There's some similar statistics for Japanese novels here: http://pomax.nihongoresources.com/index.php?entry=1223045359 http://pomax.nihongoresources.com/index.p

There's some similar statistics for Japanese novels here: http://pomax.nihongoresources.com/index.php?entry=1223045359 http://pomax.nihongoresources.com/index.php?entry=1223045359 which I think show that the problem is not at the "most common" end of the distribution but at the "least common" end. The jump between '80% understanding' and '90% understanding' requires knowing an extra 5341 words, 90% to 95% needs another 7495, and so on. Basically the long tail is really nasty, and even 90% understanding is still not knowing one word in ten...