Hi,
It is written on the main page of LingQ that the number of words one knows is the best way to evaluate one’s level.
But how are the words counted ? Does LingQ counts all the differents forms of a same word, or only the stem ?
For example, would climb, climbing, climbed count only as 1 word or as 3 ? (could be much more in other languages in which nouns and verbs can have a lot of declination/cases…)
TIA
Lyl.
Every form is counted, partly because the system itself doesn’t know what you save - it can be a conjugated verb, a bundle of words, a whole sentence…
In a way I think it’s good - if you don’t know this or that form (either passively or actively), you don’t know… And knowing the difference between them is better than if you didn’t.
Think of it as an added layer of knowledge.
OK, thanks.
It’s a little depressing though, to think that when it is written I know 1000 words, I may actually know only half of them…!
Lylandra,
I have been studying Russian at LingQ for a long time. I “know” over 43,000 words according to the system. I have no idea in fact whether I really know that many words. I have no idea how many actual word families are in that number.
It does not matter.I know more words now than when I started. The number of unknown words in new content has gone from 45% or so a year ago to under 20% for most items. I can understand what I read and hear without too much difficulty.
When I review my saved words in the Vocabulary section in alphabetical order, I see many related words that I have saved. It is helpful to review them together. I see how different forms of related words are used.
The word count is just a tool to allow you to see that you are progressing. The most important thing is to stay active. Try to keep the known words count growing, and make sure you save lots of LingQs.
Do not worry too much about how many words you actually know. Keep working and you will understand more and more of the language and your vocabulary will grow. That should not be depressing.
It’s just that I have read that in order to be really at ease with a language, one should know approximately 10,000 words.
Having learnt ~1000 words this year, it seems that it will take me 9 more years! 
So, I will stop feeling depressed as soon as I stop following that goal…!
Anyway, I havn’t seen this year pass, and learning is an everlasting pleasure.
How long have you been with LingQ? Are you achieving your targets at LingQ?
What a language!! 43000 words and you still have 20% of unknowns??
Well, I love English! I have around 17000, and it is hard to find an item with more than 10%. A piece of cake, when compared to Russian!