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How many Japanese words do I need to know?

Commonly used JLPT word lists suggest about 711 words for N5, about 1,369 by N4, 3,498 by N3, 5,260 by N2 and roughly 7,934 for N1. These lists are unofficial: the JLPT itself has published no vocabulary list since 2010.

LevelWords at this levelCumulative
N5711711
N46581,369
N32,1293,498
N21,7625,260
N12,6747,934

Do I need all of them?

No. The most frequent words do most of the work in everyday speech. Start with the N5 list, learn words you meet in real Japanese, and add the next level when N5 feels comfortable.

How fast can I learn them?

It depends on your time and memory, so start small: a handful of new words a day, with your reviews done first, is a sustainable pace you can raise later. I Love Kanji measures how many you can actually handle and adjusts the amount – start with N5.

Word counts are from the community JLPT lists used throughout this site – sources & methodology.

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Last reviewed 2026-10-09 by the I Love Kanji team.