Spanish level test

What this test measures

How many of the most used Spanish words you know when you read them. That number decides most of how a book feels: when you know nearly every word on a page, you can follow the story and pick up the rest as you go. It is a reading estimate, not a speaking, listening or exam grade, and not a CEFR certificate.

How we estimate your vocabulary

The words come from frequency bands of written Spanish (the wordfreq word list, CC BY-SA 4.0): the 1,000 most used words, then up to 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, 8,000 and 10,000. From each band you see a few words; the share you know, times the size of the band, gives your estimate. Made-up words that look real are mixed in: each one you tap lowers the estimate a little, so guessing does not raise it. A word counts once with its forms (habla, hablo and hablar are one word). The three sentences do not change the number; they confirm the suggested level and move it down one step if two are missed. This is our own short word-recognition test, informed by vocabulary research such as the yes/no test of Meara and Buxton (1987) and the Vocabulary Size Test of Nation and Beglar (2007), which uses a different, longer method.

How we choose your books

Every book in our learner lists has a level measured on its own words: Easy when at least 89 of every 100 of its words are among the 2,000 most used, Medium when at least 93 of every 100 are among the 5,000 most used, Challenging beyond that. Your estimate picks the level, and we suggest three different kinds of book at it.

What it cannot tell you

It cannot test grammar, speaking or listening, and a short test gives an imprecise estimate. If a suggested book needs too many lookups, try one level easier.

Questions