Free Spanish vocabulary test

How many Spanish words do you know?

Find out in about two minutes. 60 words, sampled evenly across the 5,000 most common in Spanish — say whether you know each one and get an estimate of your vocabulary size, with no account needed.

It measures recognition rather than active use, and it estimates up to 5,000 words — the range it samples.

Take the test

60 words, about two minutes. For each one, say whether you know what it means — honestly, because some of them are not Spanish words at all. Your estimate is free and needs no account.

What each thousand words buys you

Vocabulary is worth counting in bands rather than as one total, because the commonest words do most of the work. Knowing 2,000 words chosen by frequency is worth far more than 2,000 words picked at random, and the gap between a learner who reads comfortably and one who does not is usually a specific band rather than a general shortfall.

1–1,000 — The core

Function words and the verbs and nouns that carry ordinary conversation — ser, tener, casa, mismo. Between them these thousand words account for the large majority of everything said in everyday Spanish.

1,001–2,000 — Everyday range

The words that let you say what you mean rather than talk around it: specific verbs, common adjectives, the vocabulary of work, family and travel.

2,001–3,000 — Comfortable reading

Where unsimplified text starts to open up. You can follow a news article or a novel with occasional help rather than constant help.

3,001–4,000 — Precision

Near-synonyms and shades of meaning — the difference between a word that is understood and a word that is right.

4,001–5,000 — Range and register

Less frequent but far from rare: formal, technical and literary vocabulary you meet in writing more often than in speech.

How the estimate works

Ten words are sampled from each of the five bands, at fixed positions, so every run of the test asks the same 60 questions. If you recognise seven of the ten words sampled from the 2,001–3,000 band, that band contributes roughly 700 words to your total, and the five bands are added together.

Ten of the items are not Spanish words at all. They look like Spanish — they follow its spelling and syllable patterns — but no dictionary carries them. They are there because the honest version of this test has to be able to catch you out: without them, answering yes to every word would report a perfect vocabulary. How often you claim an invented word is taken as how often you say yes regardless, and every band is discounted to account for it — the share of your yes answers treated as guesses rises with the number of invented words you claimed, so the same run scores lower the more of them you took. Claim half of them or more and we do not give you a number at all — at that point there is no way to tell which of the real words you genuinely recognised, and a figure would be invented rather than measured.

The result is rounded down to the nearest fifty. Ten items per band cannot support a figure like “2,437 words”, and reporting one would claim a precision the test does not have.

Your answers are scored on our server rather than in your browser. That is what lets the free estimate sit alongside a breakdown that tells you which bands are thin and which hundred words to learn next — the part a free account unlocks.

What the number does and does not mean

This is a recognition test. It asks whether you know a word when you see it, which is the largest and most testable part of vocabulary knowledge — and not the same as being able to produce the word when you need it. Most learners recognise several times more words than they actively use, and the gap between the two is what speaking practice closes.

The word list is drawn from subtitled film and television, so it leans towards spoken, contemporary Spanish. Names, places, acronyms, non-Spanish words and misspellings were removed before the list was used, because “do you know this word?” is not a fair question about somebody's name.

One more thing the number is not. The list counts word forms rather than dictionary headwords, so tengo, tienes and tenía each occupy their own place in it. That matches what the test asks you — you are shown a form and asked whether you know it — but it means the count is of forms, and the number of separate words behind them is smaller.

Turning the number into progress

An estimate is only useful if it changes what you do next. The band breakdown names the thousand-word slice where your Spanish thins out first, and the hundred words that follow are the commonest ones in it, minus any you told us you already know — which makes them, word for word, among the most useful Spanish you could learn this month.

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Questions about the test

How many Spanish words do I need to know?

Roughly 1,000 words covers most of everyday conversation, because the commonest words are used so much more often than the rest. Around 3,000 is where unsimplified reading becomes comfortable, and 5,000 gives you range across registers. Those are rules of thumb rather than thresholds — what you can do with your Spanish depends on which words you know as much as on how many.

How does this vocabulary test work?

You are shown 60 words one at a time and say whether you know each one. They are sampled evenly from five bands of a thousand, drawn from a Spanish word-frequency list, so your answers show not just how much you know but where your Spanish thins out.

Why are some of the words not real?

Ten of them are invented — real-looking Spanish shapes that are not Spanish words. They are there because a test where you simply say yes cannot be wrong. Claiming invented words tells us how often you say yes regardless, and your score is discounted to account for it: the more invented words you claim, the more of your yes answers are treated as guesses. Claim half of them or more and you get no number at all, because at that point there is nothing to measure. Answering honestly is the only way to get a figure worth having.

Is the Spanish vocabulary test free?

Yes. The test and your estimated vocabulary size are free and need no account. A free account adds the band-by-band breakdown — which slices of the 5,000 most common words you are missing — and the next 100 words to learn.

How accurate is the estimate?

It is an estimate from a sample, and it is deliberately conservative. Ten words per band cannot measure a band precisely, so the result is rounded down and reported in round numbers rather than to the nearest word. It also measures recognition, which is not the same as being able to use a word in speech — recognising "aunque" and reaching for it mid-sentence are different skills.

Does it measure more than 5,000 words?

No, and it says so rather than guessing beyond what it sampled. The test draws from the 5,000 most common Spanish words, so 5,000 is the highest number it can honestly report. If you recognise most of every band, the useful next step is reading and speaking at length rather than another word list.

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