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The minimum vocabulary is how much.

The fact that the dictionary of a language contains approximately 300,000 words is only of theoretical interest to a beginner in learning that language. Almost main principle for the reasonable organization of their studies, especially at the initial stage - this is the economy of words. You need to learn to memorize as few words as possible, but do it as best as possible.

We emphasize that our approach is directly opposite to the leading principle of "suggestopedia", with its emphasis on the abundance of words presented to the student. As you know, in accordance with its canons, a beginner needs to be literally "showered with words." It is best to ask him or her 200 new words every day.

Is there any doubt that any normal person will forget all those numerous words that he was "showered" by such, so to speak, method - and most likely very soon, in just a few days.

Don't chase too much

It will be much better if, at the end of a certain stage of the lesson, you know 500 or 1000 words very well than 3000 - but poorly. Don't be fooled by educators who will tell you that you must first learn a certain number of words in order to "get on with it." Only you yourself can and should decide whether the vocabulary you have mastered is sufficient for your goals and interests.

The experience of learning languages shows that about 400 correctly chosen words can cover up to 90 percent of the vocabulary that you need for the purposes of everyday communication. In order to read, more words are needed, but many of them are only passive. Therefore, with the knowledge of 1500 words, you can already understand quite meaningful texts.

It is better to master the most necessary and important words for you than to constantly rush to learn new ones. "He who chases too much runs the risk of missing everything," says a Swedish proverb. “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch one,” a Russian proverb answers her.

Vocabulary in oral speech

Speaking very roughly, about 40 well-chosen, high-frequency words will cover about 50% of everyday speech usage in any language;

200 words will cover about 80%;
300 words - approximately 85%;
400 words will cover about 90%;
well, 800-1000 words - about 95% of what you need to say or hear in the most common situation.

Thus, the right choice lexicon helps to understand quite a lot with a very modest effort spent on cramming.

Example: if a total of 1000 words are spoken in everyday conversation, then 500 of them, that is, 50%, will be covered by 40 most common high-frequency words.

We emphasize that these percentages, of course, are not the result of exact calculations. They just give the most general concept about how many words you need approximately to feel confident when entering into the simplest dialogue with a native speaker. In any case, there is no doubt that by choosing correctly from 400 to 800 words and remembering them well, you can feel confident in a simple conversation, since they will cover almost all 100% of those words that you can’t do without. Of course, under other, less favorable conditions, 400 words will cover only 80% of what you need to know - instead of 90 or 100%.

Vocabulary while reading

When reading, by correctly choosing and remembering well about 80 of the most common, most frequent words, you will understand about 50% of a simple text;

200 words will cover approximately 60%;
300 words - 65%;
400 words - 70%;
800 words - approximately 80%;
1500 - 2000 words - about 90%;
3000 - 4000 - 95%;
and 8,000 words will cover almost 99 percent of the written text.

Example: if you have a text of about 10 thousand words in front of you (this is about 40 printed pages), then, having learned the most necessary 400 words in advance, you will understand about 7000 words that are used in this text.

Note again that the figures we give are indicative only. Depending on various additional conditions, 50 words will cover up to 50 percent of the written text, but in other cases you will need to learn at least 150 words to get the same result.

Vocabulary: 400 to 100,000 words

400 - 500 words - active vocabulary for language proficiency at a basic (threshold) level.
800 - 1000 words - active vocabulary for explaining yourself; or passive vocabulary for reading on basic level.
1500 - 2000 words - an active vocabulary, which is quite enough to ensure everyday communication throughout the day; or a passive vocabulary sufficient for confident reading.
3000 - 4000 words - in general, it is enough for practically free reading of newspapers or literature in the specialty.
About 8000 words - provide full communication for the average European. It is practically not necessary to know more words in order to communicate freely both orally and in writing, as well as to read literature of any kind.
10,000-20,000 words - the active vocabulary of an educated European (on mother tongue).
50,000-100,000 words - the passive vocabulary of an educated European (in their native language).

It should be noted that the stock of words by itself does not yet ensure free communication. However, by mastering 1,500 well-chosen words, with some extra practice, you will be able to communicate almost fluently.

