Reading a lot of books and watching/listening to a lot of media put me quite high: CFR C2, 19 200 word families, above 78% of native speakers, above 99.9% of non-native speakers.
However. In real life I use maybe 1% of that :D Especially in in iternational settings where you eventually end up speaking a common denominator (not necessarily lowest common denominator).
I do get by writing on HN and reading books though :)
Just few days ago I argued here that kinkajou is not English word and should not be in an English word game. Is bryndza English word? Both have English Wikipedia article.
Score of 18,900 -- often I'd have heard a word before and the process of elimination allowed me to guess it correctly. I'm guessing there's one level better CFR2?
Scored 65% with native speakers and 99.9% with non-native. Guess I can make myself understood. I didn’t even take the test that seriously, but there were some obscure words I’m sure no one uses anymore
That's a dumb test. 9/10 english words it showed never come up in any written or spoken word. That's very stupid way to measure someone's vocabulary knowledge.
Agreed. I didn't score too badly (above 50% of native speakers and above 99% of non-native).
Many of the words were obscure and extremely contextual.
If you are in a particular field with a lot of jargon, you may know countless words, but I don't think it means anything.
Being able to correctly define useful words would be a better test of knowledge. Just because you “know” some words doesn't mean you really understand what they mean.
Bah, it's just a test for “book smart” people to feel good about themselves. One has to feel good about that time investment, I guess.
On a side note, I don't think using too many uncommon words is a good thing. It just obscures the meaning of what you are trying to say unnecessarily.
But this is a status marker and a pretty effective way to create tribal boundaries; people love to feel smart without too much effort.
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[ 0.13 ms ] story [ 25.1 ms ] threadHowever. In real life I use maybe 1% of that :D Especially in in iternational settings where you eventually end up speaking a common denominator (not necessarily lowest common denominator).
I do get by writing on HN and reading books though :)
Being able to correctly define useful words would be a better test of knowledge. Just because you “know” some words doesn't mean you really understand what they mean.
Bah, it's just a test for “book smart” people to feel good about themselves. One has to feel good about that time investment, I guess.
On a side note, I don't think using too many uncommon words is a good thing. It just obscures the meaning of what you are trying to say unnecessarily. But this is a status marker and a pretty effective way to create tribal boundaries; people love to feel smart without too much effort.