How Long Will It Take Me to Learn English?
Pick your current and target CEFR levels, your weekly study time, and your native language family. The estimator returns a realistic number of months — based on FSI and Cambridge data — and shows how comprehensible input shortens the path.
Estimated time to reach your target
12 months
Traditional methods (classroom, textbooks)
—
With comprehensible input
—
~30 % faster on average
Make every hour count
Research on comprehensible input (Krashen, Long, Schmitt) consistently shows that adults make the fastest progress when they consume real content at the right level for them — podcasts, books and videos one notch above their current ability — with friction-free word lookup. That's what Clue does on iOS: tap any word in any podcast, video or EPUB and get an instant translation from a 27 000-word offline dictionary.
Get Clue on the App Store →How the estimate is built
The formula combines three published data sources:
- FSI (US Foreign Service Institute) hour counts for adult learners reaching professional proficiency, adjusted by native-language family.
- Cambridge English guidance of ~200 guided learning hours per CEFR band for typical learners.
- Schmitt & Schmitt vocabulary research on the role of word frequency exposure in moving between bands.
The "with comprehensible input" adjustment is conservative (~30 %), supported by meta-analyses on extensive reading and input-based instruction (Krashen, Nation). Your individual rate will vary — the estimator gives a realistic, not optimistic, target.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my native language matter?
FSI data shows that adult learners reach professional fluency in English ~3–4 × faster from Romance/Germanic languages than from East Asian languages, mostly because vocabulary overlap and grammatical patterns transfer. Closer language family = fewer total hours.
Is the estimate optimistic or realistic?
Realistic — based on adult learners who study consistently. The "30 % faster with input" adjustment is conservative; actual gains for motivated learners doing daily extensive reading can be larger.
Why aren't language apps in the formula?
App-only study tends to plateau around A2. Reaching B1 and above requires sustained exposure to real content. The estimator assumes you eventually mix in real listening and reading — which is exactly what Clue is designed for.