There is one major difference between receptive and productive words in English. In receptive vocabulary, you are in receptive control of the words, which means reading or hearing. In productive vocabulary, you are in productive control of the words, which means writing or speaking. Here is some detailed knowledge about both the concepts.
Receptive Vocabulary in English
In easier terms, if you can understand the meaning of a word by reading or hearing it, it is your receptive vocabulary. It can be any word. Maybe a word you’ve never heard of or maybe a word you hear almost every day.
But, your receptive vocabulary is probably greater than your productive vocabulary in most cases. This is also easier. We all begin our lives by hearing. The best example here is of toddlers.
They can understand and hear phrases better they can speak or even write about them. Almost every educated adult has a very large receptive vocabulary in English.
- Another example can be of today’s teenagers. Most teenagers can type text messages in fluent English better than speaking in English with somebody. Here is an application:
- If you tell a baby, “It’s time to eat!”, the baby will understand that its dinner time quite before it is able to write or say that it wants to have dinner.
Productive Vocabulary in English
Productive Vocabulary is basically determined by the number of words we can write or speak. It is also called as Active vocabulary. Our Productive vocabularies are restricted.
- It may range anywhere from 5000-10000 words. It is lesser than our receptive vocabulary because we can hear and perceive the words even if they are tough for us.
- But for speaking and writing for ourselves, we only use words that we are familiar with and comfortable with. Even the writing part of our vocabulary is affected by the words we know and can spell.
We hope you have now understood the difference between two common vocabulary types. Keep exploring EnglishBix for more quality resources on vocabulary related to different aspects of life.
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