French Vocabulary - Learn French Online | Lingoda
The English language is very commonly used, with around 360 million native speakers worldwide and an additional 880 million who speak English as a second language. English is generally referred to as a global language, because so many people are familiar with it or use it in their everyday lives.
As English vocabulary is so vast, assigning an exact number to the amount of words it includes is very difficult. As a rough guide, the Oxford English Dictionary offers 600,000 definitions; however the true number is probably higher as it comprises slang words, adopted foreign words, obscure technical terms and newly created words like ‘selfie’.
Scientists regularly carry out research into how many words are in the average English speaker’s vocabulary. Currently most linguists agree that the majority of English speakers use around 50,000 words on a regular basis, but a more educated person may use up to 75,000. These figures are influenced by a person’s education, but also whether or not they read books and newspapers.
The French language is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, with somewhere in the region of 80 million native speakers. Moreover, it is one of the most popular second languages for people to acquire, and it is estimated that there are in excess of 200 million French speakers in total.
Although the majority of French words are derived from either Vulgar Latin or Classical Latin, the language itself has continued to evolve over the course of several centuries, as circumstances change, new technology emerges and new words are coined. Furthermore, there are dozens of known dialects spread across the globe.
As a result, it is difficult to accurately state how many words exist within the French language. Many French dictionaries estimate somewhere in the region of 60,000 words, but Le Grand Robert de la langue Française currently contains around 100,000 words and 350,000 definitions, covering the different uses of those words.
Of course, things become even more complicated when you take into account slang words within the French language. Many of these words cannot be considered part of official French writing and will not be found in a dictionary, yet they are an integral part of the vocabulary of almost all French speakers with native competence.
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