English Dictionary Words

Question

Are all of English Dictionary Words used?

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

Kak Serwan Are all of English Dictionary Words used?

They have been used at some time or other or they would not be in a dictionary.

Kak Serwan · Answer

That is not good news! How we will know the most of words which are used?

Teechr · Answer

If you're asking about the frequency of usage, try Google's ngram.
https://books.google.com/ngrams

Kak Serwan · Answer

Hi teechr!
How 're you?
Are you happy?
I hope so
Thank you for your answer

Cool Breeze · Answer

It is possible to speak English naturally using a smaller number of words than is needed in many other languages even though English has a very large vocabulary. This is because many short words, such as come, get, go, set and so forth have more than a hundred meanings depending on the adverb or preposition used with them. Some examples:

He gets up very late.
He is getting on my nerves.
He got off the bus

In Finnish, for example, a different verb is needed for each meaning. It is easier for a foreign learner to learn new meanings for familiar words than to learn new, often polysyllabic words. There are many other difficulties for a student of English, though. English is a very peculiar language in that in many cases it has no natural word at all. I have mentioned this before, but I'll say again that on these very forums a native speaker has said that idiomaticity is not natural English. I believe that, because even the Firefox spell checker highlights it as incorrect. Idiomaticalness isn't any better even though it is in dictionaries.

So, don't worry. Even though English has a very large vocabulary, a large percentage of the words are not really used. I have used the word tintinnabulation a few times when talking to a native speaker, but so far no one has understood me.

CB

Kak Serwan · Answer

CB, It was so useful comment!
Thank you very much!

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