Slower than in your own language, and that's normal. Adults read English fiction silently at about 260 words a minute on average, while second-language readers below 100 are common. Paul Nation suggests about 250 words a minute as a goal for easy text with no unknown words, and notes that much below 100 can hurt comprehension.
How fast do people read?
Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review pooled 190 studies with 18,573 participants. Adults reading English silently averaged 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction; most fell between 175 and 300 for non-fiction and between 200 and 320 for fiction. Reading aloud averaged 183.
Second-language readers are considerably slower, and Brysbaert notes that rates below 100 are not uncommon.
| Readers | Speed |
|---|---|
| Japanese university students reading easy English, who answered more than 75% of questions correctly (Hirai, 1999) | 139 wpm |
| The same study, students who answered fewer correctly | 61 wpm |
| Proficient Dutch–English bilinguals reading a novel in English rather than Dutch (Cop et al., 2015) | 17% slower in English |
| Readers in their second language vs their first (Dirix et al., 2019) | 174 vs 189 wpm |
Brysbaert puts the slowdown down mainly to exposure: readers recognise words they have met less often more slowly. Speeds also differ between languages because some need more words to say the same thing. Native silent-reading averages in his data include 278 wpm for Spanish, 285 for Italian, 260 for German, 228 for Dutch and 214 for French.
What speed should you aim for?
Paul Nation gives three targets for foreign-language learners reading material with no unknown words or grammar:
| Kind of reading | Target |
|---|---|
| Reading aloud | About 150 wpm |
| Careful silent reading | About 250 wpm |
| Skimming for the gist | About 500 wpm |
He explains why 250 is close to the ceiling: careful reading means looking at most words, and the eye can only manage about 300 words a minute that way. Anything over 400 is skimming. In the other direction, reading much more slowly than 100 words a minute can make it hard to hold a sentence together and understand it.
Nation is also clear that speed isn't everything. Pressure to go faster can be stressful and spoil the enjoyment of reading; he sees reading faster as giving you a choice, not an obligation. For stories in a new language, comprehension comes first.
How long does a Contos chapter take to read?
Not long, even at beginner speeds. We measured chapters 1–2 of every series in the 13 Contos languages written in Latin or Cyrillic script.
| Level | Median length | Shortest–longest | At 60 wpm | At 100 wpm | At 150 wpm | At 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | 161 words | 98–242 | 2 min 40 s | 1 min 37 s | 1 min 4 s | 39 s |
| A2 | 227 words | 148–402 | 3 min 47 s | 2 min 16 s | 1 min 31 s | 54 s |
| B1 | 293 words | 179–391 | 4 min 53 s | 2 min 56 s | 1 min 57 s | 1 min 10 s |
| B2 | 363 words | 222–489 | 6 min 3 s | 3 min 38 s | 2 min 25 s | 1 min 27 s |
Word counts don't compare neatly across languages. A Turkish A1 chapter averages 129 words against 181 in Spanish, because Turkish packs into one long word what Spanish spreads over several. Japanese, Korean and Chinese are left out: word counts there depend on how the text is divided. Brysbaert, for example, estimated Chinese words from characters at 1.5 characters a word.
How do you read faster?
- Read easy text in quantity. Nation recommends reading well below your usual level, with virtually no unknown words, in large amounts, alongside harder reading for new vocabulary. Our page on extensive reading covers the volume side.
- Reread. Rereading a text you know trains speed directly. In Chang and Millett's 2013 study, learners who read each passage five times gained about 45 words a minute even on new texts; see rereading.
- Time yourself occasionally. Divide the words by the minutes. Watch the trend, not a single reading.
- Don't force it. If comprehension drops, slow down. A faster pace is only worth having if you still follow the story.
Time yourself reading one chapter at your level, then work out your words per minute from the table above.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
Is it bad to read slowly in a new language?
Not at first. Second-language readers are slower than native readers, and rates under 100 words a minute are common. Nation notes the suggestion that reading much below 100 words a minute can hurt comprehension, because you lose the thread of a sentence. Easy text and rereading bring the speed up.
What is a good reading speed in a foreign language?
Nation suggests about 250 words a minute for careful silent reading of text with no unknown words, the same ballpark as native readers. Comprehension matters more than speed, and a speed that drops your understanding isn't an improvement.
Does speed reading work?
Not at extreme speeds. Brysbaert cites a review showing that reading faster than 1,000 words a minute is impossible without serious loss of understanding. Above about 400 words a minute, Nation says, you're skimming, not reading every word.
Why can't I compare my speed in Japanese or Chinese with English?
Because "words per minute" depends on what counts as a word. Chinese and Japanese aren't traditionally written with spaces, so studies estimate words from characters, and languages differ in how many words they need for the same message.