Books by level / English books
Romeo and Juliet: reading level, length and free edition
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a play in verse in English. Our team rates it C2. It runs to 26,138 words with 3,749 different word forms, about 2–4.5 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- William Shakespeare
- Language
- English
- Level
- C2
- Form
- play in verse
- Words
- 26,138
- Different word forms
- 3,749
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 2,443 / 3,227
- Reading time
- 2–4.5 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare is a tragedy written between 1591 and 1595. Two young lovers from feuding Italian families meet and fall secretly in love in Verona. Their forbidden romance leads them to marry in secret with a friar’s help, hoping to unite their warring households. But family hatred, violent duels, and tragic misunderstandings threaten to destroy their bond. This tale of star-crossed lovers has become the archetypal story of young love and remains one of Shakespeare’s most frequently performed plays.
Is Romeo and Juliet right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in Romeo and Juliet, you need its 2,443 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 3,227.
A word form is any spelling that appears in the text, so “walk” and “walked” count twice, and names count too. These numbers are a guide to how much vocabulary the book asks for, not a test. The level itself was set by hand by our team. Before you commit, read one page of the free edition and count the words you do not know: the one-page test takes two minutes.
Which words should you know before you start?
These are the words that Romeo and Juliet uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 309 English books in our library; the number is how many times each appears. Names of people and places are left out. Learning a handful of them first makes the opening chapters easier.
- doth 47
- wilt 30
- cell 22
- banished 20
- villain 17
- slain 17
- dost 16
- poison 14
- thine 13
- kinsman 12
- hither 12
- monument 11
- quarrel 11
- shalt 11
- warrant 11
How does it begin?
ESCALUS, Prince of Verona. MERCUTIO, kinsman to the Prince, and friend to Romeo. PARIS, a young Nobleman, kinsman to the Prince. Page to Paris.
From the Project Gutenberg edition, which is in the public domain. If this paragraph already feels slow, try a book one level lower.
How long does it take to read?
| Words | 100 wpm | 150 wpm | 200 wpm | 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,138 | 4.5 h | 3 h | 2 h | 1.5 h |
Learners reading a book at their level often manage 100 to 150 words per minute, and readers in their first language 200 to 250. Where these speeds come from, and a calculator for your own: How long does it take to read a book?
Where can you read it for free?
The free edition is Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg publishes books that are in the public domain in the United States, as EPUB, Kindle and plain text, free and without an account. Copyright terms differ by country: if you live outside the United States, check that the book is out of copyright where you are before you download it.
To read it with a translation over every word you tap, open it in Readlang Mobile on iPhone or iPad.
What to read next at C2
See also all English books by level and books at C2 in all five languages.