Concerning professional terms, then usually they do not present any particular difficulties, since in most cases this is an international vocabulary that is easy enough to master.

When you already know about 1500 words, you can start reading at a fairly decent level. With a passive knowledge of 3,000 to 4,000 words, you will be fluent in reading literature in your specialty, at least in those areas where you are confidently oriented. In conclusion, we note that, according to calculations carried out by linguists on the material of a number of languages, the average educated European actively uses about 20,000 words (and half of them - quite rarely). At the same time, the passive vocabulary is at least 50,000 words. But all this concerns the native language.

Basic vocabulary

In the pedagogical literature, one can find the terminological combination "basic vocabulary". From my point of view, on maximum level vocabulary is about 8000 words. It seems to me that learning more words, except perhaps for some special purpose, is hardly necessary. Eight thousand words will be enough for full communication in any conditions.

When starting to learn a language, it would be wise to make do with shorter lists. Here are three levels that I have found in practice to give a good guide to the beginner:

level A("basic vocabulary"):

400-500 words. They are enough to cover about 90% of all word usage in everyday oral communication, or about 70% of a simple written text;

level B("minimum vocabulary", "mini-level"):

800-1000 words. They are enough to cover about 95% of all word usage in everyday oral communication, or about 80-85% of written text;

level B("medium vocabulary", "medium level"):

1500-2000 words. They are enough to cover approximately 95-100% of all word usage in everyday oral communication, or about 90% of written text.

An example of a good dictionary of the main vocabulary can be considered a dictionary published by E. Klett in Stuttgart, 1971, entitled "Grundwortschatz Deutsch" ("Basic Vocabulary Fund German language"). It provides 2000 essential words in each of the selected six languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

Eric W. Gunnemark, Swedish polyglot

Every serious lover of anything in the world sooner or later sets on fire with the desire to measure his collection: in money, in volume, in quantity ... The philatelist carefully blows dust off the hundredth mark in the album, Henry Ford polishes the new tire, Rockefeller looks at the number of zeros in the amount stored in the bank, etc. How to be an English lover? Love for English can also be measured. Hours dedicated to study? Words that make up an active vocabulary!

Stocks vary.

No, not firewood for the winter and not sweets under the pillow, as you already understood, but English words in the lexicon. There is nothing shameful or boastful about measuring vocabulary: after all, there is no limit to perfection, but there are intermediate stages on the way to the goal.

Statistics, backed up by practice, says that in order to freely express your thoughts in English, you need only 2000 words. Statistics, backed up by optimism, call the figure 1000-1500 words, and the creators of Basic English are magicians and ours. best friends- only 850 words. Realists and optimists, wait a little with skepticism! Basic English divided into thematic groups words (objects and phenomena, actions and movements, expression of qualities) - a kind of selection of the most hit copies from each category. In fact, frequently used mostly monosyllabic words (514 out of 850), which are easy to remember and pronounce, were selected.

We want to ask everyone who relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief after the announced figures: what do you personally mean by the concept of “speaking freely”? Of course, in order to ask for a window seat at the check-in desk at the airport or order a veal chop in a restaurant, 2000 words are enough. Diving begins where, when answering a question, you will not catch the meaning of unfamiliar words spoken or you will not be able to tell about specific gastronomic preferences in the company of gourmets. And then we multiply 2000 by two and get 4000 words, which will surely allow you not to lose face and keep a conversation in English well done.

Another nuance: so far we have been talking about active vocabulary, i.e. layer of those words that you regularly use in conversation. What you once wrote out in a dictionary and on occasion it is possible (!) Remember the meaning is called passive reserve - words that you seem to know, but most of them lie on the shelves of memory under a layer of dust. Yes, they get into the overall standings, but they do not bring special dividends.

Perfectionists who want more! Outside the language environment, it is quite difficult to learn the 8,000 words that make up the active vocabulary of an English-speaking citizen. It is possible, of course, but with great energy consumption, diligence and methodicalness. With a baggage of 4-5 thousand words, you can safely pack your bags to Britain, the USA or Canada, where you are doomed to expand your vocabulary to the cherished 8-10 thousand units.

