How Many Words for B1? CEFR Word Counts, A1 to B2

What CEFR levels measure

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages organises proficiency into six levels, A1 to C2, and defines them through can-do descriptors. A descriptor says what a learner can do, for instance a statement about following a talk or writing a message. The Council of Europe page we read describes the levels this way and gives no word counts.

So a level is a bundle of skills, and a word count is only one way to look at it. Detailed content for a particular language comes from Reference Level Descriptions. For English, the English Profile programme describes what vocabulary and grammar are typically learned at each level, and its English Vocabulary Profile is a searchable database rather than a total.

That is why the honest answer to “how many words for B1” starts with “it depends on the list”. Two lists can both claim to follow the CEFR and still hold different numbers of items, because their compilers counted different things. The next section shows how much that matters.

If you want to see where a study method fits in, read how spaced repetition schedules reviews after this post.

Why published word counts disagree

Four things move a word count, and a headline figure rarely says which of them it used.

• The unit. A word family groups related forms (for instance a root with its inflections and derived forms). A lemma groups the inflections of one word. A headword is the dictionary form. A list entry may be a headword plus its part of speech. Nation’s paper on vocabulary size uses word families set at a broad level of affixes and notes that for speaking and writing a lemma is the largest sensible unit.
• The source. A list built from school textbooks differs from one built from a spoken corpus or from learner exams.
• The purpose. Counting what you need to read a novel is a different question from counting what a course teaches at B1.
• The coverage target. How much of a text you want to understand changes the answer sharply (more on this below).

The CEFR-J list shows the unit problem clearly. The compilers say it was built from English textbook corpora used in school years 3 to 10 in China, Korea and Taiwan, then compared with the English Vocabulary Profile, and the words found only there were added. They also say that the same word with a different part of speech is a separate item and can sit at a different level. They add that the list may contain errors, which is a fair reason to treat it as a guide.

Counting the CEFR-J list by level

Method, in four sentences. We downloaded the CEFR-J Vocabulary Profile version 1.5 from the Open Language Profiles repository, which republishes the list under the compilers’ terms: free use with proper citation. We counted the rows for each value of the CEFR column. We also counted the distinct values of the headword column inside each level, treating upper and lower case as different, as the compilers do on their own page. The file has 7,799 rows and no row without a level; you can repeat the count in a spreadsheet in a few minutes.

Counted by us from the CEFR-J Wordlist version 1.5, checked on 31 October 2026. Shares are rounded to one decimal place.

Some notes that keep the table honest:

• Version. The compilers’ download page now lists version 1.6 (March 2020), with 1,166, 1,411, 2,445 and 2,779 entries, or 7,801 in all. The gap to our table is the edit list on that page: two words added to A1, one to B2 and one duplicate removed. We used 1.5 because that is the version the file we counted carries.
• Entries are not words. A headword can be several entries. “Back” appears as an adverb and a noun at A1, as an adjective at A2 and as a verb at B1. Across the whole file, 571 headwords sit at more than one level, which is why the four distinct-headword columns add up to 7,463 while the list holds 6,867 different headwords.
• Nouns dominate. Of the 7,799 entries, 4,091 (52.5%) are nouns, 1,494 adjectives, 1,349 verbs and 552 adverbs. The remaining 313 are function words and the like.
• Some entries are phrases. 144 entries contain a space, such as compound nouns and fixed phrases. Whether you count them as words is your call.

Read the table as a map of a list, not as a pass mark. B2 is the largest slice, and B1 is about 1.7 times the size of A2, which makes A2 to B1 the steepest rise in relative terms.

Passive and active vocabulary

Nation’s paper separates what you recognise when reading or listening (receptive vocabulary) from what you produce when speaking and writing. The two are measured differently, so a number for one cannot stand in for the other.

The same paper is the standard reference for coverage, the share of running words in a text that you already know. It works with 98% coverage, one unknown word in 50, as the target for reading without help, and it reports that around 8,000 to 9,000 word families are needed for written text and 6,000 to 7,000 for spoken text at that level. It also reports that the most frequent 4,000 words plus proper nouns reach around 95% of the running words in the newspaper samples it studied, and that 3,000 families plus proper nouns give over 95% of the spoken samples.

Two cautions follow. These are word families counted in the British National Corpus, not CEFR-J entries, so you cannot subtract one number from the other. And they describe reading with almost no help. A B1 learner can do plenty with far less, with a dictionary, pictures or a patient friend.

Planning study time with a word list

A list turns a vague wish into arithmetic. The table below divides the cumulative CEFR-J entries by a number of new items a day and rounds up. It counts new items only. It leaves out repeat practice, revision and the days you miss.

Use it as a sanity check, not as a promise. Three habits make the numbers more useful:

1. Split by level. If you already know A1, start the clock at A2. Test yourself on a sample before you decide where you stand.
2. Add repeat practice. A word you meet only once is easy to lose, so plan repeat visits. A scheduler can space them for you.
3. Count in the unit you will use. If you want 3,000 words for a concrete goal, 3,000 divided by 10 a day is 300 days, whatever any level label says.

Three months is a good test case. To pass through A1, A2 and B1 entries in 90 days you would need about 56 new entries a day. That is demanding, and it covers only words. A level is also about listening, speaking, reading and writing, so we would not read the sum as a plan for “reaching B1”.

How Cardday’s deck follows the list

Cardday is our widget-first flashcard app for English words with Turkish meanings. Its deck has almost 3,000 words from A1 to B2, each with a part of speech, its level, a US pronunciation, a Turkish meaning and an example sentence with a Turkish translation. The word list and the levels follow the CEFR-J Wordlist, and the order inside a level follows how often a word appears in everyday English sentences.

Set that against the table above. The deck has almost 3,000 words, which is less than half of the 6,867 headwords we counted, so it is a deck built on the CEFR-J levels, not a copy of the whole list. If you want every entry, the compilers’ download page is the place to start.

For scale, the free starter pack is 300 words of A1, roughly a quarter of the 1,164 A1 entries in our table. You can study it with spaced repetition and a daily Word of the Day on your Home Screen. How we use the list and where the rest of the card data comes from is covered in where a vocabulary app’s word list comes from.

Widgets matter here because a short daily look at one word is a cheap way to keep a list moving. Our notes on designing home screen widgets explain how we think about that.

Questions

How many words do you need to know for B1?

No official figure exists, because the CEFR describes what you can do, not how many words you know. In the CEFR-J list, A1, A2 and B1 together hold 5,021 entries, which is one transparent estimate and not a target.

How many words for A1, A2, B1 and B2?

Our count of CEFR-J version 1.5 gives 1,164 entries at A1, 1,411 at A2, 2,446 at B1 and 2,778 at B2, or 7,799 in all. The entries are a word plus its part of speech, so they overstate the number of distinct words.

Can I reach B1 in three months?

It depends on your starting point, your time and what B1 means for you. The arithmetic is 5,021 entries in 90 days, about 56 new entries a day before repeat practice. Words are one part of a level, so no promise follows.

What are estimates of vocabulary size for each CEFR level?

Every estimate depends on what it counts and which list it uses. The CEFR-J figures count entries in one list, while reading research counts word families and text coverage. The two are different units, so keep them apart.

Is B1 harder than B2?

B2 is the higher level, so it asks for more. In the CEFR-J list, B2 has 2,778 entries against 2,446 at B1, and the steepest relative rise comes from A2 to B1. Words are only one part of a level, because the CEFR describes skills such as reading, listening and speaking.