# How many words does your toddler say? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 7, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057 "2004-05-07T19:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/1 "2004-05-07T19:13:18Z")
Michael, my 18-month-old son, has a few words under his belt. Here’s what he says: baaaal? = Ball, toy, or other object with which he can interact (always with the questioning intonation at the end) gaaaat = Cat bah-beh = Baby (him) buh-baa = Daddy (I think I’ll have to convince him to call me something else when he gets older) Maa-maa = Mommy (But only when he’s mad) eye = Eye (just the other day, he got this one) He says lots of other things, but I haven’t the slightest what he means 90% of the time. (Now I await the poster who says “My son’s 18-months-old and solving quadratic equations.”) ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/2 "2004-05-07T19:21:13Z")
My first two started talking very early. Third one was just too busy being funny to bother to talk - she just turned three and she’s finally able to talk “legibly”. I think part of her problem was she was trying to say 30 year old things but her 2 year old tongue was tripping her up. And my daugher was at _least_ 2 before she started on the quadratic equations 😉 ---
**Author:** ![malkavia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malkavia/32/5621_2.png) [@malkavia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malkavia)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/3 "2004-05-07T19:28:14Z")
My son is 9, and has quite an extensive vocabulary. 😉 I don’t really remember what all he said at 18 mos, but my dad’s girlfriend has twin boys that just turned 4. When I first met them they’d recently turned 3 and sort of had a weird “twin speak” between them. I have no idea what they said most of the time… but they did names pretty good. I’m “SHAH-AN” (Shannon), and my boyfriend is “DOHWK!” (Jon) _laugh_ The kids, they’re great judges of character. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/4 "2004-05-07T22:02:38Z")
DangerBaby is 13 months and not exactly a toddler, since she doesn’t walk and shows no interest in standing. But she has, I think, six words: bah: depending on emphasis can mean bottle or ball bah-bah: bye bye Mama DA!: Daddy uh-oh And a whole lot of gibberish that sounds exactly like sentences. Her older sister had more words, but less gibberish. Both of them are more talkers than movers. It’s pretty cute when Dad comes home, and though she hasn’t said “Da” all day, she suddenly breaks out into frenzied “DA”-ing. ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_Jass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@Hugh\_Jass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_Jass)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/5 "2004-05-07T22:32:55Z")
My best friend has a son that turned two in March. His vocabulary: hot down Papa Mama Jim (me) belly button (technically, bay button) truck car bug choo choo juice no green blue movie (Thomas the Tank Engine videos) Buh-Bah (His blanket) Mimi (His bunny) poo poo beans (this means jellybeans and refried beans). I taught him eyes, nose, and mouth last night, but he’s a little foggy on the concepts. I suppose that’s not too shabby a vocabulary for a little feller. It pretty much addresses his entire universe. He can count to three as well. And knows all the animal sounds. Moo. Ruff. Meow. Quack (The standards). He can make the Woo Woo sound of a train. And sing La La La. He understands quite a bit more, though. He can point at the right grandparent when asked to. He knows the name of the family pets. ---
**Author:** ![angelicate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@angelicate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelicate)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/6 "2004-05-08T00:40:23Z")
My daughter will be 15 months old in a couple of weeks. She says: Mama Dada Bird Baby Hi Bye Yay What’s that? Peekaboo Boo She said “Hi, Aunt Dawn!” once, clear as day, but that hasn’t happened again. ---
**Author:** ![DaddyTimesTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@DaddyTimesTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaddyTimesTwo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/7 "2004-05-08T01:11:06Z")
My son is 4 and it seems like he’s always talked. I know for sure he knew maybe 20 (mostly understandable) words at 15 months. He was speaking in sentences by his second birthday. My daughter is 2 1/2 and speaks less understandably than my son did at 15 months. But the difference as mentioned by **dangermom** is that my daughter is much more a mover than a talker and my son is more talker than mover. I figure by first grade everything should even out. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/8 "2004-05-08T01:13:19Z")
