kidding
4דAre you kidding?” = are you joking?
Comedy-drama · American English
The Devil Wears Prada: English level and how hard it is to understand
Office English at its sharpest: fast instructions, polite insults, and a lot of fashion vocabulary. Very useful if you work in an English-speaking office.
Updated
Short answer
The Devil Wears Prada is best for B2 learners. Across the whole film, a B1 learner knows about 96.7% of the words, and the characters speak at about 152 words per minute (average).
The Devil Wears Prada in numbers
- Recommended level
- B2
- Speaking speed
- 152 words / min
- Spoken words
- 9,544 in 109 min
- Known at B1
- 96.73%
- Known at B2
- 97.57%
- Different words
- 1,698
Difficulty rank: 11 of 16 in our movies by English level list (workplace english, fashion words).
Beyond the numbers
What makes The Devil Wears Prada hard (or easy)?
- Miranda speaks quietly and expects you to understand her the first time, just like Andy.
- Fashion words and designer names come thick and fast.
- Lots of irony: compliments that are really criticism.
The Devil Wears Prada is mostly American English. Accent and speed matter as much as vocabulary: if you know the words but can’t catch them, turn on English subtitles and slow down.
Learn these first
Useful words from The Devil Wears Prada
B2–C2 words that came up more than once in the film. Counts are for the whole movie.
couture
3×expensive, made-to-order fashion
appalled
2×shocked in a bad way
gowns
2×long formal dresses
scarves
2×plural of scarf
skinny
2×very thin
toasting
2×raising glasses to celebrate someone
chowder
2×a thick soup, often with fish
Spoken forms you will hear constantly
okay ×58yeah ×46gonna ×24hey ×16wanna ×8gotta ×4
gonna = going to · wanna = want to · gotta = got to / have to. Textbooks rarely teach them, but films use them all the time.
Vocabulary profile
How common are the words in The Devil Wears Prada?
Share of all spoken words in each frequency band (A1 = the 5,000 most common words).
A189.38%
A24.8%
B12.55%
B20.83%
C10.47%
C20.61%
Unlisted1.36%
Watching plan
How to learn English with The Devil Wears Prada
- Notice the polite workplace phrases. Many are useful in a real job.
- Rewatch Miranda’s “cerulean” speech with subtitles until you can follow it.
- Skip learning brand names; focus on the general words below.
In TeakReader you can import the subtitles of any movie, see the words you don’t know yet, and study them as flashcards before you press play. How it works
How we measured it
We took the full English subtitle file for The Devil Wears Prada (2006, 109 minutes), removed sound descriptions, speaker labels, and character names, and matched each of the 9,544 spoken words to the same frequency list we use for classic book levels. Speaking speed is spoken words divided by the time the subtitles are on screen. Only statistics and single words are shown here.
The recommended level is our estimate from vocabulary, speed, and style, not an official CEFR rating. Subtitle files differ slightly between releases, so treat the numbers as close estimates.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is The Devil Wears Prada good for learning English?
The Devil Wears Prada uses mostly common words (about 97% known at B1), but quick office talk, irony, and fashion vocabulary make it a B2 film. Excellent for workplace English. We recommend it from B2.
How fast do they speak in The Devil Wears Prada?
About 152 words per minute of dialogue, which is average for a film. Everyday conversation is often around 150 words per minute.
How many words do I need to understand The Devil Wears Prada?
A learner who knows the most common 20,000 English word forms (our B1 band) knows about 96.7% of the words spoken. Research on listening suggests that knowing about 95% of the words is enough to follow most of what is said, so subtitles help until you reach that point.
How did you measure this?
We analysed the film’s full English subtitle file (9,544 spoken words), removed sound notes, speaker labels, and character names, and matched every word to the same frequency list we use for book levels and TV shows. The level is our estimate, not an official CEFR rating.
Can I study the vocabulary of The Devil Wears Prada before watching?
Yes. In TeakReader, search for the movie and import its subtitles. You get a list of the words you don’t know yet, with meanings and flashcards.
Ready to read
Learn the words from The Devil Wears Prada before you watch.
Import any movie’s subtitles in TeakReader and get its unknown words with meanings and flashcards. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Android.