Just doing a quick google, you see you need about 2000 words to be conversational in English, and 3000-5000 to be conversational in Japanese. Is this just a matter of differently classifying what makes you conversational? Or do some languages actually use more words on a daily basis? Are these greater number of words conveying more ideas, or using more words for same amount of content?
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A lot of it comes down to how concepts expressed, and how versatile words are.
In English, we have fewer pronouns – so you can say “you” or “I” or “she”. But in Japanese, there are more pronouns and honorifics when referring to other people, which changes on the relationship and dynamics between the speakers. English has words like “do” that can be used for multiple meanings and contexts (“I did my shopping, I did my homework, I did your girlfriend”), whereas another language might require different words for each action, and more combinations of words for different tenses.
We can say in English “I like to eat Italian”, and we can infer that it means you enjoy eating Italian food. In a language like Japanese or Chinese, you have to specify whether you are talking about the person, the country, the language, the cuisine, etc.
Consider the number of words require to express an idea. Chinese has fewer “linking” words. A literal translation of a sentence might read like “I Sunday see girlfriend”, but in English we’d have to string it out to “I see my girlfriend on Sunday”.
A bizarrely specific example is counting. In English, we use the same words for every form of counting (one, two, etc.). But in Japanese, you also have to add in another word that indicates what kind of object you are counting – a person, a round object, a long object, etc.
Of course, there’s no universally agreed definition on what makes someone conversational or fluent, so the numbers might be slimmed down or bloated depending on whether it is being presented as difficult or easy.
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