China Bambina at 20 months spoke practically zero. Mama and Baba for mother and father. By 24 months she could speak understandable compound sentences in 3 languages. Her English proununciation is pretty good at nearly 4 years old now. I am a bear about correcting her proununciation. I’ve tought English as a second language in the past and just can’t help myself from correcting Chin-glish into decent California speak ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/9 "2004-05-08T02:35:59Z")
Is 3-years still considered a toddler? My adorable redheaded niece, Natalie, just turned three and she has the most amazing vocabulary and speaking ablity I have _ever_ heard in a child that age. She started, I think, before she was 12 months old, too. She can repeat _anything_ you say to her, with perfect pronunciation, and she remembers how to use the word. She constructs sentences with astonishing skill. She’s even singing back songs she hears on the radio. On key. Natalie makes some interesting connections, too. My mom was taking care of my nieces one day, and I stopped by for a visit. The girls were watching Shrek on TV. When I walked in, Natalie looked at me, looked back at the television, looked at me again and shrieked at the top of her voice, “SHREK!” (I have a shaved head, so I guess there was a resemblance…) Natalie’s big sister, Katie, who will turn six later this month, barely spoke at all until she was past two years old. Before that, she made do with a large repertoire of hand signals and gestures. ---
**Author:** ![Sami41](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sami41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sami41)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/10 "2004-05-08T13:44:35Z")
My 2 yr old nephew, Ethan, says “Eh” for everything, and pretty much continually the entire time he is awake. He understands everything we say to him, but his only reply is “Eh.” “Ethan, bring me the ball” “Eh” “Ethan, look what you’re brother’s doing” “Eh” “Ethan, come here” “Eh” He does whatever you’re asking him to do. He just doesn’t have anything to say about it all. I spent Easter back home at my nephews’ place (well, my sister’s place–but the kids run the house). In 2 days he said nothing but “Eh”. Then, as I’m leaving, walking through the drive-way to my truck I hear, clear as day, “Bye-Bye.” I thought it was his older brother until I remembered the brother was napping at the time. So, I turned around, and sure as hell, the Kid Who Says Eh was waving and_saying_ “Bye-bye.” So, he knows 1 word, twice. I’d say your kiddo’s ahead of the curve. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/11 "2004-05-08T14:50:51Z")
Twin two-year-olds that I visited last summer seemed to have very good twinspeak going on. They were also VERY good at inflectinmg gibberish syllables when they knew what they were trying to say… for example, they watched that god-forsaken Wiggles song-and-dance troupe from Australia, and one of the running gags is that one of the characters always falls asleep, so the actors (and presumably the kids at home) count, “One, two, three, WAKE UP, JEFF!” They inflected their grunts just like the actors, and would use random syllables and raise their voices question-style at the end when asking for something, but had very limited vocabulary otherwise. “Go,” “bye,” “Elmo,” “puzzle,” that sort of thing. They did, however, have two older brothers and a big group of people who did their talking for them. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/12 "2004-05-08T16:35:57Z")
My two year old has a pretty good vocabulary–she’s been jabbering since about 15 months, but has lately added quite a number of words and phrases. She says all the basics–Mama and Daddy, plus her name (Sheila) and her siblings names (Charlotte and Jason), her grandparents various titles, and aunts and uncles and cousins’ names. We’ve also taught her to say “Yes, sir,” and “Yes ma’am,” although she uses them interchangeably with either gender! She can say the names of most of her body parts. She can name several cartoon characters and kid’s show characters (like the Wiggles). She can (to an extent) sing the ABC’s (on key most of the time too!). She can say some numbers (and gets the ones she can say in the proper order!). Then there’s: Thank you You’re welcome Here you go! I love you (too) Eat Cup Drink Taco Hamburger Cheese Sandwich Peanut butter Hug Kiss Down Outside Kitty Baby Book Hi Bye TV Movie Uh-huh Uh-uh Uh-oh Stop it! I’m sorry It’s all right! Burp (the word, not just the action!) Toot (ditto) Excuse me! (and once–excuse YOU) These words are spoken with varying degrees of clarity, of course. But I think she’s got a pretty good grasp on the English language! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/13 "2004-05-08T16:49:49Z")