Vocabulary gradations

Or how much is needed for complete happiness? You can start with the top 10 or top 100 words in English and already rejoice. A selection of the most commonly used English words around the world will set the right vector for vocabulary replenishment. And we again pick up the ruler and return to simple arithmetic, this time dedicating you to gradations (types) of vocabulary.

400-500 words of active vocabulary - a pass to the world of English and a certificate of language proficiency at a basic level
. 800-1000 "assets" of words will give you the opportunity to explain yourself and talk about everyday topics, the same amount of "passives" will allow you to read simple texts
. 1500-2000 words of "assets" will be rewarded with the opportunity to communicate freely during the day, or the same number of "passives" - with confident reading of more complex texts
. 3000-4000 words bring you closer to almost fluent reading of newspapers or books and magazines in your specialty
. 8000 words guarantee full communication for the average European. This is also enough for free reading and writing thoughts.
. up to 13,000 words characterize a highly educated person learning English as a foreign language.

How to determine and check the vocabulary of the English language?

Find out on the accounts? Marking familiar words in the dictionary? Let's not reinvent the wheel and borrow the answer from the creators of the test, which can weigh your vocabulary with an error of up to 10% in 2-3 minutes. The link to the test will be in a minute, but for now, a brief instruction on its use and the answer to the question "how it works."

The developers took as a basis a dictionary of 70,000 words, discarded obsolete, compound words, scientific terms and derivatives from each other, having received as a result already 45,000. Then they sorted by frequency of use, sincerely admitting that the last 10,000 out of 45,000 are extremely rare, so that even a respectable Briton may not feel remorse, having never used them in his life. From the test for English vocabulary, words were excluded, the meaning of which can be obtained by friendship with logic.

The whole test consists of two pages: each contains English words in several columns without any logical sequence. If you know at least one of the possible meanings of the word, then confidently put a tick next to it. The task is the same on two pages, only on the second page the program selects words from those unfamiliar from the first page, as if wanting to make sure that you really do not know them. No sleight of hand, no cheating: the only condition is to be honest with yourself and not overdo it with the number of ticks.

We invite you to take a test for a couple of minutes, and then return to our article for debriefing. We have already prepared a line :)

We measure the results

And now you are left alone with your test result. How did others do? Statistics collected after passing this test says that among non-native speakers, the majority of respondents received in the end from 3 to 7 thousand words. There are noticeably fewer owners of 7-10 thousand words, and even fewer from 11 to 30 thousand (oddly enough, even 30-thousanders honored this test with their attention).

Among those for whom English is native, the situation looks different: a cosmic vocabulary of 30,000 words for non-native speakers is the norm for 30-year-old English-speaking friends. The average result of the previous category of 3-7 thousand is typical for children 5-6 years old. Do not forget that just at this age the world is actively explored and the entire surrounding family with 30,000 deposits around is not actively silent.

Summing up

What should be (English) vocabulary) to solve certain problems (reading English literature, communicating on everyday topics, conducting business correspondence, watching television, etc.)? Many English learners ask themselves this question.

Today we will talk specifically about the vocabulary of the English language for various levels and you will find out what opportunities each of these levels opens up for you. First, let's find out what a vocabulary is. Vocabulary is a set of words that a person owns. It is divided into active (words that a person uses himself in writing and speaking) and passive (words that a person recognizes when reading or speaking, but does not use them himself). It is obvious that the passive margin significantly exceeds the active one. It is worth noting that vocabulary should be understood not only as knowledge of words, but also their correct pronunciation, spelling and speech recognition.

How many words are in English?

It is rather difficult to answer this question. The history of Great Britain is confusing in this regard - the Iberians (the most ancient population British Isles), Celts (came from modern Belgium and France), Picts (lat. piches- painted), the 400-year domination of the Romans, the invasion of the West Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Nomes, Frisians), the raids of the Scandinavians and, finally, the Normans (Northern France, King William the Conqueror), led to the fact that the words in the English language became very a lot of. The famous Oxford English Dictionary, which contains only English words and expressions, has about 600,000 English words. But according to the linguistic portal Global Language Monitor, which also includes hybrid words from dialects (Chinese English, Spanish English, computer jargon and others), there are already more than a million words in English. In practice, the vocabulary of a person for whom the language is native is an order of magnitude smaller than all the words in the language. For example, an educated native English speaker averages between 12,000 and 18,000 words. For comparison, I would say that Dictionary living Great Russian language "V. I. Dal has about 200,000 words, 30,000 of which are the most used, and a person with higher education knows about 10,000 Russian words. (Wikipedia).

