grammar, listening and speaking practice decide whether you can use the words you know.
- Small daily numbers add up. Ten new words a day is 3,650 a year, if you review them so they stick. Spaced review is the most reliable way to do that: see what the research says about spaced repetition.
Sources
- Milton J. The development of vocabulary breadth across the CEFR levels. In Bartning I, Martin M, Vedder I (eds), Communicative proficiency and linguistic development. EUROSLA Monographs Series 1, 2010. Table summarised in Vocabulary and the CEFR (Victoria University of Wellington).
- Milton J, Alexiou T. Vocabulary size and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In Richards B, et al. (eds), Vocabulary Studies in First and Second Language Acquisition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
- Nation ISP. How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? Canadian Modern Language Review 2006;63(1):59–82.
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