english, english language, english lingusitics, english as a second language, english as a foreign language,  english as the world

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - FACTS AND FIGURES:

How many words do you need to learn in order to communicate in most situations? The English Language: Facts and Figures What are the world's most widely spoken languages? In which countries is English the language spoken as a first language by the majority of the population? In which countries is English an official language? How many people speak English as a second language? How many people speak English as a foreign language? So how many speak English in total? How many people are learning English worldwide? What percentage of the internet is in English? What percentage of email messages are in English?? Which language has the most words? How many words does the average native speaker know? How many words does the average native speaker use in everyday speech? What is the longest word in the English language?

A vocabulary of between 1500 to 2000 words should be enough for most circumstances. The more you know the better because even though you can control the words you use, you can't control the other person. Because of this, you need to learn more words to understand well than you need to speak well.