How to Increase Vocabulary in English

If you're wondering about how to increase vocabulary in English, your quest comes to an end here with this post. In this article, we are going to guide you to the most important and effective tips that can certainly help you boost your vocabulary in English.

Before you get into the tips, let us provide you with the essential questions and answers about expanding your vocabulary in English. Make sure to go through the answers given against the questions.

This article covers:

What is vocabulary in English?

How many vocabulary words are there in English?

How many levels of vocabulary in English?

How to increase vocabulary in English?

What is Vocabulary in English?

Vocabulary refers to the body of lexicon that is available to the English language containing ideas, information and knowledge, used by millions of people to express themselves and taught by teachers and learned by students.

Learning English vocabulary is an essential part of English learning journey, as grammars and rules of the English language are useless if you don't vocabulary words to apply grammar rules to.

While grammar tells you the correct way to put words together without any type of mistakes, vocabulary conveys your message without which you have neither words nor ideas nor need to apply grammars. 

Before you jump into the tips and tricks to increase your vocabulary, it's suggested that you know how words the English language has and how many of them you need to learn to communicate in English properly.

How Many Vocabulary Words are There in English?

Well, this is a tricky question that can't be answered directly because of its ancient origin, various dialects and numberless users. The English language is about 1400 years old, divided into three major periods Old, Medieval and Modern.

Actually, the English language is an ever changing language which has witnessed hundreds of decades, tons of empires, dozens of periods. It's because of this fact that we can't tell you the exact number of words in English.

However, Oxford dictionary gives an estimation of how many words there are in the English language. It estimates that the English language has 170,000 words in use and 47,000 obsolete or archaic words.

How Many Words Do You Need to Learn?

Like the total number of words in English, we can give you an estimation of how many words you need to communicate in English properly. It's true that you continue to learn new words and forget them. However, your should reach the following figure to be fluent in English.

According to BBC, Professor Stuart Webb estimates that a native speaker of English knows around 20 thousand root words or word families apart from their other inflections.

As a second language learner of English, you are supposed to learn at least 8 to 10 thousand root words or word families to be fluent in English. For instance, the root run has other inflections such as ran and running.

How Many Levels of Vocabulary in English?

Once you've learned how many English words you need to learn to be proficient in English language, you must know the levels of English vocabulary to identify your level and start learning vocabulary of the level upper than yours. Here are six levels of English vocabulary according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:

1. Beginner level: 
2. Pre intermediate level
3. Intermediate level
4. Upper intermediate level
5. Advanced level
6. Proficient level

These six levels of English can be broadly divided into three different categories: basic, intermediate and advanced.

1. Basic level vocabulary

The words under this category are related to weather, home, food, drinks, shopping, school, market, restaurant, money, nature, parts of body, kitchen, living room, fruit names, jobs, hotels, animals, daily routine, etc.

2. Intermediate level vocabulary

The words you learn at this level are related to different types of travels, beaches, hometowns, transports, festivals, games and sports, health, employment, roads, meat and fish, vegetables, etc.

3. Advanced level vocabulary

Words at this level are related to digital communication, appearances, movies, human anatomy, attributes, time and space, shapes and colors, fashion, art, music, culture, education, business, law and order, environment and surroundings, governance and politics, poverty, success and failure, feelings, personal traits, decisions, etc.

As far as increasing your vocabulary in English is concerned, you need to understand types of vocabulary words that are known to us. You must know what to do when it comes to expanding English vocabulary.

Types of Vocabulary in English

There are several types of English vocabulary such as everyday vocabulary, technical vocabulary and academic vocabulary. However, as we are dealing with the question "how to increase vocabulary in English," we are very much concerned with the two types of vocabulary words that are known to us: active and passive vocabulary.

1. Active Vocabulary

The list of the words that the English language users use and understand in their daily life conversations in order to express themselves comes under the category of active vocabulary.

People use active vocabulary to talk about their ideas, discourses, practices, opinions, beliefs, relationships, status and position, etc. 

Examples of active vocabulary include love, hate, speak, say, tell, school, church, university, like, dislike, write, jump, learn, forget, understand, stand, teach, create, make, think, believe, confess, etc.

2. Passive Vocabulary

The list of words that can be recognized by the users of the English language but not often employed be them refers to the category of passive vocabulary. Passive vocabularies are the ones that you can recognize when they're used in front of you but you don't use them in your everyday conversations to express yourself.

Both passive and active vocabulary constantly changes as you learn new words and forget them. Therefore, an advanced learner of English has more passive words in comparison to their active words.

Once you've understood what active and passive words are, it's high time that you find the answer to the question "how to increase vocabulary in English." 

How to increase vocabulary in English?

Increasing your English vocabulary refers to the effort that you take up to learn and ingrain new English words into your long term memory so that you can use them in order to communicate your thoughts clearly when you are speaking in English.

The act of boosting your English vocabulary involves making your passive words and converting them into your active words; that is, when you increase your English vocabulary, you take words from your passive ones and use them in your discourses making into your active words.

When you've decided to increase your vocabulary, you need to do a list of things: read, listen, write and speak in English only. Only one source can't help you get there. You need to surround yourself with English.

Here are some of the essential tips for increasing English vocabulary:

Listen to native speakers: 

You can observe that children pick up a language by first listening to their parents, elders or adults who use the language around them. The same method you can apply when you want to increase your vocabulary in English. Listen to the native speakers of English, identify how they use words and then copy paste their words in the similar situations. 

Read online and offline: 

If you want to expand your English vocabulary, you need to read English both online and offline. The age of internet gives the golden opportunity to the language learners to easily learn their desired languages. You should also read offline and take help from physical books.

Communicate in English: 

Communication of your thoughts and ideas is one of the two methods of expression. Using new words in your spoken English also helps you build a large working vocabulary. Make sure to speak in English only. 

Write in English:

Writing in English is the second mode of expression and another type of communication. Writing in English can significantly help you build a long lasting list of English vocabulary. Write anything but make sure that you write in English only.

Use an English dictionary:

An English dictionary contains thousands of English words with definitions, synonyms and antonyms. As such, using an English dictionary for learning new words can be a great help provided that you use it on a regular basis.