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Two-Word Stage

As parents and caregivers, we eagerly await the moment when our little ones start to speak their first words. But did you know that there's a specific stage in Language Acquisition called the 'two-word stage' that marks a major milestone in a child's development? The two-word stage is the third major period in…

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Two-Word Stage

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As parents and caregivers, we eagerly await the moment when our little ones start to speak their first words. But did you know that there's a specific stage in Language Acquisition called the 'two-word stage' that marks a major milestone in a child's development? The two-word stage is the third major period in the Language Acquisition of children, following the One-Word stage. Follow on to discover what age children are at this stage, and some examples of the phrases spoken by children at this stage.

Two-word stage: age range

The two-word stage typically occurs at the age of 18 to 24 months and consists of toddlers using two-word phrases in their speech. During this stage, toddlers begin to string together two words to create basic sentences, such as 'mommy up' or 'more juice.' This marks a significant leap in their language skills and allows them to communicate more effectively with others. The two-word stage is an important step on the path to full language proficiency and sets the stage for further language acquisition and development.

At this stage, toddlers continue to develop their vocabulary and the range of sounds that they can produce. They are able to use two-word phrases that are dense in content words (words that hold and convey meaning); however, function words (words that hold sentences together) are beyond the ability of toddlers at this age so are rarely used.

The sentences produced at this stage consist primarily of nouns and verbs and, despite the lack of function words, toddlers tend to use the correct grammatical sequence in their sentences. Toddlers will enter this period with around 50 words in their vocabulary, but by 24 months they may know over 600 words! ¹

Two-word stage child talking on phone StudySmarterFig. 1 - By 24 months a child may know over 600 words!

The two-word stage in child language acquisition

It is undeniable that toddlers at the two-word stage can produce meaningful utterances that make sense grammatically, however, their speech is still clearly unlike adult speakers. They still have a limited vocabulary as they haven't developed the ability to use function words such as Articles, auxiliary verbs and subject pronouns.

A toddler's development of syntax can be observed at this stage from the increasingly complex words that they put together to communicate with adults. They begin to learn how to express semantic relations with actions, objects, entities, and locations, and also start forming commands and questions.

Two-word stage: examples

Some examples of two-word phrases spoken by children are 'read book', 'daddy sleep', and 'cat shiny'.

Two-word stage examples
Word typeTwo-word phrasePossible meaningSemantic relation expressed
Verb + Noun"Read book."Can you read the book?Action + Object
Pronoun + Verb"He run."He is running.Agent + Action
Pronoun + Noun"My cookie."That's my cookie.Possessor + Object
Noun + Adjective"Mummy busy."Mummy is busy.Agent + Action
Noun + verb"Daddy sleep."Daddy is sleeping.Agent + Action
Noun + Noun"Toy floor."The toy is on the floor.Entity + Location
Noun + Adjective"Car shiny."The car is shiny.Entity + attributes

A major component of language development comes from toddlers repeating words or phrases that they hear adults use. In this process, they will negate the function words that adults use and only use the keywords.

Adult: "Look, the dog just jumped!"

Toddler: "Dog jump!"

Two-word stage child and mother reading book StudySmarterFig. 2 - Children learn increasingly complex words at the two-word stage.

Example of pivot words in the two-word stage

Children follow simple rules to generate their two-word utterances. They tend to build phrases around a single stable word rather than choosing two terms of the same status.

Their phrases are built around 'pivot' words and open words. Pivot words are high-frequency words that are typically determiners or prepositions and are always in a fixed position (either the first or second word). They can be used in Conjunction with a wide variety of words, making them a useful part of a child's vocabulary. ²

Open words make up the content of the two-word phrase and are often a noun or a verb. These words can be interchanged as the first or second word of a phrase and may also be used in isolation.

First-word pivot - All gone.

The example word 'all gone' represents a pivot that's used as a first word. A toddler may use the word in a variety of situations: 'all gone sweets', 'all gone bread' or 'all gone toy'. It is unlikely for the toddler to use the pivot word as the second word of a phrase, which is composed of an open word.

Second-word pivot - Off.

