I do the New York Times crossword every day, and recently, I started to think about just how insanely large your vocabulary needs to be to even attempt them. To the point where I don’t know how you could unless you were a native speaker.
Here’s a few examples of answers yesterday that I really can’t imagine knowing in a a second language:
- STINT, as another word for stretch.
- FARE, as another word for food.
- REEDY, like oboes.
- HUFFISH, meaning sulky.
- ADO, as another word for brouhaha.
- FOIST ON, meaning to shove down someone’s throat.
- FEINT, as in a deceptive movement.
Half the time when I put these in, I think to myself “How do I even know that?” I can’t imagine coming across any of these if I was just learning English. How long would it even take for an adult to get to that level again?
I assume all languages with alphabets would have crosswords of some kind, and I imagine your vocabulary has to be just as large as it does in English for you to complete them. So is anyone able to complete a crossword in their TL? Or any language outside of their native language?
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