English vocabulary for different levels

And how can one or another English vocabulary be used?

In order to be able to speak fluently or read at a basic level (Elementary / Pre-Intermediate), you need to have about 1000 words in stock.
If you have about 2500 words in your asset, you can already communicate quite tolerably on everyday topics, read at an average level.
At 4000-5000 words - you communicate freely in different topics, read newspapers and special literature, watch and listen to TV / radio programs (understanding the basic meaning).
With a vocabulary of 8,000 words or more, you can already communicate at the level of an average native speaker. This reserve is enough to feel confident among the carriers in almost any situation. You can read any English literature, watch movies, have conversations on a variety of topics.

Now you understand what English vocabulary You need to achieve your goals in your life. Having reached a certain level of English proficiency, you need to constantly maintain it. It should be remembered that if you do not use the language actively, do not practice English in Everyday life, then you can easily lose your skills acquired by such painstaking work. Your active English vocabulary will shift towards passive. How to make sure that this does not happen? The ideal solution would be to stay in English speaking country. In this case, you will have constant practice and your level of language proficiency will naturally improve and increase. But what if this is not possible? In my article, I described in detail the various approaches to learning English and effective ways maintaining motivation. To test your English vocabulary, you can use the good Test your vocab service.

You can also check out other articles on vocabulary learning.

Hi all! Each language contains a certain number of lexemes. The complete vocabulary of English has about 300,000 words. Of course, such a figure will discourage a beginner from wanting to learn a foreign language. However, I hasten to reassure you that you will not need to learn all these lexemes, since even educated native speakers have an arsenal of about 100,000 words. Today we will find out how many English words you need to know in order to speak English fluently. Minimum Vocabulary There are methods of learning English, in which students are forced to learn up to 200 words daily. For some, this approach is applicable, but for the majority, these numbers remain incomprehensible, and the learned words do not bring them closer to free communication with native speakers. In my opinion, the best organization of classes is, on the contrary, the economy of words, that is, memorizing less, but more efficiently.

Do not chase quantity, quality should be your prerogative. It is much better if you know 1000 words by heart than to know 3000-4000 lexemes badly. Each teacher determines his own minimum required number of lexemes. But only you can decide how many words you need to know so that they are necessary and sufficient to achieve your goals.

As experience shows, a minimum vocabulary of 450 correctly chosen lexemes can compensate for about 90% of the vocabulary required for free everyday communication in English. For a comfortable English reading, it will take a little more words, but passively. With knowledge of approximately 1600 lexemes, you will be able to navigate freely in artistic and journalistic texts.

The famous teacher, polyglot and methodologist E. Gunnemark made calculations of the necessary vocabulary for the English language, dividing them into several categories.
So, he calculated that for oral speech it would be enough to learn from 40 to 1000 correctly selected, most frequent words:

40 lexemes will cover about 50% of everyday use in communication
200 words will already raise this figure to 80%
300 lexical units will add a few more percent - 85%
450 words is almost 90%
900-1000 - almost 98% of what you can say or hear in everyday conversation

I note that these indicators are not exact calculations, but a general idea of how many units you need to remember in order to feel confident when communicating with native English speakers. E. Gunnemark A well-known polyglot found out that for reading, you will need to pick up and learn about 80 - 8000 high-frequency words in order to understand an ordinary simple text:

80 words will help to understand about 50% of the text
200 units - 60%
400 tokens - cover about 70%
2000 words - approximately 90%
8000 lexical units will help you understand written or printed text at 100%

Again, these are just indicative numbers. In some cases, you will be able to understand the text, knowing only 45 words, and in others, you will not have enough knowledge even 1,000.

Why know 100,000 words?

