Whats the definition of “fluent” as in fluent in a language?
I sort of agree with Erik except that “to write a sensible letter to the editor” is not something everyone can do even in their native language. I would use the word “comfortable” as an equivalent of fluent. If you are comfortable in the language in day to day conversation, I think that qualifies as fluent. But of course, you have people who never really speak the language and consider themselves fluent or comfortable anyway. However, fluent is a better term to use than just “speak” because when you’ve studied a dozen languages and someone asks “how many languages do you speak?”, there’s no real way to answer.
