English Vocabulary by CEFR Level: What You Actually Need at A1 to C2
English vocabulary growth is not linear, and the CEFR levels roughly trace the shape of the curve. A1 to A2 is a steep climb up the high-frequency core; B1 to B2 is a long plateau of abstract and lower-frequency vocabulary where most adult learners stall; C1 to C2 is a very long tail where the extra words are mostly specialist, literary or idiomatic. The arithmetic sets the curriculum: the most frequent 2,000 word families cover around 80% of everyday English text (Nation, 2006), the next 1,000 push spoken coverage past 95%, and the remaining tens of thousands of words account for the last few percent.
The Kilo Lingo position is the same for English as for every language on the site: an adult with a job and 30 to 45 minutes a day should attack the frequency core first and refuse detours that cost working memory without buying comprehension. The difference with English is that its vocabulary is usually counted in word families rather than single words, which changes the numbers you will see quoted elsewhere. This page explains both, then gives the count for each CEFR band.
I spent a year as an English language assistant in Le Havre, in front of classes of French teenagers, and the pattern was the same one I later hit learning Spanish from the other side: the students who read outside class pulled away from the ones who only did exercises, and they pulled away fastest right around B1. Grammar drills got them to the plateau. Only volume of input got them over it.
Word families versus lemmas
Two different units get used to count English vocabulary, and quoted figures are meaningless unless you know which one is in play.
A lemma is a base word plus its inflections: walk, walks, walked, walking is one lemma. This is the unit most other languages on this site use.
A word family is a base word plus its inflections and its regular derivations: nation, national, nationally, nationalise, nationalisation, nations is one word family. This is the unit Paul Nation and most English-vocabulary research use, on the reasoning that once you know nation you can usually work out national.
Word families are the larger, coarser unit, so a count in families is always smaller than the same vocabulary counted in lemmas. Roughly, one word family corresponds to about two to three lemmas at high-frequency levels. The counts below are given in word families (with an approximate lemma figure alongside) so you can compare like with like.
The vocabulary count at each level
| CEFR level | Word families (approx.) | Coverage of everyday English | What you can do |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | 300-500 | ~70-75% | Handle a transaction; short, fixed phrases. |
| A2 | 750-1,000 | ~80-85% | Hold a slow conversation on familiar, concrete topics. |
| B1 | 1,500-2,500 | ~90% | Manage travel, daily life and most everyday situations. |
| B2 | 3,250-3,750 | ~95-96% | Follow native speech, work and study in English. |
| C1 | 5,000-8,000 | ~98% | Operate professionally; read novels for pleasure. |
| C2 | 9,000-16,000+ | 99%+ | Read anything; near-native range and nuance. |
The coverage figures come from Paul Nation's corpus work on receptive vocabulary thresholds (Nation, 2006), which established that around 8,000 to 9,000 word families are needed to read a novel or newspaper unassisted, and 6,000 to 7,000 to follow unscripted speech. The band-to-level mapping draws on the Cambridge English Vocabulary Profile, the standard reference for which English words sit at which CEFR level, built from learner-corpus data rather than guesswork. As with every language, the Council of Europe descriptors themselves are deliberately silent on word counts (CEFR describes what you can do, not how many words you know), but the empirical correspondence is consistent.
A1 (beginner)
At A1 your vocabulary is the highest-frequency core: the function words that hold every sentence together plus the most common nouns, verbs and adjectives of daily life. Three to five hundred word families, sequenced by frequency, cover roughly 70 to 75% of any everyday conversation. That means the articles a and the; the pronouns I, you, he, she, it; the verbs be, have, do, go, want, like; the question words what, where, who; numbers, days, food, family. This is exactly what the first chapters of the English curriculum teach, in frequency order.
The A1 trap is spending this stage on picturable but low-frequency nouns (elephant, umbrella, strawberry) that gamified apps front-load because they illustrate well. They are the wrong words. The function words and common verbs are duller and far more valuable.
