German verbs follow regular patterns that are easy to learn. These words, known as cognates, make learning German much easier for people who speak a language with similar roots like English. Even irregular verbs are easier for English speakers since they follow much more regular patterns than in English. So in summary, the exact number of words one must need to know to be "fluent" in a language varies depending on how you define fluency, which language you're talking about, if you're talking about comprehension, speaking, or both, and how you define "vocabulary size". Yet, I'm pretty fluent in English. More than most people might think. And finally, German is one of the languages where you can be a lot more fluent with a smaller percentage of words, because we have so many regional synonyms. They are used in many German words that have been borrowed from English and vice versa. Believe it or not, English speakers already know some German words even before they start studying it. What it has come to mean to me over time is that one can understand most speakers in a daily setting and be understood by most listeners in a daily setting. Also helpful people. So if I learn the most common words, then I am fluent in German, right? I aimed to be a fluent German speaker in just three months. When I was starting my language learning journey, I was obsessed with this idea. After just three months of living in Germany, I passed four out of five sections of Goethe Institut’s Zentrale Oberstufenprüfung (German mastery exam). How many words are there in the German language? As for the time to become fluent: That's really hard to tell, depends on things like talent for languages, having learned another foreign language beforehand (more experience with the structure of language learning) and the time you can really spend on learning. I think “fluent” means many things to many people. German learners know how quickly two nouns can be combined to form a new word. There is a Wiki with resources and tips for learning. I might be wrong but my understandig is that most common languages (English, German, all Latin derived languages - not talking about Asian languages or native languages) tend to have a vocab of 100 - 300 "most used words". After I became fluent in my first 4 languages, I decided to give German a second attempt. It is also (as is implied in your question) important to know which word 'sounds' right in a given context – for example the close but nowhere near identical sehen and schauen/gucken. That makes counting difficult. In 2013 linguists in Berlin arrived at a total of 5.3 million German words. r/german is the best place for you. With that understanding, “fluent” is about kindergarten age. A2.2 to C1 is six months is extremely optimistic. One may be able to pass the tests and get a certificate, but the only way to speak and understand other fluent speakers is using German … Short answer – hold the ponies, not so fast. Learning these common words first can help you start speaking German faster. Especially considering that 20-30 new words do pop up every day, of which only about half can be reasonably guessed. My mother tongues are Ukrainian/Russian. Almost all European languages share many words with English thanks to their shared roots, history, and evolution. If only I knew the 500 most common words… the top 2,500 most common words…. Well, with a vocabulary of 15000+ German words, I don't feel fluent in reading German newspapers. the top 5,000… I’d be fluent, right? Many language learners believe that once they have acquired a certain number of words, they can consider themselves fluent.