Tap through 30 English words sampled from A1 to C2 level. You'll get an instant estimate of your vocabulary size and CEFR level. Free, no signup, ~3 minutes.
An educated native English speaker knows roughly 20,000 to 35,000 words. The good news: you need far fewer to function well. Around 3,000 of the most frequent word families cover about 95% of everyday conversation. This test shows you where you stand on that curve.
30 words · 2–3 minutes · be honest — only count words you could actually translate
Tip: use ← (don't know) and → (know) on a keyboard
| Score | CEFR | What you can actually do |
|---|---|---|
| ~500 | A1 | Introduce yourself, order food, survive as a tourist |
| ~1,200 | A2 | Handle routine daily exchanges and simple messages |
| ~2,500 | B1 | Hold real conversations and understand most everyday texts |
| ~4,000 | B2 | Work in English, follow films and news comfortably |
| ~6,000–8,000 | C1 | Study at university level, read novels without a dictionary |
| 8,000+ | C2 | Near-native range: nuance, idiom, and register |
Large-scale research, including the TestYourVocab project with over 2 million participants, gives useful reference points: native English-speaking adults typically measure between 20,000 and 35,000 words, native 8-year-olds already know around 10,000, and adult learners of English average about 4,500, with the most dedicated learners abroad reaching 10,000+. Most learners add 2 to 3 words a day of study; heavy readers roughly double that pace, which is why reading plus spaced repetition is the fastest sustainable route. For a deeper look at the numbers behind each level, see how many words you need to speak a language.
This test measures how many English words you recognize. The free English synonym quiz measures the other half: whether you know those words well enough to connect them to their synonyms — the difference between recognizing vocabulary and actually owning it. Two minutes, no signup, level-matched questions from the same CEFR-graded decks.
Vocabulary research maps CEFR levels to approximate word counts: ~500 words for A1, ~1,200 for A2, ~2,500 for B1, ~4,000 for B2, and 6,000–8,000+ for C1/C2. The test shows you a random sample of words from each level's decks; the share you recognize at each level estimates how much of that level's vocabulary you own. Curious how we schedule reviews after the test? See the interactive forgetting-curve simulator.
A few of the English words the test draws on at each level:
| A1 | hello, goodbye, good morning, good afternoon |
| A2 | get up, turn on, turn off, look for |
| B1 | deadline, achievement, carry out, come across |
| B2 | to account for, to bring about, to come up with, to get away with |
| C1 | torture, confession, ease, bishop |
| C2 | acumen, aplomb, brevity, candor |
The test samples words from CEFR-leveled decks (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) and estimates your vocabulary size from how many you recognize at each level. It's a directional estimate, good for choosing where to start studying, not a certified assessment. Retaking it gives you a fresh random sample.
Take this free test: you tap through a sample of English words from A1 to C2, marking each as known or unknown, and it estimates your total vocabulary size and CEFR level in about 3 minutes. No signup is needed, and you can retake it any time for a fresh sample.
Roughly 500 words covers A1 basics, 1,200 gets you to A2, 2,500 to B1 independence, 4,000 to B2 fluency in most conversations, and 6,000 to 8,000+ to C1/C2 mastery. Frequency matters more than raw count; the most common words do most of the work.
An educated native speaker typically knows tens of thousands of words, but you need far fewer to communicate well. Around 3,000 to 5,000 well-chosen words cover most everyday conversation, which is why frequency-based study is so efficient.
Start studying at the level where you stopped recognizing words. All our English decks are free, so copy one to your library and review with FSRS spaced repetition, which schedules each word right before you'd forget it.
Native English-speaking adults typically know 20,000 to 35,000 words, based on the TestYourVocab research project with over 2 million participants. Native 8-year-olds already know around 10,000. Adult learners of English average about 4,500 words, so if you score above 5,000 as a learner you are ahead of the typical range.
For everyday conversation, mostly yes: the 3,000 most frequent word families cover roughly 95% of ordinary speech. That is enough to chat, shop, travel, and follow most of what you hear. It is not enough for university reading or professional writing, which draw on 4,000 to 8,000+ words. The catch is that they must be the right 3,000, which is why frequency-ordered decks beat random word lists.
It samples instead of counting. You see a random sample of words from every CEFR level, and the share you recognize at each level estimates how much of that level you own, the same way a poll estimates a population without asking everyone. A longer test would tighten the estimate a little, but a fresh 3-minute sample each time is accurate enough to pick a starting level, and you can retake it any time.
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