Second-word pivots are used less frequently than first-word pivots. The word 'off' can be used in a variety of ways: 'TV off', 'light off' or 'shoe off '. Similarly to first-word pivots, a child is unlikely to use a second-word pivot as the first word in a phrase.

Interpreting the meaning of two-word phrases

A toddler at this stage will find it difficult to express their thoughts clearly to adults since their vocabulary limits them. Toddlers can assign meaning to words in several ways, which is difficult to interpret with confidence because of the lack of syntactic markings in the language.³

A word referring to a whole object

A word that a child uses will refer to the entire object, not to any of the constituent parts.

A child may learn the word 'flower', and then use it to name any plant that it sees.

It could be that the toddler isn't able to perceive the difference between the plants and flowers, or the toddler may settle for using the word flower because there aren't any alternatives in their vocabulary.

Two-word stage child holding flowers StudySmarterFig. 3 - A child may refer to any plant they see as a flower.

Considering the context

It can be difficult to figure out what a toddler is trying to say without considering the broader context. Adults must pay close attention to the child's body language when they are trying to speak as they may provide clues by looking or pointing to a relevant object.

The context is equally important for the toddler that is trying to understand what the adult is saying.

Common mistakes in the two-word stage

Toddlers haven't yet achieved full command over the pronunciation of words and they will display common errors in their speech.

Assimilation

The pronunciation of a word is affected by a particular sound in the word. A toddler will replace a difficult sound with a sound that is more familiar with.

Toddlers often struggle with bilabials, which are consonant sounds made by pressing the lips together, such as p, b, and m sounds. They find it much easier to produce the same sounds in a word so they tend to assimilate when they come across difficult words to pronounce. If there's a bilabial sound in a word, a toddler may use the same bilabial in another part of the word since it's easier to pronounce.

The word 'rubber' may be articulated as 'bubber'.

Gliding

Gliding is when liquid sounds (l and r) are replaced with glide sounds (w and y). It's a normal part of a child's language development process and usually disappears at 5 years old.

The word 'red' may be articulated as 'wed '.

Cluster reduction

A child may have difficulty pronouncing a cluster of Consonants in a word and reduce it by one or more Consonants.

The word 'spoon' may be articulated as 'poon'.

Weak syllable deletion

This is when an unstressed Syllable in a word is not articulated.

The word 'banana' may be articulated as 'nana'.

Stops

Consonant sounds that have a long airflow are replaced by sounds that have a stopped airflow.

The word 'sun' may be articulated as 'tun'.

Two-Word Stage - Key Takeaways

  • The two-word stage is the third stage of language development and comes after the One-Word stage.

  • Toddlers develop the ability to form two-word phrases.

  • The two-word stage usually takes place from 18 to 24 months of age.

  • Toddlers start to develop grammar and syntax.

  • Pivot and open words are used to form phrases to communicate ideas.

  • Toddlers still produce pronunciation errors in their speech.


  • Oller. D., et al., Infant Babbling and speech, Journal of Child Language. 1976
  • JG de Villiers, PA de Villiers, Language Acquisition, Vol. 16. 1980.
  • Lightfoot et al., The Development of Children. 2008.

Frequently Asked Questions about Two-Word Stage

The two-word stage typically takes place from 18 to 24 months of age.

Toddlers in the two-word stage can utter phrases such as 'mummy sleep'. The words used are often nouns and verbs.

The holophrastic is the second stage in language development and precedes the two-word stage. Infants at this stage will begin using single words to communicate.

Toddlers can form a variety of phrases for different scenarios. They can express actions, commands and questions at this stage.

Final Two-Word Stage Quiz

Two-Word Stage Quiz - Teste dein Wissen

Question

How many words do toddlers typically know at the start of the two-word phrase?

Show answer

Answer

50

Show question

Question

True or false: Toddlers typically use adjectives when talking in the two-word stage.


Show answer

Answer

False. Toddlers in the two-word stage often use nouns and verbs in their speech.

Show question

Question

Why do adults find it difficult sometimes to interpret a toddlers' speech?