You ask, why do we need 100,000 words, if only a few thousand are enough for communication? On the one hand, you are right - this number of lexemes is quite enough for everyday conversations. BUT - this is the minimum vocabulary. If you want to become a full-fledged, educated member of society who will be able to carry on a conversation on any topic that a native English speaker will offer, then you need to constantly increase your vocabulary. Rich vocabulary What gives a rich vocabulary:

350-700 words - enough for language proficiency at a threshold level
800-1200 lexemes - an active arsenal for communication or a passive reserve for reading at a beginner level
1500-2500 units - confident reading or fluent communication on everyday topics
3000-7000 words - free reading of specialized literature and the press
8000-9000 lexemes - full-fledged oral and written communication reading any kind of literature
10,000-40,000 words - active vocabulary of the speaker
50,000-100,000 units - a passive arsenal of words for an educated native speaker of English

Thus, for you as a foreigner, knowing 9,000 English words will be enough to confidently study, work and live among English speakers.

I also note that the knowledge of this vocabulary in itself does not guarantee you free communication. To be able to speak a foreign language requires practice and constant training, knowledge of basic knowledge of English grammar and syntax.

With regard to international vocabulary and special terms, here you should not have any particular difficulties. Since it is enough to check these words once with the term in the native language and remember.

Core vocabulary levels

In pedagogical practice, teachers and linguists distinguish several levels of the basic vocabulary, which serve as a guide for the beginner. They significantly reduced the huge gradation by creating a list of three main levels:

Level A— basic vocabulary and phrase stock — 350 — 500 lexemes. This amount is quite enough to cover about 85-90% of all uses in daily oral conversation or about 70% of plain text in writing.
Level B- mini-level or minimum vocabulary - phrasal stock - 900 -1000 units. This number is enough to make up for approximately 95% of uses in everyday spoken conversation and approximately 85% of simple printed text.
Level C- media level or average vocabulary - 1200-2000 words. This amount is enough to compensate for almost 100% of the use of phrases in everyday oral communication or about 90% of a literary text.

According to this gradation, 2,000 words are enough for a beginner for everyday communication in English. Again, I note that everything is relative, and only you determine for yourself how many English words you need to know. But it’s also not worth overloading yourself with a lot of unnecessary information.

Although textbooks are aimed at working on expanding vocabulary, it must be said that this is only auxiliary material necessary for learning really useful words and phrases, phraseological units used in everyday life by native speakers. After passing the lesson according to the textbook, the most important thing begins - the introduction of new lexical units into your spoken and written speech.

To do this, we offer several options:

keeping a diary in English;
viewing and analysis of videos, films and series;
reading adapted and original literature;
oral communication in English, correspondence with native speakers.

By using the best English language textbooks for learning vocabulary, you will be able to progress in your learning much more effectively. After all, it is not in vain that they say that it is a poor vocabulary that slows down a person and does not give him the opportunity to advance in learning English.
Learning materials designed to increase vocabulary will help you work productively with lexical material, which will allow you to improve your listening comprehension. Of course, sometimes we isolate individual words from a fast flow of speech, but basically the problem lies in a very limited vocabulary.
Of course, by constantly working on increasing your vocabulary, it will become much easier for you to express your thoughts in English in the process of communication.

Well, now, let's start reviewing the best textbooks in our opinion, which will gradually help develop your vocabulary. Let's start with best series textbooks for those who aspire to speak like a native speaker - English collocation in use.

Download the text of the book English Collocations in Use Intermediate in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 7226) .

Download the text of the book English Collocations in Use Advanced in .pdf format using a direct link (downloads: 3219) .

We have repeatedly emphasized that words must be taught in context, and this textbook is just what you need. Each textbook (depending on the level) contains the most common, so to speak, well-established phrases.

The textbooks are divided into levels and each contains 60 lessons. These materials are ideal for self-study for vocabulary development. At the end of each textbook there are keys (answers) to exercises and various tasks.

Download the text of the book English Vocabulary in Use Elementary in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 4510) .

Download the text of the book English Vocabulary in Use Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 4269) .

Download the text of the book English Vocabulary in Use Upper-Intermediate in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 3588) .

Download the text of the book English Vocabulary in Use Advanced in .pdf format using a direct link (downloads: 2801) .

