Vocabulary Volume

Does anyone know how many words each level of Rocket French covers? In other words, how many words someone will know after mastering each level. More than a thousand for each level?

Walt, the way that people who decide these things often look at it is, if two words share the same root, they only count as one word. So, for example, given all the adjectives that are simply past participles, are they separate words, or just another form of the verb that they're derived from? When you learn surtout, have you learned 1, 2 or 3 words?

To further complicate matters, how do you account for all the French words that mean different things in different contexts?

How many words have you learned when you learn :

à bord  (on board)  and  au bord de  (on the edge of, on the verge of) ?

How many words have you learned when you learn :

se passer  (to happen)  and   se passer de ( to do without) ?

Are you counting French words or English words?

Personally, I think it'd be more meaningful to wonder how many different things you'll learn to say.  That may also make it easier to come up with an answer.

Robert

Hi Walt,

While Robert is correct with his response, we haven't analyzed our courses in that way (maybe we should at some stage!).

I can tell you that Level 1 of Rocket French has 3,636 phrases. Level 1 & 2 have 7,381 phrases, and Levels 1, 2 & 3 have 10,355 phrases. A “phrase” is defined as a word or phrase that works with voice recognition.

And, in other news, we will be releasing the revamped Level 3 Language & Culture lessons within the next few weeks!

Jason,

I'm wondering if there's any way of knowing if the phrases, as counted, are unique across all three levels.

Robert

Hi Robert,

Unfortunately, this is not easy data to pull out. From my experience with Rocket French, I would estimate 97 to 98% of words/phrases would be unique.

That's not hard to believe in the case of phrases, Jason. If there's one thing that Rocket French excels at it's constantly presenting different ways to say essentially the same thing, which can actually be a little frustrating at times.

But I get it. People do need exposure to all the different phrasings, and there's a limit to the amount of material, so the phrasing needs to change constantly. It's further testimony to what I've said from the beginning:  If/when I get to the point where I know 90% of what I NEED to know (about speaking French), I'll still probably only know about 10% of what there IS to know.

Robert