How much vocabulary do you need to know?

A long time ago when I decided that I would become fluent Arabic (and no, I’m still not fluent) I spoke to someone I knew who learned the Arabic language and was not an Arabic speaker. I asked him how many words did you have to know to be able to speak in Arabic. He told me you needed a vocabulary of 5000 words. Although it seemed like a lot I thought I figured I have a number to reach. I started my studying and kept track of all the words I was learning. Then a few years later I heard a conversation with two other people speaking about how much vocabulary you need to know and the answer was 10000.

At that point, my target doubled and I was really frustrated. Then I think around the next week I heard this same conversation and now the vocabulary count was at 12000.  C’mon, I’m just trying to learn another language, not reach the end of the universe. Despite, this never attainable goal I continued trying to learn. After a few years of studying I understood a few things. First, you can say a lot in Arabic with only a few words. In Morocco, I had a nice conversation with a man just talking about the weather, the traffic and apartments and this was just using less than 25 words. The second thing I understood is that all Arabic words come from verbs. What I mean is that any Arabic word has an original root which is a verb. Usually there is a connection between the verb and the word. For example, bookstore, library and author in Arabic are related to the verb to write. This means if I learn the verbs, I can essentially multiply the amount of vocabulary I have learned. The last I learned is that learning languages takes time and practice. There shouldn’t be a reason for you to not try to speak because you haven’t memorized 5000, 10000, or 12000 words. Even if you learned 50000 words that shouldn’t stop you from learning new words.

I know this article essentially spoke about Arabic, but the same rules apply to Darija. As soon as you learn a few words try practicing them and continue to build your skillset.

Word list