A2 (elementary)
A2 roughly doubles the A1 core to 750 to 1,000 word families and pushes coverage to around 80 to 85%. This is the level a completed beginner app course typically reaches: enough to shop, ask directions, describe your routine and hold a slow conversation about concrete, familiar topics, but not enough to follow two native speakers talking to each other at normal speed. The vocabulary added here is still high-frequency and concrete: more everyday verbs, common adjectives, the vocabulary of time, weather, transport and work.
B1 (intermediate)
B1 is where conversation becomes genuinely useful and where the count reaches roughly 1,500 to 2,500 word families, around 90% coverage. You can travel independently, deal with most situations that come up while living in an English-speaking country, and express opinions on familiar subjects. Crucially, 90% coverage still means one word in ten is unknown, which is why native-speed speech and unadapted text feel exhausting at B1 even though you "know the grammar". The gaps are lexical, not grammatical.
B2 (upper intermediate)
B2 is the level most people mean by "fluent enough to work in English", and it needs around 3,250 to 3,750 word families for roughly 95 to 96% coverage. At 95% you can follow films, meetings and native conversation, and read a newspaper with only occasional dictionary use. The vocabulary added between B1 and B2 is mostly abstract: opinion and reporting verbs (suggest, claim, assume), the connective tissue of argument (however, therefore, nevertheless, on the other hand), and the register distinctions that separate formal from casual English.
This is the hardest jump for most adult learners, for the same reason it is in every language: the lexicon roughly doubles from B1, the new words are abstract and low-imagery so they are harder to fix in memory, and the methods that got you to B1 (an app, a textbook, an occasional lesson) stop being enough. The only reliable fix is volume of input at level: 30 to 45 minutes a day of reading and listening to real English slightly above your comfort zone.
C1 (advanced)
C1 is where you operate professionally in English: roughly 5,000 to 8,000 word families, around 98% coverage. You catch nuance, follow implication, read novels for pleasure and handle language-sensitive work. Nation's threshold for reading a novel unassisted (8,000 to 9,000 families) sits at the top of this band, which is why extensive reading is both the method and the marker for C1: you get there largely by reading, and being able to read freely is what it means to have arrived.
C2 (mastery)
C2 is near-native range: 9,000 word families and up, often quoted at 16,000 or more when counted generously, for 99%-plus coverage. The extra vocabulary above C1 is the long tail: literary, archaic, regional, technical and idiomatic words that a speaker accumulates by living a life that happens to require them. The Kilo Lingo view is that most adult learners should not chase C2 vocabulary deliberately. C1 is where you function; C2 arrives on its own schedule, or not, depending on what you read and where you live, and grinding for it directly is a poor use of limited study time.
The practical target
Aim for the most frequent 3,000 word families and learn them properly, in real sentences, until they are automatic. That gets you to solid B2, around 95% coverage, which is enough to work, study and live in English. The Core 1,000 list is the first and highest-return slice of that target, and the English curriculum sequences the whole thing by frequency so your effort maps onto the English you will actually meet. Everything above 3,000 is best acquired the slow, durable way: by reading and listening to far more English than you study.
Common questions
How many words do I need to be fluent in English? "Fluent" is not a CEFR level, so it depends what you mean. To hold everyday conversation (B1 to B2) you need roughly 2,500 to 3,500 word families; the first 2,000 of those cover about 80% of general text (Nation, 2006). To work in English professionally (C1) you need around 8,000 families plus the specialist vocabulary of your field.
Why do English word counts vary so much? Because sources count in different units. A figure in word families (Nation's unit) is much smaller than the same vocabulary counted in individual words or lemmas, and some popular counts inflate the number further by counting every inflected form separately. Always check the unit before comparing.
What level do I reach from a typical app course? A completed beginner app course usually lands around high A2 to low B1 by receptive vocabulary (roughly 1,000 to 1,500 word families), often with weaker output than that, because tapping and matching exercises do not build real production.
What is the hardest vocabulary jump in English? B1 to B2. The lexicon roughly doubles, the new words are abstract and low-imagery, and app-and-textbook study stops being enough. Volume reading at level is the fix.