These materials are suitable for both beginners and those who have been studying English for a long time, but all to no avail.

A series of textbooks Test Your Vocabulary.

Five books from this + Start series are units (lessons) that help you test your knowledge of vocabulary by completing various tasks, solving crossword puzzles, and so on. During the tests, you will have the opportunity to significantly replenish your vocabulary.

Download the text of the book Test Your Vocabulary Start in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 2527) .

Download the text of the book Test Your Vocabulary 1 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1854) .

Download the text of the book Test Your Vocabulary 2 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1436) .

Download the text of the book Test Your Vocabulary 3 in .pdf format using a direct link (downloads: 1460) .

Download the text of the book Test Your Vocabulary 4 in .pdf format using a direct link (downloads: 1525) .

Download the text of the book Test Your Vocabulary 5 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1458) .

Key Words for Fluency- An interesting series of benefits that will help expand your passive vocabulary. Each textbook contains 22 thematic lessons. For each word, the authors of the textbook selected about 10 words, in conjunction with which they are regularly used in real life. Memorizing basic phrases will help you learn how to use English prepositions in right time and in the right place.

Download the text of the book Key Words for Fluency Pre-Intermediate in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 3295) .

Download the text of the book Key Words for Fluency Intermediate in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 2260) .

Download the text of the book Key Words for Fluency Upper-Intermediate in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 2173) .

4000 Essential English Words- a series of textbooks that is ideal for students with an elementary level of knowledge. With each book, the words will become more difficult. But the most important thing is that there are no archaisms or rarely used words. 4000 is not an unfounded statement. Each textbook has 30 lessons, and in each of them, the compilers of the textbook offer English learners 20 new words. By completing all the tutorials in this series, you will have learned 3,600,000 words, plus another 400 words from the appendices given at the end of the tutorial.

Download the text of the book 4000 Essential English Words 1 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 3987) .

Download the text of the book 4000 Essential English Words 2 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1905) .

Download the text of the book 4000 Essential English Words 3 in .pdf format using a direct link (downloads: 1800) .

Download the text of the book 4000 Essential English Words 4 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1757) .

Download the text of the book 4000 Essential English Words 5 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1763) .

Download the text of the book 4000 Essential English Words 6 in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 1807) .

Among the textbooks that deserve your attention, it is necessary to include a series of textbooks - English Vocabulary Organizer. These benefits can also be used on your own. Although there are exercises that involve oral dialogues with the teacher, this block of tasks can be completed independently. The manual is accompanied by a disk, which also contains various kinds of exercises. The textbook itself contains texts with new words and exercises for better memorization.

Download the text of the book English Vocabulary Organizer with key in .pdf format via a direct link (downloads: 2491) .

For all beginners who want to master English idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs, we advise you to take a closer look at the textbooks of the series Can you believe it. Here you will find real stories with full explanations and exercises to consolidate the material.

Download the text of the book Can You Believe It? 1: Stories and Idioms from Real Life: 1 Book in pdf format via direct link (downloads: 2933) .

Download the text of the book Can You Believe It? 2: Stories and Idioms from Real Life: 2 Book in pdf format via direct link (downloads: 1801) .

Download the text of the book Can You Believe It? 3: Stories and Idioms from Real Life: 3 Book in pdf format via direct link (downloads: 1689) .

Since beginners to learn English may encounter elementary misunderstandings while reading authentic textbooks, we decided to give them several examples of vocabulary expansion textbooks written in Russian.

1.Karavanova - 250 phrasal verbs.

IN study guide collected 250 most common English verbs. The textbook gives 5-7 basic verbs and phrasal verbs with them. Then you need to perform a lot of exercises to consolidate the knowledge gained.

Download the text of the book 250 most common English phrasal verbs. Karavanova N.B. in .pdf format via direct link (downloads: 2023) .

2.Ilchenko. Phrasal verbs in English.

This manual can be called a completely complete textbook for both beginners and continuing students who are faced with the need to learn phrasal verbs. Most importantly, new phrasal verbs are given in context, which will help you use them correctly in everyday communication or writing an essay. Yes, it's hard not to remember them. All information in the manual is divided into thematic blocks and contains the most necessary phrasal verbs for real life.