No official body fixes a number. The National Institute of Korean Language's learner list has 5,965 words in three grades, starting with 982 basic ones. English research puts unassisted novel reading at 8,000–9,000 word families. Contos moves you up at 500 known words (A2), 1,500 (B1) and 4,000 (B2), counting each spaced form you know.
- NIKL learner word list (2003)
- 5,965 words: 982 grade A, 2,111 grade B, 2,872 grade C
- Novels (English research)
- 8,000–9,000 word families for 98% coverage
- Contos level-ups
- A2 at 500, B1 at 1,500, B2 at 4,000 known words
- Forms of 있다 in our free chapters
- More than 50, from 있다 to 있으셨어요
- Free Korean chapters in Contos
- 96 chapters, 16,149 spaced words (October 2026)
What counts as a word in Korean?
Korean puts a space after each word together with everything attached to it: particles on nouns, endings on verbs. Linguists call that spaced unit an eojeol. It means a dictionary word and a word on the page are not the same thing. Take 편지 (letter). In the free chapters of the Contos Korean library (October 2026) it appears in eleven spaced forms:
| Spaced form | Romanised | Built from | Times in the free chapters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 편지를 | pyeonjireul | 편지 + 를 (object) | 32 |
| 편지 | pyeonji | on its own | 12 |
| 편지가 | pyeonjiga | 편지 + 가 (subject) | 6 |
| 편지는 | pyeonjineun | 편지 + 는 (topic) | 6 |
| 편지의 | pyeonjiui | 편지 + 의 (of) | 3 |
| 편지다 | pyeonjida | 편지 + 다 (is) | 2 |
| 편지들을 | pyeonjideureul | 편지 + 들 (plural) + 을 | 2 |
| 편지에는, 편지에, 편지들은, 편지였다니 | pyeonjieneun, pyeonjie… | with in (topic), in, plural topic, was | 1 each |
Verbs multiply even faster. 있다 (to be there, to have) appears in more than 50 different spaced forms, among them 있다, 있어요, 있습니다, 있었다, 있는 and 있을까요. Each ending adds tense, politeness or a link to the next clause.
Contos counts what you meet on the page, so 편지를 and 편지가 are two known words there. That makes its level thresholds stricter for Korean than a count of dictionary words would be. Research on vocabulary size, by contrast, usually counts word families: a headword plus its inflected and derived forms.
How many words do Korean learners need?
Korea's own reference point is the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL), which published a learner word list in May 2003. It contains 5,965 words, each listed with its rank in the Institute's 2002 survey of word frequency in modern Korean, sorted into three grades:
| NIKL grade | Words | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| A (stage 1) | 982 | 982 |
| B (stage 2) | 2,111 | 3,093 |
| C (stage 3) | 2,872 | 5,965 |
These are dictionary words, so each one hides many spaced forms. The best-known research on how many words reading takes comes from Paul Nation's 2006 study of English: to know 98% of the running words, novels need 8,000–9,000 word families and spoken English 6,000–7,000. Korean figures will differ, but the order of magnitude explains why graded stories come first. The vocabulary coverage page explains the 98% idea and its limits.
What does the Contos library show at each level?
For each level we took every spaced form used in the free chapters below it and measured how much of that level's free chapters they cover.
| Level | Contos moves you up at | Different spaced forms in the free chapters | Covered by every form from the levels below |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Start here | About 1,200 | — |
| A2 | 500 known words | About 1,900 | About 42% |
| B1 | 1,500 known words | About 2,400 | About 52% |
| B2 | 4,000 known words | About 3,100 | About 60% |
The coverage is much lower than in European languages, and particles are the reason. A reader who met 목소리가 and 목소리로 (voice) in the A1 chapters still meets 목소리는 and 목소리를 as new forms at A2. Most of what looks new is a familiar word with a new ending, which is why reading in Korean gets easier faster than the numbers suggest.
It also explains how scattered Korean forms are. In the free A1 chapters, 64% of the different spaced forms occur only once. You learn them by recognising the stem, not by meeting each form again.
Which Korean words should you learn first?
The core verbs and their commonest endings. In the free A1 chapters, the most frequent forms are 있다 (there is), 본다 (sees), 말한다 (says), 있습니다 (there is, formal) and 간다 (goes), plus the names of the characters. The 100 most frequent spaced forms make up about 38% of all A1 text.
This line has two of them, and a noun you have just met in its subject form:
테이블 위에 또 다른 편지가 있다.Teibeul wie tto dareun pyeonjiga itda.
Next, the particles themselves: 은/는, 이/가, 을/를, 에 and 의. They are short and few, but they appear on most nouns. Our guide to whether Korean is hard explains how they replace English word order.
After that, frequency lists help as a checklist. The NIKL grade A list is a good map of the first thousand words, and a Sino-Korean root you meet once, such as 관 (hall) in 도서관 (library), often unlocks several more.
How do you get to 500, 1,500 and 4,000 words?
- First 500: core verbs, particles and everyday nouns. Read A1 stories and save the forms that stop you. Many will be a verb you know with an ending you don't.
- 500 to 1,500: endings and connectors. At A2, sentences grow from about three spaced words to more than four, joined by endings such as -고 (and) and -지만 (but).
- 1,500 to 4,000: Sino-Korean vocabulary. At B1 and B2 the words get longer and more abstract. Learning the roots pays off here.
- Count what you recognise in context. Reading needs recognition, not perfect recall. Flashcards catch the rest; see why spaced repetition works.
For how those stages translate into months, see how long it takes to learn Korean, and for a ready-made first month, the 30-day Korean reading plan.
Start an A1 Korean story and save the forms that stop you. Tap any word for its meaning.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
How many words do I need for TOPIK level 1?
The TOPIK organisers publish levels and pass marks, not word counts. As a guide, the NIKL learner list's first grade has 982 words, and Contos moves readers from A1 to A2 at 500 known spaced forms. See our guide to Korean CEFR levels and TOPIK.
Why does Contos count 편지를 and 편지가 as two words?
Because Korean writes them as two different spaced units, and each is a separate thing to recognise on the page. It makes the Contos thresholds stricter for Korean than counts of dictionary words or word families.
Is 1,000 Korean words enough to have a conversation?
Enough for slow, simple exchanges on familiar topics, especially if they include the core verbs and the polite -요 endings. Following natural speech takes far more: Nation's estimate for English listening is 6,000–7,000 word families.
Should I memorise a Korean frequency list?
Use it as a checklist rather than a script. Words met in a story come with their particles and context, which a list can't give you. A list tells you which ones are worth a flashcard when you meet them.
Do Sino-Korean roots really help?
Yes, once you have a few hundred words. Many longer Korean words are built from Chinese-derived syllables that keep their meaning, so 관 (hall) links 도서관, 영화관 and 박물관. Learn the root when it first repeats.