Your Two Year (24 Months) Old’s Vocabulary List

By Mrunal - Updated: January 14, 2019

In this Article

Vocabulary Development in Toddlers: What You Should Know

Learn about the type and the number of vocabulary words for toddlers and see for yourself if your child is on the right track. Learning the art of communication will open new doors of learning for him. Find out how you can help.

From changing nappies to holding your baby when he’s sick to holding his hand to help him walk, the whole journey in the first two years of his existence has been incredible. At two years, most toddlers are babbling words and will soon start to talk in broken sentences. This will mark their transition from being dependent tots to slowly moving to being independent and confident.

Vocabulary Development in Toddlers: What You Should Know

1. Ways to Encourage Your 2-year-old

Always have a two-way communication, being watchful of both verbal and non-verbal communication so that your child knows that you understand what he’s saying.
Always talk in the first person and in the way you normally talk at home. Do not have separate baby communication for your toddler.
Do not correct the grammar of your child, at least initially. Rather, just speak the grammatically correct sentence. Chances are, your toddler will repeat that and remember it.
Be patient and never interrupt your child when he’s learning to make sentences. Remember, we all learnt this way! Trial and error is what he needs to undergo before he perfects speaking.
Read stories and tell him about meaningful things around him on a daily basis to improve his imagination and communication skills.

2. How Much Should a 2-year-old Be Talking?

Learning new words is a continuous process and a typical 2-year-old should know about 50-70 words. He may be only speaking single words at two years but over the course of the year, vocabulary development speeds up and he’ll start using two- or three-word sentences like ‘Want milk’, ‘Sleep bed’ and ‘Give ball’. If your child is using less than 20 words by the age of 2 years, consider getting him tested for hearing problems.

3. Average Vocabulary of a 2-year-old

The average vocabulary of a child keeps growing. By the third year, he starts using pronouns like ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘you’ in addition to knowing about 50 words. He’ll soon start saying simple sentences to express his needs and wants like ‘I want mommy’, ‘We are going’ and ‘I want my cup’. The more you speak with him, the quicker he’ll be able to pick up words and string sentences together.

4. Common Words Your 2-year-old Should Know

Assuming that the medium of communication at home is English, a toddler’s vocabulary commonly consists of these 25 words:

Mommy
Daddy
Baby
Hello
Bye-bye
Dog
Cat
Ball
Nose
Eye
Milk
Juice
Banana
Cookie
Yes
No
Book
More
All gone
Car
Hot
Thank you
Bath
Shoe
Hat

The mantra is to be patient and love each moment of the process, just like how you’ve been appreciating the first two years of his life. Your 24-month-old toddler’s vocabulary list will soon expand under your guidance.

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