I just had to add this! When my oldest child was about three, she had a tremendous vocabulary and a very clear pronuciation. I remember when I’d first gotten my Nintendo 64 and had the latest Zelda game for it. She asked me if she could play it one day and I said no, that it was too complicated and frustrating for one her age. She later told her aunt that, “I can’t play Zelda 64, because it’s too compulcated and frusteratin’!” My sister did an admirable job of keeping a straight face! Same child, about the same age, asked me specifically what the red area inside her eyelids was called. I tried to think of a simple word to give her, but there is none that I know of for the conjunctiva, so that’s the word I told her. She popped that huge word out of her mouth _flawlessly_–I thought I’d die laughing! When she was about two, and had spent some time watching me play video games, she picked up an unplugged game controller one day and sat staring intently at the TV while pressing the buttons frantically and suddenly she said, "You asso (a\*\*h\*le)! I learned to watch my tongue a little better when playing after that! ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/14 "2004-05-08T17:46:12Z")
**Mayflower** , that is a lot of fun. DangerGirl is very similar (as above, I have one-sided kids–DG is reeeealllly talkative and utterly unathletic), and my husband especially has fun teaching her weird words to say. Just now she was telling me about how she was playing with her corpuscle (an advertising toy from a conference that looks like a giant red blood cell). She has always been able to say big words with little trouble and the only thing we haven’t been able to get her to say is ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’ ‘Parallax’ is a favorite, though. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/15 "2004-05-08T19:53:37Z")
My daughter, just turned one on May Day said “ernak” when she was 2 months old. She started general babbling about a month after that. She now says the following things in appropiate context: Hi! Hi there! mama Daddy yeah yes Uh-oh no I can! I did! I did, Daddy! I did too! (He asked why she did not tell him she was wet when she had told him) I kick Daddy! I am going to kick you. I am cute. I won’t! I love you. hiding ( she says this in a whisper when she is hiding) Am I cute? I don’t want to! I am not going to sleep. Uh-huh Uh-uh Bye-Bye! up high! (when she is held high) Eyes cup book Baba (bottle hasn’t had a bottle since month 9 but now calls my breasts baba) What? (and then points to an object.) ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/16 "2004-05-08T20:05:44Z")
Aaron knows a lot of words (he’s now 21 months), but his receptive language is much better than his spoken language. He can follow two-step instructions like “put the dish on the table”. He also knows 9 body parts. Yesterday, he helped pass out the juice at school and handed each child the right cup. I’m so proud! Robin ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/17 "2004-05-08T21:17:23Z")
> [@](#): > > When my oldest child was about three, she had a tremendous vocabulary and a very clear pronuciation. I remember when I’d first gotten my Nintendo 64 and had the latest Zelda game for it. She asked me if she could play it one day and I said no, that it was too complicated and frustrating for one her age. She later told her aunt that, “I can’t play Zelda 64, because it’s too compulcated and frusteratin’!” Was it Orcarina of Time or Majora’s Mask? 'Cause although I can see how MM might be a little too complicated for a toddler, what with the 72 hour time system and all, I know from personal experiance that a toddler can play OoT. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-words-does-your-toddler-say/244057/18 "2004-05-08T22:25:50Z")
> [@emekthian](#): > > Was it Orcarina of Time or Majora’s Mask? 'Cause although I can see how MM might be a little too complicated for a toddler, what with the 72 hour time system and all, I know from personal experiance that a toddler can play OoT. Yeah, I know that NOW, but at the time _I_ was just learning it myself and how to use the new buttons and all, so I figured she (who didn’t really watch much TV anyway) would get frustrated with it really quickly. And Majora’s Mask was a real _b_tch\* to play!