Show answer

Answer

Toddlers rarely use function words and grammatical morphemes in their speech, they mainly use content words. This makes their sentences contextually dependent.

Show question

Question

True or false: A toddlers' speech could have multiple meanings.


Show answer

Answer

True. Since toddlers' speech rarely includes syntactic markings, it becomes difficult to interpret what the toddler is saying with certainty.

Show question

Question

Why does an adult need to consider the context of a toddlers' speech?


Show answer

Answer

The context is helpful in adding information to the toddlers' speech, which can help it to make more sense.

Show question

Question

True or false: Pivot words are often the first word in a two-word phrase.


Show answer

Answer

True. Pivot words typically appear as the first word (although they can also appear as the second).

Show question

Question

What type of word usually makes on 'open' word?


Show answer

Answer

Open words are usually nouns or verbs and form the content part of a phrase.

Show question

Question

What is assimilation?


Show answer

Answer

When a difficult sound is replaced with an easier one to help with pronunciation.

Show question

Question

What is a gliding error?


Show answer

Answer

When liquid sounds (l and r) are replaced with glide sounds (w and y).

Show question

Question

Which of the following phrases is a stop error?


Show answer

Answer

'Sea' is pronounced as 'tea'.

Show question

Question

The two-word stage is the ______ major stage in child language acquisition.

Show answer

Answer

Third

Show question

Question

The two-word stage typically occurs at the age of:

Show answer

Answer

18-24 months

Show question

Question

Two-word phrases tend to be dense in:

Show answer

Answer

Content words

Show question

Question

What are content words?

Show answer

Answer

Content words are words that hold and convey meaning e.g. ‘dog’, ‘happy’, or ‘milk’.

Show question

Question

Sentences produced at the two-word stage consist primarily of:

Show answer

Answer

Nouns

Show question

Question

Toddler tend to use the grammatically correct sequence of words at the two-word stage. True or false?

Show answer

Answer

True

Show question

Question

Toddlers can typically use function words at the two-word stage. True or false?

Show answer

Answer

False

Show question

Question

Which of the following are examples of the two-word stage?

Show answer

Answer

Read book

Show question

Question

Which of the following are examples of the two-word stage?

Show answer

Answer

Dog run

Show question

Question

When toddlers repeat phrases used by adults they will negate the function words and only use the keywords. True or false?

Show answer

Answer

True

Show question

Question

An adult says ‘look, the dog jumped up!’ and the toddler replies ‘dog jump’. What is this an example of?

Show answer

Answer

It is an example of the child leaving out the function words and only using the keywords of a sentence.

Show question

Question

‘All-gone’ is an example of a pivot word. True or false?

Show answer

Answer

True

Show question

Question

Which of the following are common mistakes at the two-word stage?

Show answer

Answer

Weak syllable deletion

Show question

Question

Which of the following are common mistakes at the two-word stage?

Show answer

Answer

Assimilation

Show question

Question

A child says the word spoon as ‘poon’. What common mistake is this an example of?

Show answer

Answer

Cluster reduction

Show question

Test your knowledge with multiple choice flashcards

How many words do toddlers typically know at the start of the two-word phrase?

Which of the following phrases is a stop error?

The two-word stage is the ______ major stage in child language acquisition.

Next

Flashcards in Two-Word Stage25

Start learning

How many words do toddlers typically know at the start of the two-word phrase?

50

True or false: Toddlers typically use adjectives when talking in the two-word stage.


False. Toddlers in the two-word stage often use nouns and verbs in their speech.

Why do adults find it difficult sometimes to interpret a toddlers' speech?


Toddlers rarely use function words and grammatical morphemes in their speech, they mainly use content words. This makes their sentences contextually dependent.

True or false: A toddlers' speech could have multiple meanings.


True. Since toddlers' speech rarely includes syntactic markings, it becomes difficult to interpret what the toddler is saying with certainty.

Why does an adult need to consider the context of a toddlers' speech?


The context is helpful in adding information to the toddlers' speech, which can help it to make more sense.

True or false: Pivot words are often the first word in a two-word phrase.


True. Pivot words typically appear as the first word (although they can also appear as the second).

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